All new ideas came to him by slow degrees, and did not readily find admission to his perceptive faculties.
But when they did gain an entrance into his thick head, nothing was ever known to drive them out again.

As he did not seem inclined to comment on the hint thrown out by his companion, Montague continued, in a still more impressive tone: "What would you say, if this Gascoyne himself turned out to be the pirate ?" The idea being a simple one, and the proper course to follow being rather obvious, Ole replied, with unwonted promptitude: "Put him in irons, of course, and hang him as soon possible." Montague laughed.

"Truly that would be a vigorous way of proceeding; but as I have no proof of the truth of my suspicions, and as the man is my guest at present, as well as my pilot, it behooves me to act more cautiously." "Not at all; by no means; you're quite wrong, captain (which is the natural result of being young; all young people go wrong more or less); it is clearly your duty to catch a pirate anyhow you can, as fast as you can, and kill him without delay." Here the sanguinary Thorwald paused to draw and puff into vitality the pipe which was beginning to die down, and Montague asked: "But how d'you know he is the pirate ?" "Because you said so," replied his friend.
"Nay; I said that I _suspected_ him to be Durward,--nothing more." "And what more would you have ?" cried Ole, whose calm spirit was ruffled with unusual violence at the thought of the hated Durward being actually within his reach.

"For my part, I conceive that you are justified in taking him up on suspicion, trying him in a formal way (just to save appearances) on suspicion and hanging him at once on suspicion.

Quite time enough to inquire into the matter after the villain is comfortably sewed up in a hammock with a thirty-pound shot at his heels, and sent to the bottom of the sea for the sharks and crabs to devour.