"Captain Rule is a good deal given to prying about on the coast; and what particular eend he had in view in this expedition I cannot tell you. His a'r'n'ds in shore, I must own, be sometimes onaccountable!--Witness the island of Elby, gentlemen."
Ithuel indulged in a small laugh as he made this allusion; for, in his own way, he had a humor in which he occasionally indulged, after a manner that belonged to the class of which he was a conspicuous member.
"Never mind what occurred at Elba. Prisoner, do you wish to question the witness?"
"Etuelle," asked Raoul, "do you not know that I love Ghita Caraccioli?"
"Why, Captain Rule, I know you think so and say so--but I set down all these matters as somewhat various and onaccountable."
"Have I not often landed on the enemy's coast solely to see her and to be near her?"
By this time Ithuel, who was a little puzzled at first to understand what it all meant, had got his cue, and no witness could have acquitted himself better than he did from that moment.
"That you have," he answered; "a hundred times at least; and right in the teeth of my advice."
"Was not my sole object, in coming into the Bay yesterday, to find Ghita, and Ghita only?"
"Just so. Of that, gentlemen, there can be no more question than there is about Vesuvius standing up at the head of the Bay, smoking like a brick-kiln. That _was_ Captain Rule's sole a'r'n'd."
"I just understood ye to say, witness," put in Lyon, "and that only a bit since, that ye did not know the prisoner's motive in coming into the Bay of Naples. Ye called his behavior unaccountable."
"Very true, sir, and so it is to _me_. I know'd all along that _love_ was at the bottom of it; but _I_ don't call love a _motive_, while I do call it _unaccountable_. Love's a feelin' and not a nature. That's the explanation on't. Yes, I know'd it was _love_ for Miss Gyty, but then that's not a motive in law."
"Answer to the facts. The court will judge of the motive for itself. How do you know that love for the young woman you mention was Raoul Yvard's only object in coming into the Bay?"
"One finds out such things by keeping company with a man. Captain Rule went first to look for the young woman up on the mountain yonder, where her aunt lives, and I went with him to talk English if it got to be necessary; and not finding Gyty at home, we got a boat and followed her over to Naples. Thus, you see, sir, that I have reason to know what craft he was in chase of the whole time."