“Wrong!  Good heavens, mister Robert, recollect what you are saying.  I would not, for the custom of his Majesty’s Lord High Admiral, have any discouraging words be uttered in my house against the reputation of any virtuous and fair-dealing slavers!  The Lord protect me from blacking the character of any honest subject of the King!”

“Do you see nothing wrong, worthy and tender Joram, about the ship in the outer harbour?” repeated mister Robert, without moving eye, limb, or muscle.

“Well, since you press me so hard for an opinion and seeing that you are a customer who pays freely for what he orders, I will say, that, if there is any thing unreasonable, or even illegal, in the deportment of the gentlemen”—­

“You sail so nigh the wind, friend Joram,” coolly interrupted the old man, “as to keep every thing shaking.  Just bethink you of a plain answer:  Have you seen any thing wrong about the slaver?”

“Nothing, on my conscience, then,” said the publican, puffing not unlike a cetaceous fish that had come to the surface to breathe; “as I am an unworthy sinner, sitting under the preaching of good and faithful Dr Dogma, nothing—­nothing”

“No!  Then are you a duller man than I had rated you at!  Do you suspect nothing?”

“Heaven protect me from suspicions!  The devil besets all our minds with doubts; but weak, and evil inclined, is he who submits to them.  The officers and crew of that ship are free drinkers, and as generous as princes:  Moreover, as they never forget to clear the score before they leave the house, I call them—­honest!”

“And I call them—­pirates!”

“Pirates!” echoed Joram, fastening his eye, with marked distrust, on the countenance of the attentive Wilder. “‘Pirate’ is a harsh word, mister Robert, and should not be thrown in any gentleman’s face without testimony enough to clear one in an action of defamation, should such a thing get fairly before twelve sworn and conscientious men.  But I suppose you know what you say, and before whom you say it.”

“I do; and now, as it seems that your opinion in this matter amounts to just nothing at all, you will please”

“To do any thing you order,” cried Joram, very evidently delighted to change the subject.

“To go and ask the customers below if they are dry,” continued the other, beckoning for the publican to retire by the way he entered, with the air of one who felt certain of being obeyed.  As soon as the door was closed on the retiring landlord, he turned to his remaining companion, and continued, “You seem as much struck aback as unbelieving Joe himself, at what you have just heard.”

“It is a harsh suspicion, and should be well supported, old man, before you venture to repeat it.  What pirate has lately been heard of on this coast?”

“There is the well-known Red Rover,” returned the other, dropping his voice, and casting a furtive look around him, as if even he thought extraordinary caution was necessary in uttering the formidable name.