"
"If you are the genuine Lieutenant Passford, in spite of the captain's
decision, your cousin has told lies enough to-day to swamp a reprobate,
to to say nothing of a Christian," added the surgeon, seating himself at
the side of the berth.
"I do not regard his statements as lies in any proper sense of the word,
Dr. Connelly," replied Christy with considerable spirit. "I have had
occasion to deceive the enemy on several occasions; and nearly two years
ago I looked up the morality of lying on the field of battle and its
surroundings. I think my father is as good a Christian man as draws the
breath of life, and I found that I simply held to his opinions."
"Your father is good authority," added the surgeon.
"I studied history a little in relation to this subject, for I wanted
to know whether any lies I might tell in serving my country were to
be registered against me. I know that I would not tell a lie in the
ordinary relations of life; but I am sure that I should have been a
traitor to the Union if I had told the enemy the simple truth on several
occasions. I captured a schooner loaded with cotton by pretending to be
what I was not. If it is justifiable to kill a man in war, it must be
justifiable to tell a lie to the enemy.
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