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story took some time to tell. Once Lowell came near us, but he only heard Mr. Ranson say that the schooner was making first-class headway, and taking no interest in this he walked away.

"You are sure of all this?" asked the lawyer, after I had finished my narrative.

"Yes, sir; every word of it."

"Because it is a serious charge," he continued. "In olden times they would have hung a man for such an offense, and they might do so even now if any lives were lost through the going down of the ship."

"I don't know how he intends to sink the Spitfire. I suppose he can set fire to her or else bore holes in the bottom."

"It is a most atrocious plot. I am glad he intends to do nothing until after he has left the Down East coast. Wherever he makes a landing, at New Bedford or otherwise, I can have him stopped. But