"No; let up a bit--just enough so he can answer me first, I want to
find out what all this means. Now look here, Knox, you're an army
officer, are you?"

"Yes," I managed to gasp, sobbing in an effort to catch breath, as the
iron fingers at my throat relaxed slightly.

"Well then, what is all this to you? Why are you butting in on my
game? Was Beaucaire a friend of yours?"

"I can hardly claim that," I admitted. "We never met until I came
aboard this steamer. All I am interested in is justice to others."

"To others? Oh, I suppose you mean those girls--you know them then?"

"I have never even seen them," I said, now speaking more easily.
"Thockmorton chanced to tell me about them yesterday, and their
condition appealed to me, just as it naturally would to any true man.
I thought probably you did not understand the situation, and hoped that
if I told you the truth you might respond."

"Oh, you did, did you? You must have figured me as being pretty soft.
Well, what do you think now?"

His tone so completely ended my hope of compromise that I replied
hotly, "That you are a dirty, piratical cur. I may have doubted your
purpose at first, for I am not used to your kind, but this is so no
longer. You deliberately ruined and robbed Beaucaire, in order to gain
possession of these two girls. You have admitted as much."