He was dismissed
then, for his presence was not particularly agreeable to the commander.
Christy locked his desk and all the drawers that contained papers, not
as against a thief or a burglar, but against one who would scorn to
appropriate anything of value that did not belong to him, for he had no
doubt now that Mulgrum was a gentleman who was trying to serve what he
regarded as his country, though it was nothing but a fraction of it.
In fact, inheriting, as it were, the broad and generous policy of his
father, Christy had no personal prejudices against this enemy of his
country, and he felt just as he would if he had been sailing a boat
against him, or playing a game of whist with him. He was determined to
beat him if he could. But he was not satisfied with locking his papers
up; he called Dave, and set him as a watch over them. If the conspirator
overhauled his papers, he would have been more concerned about what he
did not find than in relation to what he did find, for the absence of
the original of Warnock's letter would go far to convince him that the
extract from it was an invention.
When he had taken these precautions he went on deck.
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