"But if he does refuse me?"
"In that case," replied Crockston, in a deliberate tone, "we must use stronger measures, and carry off the prisoner by force."
"So," cried James Playfair, who was beginning to get angry, "so, not content with passing through the Federal fleets and forcing the blockade of Charleston, I must run out to sea again from under the cannon of the forts, and this to deliver a gentleman I know nothing of, one of those Abolitionists whom I detest, one of those journalists who shed ink instead of their blood!"
"Oh! it is but a cannon-shot more or less!" added Crockston.
"Master Crockston," said James Playfair, "mind what I say; if ever you mention this affair again to me, I will send you to the hold for the rest of the passage, to teach you manners."
Thus saying the Captain dismissed the American, who went off murmuring, "Ah, well, I am not altogether displeased with this conversation: at any rate, the affair is broached; it will do, it will do!"
James Playfair had hardly meant it when he said an Abolitionist whom I detest; he did not in the least side with the Federals, but he did not wish to admit that the question of slavery was the predominant reason for the civil war of the United States, in spite of President
