and bleeding forms of speech that no human ingenu-
ity could ever have gotten him out of it with credit.
It was plain enough that he could not "speaky"
the English quite as "pairfaitemaw" as he had pre-
tended he could.

The third man captured us. He was plainly
dressed, but he had a noticeable air of neatness
about him. He wore a high silk hat which was a
little old, but had been carefully brushed. He wore
second-hand kid gloves, in good repair, and carried
a small rattan cane with a curved handle--a female
leg, of ivory. He stepped as gently and as daintily
as a cat crossing a muddy street; and oh, he was
urbanity; he was quiet, unobtrusive self-possession;
he was deference itself! He spoke softly and guard-
edly; and when he was about to make a statement
on his sole responsibility, or offer a suggestion,
he weighed it by drachms and scruples first, with
the crook of his little stick placed meditatively
to his teeth. His opening speech was perfect. It
was perfect in construction, in phraseology, in
grammar, in emphasis, in pronunciation--every-
thing. He spoke little and guardedly, after that.
We were charmed. We were more than charmed
--we were overjoyed. We hired him at once. We
never even asked him his price. This man--our
lackey, our servant, our unquestioning slave though
he was, was still a gentleman--we could see that--
while of the other two one was coarse and awkward,
and the other was a born pirate. We asked our man
Friday's name. He drew from his pocketbook a snowy
little card, and passed it to us with a profound bow:

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