“You avoided the mischance?”

“My eyes are seldom shut, lord Viscount, when danger is nigh.  The skiff was seen in time, and watched; for I knew that one in whom I trusted was abroad.—­When the movement grew suspicious, we had our means of frightening this Mr. Ludlow from his enterprise, without recourse to violence.”

“I had not thought him one to be scared from following up a business like this.”

“You judged him rightly—­I may say we judged him rightly.  But when his boats sought us at our anchorage, the bird had flown.”

“You got the brigantine to sea, in season?” observed Cornbury, not sorry to believe that the vessel was already off the coast.

“I had other business.  My agent could not be thus deserted, and there were affairs to finish in the city.  Our course lay up the bay.”

“Ha!  Master Skimmer, ’twas a bold step, and one that says little for your discretion!”

“Lord Viscount, there is safety in courage,” calmly and perhaps ironically returned the other.  “While the Queen’s captain closed all the outlets, my little craft was floating quietly under the hills of Staten.  Before the morning watch was set, she passed these wharves; and she now awaits her captain, in the broad basin that lies beyond the bend of yonder head-land.”

“This is a hardiness to be condemned!  A failure of wind, a change of tide, or any of the mishaps common to the sea, may throw you on the mercy of the law, and will greatly embarrass all who feel an interest in your safety.”

“So far as this apprehension is connected with my welfare, I thank you much, my lord; but, trust me, many hazards have left me but little to learn in this particular.  We shall run the Hell-Gate, and gain the open sea by the Connecticut Sound.”

“Truly, Master Skimmer, one has need of nerves to be your confidant!  Faith in a compact constitutes the beauty of social order; without it, there is no security for interests, nor any repose for character.  But faith may be implied, as well as expressed; and when men in certain situations place their dependence on others who should have motives for being wary, the first are bound to respect, even to the details of a most scrupulous construction, the conditions of the covenant.  Sir, I wash my hands of this transaction, if it be understood that testimony is to be accumulated against us, by thus putting your Water-Witch in danger of trial before the Admiralty.”

“I am sorry that this is your decision,” returned the Skimmer.  “What is done, cannot be recalled, though I still hope it may be remedied.  My brigantine now lies within a league of this, and ’twould be treachery to deny it.  Since it is your opinion, my lord, that our contract is not valid, there is little use in its seal—­the broad pieces may still be serviceable, in shielding that youth from harm.”

“You are as literal in constructions, Master Skimmer, as a school-boy’s version of his Virgil.  There is an idiom in diplomacy, as well as in language, and one who treats so sensibly should not be ignorant of its phrases.  Bless me, Sir; an hypothesis is not a conclusion, any more than a promise is a performance.  That which is advanced by way of supposition, is but the ornament of reasoning, while your gold has the more solid character of demonstration.  Our bargain is made.”