176 FOR THE FLAG

just in time. What would happen if they suspected that
I knew the name of the island, and consequently its
position at the western extremity of the Bermudas?

So I went on to say,—

“ But as this climate does not suit me I have a right to
change it, it seems to me.”

“ The right, no doubt.”

“And I understand that I shall be permitted to leave
the island, and that I shall be furnished with the means of
returning to America.”

“T have no good reason to oppose to you, Mr. Gaydon,”
replied Serké: “Your claim is even well founded. Re-
mark, however, that we live here in a noble and proud
independence; that we are not subject to any foreign
power; that we are free from all external authority ; that
we are not colonists of any State of either the Old or the
New World. All this deserves consideration by a proud
soul and a lofty mind. ... Then what memories these
grottoes invoke in a cultivated mind. They seem to have
been excavated by the hands of the gods when, in olden
time, they pronounced their oracles by the mouth of
Trophonius.”

Decidedly the engineer delighted in quoting mythology.
Trophonius, after Pluto and Neptune! Now, does he
imagine that a hospital attendant knows Trophonius? It
was evident that this joker was still joking, and I had to
place a great restraint upon myself in order to answer him
in the same strain.

“« A moment ago,’ I said, abruptly, “1 wanted to enter