The Blue and the Gray Series

ON THE BLOCKADE

BY

OLIVER OPTIC

AUTHOR OF "THE ARMY AND NAVY SERIES" "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD" "THE

GREAT WESTERN SERIES" "THE WOODVILLE STORIES" "THE STARRY

FLAG SERIES" "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES" "THE ONWARD

AND UPWARD SERIES" "THE YACHT-CLUB SERIES"

"THE LAKE SHORE SERIES" "THE RIVERDALE

STORIES" "THE BOAT-BUILDER SERIES"

"TAKEN   BY   THE   ENEMY"

"WITHIN THE ENEMY'S

LINES" ETC.

BOSTON

LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1890, by Lee and Shepard

All rights reserved.

On the Blockade.

TO MY SON-IN-LAW,

SOL SMITH RUSSELL,

of the united states of america,

though residing in minneapolis, minnesota,

who is always

"On the Blockade" against Melancholy, "The Blues,"

and all similar maladies,

This Volume

is affectionately dedicated.

PREFACE

"On the Blockade" is the third of
"The Blue and the Gray Series." Like the first and second volumes, its
incidents are dated back to the War of the Rebellion, and located in the
midst of its most stirring scenes on the Southern coast, where the naval
operations of the United States contributed their full share to the
final result.

The writer begs to remind his readers again that he has not felt
called upon to invest his story with the dignity of history, or in all
cases to mingle fiction with actual historic occurrences. He believes
that all the scenes of the story are not only possible, but probable,
and that just such events as he has narrated really and frequently
occurred in the days of the Rebellion.

The historian is forbidden to make his work more palatable or more
interesting by the intermixture of fiction with fact, while the
story-writer, though required to be reasonably consistent with the
spirit
8
and the truth of history, may wander from veritable details, and use his
imagination in the creation of incidents upon which the grand result is
reached. It would not be allowable to make the Rebellion a success, if
the writer so desired, even on the pages of romance; and it would not be
fair or just to ignore the bravery, the self-sacrifice, and the heroic
endurance of the Southern people in a cause they believed to be holy and
patriotic, as almost universally admitted at the present time, any more
than it would be to lose sight of the magnificent spirit, the heroism,
the courage, and the persistence, of the Northern people in
accomplishing what they believed then, and still believe, was a holy and
patriotic duty in the preservation of the Union.

Incidents not inconsistent with the final result, or with the spirit
of the people on either side in the great conflict are of comparatively
little consequence. That General Lee or General Grant turned this or
that corner in reaching Appomattox may be important, but the grand
historical tableau is the Christian hero, noble in the midst of defeat,
disaster, and ruin, formally rendering his sword to the impassible but
magnanimous conqueror
9
as the crowning event of a long and bloody war. The details are
historically important, though overshadowed by the mighty result of the
great conflict.

Many of the personages of the preceding volumes have been introduced
in the present one, and the central figure remains the same. The writer
is willing to admit that his hero is an ideal character, though his
lofty tone and patriotic spirit were fully paralleled by veritable
individuals during the war; and he is not prepared to apologize for the
abundant success which attended the career of Christy Passford. Those
who really struggled as earnestly and faithfully deserved his good
fortune, though they did not always obtain it.

Dorchester, Mass., April 24, 1890.

Mulgrum and the engineer
(Page 75)

CONTENTS

ON THE BLOCKADE

CHAPTER I

THE UNITED STATES STEAMER BRONX

"She is a fine little steamer,
father, without the possibility of a doubt," said Lieutenant Passford,
who was seated at the table with his father in the captain's cabin on
board of the Bronx. "I don't feel quite at home here, and I don't quite
like the idea of being taken out of the Bellevite."

"You are not going to sea for the fun of it, my son," replied Captain
Passford. "You are not setting out on a yachting excursion, but on the
most serious business in the world."

"I know and feel all that, father, but I have spent so many pleasant
days, hours, weeks, and months on board of the Bellevite, that I am very
sorry to leave her," added Christy Passford, who had put on his new
uniform, which was that of
16
master in the United States Navy; and he was as becoming to the uniform
as the uniform was to him.

"You cannot well help having some regrets at leaving the Bellevite;
but you must remember that your life on board of her was mostly in the
capacity of a pleasure-seeker, though you made a good use of your time
and of your opportunities for improvement; and that is the reason why
you have made such remarkable progress in your present profession."

"I shall miss my friends on board of the Bellevite. I have sailed
with all her officers, and Paul Vapoor and I have been cronies for
years," continued Christy, with a shade of gloom on his bright face.

"You will probably see them occasionally, and if your life is spared
you may again find yourself an officer of the Bellevite. But I think you
have no occasion to indulge in any regrets," said Captain Passford,
imparting a cheerful expression to his dignified countenance. "Allow me
to call your attention to the fact that you are the commander of this
fine little steamer. Here you are in your own cabin, and you are still
nothing but a boy, hardly eighteen years old."

17
"If I have not earned my rank, it is not my fault that I have it,"
answered Christy, hardly knowing whether to be glad or sorry for his
rapid advancement. "I have never asked for anything; I did not ask or
expect to be promoted. I was satisfied with my rank as a
midshipman."

"I did not ask for your promotion, though I could probably have
procured for you the rank of master when you entered the navy. I do not
like to ask favors for a member of my own family. I have wished you to
feel that you were in the service of your country because it needs you,
and not for glory or profit."

"And I have tried to feel so, father."

"I think you have felt so, my son; and I am prouder of the fact that
you are a disinterested patriot than of the rank you have nobly and
bravely won," said Captain Passford, as he took some letters from his
pocket, from which he selected one bearing an English postage stamp. "I
have a letter from one of my agents in England, which, I think, contains
valuable information. I have called the attention of the government to
these employes of mine, and they will soon pass from my service to that
of the naval department.
18
The information sent me has sometimes been very important."

"I know that myself, for the information that came from that source
enabled the Bellevite to capture the Killbright," added Christy.

"The contents of the letter in my hand have been sent to the
Secretary of the Navy; but it will do no harm for you to possess the
information given to me," continued Captain Passford, as he opened the
letter. "But I see a man at work at the foot of the companion way, and I
don't care to post the whole ship's company on this subject."

"That is Pink Mulgrum," said Christy with a smile on his face. "He is
deaf and dumb, and he cannot make any use of what you say."

"Don't be sure of anything, Christy, except your religion and your
patriotism, in these times," added Captain Passford, as he rose and
closed the door of the cabin.

"I don't think there is much danger from a deaf mute, father," said
the young commander of the Bronx laughing.

"Perhaps not; but when you have war intelligence to communicate, it
is best to believe that every person has ears, and that every door has a
19
keyhole. I learn from this letter that the Scotian sailed from Glasgow,
and the Arran from Leith. The agent is of the opinion that both these
steamers are fitted out by the same owners, who have formed a company,
apparently to furnish the South with gunboats for its navy, as well as
with needed supplies. In his letter my correspondent gives me the reason
for this belief on his part."

"Does your agent give you any description of the vessels, father?"
asked Christy, his eyes sparkling with the interest he felt in the
information.

"Not a very full description, my son, for no strangers were allowed
on board of either of them, for very obvious reasons; but they are both
of less than five hundred tons burthen, are of precisely the same model
and build, evidently constructed in the same yard. Both had been
pleasure yachts, though owned by different gentlemen. Both sailed on the
same day, the Scotian from Greenock and the Arran from Leith,
March 3."

Christy opened his pocket diary, and put his finger on the date
mentioned, counting up the days that had elapsed from that time to the
present. Captain Passford could not help smiling at
20
the interest his son manifested in the intelligence he had brought to
him. The acting commander of the Bronx went over his calculation
again.

"It is fourteen days since these vessels sailed," said he, looking at
his father. "I doubt if your information will be of any value to me, for
I suppose the steamers were selected on account of their great speed, as
is the case with all blockade runners."

"Undoubtedly they were chosen for their speed, for a slow vessel does
not amount to much in this sort of service," replied Captain Passford.
"I received my letter day before yesterday, when the two vessels had
been out twelve days."

"If they are fast steamers, they ought to be approaching the Southern
coast by this time," suggested Christy.

"This is a windy month, and a vessel bound to the westward would
encounter strong westerly gales, so that she could hardly make a quick
passage. Then these steamers will almost certainly put in at Nassau or
the Bermudas, if not for coal and supplies, at least to obtain the
latest intelligence from the blockaded coast, and to pick up a pilot for
the port to which they are bound. The
21
agent thinks it is possible that the Scotian and Arran will meet some
vessel to the southward of the Isle of Wight that will put an armament
on board of them. He had written to another of my agents at Southampton
to look up this matter. It is a quick mail from the latter city to New
York, and I may get another letter on this subject before you sail,
Christy."

"My orders may come off to me to-day," added the acting commander. "I
am all ready to sail, and I am only waiting for them."

"If these two steamers sail in company, as they are likely to do if
they are about equal in speed, and if they take on board an armament, it
will hardly be prudent for you to meddle with them," said Captain
Passford with a smile, though he had as much confidence in the prudence
as in the bravery of his son.

"What shall I do, father, run away from them?" asked Christy, opening
his eyes very wide.

"Certainly, my son. There is as much patriotism in running away from
a superior force as there is in fighting an equal, for if the government
should lose your vessel and lose you and your ship's company, it would
be a disaster of more or less consequence to your country."

22
"I hardly think I shall fall in with the Scotian and the Arran, so I
will not consider the question of running away from them," said Christy
laughing.

"You have not received your orders yet, but they will probably
require you to report at once to the flag-officer in the Gulf, and
perhaps they will not permit you to look up blockade runners on the high
seas," suggested Captain Passford. "These vessels may be fully armed and
manned, in charge of Confederate naval officers; and doubtless they will
be as glad to pick up the Bronx as you would be to pick up the Scotian
or the Arran. You don't know yet whether they will come as simple
blockade runners, or as naval vessels flying the Confederate flag.
Whatever your orders, Christy, don't allow yourself to be carried away
by any Quixotic enthusiasm."

"I don't think I have any more than half as much audacity as Captain
Breaker said I had. As I look upon it, my first duty is to deliver my
ship over to the flag-officer in the Gulf; and I suppose I shall be
instructed to pick up a Confederate cruiser or a blockade runner, if one
should cross my course."

23
"Obey your orders, Christy, whatever they may be. Now, I should like to
look over the Bronx before I go on shore," said Captain Passford. "I
think you said she was of about two hundred tons."

"That was what they said down south; but she is about three hundred
tons," replied Christy, as he proceeded to show his father the cabin in
which the conversation had taken place.

The captain's cabin was in the stern of the vessel, according to the
orthodox rule in naval vessels. Of course it was small, though it seemed
large to Christy who had spent so much of his leisure time in the cabin
of the Florence, his sailboat on the Hudson. It was substantially fitted
up, with little superfluous ornamentation; but it was a complete parlor,
as a landsman would regard it. From it, on the port side opened the
captain's state room, which was quite ample for a vessel no larger than
the Bronx. Between it and the pantry on the starboard side, was a
gangway leading from the foot of the companion way, by which the
captain's cabin and the ward room were accessible from the quarter
deck.

Crossing the gangway at the foot of the steps,
24
Christy led the way into the ward room, where the principal officers
were accommodated. It contained four berths, with portières in
front of them, which could be drawn out so as to inclose each one in a
temporary state room. The forward berth on the starboard side was
occupied by the first lieutenant, and the after one by the second
lieutenant, according to the custom in the navy. On the port side, the
forward berth belonged to the chief engineer, and the after one to the
surgeon. Forward of this was the steerage, in which the boatswain,
gunner, carpenter, the assistant engineers, and the steward were
berthed. Each of these apartments was provided with a table upon which
the meals were served to the officers occupying it. The etiquette of a
man-of-war is even more exacting than that of a drawing room on
shore.

Captain Passford was then conducted to the deck where he found the
officers and seamen engaged in their various duties. Besides his son,
the former owner of the Bellevite was acquainted with only two persons
on board of the Bronx, Sampson, the engineer, and Flint, the acting
first lieutenant, both of whom had served on board of the steam yacht.
Christy's father gave them a
25
hearty greeting, and both were as glad to see him as he was to greet
them. Captain Passford then looked over the rest of the ship's company
with a deeper interest than he cared to manifest, for they were to some
extent bound up with the immediate future of his son. It was not such a
ship's company as that which manned the Bellevite, though composed of
much good material. The captain shook hands with his son, and went on
board of his boat. Two hours later he came on board again.

CHAPTER II

A DINNER FOR THE CONFEDERACY

Christy Passford was not a little surprised to see his father so soon
after his former visit, and he was confident that he had some good
reason for coming. He conducted him at once to his cabin, where Captain
Passford immediately seated himself at the table, and drew from his
pocket a telegram.

"I found this on my desk when I went to my office," said he, opening
a cable message, and placing it before Christy.

"'Mutton, three veal, four sea chickens,'" Christy read from the
paper placed before him, laughing all the time as he thought it was a
joke of some sort. "Signed 'Warnock.' It looks as though somebody was
going to have a dinner, father. Mutton, veal, and four sea chickens seem
to form the substantial of the feast, though I never ate any sea
chickens."

27
"Perhaps somebody will have a dinner, but I hope it will prove to be
indigestible to those for whom it is provided," added Captain Passford,
amused at the comments of his son.

"The message is signed by Warnock. I don't happen to have the
pleasure of his acquaintance, and I don't see why he has taken the
trouble to send you this bill of fare," chuckled the commander of the
Bronx.

"This bill of fare is of more importance to me, and especially to
you, than you seem to understand."

"It is all Greek to me; and I wonder why Warnock, whoever he may be,
has spent his money in sending you such a message, though I suppose you
know who is to eat this dinner."

"The expense of sending the cablegram is charged to me, though the
dinner is prepared for the Confederate States of America. Of course I
understand it, for if I could not, it would not have been sent to me,"
replied Captain Passford, assuming a very serious expression. "You know
Warnock, for he has often been at Bonnydale, though not under the name
he signs to this message. My three agents, one in the north, one in the
south,
28
and one in the west of England, have each an assumed name. They are
Otis, Barnes, and Wilson, and you know them all. They have been captains
or mates in my employ; and they know all about a vessel when they
see it."

"I know them all very well, and they are all good friends of mine,"
added Christy.

"Warnock is Captain Barnes, and this message comes from him. Captain
Otis signs himself Bixwell in his letters and cablegrams, and Mr.
Wilson, who was formerly mate of the Manhattan, uses the name of
Fleetley."

"I begin to see into your system, father; and I suppose the
government will carry out your plan."

"Very likely; for it would hardly be proper to send such information
as these men have to transmit in plain English, for there may be spies
or operators bribed by Confederate agents to suppress such matter."

"I see. I understand the system very well, father," said Christy.

"It is simple enough," added his father, as he took a paper from his
pocket-book.

"If you only understand it, it is simple enough."

29
"I can interpret the language of this message, and there is not another
person on the western continent that can do so. Now, look at the
cablegram, Christy," continued Captain Passford, as he opened the paper
he held in his hand. "What is the first word?"

"Mutton," replied the commander.

"Mutton means armed; that is to say the Scotian and the Arran took an
armament on board at some point south of England, as indicated by the
fact that the intelligence comes from Warnock. In about a week the mail
will bring me a letter from him in which he will explain how he obtained
this information."

"He must have chartered a steamer and cruised off the Isle of Wight
to pick it up," suggested Christy.

"He is instructed to do that when necessary. What is the next
word?"

"'Three,'" replied Christy.

"One means large, two medium, and three small," explained his father.
"Three what, does it say?"

"'Three veal.'"

"Veal means ship's company, or crew."

30
"Putting the pieces together, then, 'three veal' means that the Scotian
and the Arran have small crews," said Christy, intensely interested in
the information.

"Precisely so. Read the rest of the message," added Captain
Passford.

"'Four sea chickens,'" the commander read.

"'Four' means some, a few, no great number; in other words, rather
indefinite. Very likely Warnock could not obtain exact information. 'C'
stands for Confederate, and 'sea' is written instead of the letter.
'Chickens' means officers. 'Four sea chickens,' translated means 'some
Confederate officers.'"

Christy had written down on a piece of paper the solution of the
enigma, as interpreted by his father, though not the symbol words of the
cablegram. He continued to write for a little longer time, amplifying
and filling in the wanting parts of the message. Then he read what he
had written, as follows: "'The Scotian and the Arran are armed; there
are some Confederate officers on board, but their ship's companies are
small.' Is that it, father?"

"That is the substance of it," replied Captain
31
Passford, as he restored the key of the cipher to his pocket-book, and
rose from his seat. "Now you know all that can be known on this side of
the Atlantic in regard to the two steamers. The important information is
that they are armed, and even with small crews they may be able to sink
the Bronx, if you should happen to fall in with them, or if your orders
required you to be on the lookout for them. There is a knock at the
door."

Christy opened the door, and found a naval officer waiting to see
him. He handed him a formidable looking envelope, with a great seal upon
it. The young commander looked at its address, and saw that it came from
the Navy Department. With it was a letter, which he opened. It was an
order for the immediate sailing of the Bronx, the sealed orders to be
opened when she reached latitude 38° N. The messenger spoke
some pleasant words, and then took his leave. Christy returned to the
cabin, and showed the ponderous envelope to his father.

"Sealed orders, as I supposed you would have," said Captain
Passford.

"And this is my order to sail immediately on receipt of it," added
Christy.

32
"Then I must leave you, my son; and may the blessing of God go with you
wherever your duty calls you!" exclaimed the father, not a little shaken
by his paternal feelings. "Be brave, be watchful; but be prudent under
all circumstances. Bravery and Prudence ought to be twin sisters, and I
hope you will always have one of them on each side of you. I am not
afraid that you will be a poltroon, a coward; but I do fear that your
enthusiasm may carry you farther than you ought to go."

"I hope not, father; and your last words to me shall be remembered.
When I am about to engage in any important enterprise, I will recall
your admonition, and ask myself if I am heeding it."

"That satisfies me. I wish you had such a ship's company as we had on
board of the Bellevite; but you have a great deal of good material, and
I am confident that you will make the best use of it. Remember that you
are fighting for your country and the best government God ever gave to
the nations of the earth. Be brave, be prudent; but be a Christian, and
let no mean, cruel or unworthy action stain your record."

Captain Passford took the hand of his son, and though neither of them
wept, both of them were
33
under the influence of the strongest emotions. Christy accompanied his
father to the accommodation ladder, and shook hands with him again as he
embarked in his boat. His mother and his sister had been on board that
day, and the young commander had parted from them with quite as much
emotion as on the present occasion. The members of the family were
devotedly attached to each other, and in some respects the event seemed
like a funeral to all of them, and not less to Christy than to the
others, though he was entering upon a very exalted duty for one of his
years.

"Pass the word for Mr. Flint," said Christy, after he had watched the
receding boat that bore away his father for a few minutes.

"On duty, Captain Passford," said the first lieutenant, touching his
cap to him a few minutes later.

"Heave short the anchor, and make ready to get under way," added the
commander.

"Heave short, sir," replied Mr. Flint, as he touched his cap and
retired. "Pass the word for Mr. Giblock."

Mr. Giblock was the boatswain of the ship,
34
though he had only the rank of a boatswain's mate. He was an old sailor,
as salt as a barrel of pickled pork, and knew his duty from keel to
truck. In a few moments his pipe was heard, and the seamen began to walk
around the capstan.

"Cable up and down, sir," said the boatswain, reporting to the second
lieutenant on the forecastle.

Mr. Lillyworth was the acting second lieutenant, though he was not to
be attached to the Bronx after she reached her destination in the Gulf.
He repeated the report from the boatswain to the first lieutenant. The
steamer was rigged as a topsail schooner; but the wind was contrary, and
no sail was set before getting under way. The capstan was manned again,
and as soon as the report came from the second lieutenant that the
anchor was aweigh, the first lieutenant gave the order to strike one
bell, which meant that the steamer was to go "ahead slow."

The Bronx had actually started on her mission, and the heart of
Christy swelled in his bosom as he looked over the vessel, and realized
that he was in command, though not for more than a week or two. All the
courtesies and ceremonies were duly
35
attended to, and the steamer, as soon as the anchor had been catted and
fished, at the stroke of four bells, went ahead at full speed, though,
as the fires had been banked in the furnaces, the engine was not working
up to its capacity. In a couple of hours more she was outside of Sandy
Hook, and on the broad ocean. The ship's company had been drilled to
their duties, and everything worked to the entire satisfaction of the
young commander.

The wind was ahead and light. All hands had been stationed, and at
four in the afternoon, the first dog watch was on duty, and there was
not much that could be called work for any one to do. Mr. Lillyworth,
the second lieutenant, had the deck, and Christy had retired to his
cabin to think over the events of the day, especially those relating to
the Scotian and the Arran. He had not yet read his orders, and he could
not decide what he should do, even if he discovered the two steamers in
his track. He sat in his arm chair with the door of the cabin open, and
when he saw the first lieutenant on his way to the ward room, he called
him in.

"Well, Mr. Flint, what do you think of our crew?" asked the captain,
after he had seated his guest.

36
"I have hardly seen enough of the men to be able to form an opinion,"
replied Flint. "I am afraid we have some hard material on board, though
there are a good many first-class fellows among them."

"Of course we can not expect to get such a crew as we had in the
Bellevite. How do you like Mr. Lillyworth?" asked the commander, looking
sharply into the eye of his subordinate.

"I don't like him," replied Flint, bluntly. "You and I have been in
some tight places together, and it is best to speak our minds
squarely."

"That's right, Mr. Flint. We will talk of him another time. I have
another matter on my mind just now," added Christy.

He proceeded to tell the first lieutenant something about the two
steamers.

CHAPTER III

THE INTRUDER AT THE CABIN DOOR

Before he said anything about the Scotian and the Arran, Christy,
mindful of the injunction of his father, had closed the cabin door, the
portière remaining drawn as it was before. When he had taken this
precaution, he related some of the particulars which had been given to
him earlier in the day.

"It is hardly worth while to talk about the matter yet awhile," added
Christy. "I have my sealed orders, and I can not open the envelope until
we are in latitude 38, and that will be sometime to-morrow
forenoon."

"I don't think that Captain Folkner, who expected to be in command of
the Teaser, as she was called before we put our hands upon her,
overestimated her speed," replied Lieutenant Flint, consulting his
watch. "We are making fifteen knots an hour just now, and Mr. Sampson is
not
38
hurrying her. I have been watching her very closely since we left Sandy
Hook, and I really believe she will make eighteen knots with a little
crowding."

"What makes you think so, Flint?" asked Christy, much interested in
the statement of the first lieutenant.

"I suppose it is natural for a sailor to fall in love with his ship,
and that is my condition in regard to the Bronx," replied Flint, with a
smile which was intended as a mild apology for his weakness. "I used to
be in love with the coasting schooner I owned and commanded, and I
almost cried when I had to sell her."

"I don't think you need to be ashamed of this sentiment, or that an
inanimate structure should call it into being," said the young
commander. "I am sure I have not ceased to love the Bellevite; and in my
eyes she is handsomer than any young lady I ever saw. I have not been
able to transfer my affections to the Bronx as yet, and she will have to
do something very remarkable before I do so. But about the speed of our
ship?"

"I have noticed particularly how easily and
39
gracefully she makes her way through the water when she is going fifteen
knots. Why that is faster than most of the ocean passenger steamers
travel."

"Very true; but like many of these blockade runners and other vessels
which the Confederate government and rich men at the South have
purchased in the United Kingdom, she was doubtless built on the Clyde.
Not a few of them have been constructed for private yachts, and I have
no doubt, from what I have seen, that the Bronx is one of the number.
The Scotian and the Arran belonged to wealthy Britishers; and of course
they were built in the very best manner, and were intended to attain the
very highest rate of speed."

"I shall count on eighteen knots at least on the part of the Bronx
when the situation shall require her to do her best. By the way, Captain
Passford, don't you think that a rather queer name has been given to our
steamer? Bronx! I am willing to confess that I don't know what the word
means, or whether it is fish, flesh or fowl," continued Flint.

"It is not fish, flesh or fowl," replied Christy, laughing. "My
father suggested the name to
40
the Department, and it was adopted. He talked with me about a name, as
he thought I had some interest in her, for the reason that I had done
something in picking her up."

"Done something? I should say that you had done it all," added
Flint.

"I did my share. The vessels of the navy have generally been named
after a system, though it has often been varied. Besides the names of
states and cities, the names of rivers have been given to vessels. The
Bronx is the name of a small stream, hardly more than a brook, in West
Chester County, New York. When I was a small boy, my father had a
country place on its banks, and I did my first paddling in the water in
the Bronx. I liked the name, and my father recommended it."

"I don't object to the name, though somehow it makes me think of a
walnut cracked in your teeth when I hear it pronounced," added Flint.
"Now that I know what it is and what it means, I shall take more kindly
to it, though I am afraid we shall get to calling her the Bronxy before
we have done with her, especially if she gets to be a pet, for the name
seems to need another syllable."

41
"Young men fall in love with girls without regard to their names."

"That's so. A friend of mine in our town in Maine fell in love with a
young lady by the name of Leatherbee; but she was a very pretty girl and
her name was all the objection I had to her," said Flint, chuckling.

"But that was an objection which your friend evidently intended to
remove at no very distant day," suggested Christy.

"Very true; and he did remove it some years ago. What was that
noise?" asked the first lieutenant, suddenly rising from his seat.

Christy heard the sounds at the same moment. He and his companion in
the cabin had been talking about the Scotian and the Arran, and what his
father had said to him about prudence in speaking of his movements came
to his mind. The noise was continued, and he hastened to the door of his
state room, and threw it open. In the room he found Dave hard at work on
the furniture; he had taken out the berth sack, and was brushing out the
inside of the berth. The noise had been made by the shaking of the slats
on which the mattress rested. Davis Talbot, the cabin steward
42
of the Bronx, had been captured in the vessel when she was run out of
Pensacola Bay some months before. As he was a very intelligent colored
man, or rather mulatto, though they were all the same at the South, the
young commander had selected him for his present service; and he never
had occasion to regret the choice. Dave had passed his time since the
Teaser arrived at New York at Bonnydale, and he had become a great
favorite, not only with Christy, but with all the members of the
family.

"What are you about, Dave?" demanded Christy, not a little astonished
to find the steward in his room.

"I am putting the room in order for the captain, sir," replied Dave
with a cheerful smile, such as he always wore in the presence of his
superiors. "I found something in this berth I did not like to see about
a bed in which a gentleman is to sleep, and I have been through it with
poison and a feather; and I will give you the whole southern Confederacy
if you find a single redback in the berth after this."

"I am very glad you have attended to this matter at once, Dave."

43
"Yes, sir; Captain Folkner never let me attend to it properly, for he
was afraid I would read some of his papers on the desk. He was willing
to sleep six in a bed with redbacks," chuckled Dave.

"Well, I am not, or even two in a bed with such companions. How long
have you been in my room, Dave?" added Christy.

"More than two hours, I think; and I have been mighty
busy too."

"Did you hear me when I came into the cabin?"

"No, sir, I did not; but I heard you talking with somebody a
while ago."

"What did I say to the other person?"

"I don't know, sir; I could not make out a word, and I didn't stop in
my work to listen. I have been very busy, Captain Passford," answered
Dave, beginning to think he had been doing something that was not
altogether regular.

"Don't you know what we were talking about, Dave?"

"No, sir; I did not make out a single word you said," protested the
steward, really troubled to find that he had done something wrong,
though he had not the least idea what it was. "I did not mean to do
anything out of the way, Captain Passford."

44
"I have no fault to find this time, Dave."

"I should hope not, sir," added Dave, looking as solemn as a sleepy
owl. "I would jump overboard before I would offend you, Massa
Christy."

"You need not jump overboard just yet," replied the captain, with a
pleasant smile, intended to remove the fears of the steward. "But I want
to make a new rule for you, Dave."

"Thank you, sir; if you sit up nights to make rules for me, I will
obey all of them; and I would give you the whole State of Florida before
I would break one of them on purpose, Massa Christy."

"Massa Christy!" exclaimed the captain, laughing.

"Massa Captain Passford!" shouted Dave, hastening to correct his
over-familiarity.

"I don't object to your calling me Christy when we are alone, for I
look upon you as my friend, and I have tried to treat you as a
gentleman, though you are a subordinate. But are you going to be a
nigger again, and call white men 'Massa?' I told you not to use that
word."

"I done forget it when I got excited because I was afraid I had
offended you," pleaded the steward.

45
"Your education is vastly superior to most people of your class, and you
should not belittle yourself. This is my cabin; and I shall sometimes
have occasion to talk confidentially with my officers. Do you understand
what I mean, Dave?"

"Perfectly, Captain Passford: I know what it is to talk confidently
and what it is to talk confidentially, and you do both, sir," replied
the steward.

"But I am sometimes more confidential than confident. Now you must do
all your work in my state room when I am not in the cabin, and this is
the new rule," said Christy, as he went out of the room. "I know that I
can trust you, Dave; but when I tell a secret I want to know to how many
persons I am telling it. You may finish your work now;" and he closed
the door.

Christy could not have explained why he did so if it had been
required of him, but he went directly to the door leading out into the
companion way, and suddenly threw it wide open, drawing the
portière aside at the same time. Not a little to his surprise,
for he had not expected it, he found a man there; and the intruder was
down
46
on his knees, as if in position to place his ear at the keyhole. This
time the young commander was indignant, and without stopping to consider
as long as the precepts of his father required, he seized the man by the
collar, and dragged him into the cabin.

"What are you doing there?" demanded Christy in the heat of his
indignation.

The intruder, who was a rather stout man, began to shake his head
with all his might, and to put the fore finger of his right hand on his
mouth and one of his ears. He was big enough to have given the young
commander a deal of trouble if he had chosen to resist the force used
upon him; but he appeared to be tame and submissive. He did not speak,
but he seemed to be exerting himself to the utmost to make himself
understood. Flint had resumed his seat at the table, facing the door,
and in spite of himself, apparently, he began to laugh.

"That is Pink Mulgrum, Captain Passford," said he, evidently to
prevent his superior from misinterpreting the lightness of his conduct.
"As you are aware, he is deaf and dumb."

Mulgrum at the captain's door.

"I see who he is now," replied Christy, who
47
had just identified the man. "He may be deaf and dumb, but he seems to
have a great deal of business at the door of my cabin."

"I have no doubt he is as deaf as the keel of the ship, and I have
not yet heard him speak a word," added the first lieutenant. "But he is
a stout fellow, very patriotic, and willing to work."

"All that may be, but I have found him once before hanging around
that door to-day."

At this moment Mulgrum took from his pocket a tablet of paper and a
pencil, and wrote upon it, "I am a deaf mute, and I don't know what you
are talking about." Christy read it, and then wrote, "What were you
doing at the door?" He replied that he had been sent by Mr. Lillyworth
to clean the brasses on the door. He was then dismissed.

CHAPTER IV

A DEAF AND DUMB MYSTERY

As he dismissed Mulgrum, Christy tore off the leaf from the tablet on
which both of them had written before he handed it back to the owner.
For a few moments, he said nothing, and had his attention fixed on the
paper in his hand, which he seemed to be studying for some reason of
his own.

"That man writes a very good hand for one in his position," said he,
looking at the first lieutenant.

"I had noticed that before," replied Flint, as the commander handed
him the paper, which he looked over with interest. "I had some talk with
him on his tablet the day he came on board. He strikes me as a very
intelligent and well-educated man."

"Was he born a deaf mute?" asked Christy.

"I did not think to ask him that question; but I judged from the
language he used and his rapid
49
writing that he was well educated. There is character in his handwriting
too; and that is hardly to be expected from a deaf mute," replied
Flint.

"Being a deaf mute, he can not have been shipped as a seaman, or even
as an ordinary steward," suggested the captain.

"Of course not; he was employed as a sort of scullion to be worked
wherever he could make himself useful. Mr. Nawood engaged him on the
recommendation of Mr. Lillyworth," added Flint, with something like a
frown on his brow, as though he had just sounded a new idea.

"Have you asked Mr. Lillyworth anything about him?"

"I have not; for somehow Mr. Lillyworth and I don't seem to be very
affectionate towards each other, though we get along very well together.
But Mulgrum wrote out for me that he was born in Cherryfield, Maine, and
obtained his education as a deaf mute in Hartford. I learned the deaf
and dumb alphabet when I was a schoolmaster, as a pastime, and I had
some practice with it in the house where I boarded."

"Then you can talk in that way with Mulgrum."

50
"Not a bit of it; he knows nothing at all about the deaf and dumb
alphabet, and could not spell out a single word I gave him."

"That is very odd," added the captain musing.

"So I thought; but he explained it by saying that at the school they
were changing this method of communication for that of actually speaking
and understanding what was said by observing the vocal organs. He had
not remained long enough to master this method; in fact he had done all
his talking with his tablets."

"It is a little strange that he should not have learned either method
of communication."

"I thought so myself, and said as much to him; but he told me that he
had inherited considerable property at the death of his father, and he
was not inclined to learn new tricks," said Flint. "He is intensely
patriotic, and said that he was willing to give himself and all his
property for the salvation of his country. He had endeavored to obtain a
position as captain's clerk, or something of that sort, in the navy; but
failing of this, he had been willing to go to the war as a scullion. He
says he shall fight, whatever his situation, when he has the
opportunity; and that is all I know about him."

51
Christy looked on the floor, and seemed to be considering the facts he
had just learned. He had twice discovered Mulgrum at the door of his
cabin, though his presence there had been satisfactorily explained; or
at least a reason had been given. This man had been brought on board by
the influence of Mr. Lillyworth, who had been ordered to the Gulf for
duty, and was on board as a substitute for Mr. Flint, who was acting in
Christy's place, as the latter was in that of Mr. Blowitt, who outranked
them all. Flint had not been favorably impressed with the acting second
lieutenant, and he had not hesitated to speak his mind in regard to him
to the captain. Though Christy had been more reserved in speech, he had
the feeling that Mr. Lillyworth must establish a reputation for
patriotism and fidelity to the government before he could trust him as
he did the first lieutenant, though he was determined to manifest
nothing like suspicion in regard to him.

At this stage of the war, that is to say in the earlier years of it,
the government was obliged to accept such men as it could obtain for
officers, for the number in demand greatly exceeded the supply of
regularly educated naval officers. There were
52
a great many applicants for positions, and candidates were examined in
regard to their professional qualifications rather than their motives
for entering the service. If a man desired to enter the army or the
navy, the simple wish was regarded as a sufficient guaranty of his
patriotism, especially in connection with his oath of allegiance. With
the deaf mute's leaf in his hand Christy was thinking over this matter
of the motives of officers. He was not satisfied in regard to either
Lillyworth or Mulgrum, and besides the regular quota of officers and
seamen permanently attached to the Bronx, there were eighteen seamen and
petty officers berthed forward, who were really passengers, though they
were doing duty.

"Where did you say this man Mulgrum was born, Mr. Flint?" asked the
captain, after he had mused for quite a time.

"In Cherryfield, Maine," replied the first lieutenant; and he could
not help feeling that the commander had not been silent so long for
nothing.

"You are a Maine man, Flint: were you ever in this town?"

"I have been; I taught school there for six
53
months; and it was the last place I filled before I went to sea."

"I am glad to hear it, for it will save me from looking any further
for the man I want just now. If this deaf mute was born and brought up
in Cherryfield, he must know something about the place," added Christy
as he touched a bell on his table, to which Dave instantly
responded.

"Do you know Mulgrum, Dave?" asked the captain.

"No, sir; never heard of him before," replied the steward.

"You don't know him! The man who has been cleaning the brass work on
the doors?" exclaimed Christy.

"Oh! Pink, we all call him," said the steward.

"His name is Pinkney Mulgrum," Flint explained.

"Yes, sir; I know him, though we never had any long talks together,"
added Dave with a rich smile on his face.

"Go on deck, and tell Mulgrum to come into my cabin," said
Christy.

"If I tell him that, he won't hear me," suggested Dave.

54
"Show him this paper," interposed the first lieutenant, handing him a
card on which he had written the order.

Dave left the cabin to deliver the message, and the captain
immediately instructed Flint to question the man in regard to the
localities and other matters in Cherryfield, suggesting that he should
conduct his examination so as not to excite any suspicion. Pink Mulgrum
appeared promptly, and was placed at the table where both of the
officers could observe his expression. Then Flint began to write on a
sheet of paper, and passed his first question to the man. It was: "Don't
you remember me?" Mulgrum wrote that he did not. Then the inquisitor
asked when he had left Cherryfield to attend the school at Hartford; and
the date he gave placed him there at the very time when Flint had been
the master of the school for four months. On the question of locality,
he could place the church, the schoolhouse and the hotel; and he seemed
to have no further knowledge of the town. When asked where his father
lived, he described a white house next to the church; but Flint knew
that this had been owned and occupied by the minister for many
years.

55
"This man is a humbug," was the next sentence the first lieutenant
wrote, but he passed it to the captain. Christy wrote under it: "Tell
him that we are perfectly satisfied with his replies, and thank him for
his attendance;" which was done at once, and the captain smiled upon him
as though he had conducted himself with distinguished ability.

"Mulgrum has been in Cherryfield; but he could not have remained
there more than a day or two," said Flint, when the door had closed
behind the deaf mute.

The captain made a gesture to impose silence upon his companion.

"Mulgrum is all right in every respect," said he in a loud tone, so
that if the subject of the examination had stopped at the keyhole of the
door, he would not be made any the wiser for what he heard there.

"He knows Cherryfield as well as he knows the deck of the Bronx, and
as you say, Captain Passford, he is all right in every respect," added
the first lieutenant in the same loud tone. "Mulgrum is a well educated
man, captain, and you will have a great deal of writing to do: I suggest
that you
56
bring him into your cabin, and make him your clerk."

"That is a capital idea, Mr. Flint, and I shall consider it,"
returned the commander, making sure that the man at the door should hear
him, if Mulgrum lingered there. "I have a number of letters sent over
from England relating to blockade runners that I wish to have copied for
the use of any naval officers with whom I may fall in; and I have not
the time to do it myself."

"Mulgrum writes a very handsome hand, and no one could do the work
any better than he."

Christy thought enough had been said to satisfy the curiosity of
Mulgrum if he was still active in seeking information, and both of the
officers were silent. The captain had enough to think of to last him a
long while. The result of the inquiry into the auditory and vocal powers
of the scullion, as Flint called him, had convinced him that the deaf
mute was a fraud. He had no doubt that he could both speak and hear as
well as the rest of the ship's company. But the puzzling question was in
relation to the reason why he pretended to be deaf and dumb. If he was
desirous of serving his country in the navy, and especially in the
57
Bronx, it was not necessary to pretend to be deaf and dumb in order to
obtain a fighting berth on board of her. It looked like a first class
mystery to the young commander, but he was satisfied that the presence
of Mulgrum meant mischief. He could not determine at once what it was
best to do to solve the mystery; but he decided that the most extreme
watchfulness was required of him and his first lieutenant. This was all
he could do, and he touched his bell again.

"Dave," said he when the cabin steward presented himself before him,
"go on deck and ask Mr. Lillyworth to report to me the log and the
weather."

"The log and the weather, sir," replied Dave, as he hastened out of
the cabin.

Christy watched him closely as he went out at the door, and he was
satisfied that Mulgrum was not in the passage, if he had stopped there
at all. His present purpose was to disarm all the suspicions of the
subject of the mystery, but he would have been glad to know whether or
not the man had lingered at the door to hear what was said in regard to
him. He was not anxious in regard to the weather, or even the log, and
he sent Dave on
58
his errand in order to make sure that Mulgrum was not still doing duty
as a listener.

"Wind south south west, log last time fifteen knots and a half,"
reported Dave, as he came in after knocking at the door.

"I can not imagine why that man pretended to be deaf and dumb in
order to get a position on board of the Bronx. He is plainly a fraud,"
said the captain when Dave had gone back to his work in the state
room.

"I don't believe he pretended to be a deaf mute in order to get a
place on board, for that would ordinarily be enough to prevent him from
getting it. I should put it that he had obtained his place in spite of
being deaf and dumb. But the mystery exists just the same."

The captain went on deck, and the first lieutenant to the ward
room.

CHAPTER V

A CONFIDENTIAL STEWARD

The wind still came from the southward, and it was very light. The
sea was comparatively smooth, and the Bronx continued on her course. At
the last bi-hourly heaving of the log, she was making sixteen knots an
hour. The captain went into the engine room, where he found Mr. Gawl,
one of the chief's two assistants, on duty. This officer informed him
that no effort had been made to increase the speed of the steamer, and
that she was under no strain whatever. The engine had been thoroughly
overhauled, as well as every other part of the vessel, and every
improvement that talent and experience suggested had been made. It now
appeared that the engine had been greatly benefited by whatever changes
had been made. These improvements had been explained to the commander by
Mr. Sampson the day before; but Christy had not given much attention
60
to the matter, for he preferred to let the speed of the vessel speak for
itself; and this was what it appeared to be doing at the present
time.

Christy walked the deck for some time, observing everything that
presented itself, and taking especial notice of the working of the
vessel. Though he made no claims to any superior skill, he was really an
expert, and the many days and months he had passed in the companionship
of Paul Vapoor in studying the movements of engines and hulls had made
him wiser and more skilful than it had even been suspected that he was.
He was fully competent for the position he was temporarily filling; but
he had made himself so by years of study and practice.

Christy had not yet obtained all the experience he required as a
naval officer, and he was fully aware that this was what he needed to
enable him to discharge his duty in the best manner. He was in command
of a small steamer, a position of responsibility which he had not
coveted in this early stage of his career, though it was only for a week
or less, as the present speed of the Bronx indicated. He had ambition
enough to hope that he should be able to distinguish himself in this
61
brief period, for it might be years before he again obtained such an
opportunity. His youth was against him, and he was aware that he had
been selected to take the steamer to the Gulf because there was a
scarcity of officers of the proper grade, and his rank gave him the
position.

The motion of the Bronx exactly suited him, and he judged that in a
heavy sea she would behave very well. He had made one voyage in her from
the Gulf to New York, and the steamer had done very well, though she had
been greatly improved at the navy yard. Certainly her motion was better,
and the connection between the engine and the inert material of which
the steamer was constructed, seemed to be made without any straining or
jerking. There was very little shaking and trembling as the powerful
machinery drove her ahead over the quiet sea. There had been no very
severe weather during his first cruise in the Bronx, and she had not
been tested in a storm under his management, though she had doubtless
encountered severe gales in crossing the Atlantic in a breezy season of
the year.

While Christy was planking the deck, four bells were struck on the
ship's great bell on the
62
top-gallant forecastle. It was the beginning of the second dog watch, or
six o'clock in the afternoon, and the watch which had been on duty since
four o'clock was relieved. Mr. Flint ascended the bridge, and took the
place of Mr. Lillyworth, the second lieutenant. Under this bridge was
the pilot-house, and in spite of her small size, the steamer was steered
by steam. The ship had been at sea but a few hours, and the crew were
not inclined to leave the deck. The number of men on board was nearly
doubled by the addition of those sent down to fill vacancies in other
vessels on the blockade. Christy went on the bridge soon after, more to
take a survey inboard than for any other purpose.

Mr. Lillyworth had gone aft, but when he met Mulgrum coming up from
the galley, he stopped and looked around him. With the exception of
himself nearly the whole ship's company were forward. The commander
watched him with interest when he stopped in the vicinity of the deaf
mute, who also halted in the presence of the second lieutenant. Then
they walked together towards the companion way, and disappeared behind
the mainmast. Christy had not before
63
noticed any intercourse between the lieutenant and the scullion, though
he thought it a little odd that the officer should set the man at work
cleaning the brasses about the door of the captain's cabin, a matter
that belonged to the steward's department. He had learned from Flint
that Mulgrum had been recommended to the chief steward by Lillyworth, so
that it was evident enough that they had been acquainted before either
of them came on board. But he could not see them behind the mast, and he
desired very much to know what they were doing.

Flint had taken his supper before he went on duty on the bridge, and
the table was waiting for the other ward room officers who had just been
relieved. It was time for Lillyworth to go to the meal, but he did not
go, and he seemed to be otherwise engaged. After a while, Christy looked
at his watch, and found that a quarter of an hour had elapsed since the
second lieutenant had left the bridge, and he had spent nearly all this
time abaft the mainmast with the scullion. The commander had become
absolutely absorbed in his efforts to fathom the deaf and dumb mystery,
and fortunately there was nothing else to occupy his
64
attention, for Flint had drilled the crew, including the men for other
vessels, and had billeted and stationed them during the several days he
had been on board. Everything was working as though the Bronx had been
at sea a month instead of less than half a day.

Christy was exceedingly anxious to ascertain what, if anything, was
passing between Lillyworth and Mulgrum; but he could see no way to
obtain any information on the subject. He had no doubt he was watched as
closely as he was watching the second lieutenant. If he went aft, that
would at once end the conference, if one was in progress. He could not
call upon a seaman to report on such a delicate question without
betraying himself, and he had not yet learned whom to trust in such a
matter, and it was hardly proper to call upon a foremast hand to watch
one of his officers.

The only person on board besides the first lieutenant in whom he felt
that he could repose entire confidence was Dave. He knew him thoroughly,
and his color was almost enough to guarantee his loyalty to the country
and his officers, and especially to himself, for the steward possessed a
rather extravagant admiration for the one who
65
had "brought him out of bondage," as he expressed it, and had treated
him like a gentleman from first to last. He could trust Dave even on the
most delicate mission; but Dave was attending to the table in the ward
room, and he did not care to call him from his duty.

At the end of another five minutes, Christy saw Mulgrum come from
abaft the mainmast, and descend the ladder to the galley. He saw no more
of Lillyworth, and he concluded that, keeping himself in the shadow of
the mast, he had gone below. He remained on the bridge a while longer
considering what he should do. He said nothing to Flint, for he did not
like to take up the attention of any officer on duty. The commander
thought that Dave could render him the assistance he required better
than any other person on board, for being only a steward and a colored
man at that, less notice would be taken of him than of one in a higher
position. He was about to descend from the bridge when Flint spoke to
him in regard to the weather, though he could have guessed to a point
what the captain was thinking about, perhaps because the same subject
occupied his own thoughts.

66
"I think we shall have a change of weather before morning, Captain
Passford. The wind is drawing a little more to the southward, and we are
likely to have wind and rain," said the first lieutenant.

"Wind and rain will not trouble us, and I am more afraid that we
shall be bothered with fog on this cruise," added Christy as he
descended the ladder to the main deck.

He walked about the deck for a few minutes, observing the various
occupations of the men, who were generally engaged in amusing
themselves, or in "reeling off sea yarns." Then he went below. At the
foot of the stairs in the companion way, the door of the ward room was
open, and he saw that Lillyworth was seated at the table. He sat at the
foot of it, the head being the place of the first lieutenant, and the
captain could see only his back. He was slightly bald at the apex of his
head, for he was an older man than either the captain or the first
lieutenant, but inferior to them in rank, though all of them were
masters, and seniority depended upon the date of the commissions; and
even a single day settled the degree in these days of multiplied
appointments. Christy
67
went into his cabin, where the table was set for his own supper.

The commander looked at his barometer, and his reading of it assured
him that Flint was correct in regard to his prognostics of the weather.
But the young officer had faced the winter gales of the Atlantic, and
the approach of any ordinary storm did not disturb him in the least
degree. On the contrary he rather liked a lively sea, for it was less
monotonous than a calm. He did not brood over a storm, therefore, but
continued to consider the subject which had so deeply interested him
since he discovered Mulgrum on his knees at the door, with a rag and a
saucer of rottenstone in his hands. He had a curiosity to examine the
brass knob of his door at that moment, and it did not appear to have
been very severely rubbed.

"Quarter of seven, sir," said Dave, presenting himself at the door
while Christy was still musing over the incidents already detailed.

"All right, Dave; I will have my supper now," replied Christy,
indifferently, for though he was generally blessed with a good appetite
the mystery was too absorbing to permit the necessary duty of eating to
drive it out of his mind.

68
Dave retired, and soon brought in a tray from the galley, the dishes
from which he arranged on the table. It was an excellent supper, though
he had not given any especial orders in regard to its preparation. He
seated himself and began to eat in a rather mechanical manner, and no
one who saw him would have mistaken him for an epicure. Dave stationed
himself in front of the commander, so that he was between the table and
the door. He watched Christy, keeping his eyes fixed on him without
intermitting his gaze for a single instant. Once in a while he tendered
a dish to him at the table, but there was but one object in existence
for Christy at that moment.

"Dave," said the captain, after he had disposed of a portion of his
supper.

"Here, sir, on duty," replied the steward.

"Open the door behind you, quick!"

Dave obeyed instantly, and threw the door back so that it was wide
open, though he seemed to be amazed at the strangeness of the order.

"All right, Dave; close it," added Christy, when he saw there was no
one in the passage; and he concluded that Mulgrum was not likely to be
practising his vocation when there was no one in the cabin but himself
and the steward.

69
Dave obeyed the order like a machine, and then renewed his gaze at the
commander.

"Are you a Freemason, Dave?" asked Christy.

"No, sir," replied the steward with a magnificent smile.

"A Knight of Pythias, of Pythagoras, or anything of that sort?"

"No, sir; nothing of the sort."

"Then you can't keep a secret?"

"Yes, sir, I can. If I have a secret to keep, I will give the whole
Alabama River to any one that can get it out of me."

Christy felt sure of his man without this protestation.

CHAPTER VI

A MISSION UP THE FOREMAST

Christy spent some time in delivering a lecture on naval etiquette to
his single auditor. Probably he was not the highest authority on the
subject of his discourse; but he was sufficiently learned to meet the
requirements of the present occasion.

"You say you can keep a secret, Dave?" continued the commander.

"I don't take any secrets to keep from everybody, Captain Passford;
and I don't much like to carry them about with me," replied the steward,
looking a little more grave than usual, though he still wore a cheerful
smile.

"Then you don't wish me to confide a secret to you?"

"I don't say that, Captain Passford. I don't want any man's secrets,
and I don't run after them, except for the good of the service. I was a
slave once, but I know what I am working for
71
now. If you have a secret I ought to know, Captain Passford, I will take
it in and bury it away down at the bottom of my bosom; and I will give
the whole state of Louisiana to any one that will dig it out
of me."

"That's enough, Dave; and I am willing to trust you without any oath
on the Bible, and without even a Quaker's affirmation. I believe you
will be prudent, discreet, and silent for my sake."

"Certainly I will be all that, Captain Passford, for I think you are
a bigger man than Jeff Davis," protested Dave.

"That is because you do not know the President of the Confederate
States, and you do know me; but Mr. Davis is a man of transcendent
ability, and I am only sorry that he is engaged in a bad cause, though
he believes with all his heart and soul that it is a good cause."

"He never treated me like a gentleman, as you have, sir."

"And he never treated you unkindly, I am very sure."

"He never treated me any way, for I never saw him; and I would not
walk a hundred miles barefooted
72
to see him, either. I am no gentleman or anything of that sort,
Massa— Captain Passford, but if I ever go back on you by the
breadth of a hair, then the Alabama River will run up hill."

"I am satisfied with you, Dave; and here is my hand," added Christy,
extending it to the steward, who shook it warmly, displaying a good deal
of emotion as he did so. "Now, Dave, you know Mulgrum, or Pink, as you
call him?"

"Well, sir, I know him as I do the rest of the people on board; but
we are not sworn friends yet," replied Dave, rather puzzled to know what
duty was required of him in connection with the scullion.

"You know him; that is enough. What do you think of him?"

"I haven't had any long talks with him, sir, and I don't know what to
think of him."

"You know that he is dumb?"

"I expect he is, sir; but he never said anything to me about it,"
replied Dave. "He never told me he couldn't speak, and I never heard him
speak to any one on board."

"Did you ever speak to him?"

"Yes, sir; I spoke to him when he first came
73
on board; but he didn't answer me, or take any notice of me when I spoke
to him, and I got tired of it."

"Open that door quickly, Dave," said the captain suddenly.

The steward promptly obeyed the order, and Christy saw that there was
no one in the passage. He told his companion to close the door, and Dave
was puzzled to know what this movement could mean.

"I beg your pardon, Captain Passford, and I have no right to ask any
question; but I should like to know why you make me open that door two
or three times for nothing," said Dave, in the humblest of tones.

"I told you to open it so that I could see if there was anybody at
the door. This is my secret, Dave. I have twice found Mulgrum at that
door while I was talking to the first lieutenant. He pretended to be
cleaning the brass work."

"What was he there for? When a man is as deaf as the foremast of the
ship what would he be doing at the door?"

"He was down on his knees, and his ear was not a great way from the
keyhole of the door."

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"But he could not hear anything."

"I don't know: that is what I want to find out. The mission I have
for you, Dave, is to watch Mulgrum. In a word, I have my doubts in
regard to his deafness and his dumbness."

"You don't believe he is deaf and dumb, Captain Passford!" exclaimed
the steward, opening his eyes very wide, and looking as though an
earthquake had just shaken him up.

"I don't say that, my man. I am in doubt. He may be a deaf mute, as
he represents himself to be. I wish you to ascertain whether or not he
can speak and hear. You are a shrewd fellow, Dave, I discovered some
time ago; in fact the first time I ever saw you. You may do this job in
any manner you please; but remember that your mission is my secret, and
you must not betray it to Mulgrum, or to any other person."

"Be sure I won't do that, Captain Passford."

"If you obtain any satisfactory information, convey it to me
immediately. You must be very careful not to let any one suspect that
you are watching him, and least of all to let Mulgrum know it. Do you
understand me perfectly, Dave?"

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"Yes, sir; perfectly. Nobody takes any notice of me but you, and it
won't be a hard job. I think I can manage it without any trouble. I am
nothing but a nigger, and of no account."

"I have chosen you for this mission because you can do it better than
any other person, Dave. Don't call yourself a nigger; I don't like the
word, and you are ninety degrees in the shade above the lower class of
negroes in the South."

"Thank you, sir," replied the steward with an expansive smile.

"There is one thing I wish you to understand particularly, Dave. I
have not set you to watch any officer of the ship," said Christy
impressively.

"No, sir; I reckon Pink Mulgrum is not an officer any more than
I am."

"But you may discover, if you find that Mulgrum can speak and hear,
that he is talking to an officer," added the captain in a low tone.

"What officer, Captain Passford?" asked the steward, opening his eyes
to their utmost capacity, and looking as bewildered as an owl in the
gaslight.

"I repeat that I do not set you to watch an officer; and I leave it
to you to ascertain with
76
whom Mulgrum has any talk, if with any one. Now I warn you that, if you
accomplish anything in this mission, you will do it at night and not in
the daytime. That is all that need be said at the present time, Dave,
and you will attend to your duty as usual. If you lose much sleep, you
may make it up in the forenoon watch."

"I don't care for the sleep, Captain Passford, and I can keep awake
all night."

"One thing more, Dave; between eight bells and eight bells to-night,
during the first watch, you may get at something, but you must keep out
of sight as much as you can," added Christy, as he rose from his
armchair, and went into his state room.

Dave busied himself in clearing the table, but he was in a very
thoughtful mood all the time. Loading up his tray with dishes, he
carried them through the steerage to the galley, where he found Mulgrum
engaged in washing those from the ward room, which he had brought out
some time before. The steward looked at the deaf mute with more interest
than he had regarded him before. He was a supernumerary on board, and
any one who had anything to do called Pink to do it.
77
Another waiter was greatly needed, and Mr. Nawood, the chief steward,
had engaged one, but he had failed to come on board before the steamer
sailed. Pink had been pressed into service for the steerage; but he was
of little use, and the work seemed very distasteful, if not disgusting,
to him. He carried in the food, but that was about all he was
good for.

Dave watched him for a few minutes as he washed and wiped the dishes,
and saw that he was very awkward at it; it was plain to him that he was
not an experienced hand at the business. But he was doing the steward's
work, and Dave took hold and helped him. Pink was as solemn as an owl,
and did his work in a very mechanical manner, and without the slightest
interest in it. The cabin steward had a mission, and he was profoundly
interested in its execution.

By the side of the galley, or range, was a sink at which they were at
work. Dave thought he might as well begin then and there to test the
hearing powers of his companion. Picking up one of the large blowers of
the range, he placed himself so that Pink could not see what he was
about, and then banged the sheet iron against the
78
cast iron of the great stove. He kept his eye fixed all the time on the
scullion. The noise was enough for the big midship gun on deck, or even
for a small earthquake. Pink was evidently startled by the prodigious
sound, and turned towards the steward, who was satisfied that he had
heard it; but the fellow was cunning, and realizing that he had
committed himself, he picked up one of his feet, and began to rub it as
though he had been hit by the falling blower. At the same time, he
pretended to be very angry, and demonstrated very earnestly against his
companion.

Dave felt that he had made a point, and he did not carry his
investigation of the auditory capacity of the scullion any farther that
night. He finished his work below, and then went on deck. He lounged
about in a very careless manner till eight bells were struck. Mr. Flint
on the bridge was relieved by Mr. Lillyworth, and the port watch came on
duty for the next four hours, or until midnight. This was the time the
captain had indicated to Dave as a favorable one for the discharge of
his special duty. Taking advantage of the absence of any person from the
vicinity of the foremast, he adroitly curled himself up in the
79
folds of the foresail, which was brailed up to the mast. He had his head
in such a position that he could see without being seen by any casual
passer-by.

He waited in this position over an hour, and during that time Pink
went back and forth several times, and seemed to be looking up at the
bridge, which was just forward of the foremast. On the top-gallant
forecastle were two men on the lookout; in the waist was a
quartermaster, who was doing the duty that belonged to the third
lieutenant, if the scarcity of officers had permitted the Bronx to have
one. The body of the port watch were spinning yarns on the forecastle,
and none of them were very near the foremast. After a while, as Pink was
approaching the forecastle, Dave saw the second lieutenant gesticulating
to him very earnestly to come on the bridge. The supernumerary ascended
the ladder, and the officer set him at work to lace on the sailcloth to
the railing of the bridge, to shelter those on duty there from the force
of the sea blast.

Dave listened with all his ears for any sound from the bridge; but he
soon realized that if there was any, he was too far off to hear it. With
the
80
aid of the lashings of the foresail, he succeeded in climbing up on the
mast to a point on a level with the bridge, and at the same time to make
the mast conceal him from the eyes of Mr. Lillyworth and the scullion.
The latter pretended to be at work, and occasionally the second
lieutenant "jawed" at him for his clumsiness in lacing the sailcloth.
Between these growls, they spoke together in a low tone, but Dave was
near enough to hear what they said. Though he had never heard the voice
of Pink Mulgrum before, he knew that of the second lieutenant, and he
was in no danger of confounding the two. Pink used excellent language,
as the steward was capable of judging, and it was plain enough that he
was not what he had appeared to be.

Lillyworth and Mulgrum on the bridge.

CHAPTER VII

AN INTERVIEW ON THE BRIDGE

Although Mr. Lillyworth knew very well that Pink Mulgrum was deaf and
dumb, he "jawed" at him as though his hearing was as perfect as his own,
doubtless forgetting for the moment his infirmity.

"Draw up the bight, and lace it tighter," exclaimed the second
lieutenant, intermixing an expletive at each end of the sentence. "Oh,
you can't hear me!" he shouted, as though the fact that the scullion
could not hear him had suddenly come to his mind. "Well, it is a nice
thing to talk to a deaf man!"

Dave could see that Mulgrum also seemed to forget that his ears were
closed to all sounds, for he redoubled his efforts to haul the screen
into its place.

"I could not hear anything that was of any consequence," the steward
heard the deaf mute say in a lower tone than his companion used.

082
"Couldn't you hear anything?" asked Mr. Lillyworth, making a spring at
the canvas as though he was disgusted with the operations of his
companion on the bridge.

"Only what I have just told you," replied Mulgrum.

"But you were at the door when the captain and the first lieutenant
were talking together in the cabin," continued the officer in a low
tone.

"But they were talking about me, as I told you before," answered the
scullion, rather impatiently, as though he too had a mind of
his own.

"Wasn't anything said about the operations of the future?" demanded
Mr. Lillyworth.

"Not a word; but you know as well as I do that the captain has sealed
orders which he will not see before to-morrow. I heard him tell his
father that he was to open the envelope in latitude 38," said the
supernumerary.

"You must contrive some way to hear the captain when he reads his
orders," continued the second lieutenant. "He will be likely to have Mr.
Flint with him when he opens the envelope."

"It will be difficult," replied Mulgrum, and Dave could imagine that
he saw him shake his
083
head. "The captain has found me cleaning the brasses on his door twice,
and it will hardly do to be found at the door again."

"Isn't there any place in his cabin where you can conceal yourself?"
inquired Mr. Lillyworth.

"I don't know of any place, unless it is his state room; and the
cabin steward has been at work there almost all the time since we got
under way. Dave seems to be a sort of confidant of the captain,"
suggested Mulgrum; and it looked as though the deaf mute had not held
his tongue and kept his ears open for nothing; but the steward could not
understand how he had got this idea into his head, for he had received
his instructions while the commander was at supper, and he was sure, as
he had thrown the door open several times, that the scullion was not on
the other side of it.

"A nigger for his confidant!" exclaimed the second lieutenant, as he
interpolated a little jaw for the benefit of the seamen and petty
officers within earshot of him. "What can we expect when a mere boy is
put in command of a steamer like this one?"

"I think you need not complain, Pawcett, for you are on board of this
vessel, and so am I,
84
because she is under the command of a boy. But he is a tremendous smart
boy, and he is older than many men of double his age," added
Mulgrum.

Dave realized that the supernumerary was well informed in regard to
current history in connection with naval matters, and he was willing to
believe that he was quite as shrewd as the officer at his side.

"The boy is well enough, though he is abominably overrated, as you
will see before I have done with him," said Mr. Lillyworth
contemptuously. "It is galling for one who has seen some service to
touch his cap to this boy and call him captain."

"I hope you are not forgetting yourself, Pawcett—"

"Don't mention my name on board of this vessel, Hungerford,"
interposed the officer.

"And you will not mention mine," added the scullion promptly. "We are
both careless in this matter, and we must do better. I think I ought to
caution you not to neglect any outside tokens of respect to the captain.
You can have your own opinions, but I think you do not treat him with
sufficient deference."

85
"Perhaps I don't, for it is not an easy thing to do," replied the second
lieutenant. "But I think the captain has no cause to complain of me. We
must find out something about these orders, and you must be on the
lookout for your chances at meridian to-morrow. If you can stow yourself
away under the captain's berth in his state room, you may be able to
hear him read them to the first lieutenant, as he will be sure
to do."

"I don't believe in doing that," replied Mulgrum. "If I am
discovered, no explanation could be made as to why I was concealed
there."

"But we must take some risks," persisted Mr. Lillyworth. "After what
you told me in the first of our talk, it may not be necessary to conceal
yourself. I shall say something to the captain on the subject at which
you hinted as soon as I get a chance. You may be in a situation to hear
all that is said without danger."

Dave wondered what could be meant by this remark, for he had not
heard the conversation between the captain and the first lieutenant
which was intended as a "blind" to the listener, known to be at the
door.

"I am willing to take any risk that will not
86
ruin our enterprise," Mulgrum responded to the remark of his
companion.

"At noon to-morrow I shall come on deck in charge, and the first
lieutenant will be relieved, so that he will be at liberty to visit the
captain in his cabin. That will be your time, and you must
improve it."

"But I shall meet you again to-morrow, and I will look about me, and
see what can be done," said Mulgrum, as he made a new demonstration at
the canvas screen.

"I will keep my eyes open, and you must do the same. How is it with
our men forward?" asked the officer.

"I have had no chance to speak with any of them, for they are all the
time in the midst of the rest of the seamen," replied the deaf mute.
"But I have no doubt they are all right."

"But you must have some way to communicate with them, or they might
as well be on shore. As there are six of them, I should say you might
get a chance to speak to one of them whenever you desire."

"I have had nothing to say to them so far, and I have not considered
the matter of communicating with them."

87
"It is time to know how you can do so."

"I can manage it in some way when the time comes," replied Mulgrum
confidently. "I am sure the captain and the first lieutenant have no
suspicion that I am not what I seem to be. The executive officer put me
through a full examination, especially in regard to Cherryfield, where I
told him I used to live. I came off with flying colors, and I am certain
that I am all right now."

Dave knew nothing about the examination to which Mr. Flint had
subjected the deaf mute. It is evident that Mulgrum took an entirely
different view of the result of the test from that taken by the examiner
and the captain; but both of the latter had taken extreme pains to
conceal their opinion from the subject of the test.

"I think we had better not say anything more to-night, and you have
been on the bridge long enough," said Mr. Lillyworth, walking to the
windward end of the bridge, and peering out into the gloom of the
night.

He had hardly looked in the direction of the deaf mute while he was
on the bridge, but had busied himself with the lashing of the screen,
and done everything he could to make it appear that
88
he was not talking to his companion. Mulgrum, overhauling the screen as
he proceeded, made his way to the steps by the side of the foremast. But
he did not go down, as he had evidently intended to do, and waited till
the second lieutenant came over to the lee side of the vessel.

"Perhaps the man at the wheel has been listening to our
conversation," said the deaf mute, plainly alarmed at the situation. "I
did not think of him."

"I did," replied Mr. Lillyworth; "but it is all right, and the man at
the wheel is Spoors, one of our number."

"All right," added Mulgrum, and he descended the steps.

Dave kept his place in the folds of the foresail, and hardly breathed
as the scullion passed him. With the greatest caution, and after he had
satisfied himself that no one was near enough to see him, he descended
to the deck. He wandered about for a while, and saw that the
supernumerary went to the galley, where, in the scarcity of
accommodations for the extra persons on board, he was obliged to sleep
on the floor. He was not likely to extend his operations any farther
that
89
night, and Dave went to the companion way, descended the steps, and
knocked at the door of the captain's cabin.

"Come in," called the occupant, who had been writing at his desk in
the state room, though the door was open.

Dave presented himself before the commander, who was very glad to see
him. Christy wiped the perspiration from his forehead, for he had
evidently been working very hard all the evening. Four bells had just
struck, indicating that it was ten o'clock in the evening. Flint's
prediction in regard to the weather seemed to be in the way of
fulfilment, for the Bronx had been leaping mildly on a head sea for the
last hour. But everything was going well, and the motion of the vessel
was as satisfactory to the commander in rough water as it had been in a
smooth sea.

"I am glad to see you, Dave," said Christy, as the steward presented
himself at the door of the state room. "I suppose from your coming
to-night that you have something to tell me."

"Yes, sir; I have; and I will give you the whole Gulf of Mexico if it
isn't a big thing," replied Dave with his most expansive smile.
090
"You done get into a hornet's nest, Captain Passford."

"Not so bad as that, I hope," replied Christy, laughing.

"Bad enough, sir, at any rate," added Dave. "Pink Mulgrum has been
talking and listening to the second lieutenant all the evening."

"Then he is not a deaf mute, I take it."

"Not a bit of it; he can talk faster than I can, and he knows all
about his grammar and dictionary. You have just eight traitors on board
of the Bronx, Captain Passford," said Dave very impressively.

"Only eight?"

"That's all I know about; and I think that is enough for one cruise
in a Yankee ship."

"Eight will do very well, Dave; but who are they?" asked the captain
with interest.

"I know just three of them. One is the second lieutenant; Pink
Mulgrum is another, and Spoors, one of the quartermasters, is the third.
They didn't mention any more of them."

"All right, Dave; now sit down on that stool, and tell me the whole
story," said Christy, pointing to the seat.

091
The steward, believing that he had done a "big thing" that evening, did
not hesitate to seat himself in the presence of the commander, and
proceeded at once to relate all that he had done, and all that he had
seen and heard on the bridge. When Dave had finished his story, and
answered the questions put to him, the commander was willing to believe
that he had done a big thing; though he said nothing beyond a few words
of general commendation to the steward. Then he dismissed him, and,
locking his desk, he went on deck. After taking an observation of the
weather he mounted the bridge.

CHAPTER VIII

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, IF TRUE

"Good evening, Mr. Lillyworth," said Captain Passford, when he
reached the bridge.

"Good evening, Captain Passford," replied the second lieutenant, as
he touched his cap to his superior, galling as the act was, according to
his own statement.

"It looks as though we should have some wind," added the captain.

"Yes, sir; and we shall have a nasty time of it across the Gulf
Stream."

"If there is any decided change in the weather during your watch, you
will oblige me by having me called," added the captain; "I think I am
tired enough to turn in, for I have been very busy all the evening,
copying letters and papers. I think I need a clerk almost as much as the
captain of a frigate."

"I think you ought to have one, sir," added
093
Mr. Lillyworth, manifesting a deep interest in this matter.

"As the matter now stands I have to use a good deal of my time in
copying documents. By the way, if we fall in with any United States
man-of-war, I wish to communicate with her."

"Of course I shall report to you, sir, if one comes in sight during
my watch," replied the second lieutenant, with a greater manifestation
of zeal than he had before displayed in his relations with his
commander, evidently profiting by the suggestion made to him by Pink
Mulgrum.

"But I hope we shall not fall in with one before day after tomorrow,
for I have not copied all the letters I desire to use if such an
occasion offers," said Captain Passford, who was really playing out a
baited hook for the benefit of the second lieutenant, in regard to whose
intentions he had no doubt since the revelations of the steward.

"By the way, Captain Passford, what you say in regard to the amount
of writing imposed upon you reminds me that there is a man on board who
might afford you some relief from this drudgery. Possibly you may have
noticed this man, though he is doing duty as a mere scullion."

94
"Do you mean the man I have seen cleaning brass work about the cabin?"
asked Christy, glad to have the other take hold of the baited hook.

"That is the one; he is deaf and dumb, but he has received a good
education, and writes a good hand, and is rapid about it," added the
second lieutenant, with some eagerness in his manner, though he tried to
conceal it.

"But my writing is of a confidential nature," replied the
captain.

"I have known this man, whose name is Pink Mulgrum, for some time. He
is deaf and dumb, and you must have noticed him."

"Oh, yes; I have seen him, and he had an interview with Mr. Flint in
my presence. I observed that he wrote a good hand, and wrote very
rapidly."

"I am very confident that you can trust him with your papers, Captain
Passford. He could not go into the service as a soldier or a sailor on
account of his infirmity; but he desired to do something for his
country. He was determined to go to the war, as he called it, in any
capacity, even if it was as a scullion. He wrote me a letter to this
effect, and Mr. Nawood consented to take
95
him as a man of all work. If he ever gets into an action, you will find
that he is a fighting character."

"That is the kind of men we want, and at the present time, when we
are hardly in a fighting latitude, perhaps I can use him as a copyist,
if he will agree to make no use whatever of any information he may
obtain in that capacity. I will speak to Mr. Nawood about the
matter."

"Thank you, Captain Passford. Mulgrum is a very worthy man, patriotic
in every fibre of his frame, and in every drop of his blood. I should be
glad to obtain some permanent occupation for him in the service of his
country, for nothing else will suit him in the present exciting times.
Perhaps when you have tested his qualifications, this will make an
opening for him."

"I will consider the subject tomorrow," said Christy, as he descended
from the bridge.

The commander was satisfied that the portion of the conversation
which had taken place between the aspirant for the position of captain's
clerk and the second lieutenant and which had been finished before the
steward had reached his perch on the foremast, related to this matter.
Mulgrum had
96
heard the conversation between the first lieutenant and himself, which
was intended to blind the listener, and he had reported it to his
confederate. It was only another confirmation, if any were needed, in
regard to the character of the conspirators.

Christy had no doubt in regard to the disloyalty of these two men;
but nothing in respect to their ultimate intentions had yet been
revealed. They had brought six seamen on board with them, and they
appeared to have influence enough in some quarter to have had these men
drafted into the Bronx. Eight men, even if two of them were officers,
was an insignificant force, though he was willing to believe that they
intended to obtain possession of the vessel in some manner. The captain
returned to his cabin, and resumed his work in the state room.

Though Christy had spent several hours at his desk, he had really
produced but a single letter, and had not yet finished it. When he heard
eight bells strike, he left his state room, and seated himself at the
table in the middle of his cabin. The door was open into the companion
way. Mr. Flint presently appeared, and went on deck to
97
relieve the second lieutenant, who came below a few minutes later,
though the captain did not allow himself to be seen by him. Then he
closed the cabin door, and turned in, for he began to realize that he
needed some rest. He went to sleep at once, and he did not wake till
four bells struck in the morning. The Bronx was pitching heavily, though
she still maintained her reputation as an easy-going ship in spite of
the head sea. He dressed himself, and seated himself at his desk at
once, devoting himself to the letter upon which he had been engaged the
evening before. The second lieutenant was on duty at this time, and the
first was doubtless asleep in his berth, but he had been below six hours
during the night, and, calling Dave with his bell, he sent him for Mr.
Flint, who presented himself a few minutes later.

"Good morning, Captain Passford; you have turned out early, sir,"
said the first lieutenant.

"Not very early, and I am sorry to wake you so soon. I did not turn
in till after you had gone on deck to take the midwatch. I have been
very busy since we parted, and I need your advice and assistance,"
replied the commander. "I have got at something."

98
"Indeed! I am glad to hear it," added Mr. Flint.

Without the loss of any time, the captain called Dave, who was at
work in the ward room, and told him to see that no one came near the
door of his cabin. The steward understood him perfectly, and Christy
resumed his place at the table with the executive officer, and proceeded
to detail to him as briefly as he could all the information he had
obtained through Dave, and the manner of obtaining it. It required some
time to do this, and the first lieutenant was intensely interested in
the narrative.

"I am not greatly surprised so far as Lillyworth is concerned, for
there has been something about him that I could not fathom since both of
us came on board," said Mr. Flint.

"Of course these men are on board for a purpose, though I acknowledge
that I cannot fathom this purpose, unless it be treason in a general
sense; but I am inclined to believe that they have some specific
object," added the captain. "Of course you will be willing to believe
that both of these men are sailing under false colors."

"Undoubtedly. It has occurred to me that the
99
second lieutenant invented the name that represents him on the ship's
books. Lillyworth is a little strained; if he had called himself Smith
or Brown, it would have been less suspicious."

"In the conversation to which Dave listened on the bridge, both of
them blundered, and let out their real names, though each of them
reproved the other for doing so. The second lieutenant's real name is
Pawcett, and that of the deaf mute is Hungerford."

"The last is decidedly a southern name, and the other may be for
aught I know. Hungerford, Hungerford," said Mr. Flint, repeating the
name several times. "It means something to me, but I can't make it
out yet."

The first lieutenant cudgelled his brains for a minute or two as
though he was trying to connect the name with some event in the past.
The captain waited for him to sound his memory; but it was done in vain;
Flint could not place him. He was confident, however, that the
connection would be made in his mind at some other moment.

"The interesting question to us just now is to determine why these
men, eight in number, are on board of the Bronx at all, and why they are
on
100
board at the present time," said the captain. "I happen to know that
Lillyworth was offered a better position than the one he now fills
temporarily; but my father says he insisted on going in the Bronx."

"Certainly he is not here on a fool's errand. He has business on
board of this particular steamer," replied Flint, speaking out of his
musing mind. "Ah! now I have it!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Hungerford was
the executive officer of the Killbright, or the Yazoo, as they called
her afterwards. I had a very slight inkling that I had seen the face of
the deaf mute before; but he has shaved off his beard, and stained his
face, so that it is no wonder I did not identify him; but the name
satisfies me that he was the first officer of the Yazoo."

"That means then that he is a regular officer of the Confederate
navy," suggested the captain; "and probably Lillyworth is also. The only
other name Dave was able to obtain was that of Spoors, one of the
quartermasters; and very likely he is also another."

"We have almost a double crew on board, Captain Passford, and what
can eight men do to capture this vessel?" asked Flint.

101
"I don't know what they intend to do, and I must give it up. Now I want
to read a letter to you that I have written; and you can tell me what
you think of it." The commander then read as follows from the sheet in
his hand, upon which appeared no end of changes and corrections:

"To the Commander of any United States Ship of
War, Sir:— The undersigned, master in the United
States Navy, in temporary command of the United States Steamer Bronx,
bound to the Gulf of Mexico, respectfully informs you that he has
information, just received, of the approach to the coast of the southern
states of two steamers, the Scotian and the Arran, believed to be fitted
out as cruisers for the Confederate Navy. They will be due in these
waters about March 17. They are of about five hundred tons each. A
letter from the confidential agent of my father, Captain Horatio
Passford, an agent in whom he has perfect confidence, both on account of
his loyalty to his country undivided, and because of his skill as a
shipmaster, contains this statement, which is submitted to you for your
guidance: 'I have put twelve loyal American seamen, with an officer, on
board of each of the steamers mentioned above; and they comprise about
one-half of the crew of each vessel; and they will take possession of
each of the two steamers when supported by any United States man-of-war.
Warnock.'

  Respectfully yours,

    CHRISTOPHER PASSFORD,

      Master
Commanding."

102
"I beg your pardon, Captain Passford, but what under the canopy is that
letter for?" asked Flint, not a little excited.

"It is for Pink Mulgrum to copy," replied the captain. "That is all
the use I intend to make of it."

Flint leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily, and the
commander could not help joining him.

CHAPTER IX

A VOLUNTEER CAPTAIN'S CLERK

Mr. Flint was really amused at the plan of the commander of the
Bronx, as indicated in the letter he had just read, and he was not
laughing out of mere compliment to his superior officer, as some
subordinates feel obliged to do even when they feel more like weeping.
Perhaps no one knew Christy Passford so well as his executive officer,
not even his own father, for Flint had been with him in the most
difficult and trying ordeals of his life. He had been the young leader's
second in command in the capture of the Teaser, whose cabin they now
occupied, and they had been prisoners together. He had been amazed at
his young companion's audacity, but he had always justified his action
in the end. They had become excellent friends as well as associates in
the navy, and there was a hearty sympathy between them.

Christy laughed almost in spite of himself, for
104
he had been giving very serious attention to the situation on board of
the Bronx. In the ship's company were at least two officers on the other
side of the great question of the day, both of them doubtless men of
great experience in their profession, more mature in years than their
opponent on this chess-board of fate, and they had come on board of the
steamer to accomplish some important purpose. The game at which they
were engaged had already become quite exciting, especially as it looked
as if the final result was to be determined by strategy rather than hard
fighting, for Pawcett and Hungerford could hardly expect to capture the
Bronx with only a force of eight men.

"Mulgrum is to copy this letter," said Flint, suppressing his
laughter.

"I have written the letter in order to have something for him to
copy, and at the same time to give him and his confederate something to
think about," replied Christy; and he could hardly help chuckling when
he thought of the effect the contents of the letter would produce in the
minds of those for whom the missive was really intended.

105
"Do you think they will swallow this fiction, Captain Passford?" asked
the first lieutenant.

"Why shouldn't they swallow it, hook, bait, and sinker? They are
Confederate agents beyond the possibility of a doubt; and they are
looking for a ship in which they intend to ravage the commerce of the
United States," replied Christy; and the question had done something to
stimulate his reasoning powers. "They want a vessel, and the Bronx would
suit them very well."

"But they will not attempt to capture her under present
circumstances, I am very confident. They know that we have about twenty
seamen extra on board."

"They know that certainly; but possibly they know some things in this
connection that we do not know," added Christy, as he put his hand on
his forehead, and leaned over the table, as though his mind were
strongly exercised by some serious question he was unable to answer
satisfactorily to himself.

"What can they know that we don't know in regard to this vessel?"
demanded Flint, looking quite as serious as the commander.

106
"Whether our extra men are loyal or not," answered Christy, dropping his
hand, and looking his companion full in the face.

"Do you think there is any doubt in regard to them?"

"I confess that I have not had a doubt till this moment," said the
captain, wiping the perspiration from his brow, for the terrible
possibility that any considerable portion of the extra men were in the
employ of the two Confederates had almost overcome him.

For a few moments he was silent as he thought of this tremendous
idea. It was appalling to think of going into action with the Scotian or
the Arran, or both of them, and have a part of his own force turn
against him on his own deck. This was possible, but he could hardly
believe it was probable. Dave had reported very faithfully to him all
the details of the conversation between the Confederates, and they had
claimed only six men. If they had any hold on the extra men on board,
they would have been likely to say so, or at least to speak more
indefinitely than they had of their expectations.

"Have you any friends on board, Mr. Flint,
107
among the crew?" asked Christy suddenly, as though a solution of the
difficult question of the loyalty of the men had suggested itself
to him.

"I have at least half a dozen whom I worked hard to have drafted into
the Bronx, for I know that they are good and true men, though they may
not be able to pass the technical examination of the naval officers,"
replied the first lieutenant promptly. "I can trust every one of them as
far as I could trust myself. One of them was the mate of my vessel at
the time I sold her, and he has since been in command of her."

"Who is he?"

"His name is Baskirk; and he is a quartermaster now. I wrote to him,
and promised to do the best I could to advance him. He is not a graduate
of a college, but he is a well-informed man, well read, sober, honest,
and a man of good common-sense."

"The others?"

"McSpindle was a classmate of mine in college, and he is a capital
fellow. Unfortunately, he got into the habit of drinking more than was
good for him, and spoiled his immediate future. He has made two foreign
voyages, and he is a good seaman.
108
He came home second mate of an Indiaman, promoted on his merit. He is
also a quartermaster," said Flint, who was evidently very deeply
interested in the persons he described.

"Any more?"

"Luffard is a quartermaster, for I selected the best men I had for
these positions. He is a young fellow, and the son of a rich man in
Portland. He is a regular water bird, though he is not over eighteen
years old."

"His age is no objection," added Christy with a smile.

"I suppose not; but I have taken Luffard on his bright promise rather
than for anything he has ever done, though I have seen him sail a
forty-footer in a race and win the first prize. The other men I happen
to think of just now have been sailors on board of my coaster. They are
good men, and I can vouch for their loyalty, though not for their
education. They are all petty officers."

"I have a mission for your men, to be undertaken at once, and I shall
be likely to want the first three you named for important positions, if
my orders do not fetter me too closely," said
109
Christy. "As the matter stands just now, Mr. Flint, it would hardly be
expedient for us to capture a schooner running the blockade for the want
of an officer to act as prize master."

"The three quartermasters I named are competent for this duty, for
they are navigators, and all of them have handled a vessel."

"I am glad to hear it; we are better off than I supposed we were. My
father told me that several vessels had been sent to the South short of
officers, and we are no worse off than some others, though what you say
makes us all right."

"I can find three officers on board who are as competent as I am,
though that is not saying much," added Flint.

"I can ask no better officers, then. But to return to this letter. I
have spent a considerable part of my time at Bonnydale in talking with
my father. He is in the confidence of the naval department."

"He ought to be, for he gave to the navy one of its best steamers, to
say the least."

"I don't want to brag of my father," suggested Christy, laughing; "I
only wanted to show that he is posted. Coming to the point at once,
putting
110
this and that together of what I learned on shore, and of what I have
discovered on board of the Bronx, I am inclined to believe that Pawcett
and Hungerford have their mission on board of this steamer in connection
with the Scotian and the Arran. I will not stop now to explain why I
have this idea, for I shall obtain more evidence as we proceed. At any
rate, I thought I would put the ghost of a stumbling-block in the path
of these conspirators; and this is the reason why I have put thirteen
American seamen on board of each of the expected steamers. If my
conjectures are wrong the stumbling-block will be nothing but a ghost;
if I am right, it will make our men somewhat cautious as to what they do
if we should be so fortunate as to fall in with the two vessels."

"I understand you perfectly, Captain Passford. You said that you had
something for my men to do at once; but you did not explain what this
duty was," said Flint. "If you require their services at once, I will
instruct them."

"I did not explain, for I have so many irons in the fire that I am
afraid I am getting them mixed, and I forgot to tell you what they were
to do. But I shall leave the details to be settled in your
111
own way. I want to know who are loyal men and who are not. There are at
least six men, according to the report of Dave, who are followers of
Pawcett and Hungerford. We don't know who they are; but doubtless they
have been selected for their shrewdness. Probably they will be looking
for information among the men. Spoors is one of them, and by watching
him some clew may be obtained to the others."

"I am confident my men can find out all you want to know," added the
first lieutenant.

"It should be done as soon as possible," replied the commander.

"Not a moment shall be lost. I have the deck at eight this morning,
and one of the quartermasters will be at the wheel. I will begin
with him."

Mr. Flint left the cabin, for his breakfast was waiting for him in
the ward room. Christy walked through to the steerage, where he found
Mulgrum attending to the wants of the warrant officers as well as he
could. He looked at this man with vastly more interest than before he
had listened to Dave's report. It was easy to see that he was not an
ordinary man such as one would
112
find in menial positions; but it was not prudent for him to make a study
of the man, for his quick eye was taking in everything that occurred
near him.

Eight bells struck, and Mr. Flint hastened on deck to relieve the
second lieutenant. Christy took his morning meal at a later hour, and
when he had finished it, he sent for Pink Mulgrum. Of course the
conversation had to be written, and the captain placed the scullion
opposite himself at the table.

"I learn from Mr. Lillyworth that you are a good writer, and that you
are well educated," Christy wrote on a piece of paper, passing it to the
deaf mute.

Mulgrum read the sentence, and nodded his head with something like a
smile. If Christy was a judge of his expression, he was certainly
pleased, evidently to find that his confederate's plan was working
well.

"I have a letter of which I desire several copies. Can I trust you to
make these copies?" Christy wrote.

The man read and nodded his head eagerly.

"Will you promise on your honor as a man that
113
you will not reveal what you write to any person whatever?" Christy
proceeded. Mulgrum read, and nodded his head earnestly several
times.

The commander procured paper and other writing materials for him, and
placed them before him. Then he seated himself again opposite the
copyist, and fixed his gaze upon him; unfolding the letter, of which he
had made a fair copy himself, he placed it under the eyes of the deaf
mute. Mulgrum had retained his smile till this moment. He had arranged
his paper and taken a pen in his hand. Then he began to read; as he
proceeded the smile deserted his face. He was plainly startled.

CHAPTER X

THE UNEXPECTED ORDERS

Christy sat for some minutes watching the expression of Mulgrum as he
read the letter he was to copy. Like a careful man, he was evidently
taking a glance at it as a whole. The interested observer could see that
he fixed his gaze upon the last part of the letter, the extract from the
missive of Warnock, relating to the twelve loyal American seamen and
their officer. In fact, he seemed to be paralyzed by what he read.

The commander was satisfied with what he had seen, and he rose from
his chair. His movement seemed to restore the self-possession of the
deaf mute, and he began to write very rapidly. Christy went into his
state room, where he kept all his important papers in his desk. He gave
himself up to a consideration of the situation in which he was placed.
He had partly closed the door. But
115
he had not been in the room half an hour before he heard a knock.

"Come in," said he, supposing the caller was Dave.

The door was pushed open, and Mulgrum came in with his tablet in his
hand. The deaf mute had certainly heard his reply to the knock, for he
had heeded it instantly, and he smiled at the manner in which the
conspirator had "given himself away." The scullion presented his tablet
to the captain with a very deferential bow.

"There is an error in the copy of the letter you gave me—in the
extract. If you will give me the original letter from Mr. Warnock, I
will correct the mistake," Christy read on the tablet. It was not
impossible that he had made a mistake in copying his letter; but the
object of Mulgrum in desiring to see the original of the letter from
England was sufficiently apparent. "Bring me my copy of the letter," he
wrote on the tablet, and handed it back to the owner.

The captain took from his desk a bundle of letters and selected one,
which he opened and laid on the table, though not where his copyist
could see it. Mulgrum returned and presented
116
him the letter, pointing out the mistake he had discovered. He looked at
the blind letter, and then at the other. There was certainly an error,
for his letter said "and they comprise about one of crew of each
vessel." This was nonsense, for he had accidentally omitted the word
"half" after "one." He inserted the word above the line in its proper
place, and gave it back to the copyist. It was clear enough that Mulgrum
was disappointed in the result of this interview; but he took the letter
and returned to the table.

At the end of another quarter of an hour, he brought the first copy
of the letter. He knocked as before, and though Christy told him in a
loud tone to come in, he did not do so. He repeated the words, but the
conspirator, possibly aware of the blunder he had made before, did not
make it again. Then he wrote on his tablet, after the captain had
approved his work, that he found the table very uncomfortable to write
upon while the ship was pitching so smartly, and suggested that he
should be allowed to make the rest of the copies on the desk in the
state room, if the captain did not desire to use it himself.
Unfortunately for the writer, he did desire to use it himself, and
117
he could not help smiling at the enterprise of the deaf mute in his
attempt to obtain an opportunity to forage among the papers in his
drawers.

Mulgrum certainly did his work nicely and expeditiously, for he had
finished it at three bells in the forenoon watch. 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
118
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. The wind was
blowing a moderate gale; but the Bronx was doing exceedingly well,
lifting herself very lightly over the foaming billows, and conveying to
one walking her deck the impression of solidity and strength. The
captain went to the bridge after a while, though not till he had noticed
that something was going on among the crew; but he was not disposed to
inquire into the matter, possibly regarding it as beneath the dignity of
a commander to do so.

Christy mounted the steps to the bridge. This structure is hardly a
man-of-war appendage. It had been there, and it had been permitted to
remain. The first shot in action might carry it away, and this
contingency had been provided for, as she was provided with a duplicate
steam-steering apparatus, as well as a hand wheel at the stern. The
proper position of the officer of the watch, who is practically in
command for the time
119
being, is on the quarter deck, though he is required during his watch to
visit all parts of the deck. On board of the Bronx this officer was
placed on the bridge, where he could overlook all parts of the ship.

The first lieutenant, who had the forenoon watch, saluted him, but
there was nothing of interest to report. Christy asked the meaning of
the movement he had observed among the seamen and petty officers, and
was told that Baskirk was getting up an association on board, the first
requirement to which was for all who wished to become members to sign
the oath of allegiance to the United States government, "as represented
by and presided over by the President at Washington." It was to be a
secret society, and Flint added that it was really a branch of the Union
League. Christy did not think it wise to ask any more questions, but he
understood that this was really a movement to ascertain the sentiments
of the members of the ship's company as to the extent of their duty in
supporting the government.

"Mr. Flint, I am not a little dissatisfied with the manner in which
we are compelled to carry on our duty on board of the Bronx, though no
blame
120
is to be attached to the naval department on account of it," said
Christy, after he had walked the bridge for a time.

"Is anything going wrong, Captain Passford?" asked the first
lieutenant anxiously.

"Oh, no: I have no fault to find with any one, and least of all with
you," added the captain promptly. "The trouble is that we are short of
officers, though all that could be spared for this vessel were sent on
board of her. As the matter now stands, Dr. Spokeley and I are the only
idlers on board in the cabin and ward room. The first lieutenant has to
keep a watch, which is not at all regular, and I foresee that this
arrangement will be a very great disadvantage to me. It could not be
helped, and the Bronx was evidently regarded as of no great importance,
for she is little more than a storeship just now, though the flag
officer in the Gulf will doubtless make something more of her."

"We have a big crew for this vessel, but we are short of officers,"
added Flint.

"From the best calculations I have been able to make, with my father
to help me, we ought to fall in with the Scotian and the Arran; and in
view of
121
such an event, I propose to prepare for the emergency by appointing a
temporary third lieutenant."

"I think that would be a very wise step to take," added Flint very
cordially.

"Of the men you mentioned to me, who is the best one for this
position?" asked Christy.

"I have no hesitation in saying that Baskirk is the right man for the
position."

"Very well; he shall be appointed," added Christy, as he left the
bridge. But in a few minutes he returned, and handed an order to the
first lieutenant.

Baskirk was sent for, and the captain had a long talk with him. He
found that the candidate had more knowledge of naval discipline than he
had supposed, and he was pleased with the man. He was the leading
quartermaster in rank, having been appointed first. After another talk
with Flint, the latter gave the order to pass the word for Mr. Giblock,
who was the acting boatswain, though in rank he was only a boatswain's
mate. He was directed to call all hands. When the ship's company were
assembled on the forward deck, though this is not the usual place for
such a gathering, the first lieutenant read the order of
122
the commander appointing George Baskirk as acting third lieutenant of
the Bronx, and directing that he should be respected and obeyed as such.
A smart cheer followed the announcement, though the second lieutenant,
who had taken a place on the bridge, looked as though he did not approve
the step the captain had taken. The officer of the deck next appointed
Thomas McLinn a quartermaster. The ship's company were then
dismissed.

Just before noon by the clocks, Lieutenant Baskirk appeared on the
bridge, dressed in a brand-new uniform, with a sextant in his hands.
Christy, who did not depend upon his pay for the extent of his wardrobe,
had not less than three new suits, and he had presented one of them to
the newly appointed officer, for there was no material difference in the
size of the two persons. All the officers who kept watches were required
to "take the sun," and at the moment the meridian was crossed, the
captain gave the word to "make it noon," and the great bell sounded out
eight bells. The officers proceeded to figure up the results of the
observations. The longitude and latitude were entered on the log slate,
to be
123
transferred to the log book. Baskirk was directed to take the starboard
watch, and he was formally presented to the second lieutenant by the
captain; and whatever his feeling or opinions in regard to the step
which had just been taken, he accepted the hand of the new officer and
treated him with proper courtesy.

"Latitude 37° 52'," said the captain significantly, as he led the
way down from the bridge, attended by the first and third
lieutenants.

They followed him to the captain's cabin. Christy gave them seats at
the table, and then went into his state room for the ponderous envelope
which contained his orders. He seated himself between his two officers;
but before he broke the great seal, he discovered Dave in the passageway
making energetic signs to him. He hastened to him, and followed him into
the ward room.

"Pink is under your berth in the state room," whispered the steward
in the most impressive manner.

"All right, Dave; you have been faithful to your duty," said Christy,
as he hastened back into his cabin.

124
Resuming his place at the table, he broke the seal of the huge envelope.
He unfolded the inclosed instructions, and ran over them without
speaking a word.

"We have nothing to do on this cruise," said he, apparently taking
his idea from the paper in his hand. "I will read the material parts of
it," he continued in a much louder tone than the size of the cabin and
the nearness of his auditors seemed to demand. "'You will proceed with
all reasonable despatch to the Gulf of Mexico, and report to the flag
officer, or his representative, of the eastern Gulf Squadron. You will
attempt no operations on your passage, and if an enemy appears you will
avoid her if possible with honor.' That's all, gentlemen."

The two listeners seemed to be utterly confounded.

CHAPTER XI

ANOTHER READING OF THE SEALED ORDERS

Christy finished the reading of the orders, folded up the document,
and put it in his pocket. But he immediately took it out and unfolded it
again, as though a new thought had struck him. Flint watched him with
the utmost attention, and he realized that the bearing of the commander
was quite different from his usual manner; but he attributed it to the
very unexpected nature of the orders he had just read. He was distinctly
directed to attempt no operations on the passage, and to proceed to the
destination indicated with all reasonable despatch.

The wording of the order was rather peculiar, and somewhat clumsy,
Flint thought; but then he had been a schoolmaster, and perhaps he was
inclined to be over-critical. But the meaning of the first clause could
not be mistaken, however, though the word "operations" seemed to
indicate
126
something on a grander scale and more prolonged than an encounter with a
blockade-runner, or a Confederate man-of-war; something in the nature of
a campaign on shore, or a thorough scouring of the ocean in search of
the vessels of the enemy.

But any such interpretation of the order was rendered impossible by
what followed. The commander was distinctly forbidden to engage the
enemy if such an encounter could be avoided "with honor." The first
lieutenant knew that a combat could be easily avoided simply by not
following up any suspicious craft, unless a fully manned and armed
Confederate cruiser presented herself, and then it might be honorable to
run away from her. There was no mistaking the meaning of the orders, and
there was no chance to strain a point, and fall upon one or both of the
expected steamers.

The captain was strictly enjoined from meddling with them, even if
they came in his way. If they chased the Bronx, she would be justified
in defending herself under the orders; and that was the most she could
do. Flint was terribly disappointed, and he regarded the commander with
the deepest interest to learn what interpretation he
127
would give to the orders, though there seemed to him to be no room even
to take advantage of any fortunate circumstance.

The appearance of the commander did not throw any new light upon the
contents of the document. After he had finished the reading of the
paper, Christy sat in his chair, apparently still looking it over, as
though he did not fully comprehend its meaning. But he made no sign and
indulged in no remark of any kind, and in a few moments folded the order
and put it back into his pocket. Undoubtedly he was thinking very
energetically of something, but he did not reveal the nature of his
reflections.

Flint concluded that he was utterly dissatisfied with his orders, and
even regarded them as a slight upon himself as the commander of the
steamer for the time being. It was not customary to direct captains to
avoid the enemy under all circumstances that were likely to be
presented. The first lieutenant began to realize the disadvantage of
sailing with a captain so young, for it looked to him as though the
strange order had been issued on account of the youth of the
commander.

When Christy had restored the paper to his
128
pocket, he rose from his seat, and thus indicated that there was to be
no consultation with the officers in regard to the unusual instructions.
The two officers rose at the same time, and closely observed the face of
the commander; but this time Flint could find nothing there as serious
as he had observed before; in fact, there was a twinkle in his eye that
looked promising.

"Gentlemen, it is dinner time in the ward room, and I will not detain
you any longer," said Christy, as politely as he usually spoke to his
officers, though the opera of "Pinafore" had not been written at that
time.

Flint bowed to his captain, and left the cabin; and his example was
followed by Baskirk. Christy certainly did not look as though he were
embarrassed by his orders, or as if he were disappointed at the
restrictions they imposed upon him. He left the cabin so that Dave could
prepare his table for dinner as he had the time to do so. He left the
cabin; but in the passage he called the steward to him, and whispered a
brief sentence to him.

He then ascended to the deck, and proceeded to take a
"constitutional" on the windward side of the quarter deck. The gale had
moderated very
129
sensibly, though the wind was still from the southward. The sea was
still quite rough, though it was likely to subside very soon. After the
captain had walked as long as he cared to do, he mounted the bridge.

"What do you think of the weather, Mr. Lillyworth?" he asked of the
officer of the deck, after he had politely returned his salute.

"I don't believe we shall have any more wind today," replied the
second lieutenant, as he looked wisely at the weather indications the
sky presented. "But it don't look much like fairing off, and I shall
look for fog as long as the wind holds where it is."

"I have been expecting to be buried in fog," added the captain, as he
took a survey of the deck beneath him. "I see by the log slate that we
are making fifteen knots an hour, and we certainly are not
driving her."

"There can be no doubt that this is a very fast vessel," said Mr.
Lillyworth. "Well, she ought to be, for I understand that she was built
for a nobleman's yacht, and such men want speed, and are willing to pay
for it."

"By tomorrow, we shall be in the latitude of
130
the Bermudas, and most of the blockade runners put in there, or some
more southern port, to get the news, and obtain a pilot, if they don't
happen to have one on board."

"That seems to be the way they do it."

"This fog is favorable to blockade runners if they have a skilful
pilot on board; and they all contrive to have such a one," added the
captain, as he moved towards the steps to the deck.

"I suppose you have opened your sealed orders, Captain Passford,"
said the second lieutenant, who seemed to be interested in this subject.
"We have crossed the thirty-eighth parallel."

"Yes; I have opened the envelope, and found the orders very peculiar
and very disappointing," replied the captain as he took a step on the
ladder. "But you will excuse me now from speaking of them, for I have
another matter on my mind."

Christy thought Pink Mulgrum might as well tell him about the orders
and he could at least save his breath if he had no other motive for
leaving the second lieutenant in the dark for the present. He went to
the deck, and then down into the cabin. His breakfast was ready, but
Dave was not there, and he walked forward into
131
the ward room, from which he saw Mulgrum replenishing the table in the
steerage. He had evacuated his place under the berth in the state room,
and the captain went to his breakfast in his cabin. Dave soon appeared
with the hot dishes from the galley, for he had seen Christy take his
place at the table.

"What's the news, Dave?" asked the captain.

"No news, sir, except that I gave Pink a chance to get out of that
state room," replied the steward, spreading out his broadest smile. "I
spoke out loud just like I was calling to some one in the ward room,
'No, sir, I can't go now; I have to go to the galley for the dishes.'
Then I left the cabin, and went forward; when I came back, I looked
under your berth, sir, and Pink wasn't there then."

"How did you know he was under the berth in the first place,
Dave?"

"Just before eight bells I saw him cleaning the brasses on the door.
I think he will wear those door knobs all out before the cruise is up. I
knew he was up to something, and I just watched him. He went out of
sight and I did not know where he was. Then I took the feather duster,
and worked
132
about the cabin; but I couldn't find him. Then I dusted the state room,
and then I did find him."

"You have rendered good service, Dave, and I shall not forget it,"
added Christy. "Where are Mr. Flint and Mr. Baskirk?"

"In the ward room, sir."

"Give my compliments to them, and say that I wish to see them in my
cabin in about ten minutes," continued the captain.

Dave left the cabin, and Christy devoted himself to his breakfast;
and in his haste to meet the officers indicated, he hurried the meal
more than was prudent for the digestion. The steward reported that he
had delivered the message, and Christy finished his hasty collation.

The table was hurriedly cleared by the steward, and the captain paid
a visit to his state room, during which he did not fail to look under
his berth. He had a trunk there, and he saw that it had been moved to
the front of the space, so that there was room enough for the
conspirator to conceal his body behind it, though his was a good-sized
body. Returning to the cabin, he took his usual seat at the table,
facing the door. In a few minutes more Mr. Flint and Mr. Baskirk came to
133
the door and were invited to come in. Dave had returned from the galley,
and he was instructed to watch that door as he was told to
close it.

Dave finds Mulgrum under the berth.

Flint took the seat assigned to him, and Baskirk was placed opposite
to him. The first lieutenant appeared to be a great deal more
dissatisfied than the captain; but then he was a poor man, and next to
his duty to his country, he was as anxious as the average officer to
make all the money he could out of the prizes captured by his ship. It
looked to him as though all his chances had slipped beyond his reach for
the present.

Flint had taken no little stock in the two steamers that were
expected on the coast at this time, and in spite of the treachery
anticipated he had counted upon a share in at least one of them. He knew
very well that the commander, from sharp experience at his side some
months before, would not pass by an opportunity to strike a blow, even
in the face of any reasonable risk. But now, as he looked at it, the
wings of the young captain had been clipped by the authorities at
Washington, in the sealed orders.

"I am glad to meet you again, gentlemen; indeed I may say that I am
particularly glad to
134
see you," said Christy in his most cheerful tones, as he looked about
the cabin, and especially at the ports, to see if there was a spy
looking in at one of them.

The thought came to him then and there that it was possible for a man
to hang over the rail, and place one of his ears at an opening and
listen to what was going on; and besides there were, besides Mulgrum,
six others who were capable of doing such a thing. He sent Mr. Baskirk
on deck to see that no man was at work over the side. He returned and
reported that no one was in a position to hear what was said in the
cabin.

Flint did not seem to be as much interested in the proceedings as on
former occasions, for he had had time to consider the effect of the
orders, and he saw no way to evade them. They might pick up some cotton
schooners, but no such prizes as the Scotian and the Arran were likely
to be taken when the steamer reached her station, wherever it might be,
and the whole squadron shared the proceeds of the captures.

"You listened to the orders I read this noon," began Christy, with a
pronounced twinkling of his eyes.

135
"Yes, sir; and, Captain Passford, I have felt as if the gates of honor
and profit had been closed against the Bronx," added Flint.

"Perhaps a second reading of the orders will put a different aspect
on the gates," said the captain with a significant smile, the force of
which, however, the first lieutenant failed to comprehend.

"Under these orders there seems to be no alternative but to hasten to
the Gulf of Mexico, and run away from any blockade runner we may happen
to see," growled Flint.

"You are not as amiable as usual, Mr. Flint."

"How can one be amiable under such orders?" added Flint, trying to
smile.

"I will read them over again, now that we have not as many auditors
as before," said the captain.

Christy proceeded to read the document as it was written.

CHAPTER XII

A SAIL ON THE STARBOARD BOW

Before Captain Passford had read two lines of the document in his
hands, a noise as of a scuffle was heard in the passage way to the ward
room. Mr. Baskirk was sent to ascertain the cause of the disturbance,
and he threw the door wide open. Dave was there, blocking the passage
way, and Pink Mulgrum was trying to force his way towards the cabin
door. The steward declared that no one must go to the cabin; it was the
order of the captain himself. Mulgrum found it convenient not to hear on
this occasion. The moment Baskirk appeared, the deaf mute exhibited a
paper, which he passed to the new lieutenant, evidently satisfied that
he could get no nearer to the door. When he had delivered the paper, he
hastened up the ladder to the deck. Dave came into the cabin and
explained that Mulgrum had tried to force him out of the way, and he had
resisted. The
137
intruder did not exhibit any paper till the third lieutenant appeared at
the door.

"That man is very persevering in his efforts to procure information,"
said Christy, as he unfolded the paper. "'The fog is very dense ahead,
and we shall soon be shut in by it,'" he read from the paper. "Mr.
Lillyworth might have found a man that could speak for his messenger,"
he continued, "but of course he wanted to assist his confederate to
obtain more information."

"I don't see what he wants to know now, for Mulgrum has told him the
contents of the sealed envelope before this time, and he knows that the
gates are closed against us," added Flint. "It is plain enough that they
have had their heads together."

"Certainly they have; but Mr. Lillyworth may not be any better
satisfied with his information than you are, Mr. Flint," replied the
captain, with an expressive smile, though he felt that his fellow
officer had been tantalized long enough by the circumstances. "I have
read and studied my orders very attentively. They direct me to proceed
with all reasonable despatch to the Gulf of Mexico, and report to the
flag officer of the Eastern Gulf Squadron, or his representative."

138
"'But information has been received,'" continued Christy, reading what
he had not read before, "'that two steamers, probably fitted out for
service in the Confederate navy, are approaching the coast of the
Southern States, and it is very important that they should be
intercepted. Both of these vessels are reported to have small crews, but
they are said to be fast. The department regrets that it has not a
suitable steamer available to send in search of these two vessels; but
relying upon your well-known patriotism and the excellent record you
have already made, you are instructed to intercept them, even if you are
delayed a week or more by any hopeful circumstances.' That is the
material portion of my orders," added Christy, as he read the last
sentence. "But I beg you to bear in mind that I did not write the
commendatory expressions in the paper."

"But they are as true as the holy Gospels!" exclaimed Flint,
springing out of his chair in the heat of the excitement which the new
reading of the orders produced in his mind. "But I thought you had read
the sealed orders to us before, Captain Passford."

"I read but a very small part of them before;
139
and as I had to improvise the greater part of what I read, or rather did
not read, but simply uttered, the language was not all well chosen,"
replied Christy, laughing in spite of all his attempts to maintain his
dignity. "The fact is, Mr. Flint, I had too many listeners when I read
the paper before."

"There was no one in the cabin but Mr. Baskirk and myself, and Dave
had been stationed at the door; or at least he was there, for he
beckoned you out into the gangway just as you were beginning to read the
orders," argued Flint. "Possibly I should have understood the first
reading better if I had not seen for myself that you had taken all
precautions against any listener. You went out when Dave called you; but
you were not gone half a minute; and that was not long enough for the
steward to spin any long yarn."

"But it was long enough for Dave to tell me that Pink Mulgrum was
under my berth, with the state room door open," replied Christy.

"Just so; I comprehend the whole matter now," said Flint, joining the
captain in the laugh.

"Now you know what my instructions are, gentlemen," continued the
commander, "and I
140
hope and believe that Mr. Lillyworth and his right hand man do not know
them. I think you have been already posted, Mr. Baskirk, in regard to
the anomalous state of affairs on board of the Bronx," added the
captain.

"Not fully, Captain Passford; but Mr. Flint has told me something
about the situation," replied the third lieutenant.

"It may not be necessary, gentlemen, that I should say it, but not a
word of what passes in my cabin is to be repeated in any other part of
the ship; not even in the ward room when you believe you are entirely
alone," said the captain, very earnestly and impressively. "If the doors
and keyholes do not have ears, there may be ears behind them, as some of
us have learned to our entire satisfaction."

"Not a word from me, Captain Passford," added Baskirk.

"And not one from me," repeated Flint.

"Unquestionably the curiosity of Mr. Lillyworth and his confederate
are and will continue to be excited to the highest pitch," continued
Christy. "I shall have occasion to change the course of the ship, and
head her more to the eastward.
141
Of course the second lieutenant will observe this, and will understand
that I am not following the orders reported to him by Mulgrum. You are
my only confidants on board, and it will be necessary for you to refer
Mr. Lillyworth to me when he asks for further information."

"Perfectly understood," replied Flint, who was now in most excellent
humor.

"Now, gentlemen, I will leave you in my cabin that Mr. Baskirk may be
more fully instructed in regard to the matters which have passed between
Mr. Flint and myself. I have great expectations in regard to you, Mr.
Baskirk, and I am confident that you will realize them."

Saying this, Christy bowed to his companions, and left the cabin,
retiring to his state room and closing the door. He had on board a full
supply of charts and nautical instruments of his own, in addition to
those belonging to the ship. Spreading out the chart of the South
Atlantic on the desk, he went to work with his dividers and parallel
rule. He made his figures on a piece of paper, and then laid off a
course on the chart with a pencil, to be deepened in red ink at another
time.

142
Writing "southeast by east" on a slip of paper, he restored his charts
and instruments to their places and left the state room. The two
lieutenants were still in his cabin, but he did not disturb them and
went on deck. Before he reached the bridge, six bells struck, or three
o'clock in the afternoon. He then ascended the ladder to the bridge. The
fog which the second lieutenant had predicted had not yet enveloped the
ship; on the contrary, it looked more like clearing off, and some
patches of blue sky could be seen.

"Mr. Lillyworth, you will make the course southeast by east," said
Christy, looking at the officer of the deck.

"Southeast by east!" exclaimed the second lieutenant; and his remark
needed an exclamation point after it, for though it was customary to
repeat an order to make sure that it was understood, he did so in such a
tone and in such a manner as to manifest very clearly his astonishment
at the nature of the order. The former course had been south by
west.

One thing was fully evident from this surprise—that the officer
of the deck gave full faith to the
143
bogus instructions which had been imparted to him by Mulgrum. He
believed that the Bronx was to hasten to the Gulf, as the former course
indicated. It was plain enough to Lillyworth that the captain was
disregarding his instructions; but his lips were sealed in regard to
this disobedience, for he could not indicate in any manner that he knew
the purport of the sealed orders; and doubtless it did not occur to him
that the deaf mute had been blinded, in addition to his other
infirmities. The course was given out to the quartermaster at the wheel.
The steamer promptly fell off, and began to ride quartering over the
smart billows, brought out by the wind from the south-southwest, as it
had blown for the last hour or more.

Christy believed that he had put everything in train for
accomplishing the mission of the Bronx on the new course he had just
ordered. There were no more orders to be read, and he did not see that
the conspirators could do anything more to derange the plans of the
loyal officers and seamen on board. All they had attempted so far was to
obtain information in regard to the movements of the vessel; and Christy
had taken care
144
that they should receive all the information they wanted, though not as
reliable as it might have been. He was satisfied with the situation as
it must remain till some decided event should call for energetic
action.

The captain and the two ward-room officers in his confidence were
obliged to conduct themselves with the utmost caution and discretion in
order not to undo anything which had been done in blinding the eyes of
the conspirators. Christy had an abundance of writing to do, and it was
of a kind that would not betray any of his secrets; he called upon
Mulgrum to do this work, in order to keep up appearances. He did not
call any more conferences with his friends in the cabin, for there was
no need of any, and entire silence was the more prudent.

The Bronx proceeded on the course the captain had given out until the
twentieth of the month, when the steamer was a little to the southward
of the Bermudas. She had not been near enough to the islands to be made
out from the shore. On this day, when the Bronx was three days from
Sandy Hook, the fog which Mr. Lillyworth had been predicting settled
down on the steamer, not
145
as dense as it might be, but thick enough to prevent those on board of
her from seeing anything at any great distance from her. The second
lieutenant, in charge of the deck, suggested to the captain that the
whistle should be blown; but Christy answered very emphatically that no
whistles were to be blown; though he ordered the lookouts to be doubled,
and the steamer to proceed at half speed.

In the middle of the second dog watch, in charge of Mr. Baskirk, the
lookout on the topsail yard made himself heard, and the others aloft
repeated the call.

"Sail on the starboard bow, sir!" said the first lookout from the
yard, hailing the bridge.

Captain Passford heard the hail from aloft, for he was planking the
deck with the first lieutenant. Both of them rushed forward at a pace
rather undignified for a commander.

"Silence, aloft!" shouted the captain. "We have made her out. Mr.
Flint, you will take the deck, and call all hands without any
unnecessary noise."

This order was given to Giblock, the boatswain, and in a minute or
two every man on board was in
146
his station. The first lieutenant remained on the bridge, but the second
took his place in the waist, and the third forward, though this
arrangement of the officers was not sanctioned by ancient usage. Silence
was commanded, and the engine, working at half speed, made hardly any
noise. The captain had spoken to Sampson, the chief engineer, and he had
done his best to avoid all noise in his department.

The captain and the first lieutenant remained on the bridge,
anxiously sighting in the direction in which the sail had been reported
to be. As the captain had instructed the engineer to do, he had caused
the fires to be reduced and a change of fuel used so that the smokestack
of the Bronx was just beginning to send up volumes of black smoke. The
bunkers contained a small portion of soft coal for this purpose.

CHAPTER XIII

THE STEAMER IN THE FOG

The Bronx was slowly approaching the steamer in the fog, which
appeared to have stopped her propeller, and to be resting motionless on
the long swells, hardly disturbed by a breath of air. By this time the
smokestack of the Bronx was vomiting forth dense clouds of black smoke.
The steamers of the navy used anthracite coal, which burns without any
great volume of smoke, and blockade runners had already begun to lay in
whatever stock of it they were able to procure to be used as they
approached the coast where they were to steal through the national
fleet. The attention of the naval department of the United States had
already been given to this subject, and the first steps had been taken
to prevent the sale of this comparatively smokeless coal where it could
be obtained by the blockade runners.

Christy had been on the blockade; and he had
148
been in action with a steamer from the other side of the ocean; and he
knew that this black smoke of the soft coal, exclusively used by English
steamers, was a telltale in regard to such vessels. It had been an idea
of his own to take in a supply of this kind of fuel, for while its smoke
betrayed the character of vessels intending to run the blockade, the
absence of it betrayed the loyalty of the national steamers to the
blockade runners. It was a poor rule that would not work both ways, and
the commander of the Bronx had determined to adopt the scheme he had now
put in force on board of his vessel. Although the craft on the starboard
bow could hardly be distinguished in the fog, Christy had sent a trusty
seaman aloft to report on the color of the smoke that issued from her
funnel.

This man had reported by swinging his cap in the air, as the captain
had instructed him to do if he found that the smoke was that of soft
coal. If there was no black smoke, he was to return to the deck without
making any sign. The moment therefore that the man had been able to see
the quality of the smoke, the commander was made as wise as though he
had seen it himself. The information
149
left him no doubt that the steamer was intended to run the blockade; but
whether or not she was one of the expected pair, of course he could form
no opinion, for already this part of the ocean had begun to swarm with
vessels in this service.

"I am beginning to make her out a little better," said Flint, who had
been straining his eyes to the utmost capacity, as everybody else on
board was doing, to obtain the best and earliest information in regard
to the stranger on the starboard bow.

"What do you make out, Mr. Flint?" asked Christy, who was too busily
employed in watching the movements of the officers and seamen on his own
deck to give especial attention to the character of the other
steamer.

"I can't see well enough yet to say anything in regard to details,"
replied the first lieutenant. "I can only make out her form and size;
and she seems to be as nearly like the Bronx as one pea is like another,
though I should say that she was longer."

"Is she in motion?" asked the captain with interest.

"She appears to be at rest, though it is possible
150
that she is moving very slowly; but if she has not stopped her screw,
she is not going more than four knots."

"You say that she is built like the Bronx, Mr. Flint?" asked Christy
anxiously.

"Just like her; I should say that both hulls came out of the same
mould."

"That very nearly settles the question in my mind. Probably she was
designed by the same naval architect, and constructed by the same
builders, as the Bronx," replied Christy, gazing intently at the dim
outlines of the steamer in the fog. "When a designer has made a great
reputation for fast ships, men with piles of money, like the former
owners of the Bronx, the Scotian, and the Arran, employ him to furnish
the plans for their steam yachts. From what we have learned so far,
though it is very little indeed, I feel reasonably sure that this
steamer ahead of us is the Scotian or the Arran, and I don't care much
which it is. But why has she stopped her screw, or reduced her speed to
four knots?"

"That is a question that can only be answered an hour or two hence,
if ever," replied the first lieutenant.

151
"But it is a very important question all the same," added Christy.

"I doubt if the Bronx is making four knots at the present moment,"
said Flint, as he went to the end of the bridge, and looked down into
the water.

"In changing the fires in the furnaces, Mr. Sampson had been obliged
to clear them out in part, and that has reduced the pressure of steam;
but we shall soon have the usual head," said Christy, as he went to the
speaking tube and communicated with the chief engineer.

He was informed that his explanation was correct in regard to the
coal, and that in a very short time the boilers would have a full head
of steam. Christy spent the next few minutes in an earnest study of the
scarcely perceptible outline of the steamer in the fog. He was hardly
wiser when he had finished his examination than before. The hull and
lower masts of the vessel could be indistinctly made out, and that was
all. Sampson informed him that he had not been using all the steam he
had, and that the screw was hardly turning at all. He ordered him to
stop it entirely.

Impatient as he was to follow up the discovery
152
that had been made, he realized that it would be very imprudent to
expose his ship to possible danger when he had not steam enough to work
her to the best advantage. He could only wait; but he was satisfied that
he had done the best possible thing in changing the coal, for the black
smoke would effectually blind the officers of the other vessel. They
were not engaged in a chase, and the exciting question could be settled
a few hours hence as well as at the present time.

"If the steamer ahead is the Scotian or the Arran, as I fully believe
she is, probably her consort is somewhere in these waters," said the
commander.

"Probably she lost sight of her in this fog," added Flint. "But,
Captain Passford, we are in the face of something, though we do not yet
know precisely what. I suppose you have your eye on Mr. Lillyworth?"

"I have kept him in sight all the time. He is on the quarter deck
now, as he has been since all hands were called," replied Christy, who
had not failed to look at him for a full minute since the discovery of
the sail on the starboard. "He seems to be perplexed by the situation,
and his
153
time for action, if he intends to act, has not yet come."

"I don't see Pink Mulgrum anywhere about the deck."

"I saw him a few minutes since," added Christy. "He passed several
times quite near Mr. Lillyworth, and very likely something was said
between them; but they had no long talk."

Christy had charged Dave to watch Mulgrum if he went below, and to
follow him up closely; but the deaf mute had been on deck most of the
time. There was nothing that he could do, and nothing that the second
lieutenant could do, to embarrass the operations of the ship while she
remained at rest. The captain then descended to the deck, and personally
looked into the condition of everything. In the course of his round he
came to the quarter deck where the second lieutenant was stationed. He
could see that he was nervous and uneasy about something, and it was not
difficult to divine what perplexed him. He could hardly see the black
smoke from the funnel of the steamer in the fog, for his place on the
deck did not permit him to obtain as good a view of her as could be had
from the bridge, and especially from aloft.

154
"Do you make out what that vessel is, Captain Passford?" asked
Lillyworth, as Christy passed near him.

"Not yet, Mr. Lillyworth," replied the captain, not caring to
converse with the conspirator.

"The fog does not seem to be very dense, and I should think the
vessel might be made out from aloft," added the second lieutenant,
evidently very anxious to know more about the sail ahead.

"Not very clearly," replied Christy, as he went forward to the engine
hatch.

He descended to the engine room, and while he was listening to the
roar of the flames in the furnaces, so different from the action of
anthracite coal, Sampson came up from the fire room.

"We shall have a sufficient head of steam in a few minutes to justify
you in going ahead, Captain Passford," said the engineer without waiting
to be questioned.

"I am glad to hear it, though we are in no special hurry at present,
in spite of our impatience to know what is before us," replied the
captain. "Do you know the man who passes under the name of Mulgrum, Mr.
Sampson?"

"You mean Pink, the deaf mute? Mr. Nawood
155
pointed him out to me, and I have seen him about the deck or in the
steerage several times."

"Has he been in the engine room at any time since we sailed?" asked
Christy.

"He may have been; but I have not noticed him anywhere in my
department," replied Sampson.

"You will not allow him in the engine or fire room," continued the
captain. "Send him out, drive him out, if necessary, at once."

"Being deaf and dumb, I should suppose he were harmless wherever he
happened to be. Is he—"

"Never mind what he is just now, Mr. Sampson," interposed Christy.
"Be very particular to obey my order in regard to him to the letter;
that's all now. Inform me at once when you are ready to go ahead, and I
shall be on the bridge."

The order which Christy had just given to the engineer was the result
of his reflection since he came down from the bridge. He had been
cudgelling his brains to determine what the conspirators could possibly
do when the decisive moment came, if it should happen to come as he
neared the steamer in the fog, to derange the operations on board. It
seemed to him before that all they
156
could do was to leap on board of the enemy, if it came to boarding her,
and reinforce her crew. He had talked over this matter with Flint and
Baskirk, and there were three who would be ready to shoot either of them
the instant their treachery should be apparent.

Before it would be possible to board, a man as intelligent as
Mulgrum, who had served as executive officer, could easily disable the
engine. This idea had but just come to the commander, who thought before
that he had closed every opening against the conspirators. He went on
deck as soon as he had settled this matter. The fog seemed to be rather
more dense than before, and when he went on the bridge, it was reported
that the stranger could no longer be made out.

"I have just received the roster of the 'Bronx Association,'" said
Flint, as the captain joined him. "It is signed by every man on board,
including the supernumeraries forward, except Spoors, Blocker, Veering,
Packer, Pickford, and Runyon. I inquired why these men would not join,
but could not learn that they had any reason except that they did not
wish to be members. I have seen Mr. Lillyworth talking to all of these
157
men, and I think we can be certain now who is white and who is
black."

"On the bridge!" came from the speaking tube, at this moment, and the
captain was near enough to hear it. Mr. Sampson reported that he had
steam enough to make at least ten knots an hour.

The commander then instructed the first lieutenant to see that both
divisions of boarders were armed with cutlass and revolver, in readiness
for action. The second lieutenant was to attend to the working of the
broadside guns, Mr. Baskirk was to lead the first division of boarders,
and Mr. Giblock, the boatswain, the second. Flint went below to the deck
to execute his orders, and the captain ordered the quartermaster to ring
one bell.

CHAPTER XIV

THE CONFEDERATE STEAMER SCOTIAN

One bell sounded on the gong in the engine room, and the Bronx began
to go ahead. Christy felt that the most tremendous hour of his lifetime
had come, and he struggled to keep down the excitement which agitated
him; and he succeeded so far that he appeared to be the coolest man on
board of the ship. When Flint came in the vicinity of the bridge, he
called to him to join him. The men were procuring their revolvers and
cutlasses, and he had a moment to spare. The captain instructed him to
conceal the boarders so that they could not be seen on board the steamer
in the fog when the Bronx came up with her. He added some other details
to his orders.

"If possible, I wish you to keep as near Lillyworth as you can,"
continued Christy, "for I shall not have the opportunity to watch him.
This war cannot be conducted on peace principles, and if
159
that man attempts to defeat my orders in any manner, don't hesitate to
put a ball from your revolver through his heart. Use reasonable care,
Mr. Flint, but bear in mind that I am not to be defeated in the capture
of that steamer, if she proves to be what I suppose she is, by the
treachery of one who accepted a position as an officer on board of the
Bronx." The commander was firm and decided in his manner, and Flint had
served with him enough to know that he meant what he said.

"I will obey your orders to the letter, Captain Passford, using all
reasonable precautions in the discharge of my duty," replied Flint. "Mr.
Lillyworth was in a state of mutiny just now, and spoke to me."

"What did he say?"

"He declared that he was second lieutenant of the ship, and it was
his right to command the first division of boarders. He wouldn't stand
it. I told him he was to be in command of the guns. He insisted that you
did not intend to fire a gun if you could help it. I replied that we
should not board the vessel either if we could help it. But I had no
time to argue with him, and referred
160
him to the captain. Then he moved towards the ladder of the bridge, and
I forbade him to leave his station. That is the whole of it. I have seen
him speak to each of the six men we now know to be his friends, to say
nothing of Mulgrum. I left him then."

"All right so far, Mr. Flint. Return to the deck, if you please, and
be sure that the boarders are kept out of sight from this moment," added
Christy. "Quartermaster, ring four bells," he added, turning to the
pilot house.

"Four bells, sir," repeated McSpindle, who was at the wheel.

The Bronx soon began to feel the effect of this order, and the smoke
poured out in increased volume from the smokestack, affected by the
stronger draught produced by the additional speed.

"On the topsail yard!" called the captain, directing his speaking
trumpet aloft.

"On the bridge, sir!" replied the man.

"Can you make out the steamer?"

"No, sir; only her topmasts and fore rigging."

"How does she lie from the Bronx?"

"Still on the starboard bow, sir."

"Port the helm, quartermaster," added the captain.

161
"Port, sir," replied McSpindle.

For about five minutes more, the Bronx went ahead at full speed, and
Christy was confident that she was again making fifteen knots.

"On the bridge, sir!" called the man on the fore yard.

"Aloft!"

"I make her out now; she has the Confederate flag at the peak."

"All right!" exclaimed Christy to himself, though he spoke out
loud.

The steamer had set her colors, and there was no longer any doubt in
regard to her character. The flag also indicated that she was not a
blockade runner in the ordinary sense of the word, but a Confederate
man-of-war. Warnock reported that she had taken her armament on board
from another vessel at some point south of England, and the colors also
assured Christy that the steamer was one of the pair expected.

Still the Bronx went ahead at full speed, and presently a gun was
heard from the direction in which she lay, though the captain was unable
to decide what it meant. It might be a signal of distress, but the man
on the yard had not reported
162
the colors as union down; and it might be simply a defiance. It was
probable that the Scotian and Arran had put in at St. George, and it was
more than possible that they had shipped a reinforcement to her reported
small crew.

"Aloft!" called the captain again.

"On the bridge, sir!" replied the lookout.

"Is the steamer under way?"

"I think not, sir; but I can't make out her wake, it is
so low."

"Starboard a little, quartermaster."

"Starboard, sir."

Christy heard, or thought he heard, for he was not sure about it, the
sound of a bell. A minute later the quartermaster in the pilot house
struck seven bells, which was repeated on the top-gallant forecastle of
the Bronx, and he was confident this was what he had heard on board of
the stranger.

"Quartermaster, strike one bell," he added.

"One bell, sir;" and the gong resounded from the engine room, and the
speed of the Bronx was immediately reduced.

A minute later Christy obtained a full view of the steamer. She was
headed to the southwest, and her propeller was not in motion. As the
163
lookout had reported, she was the counterpart of the Bronx, though she
was a larger vessel. He gave some further orders to the quartermaster at
the wheel, for he had decided to board the steamer on her port side. The
boarders had been concealed in proper places under this arrangement, and
the captain had directed the course of the Bronx so that a shot from her
could hardly do any harm, if she took it into her head to
fire one.

"Arran, ahoy!" shouted a hoarse voice through a speaking trumpet from
the steamer.

"On board the Scotian!" replied Christy through his trumpet.

After the vessel had hailed the Arran, the captain had no difficulty
in deciding that the other craft was the Scotian; and he was especially
glad that the officer of that vessel had hailed him in this particular
form. The single word spoken through that trumpet was the key to the
entire enigma. Every possible doubt was removed by it. He was now
assured, as he had not been before, that he had fallen in with one of
the two vessels of which his father had given him information, and which
his sealed orders required him to seek, even if he was detained a week
or more.
164
Christy spent no time in congratulating himself on the situation, but
the tremendous idea passed through his whole being in an instant.

"We are disabled!" shouted the officer on board of the Scotian
through his trumpet. "Please send your engineer on board."

"All right!" replied Christy. "Go ahead a little faster, Mr. Sampson.
We are very near the steamer."

The young commander cast his eyes over the deck of his vessel to
assure himself that everything was ready for the important moment,
though the situation did not indicate that a very sharp battle was to be
fought. Everything was in order, and the first lieutenant was planking
the deck, looking as though he felt quite at home, for he was as cool as
a Jersey cucumber. Farther aft was Lillyworth, as uneasy as a caged
tiger, for no doubt he realized that the Scotian was to fall a victim to
the circumstances that beset her, rather than as the result of a
spirited chase or a sharply fought battle. He looked about him for a
moment, and the instant he turned his head, Mulgrum came out from behind
the mast, and passed quite near him.

165
The captain could not tell whether the second lieutenant had spoken to
the deaf mute or not, but the latter hastened to the engine hatch, and
descended to the engine room. The Bronx was within less than a cable's
length of the Scotian, whose name could now be read on her stern, when
Mulgrum, apparently ordered by Lillyworth to do so, had hastened to the
engine hatch. Even on the bridge the noise of a scuffle could be heard
in the engine room, and the captain was sure that Sampson had been
obedient to his orders. Another minute or two would determine in what
manner the Scotian was to be captured, and Christy hastened down the
ladder to the deck.

As soon as his foot pressed the planks, he hastened to the engine
hatch. Calling to the engineer, he learned that the deaf mute had been
knocked senseless by Sampson, and lay on the sofa. He waited to hear no
more, but went forward where there were bell pulls on the deck, and rang
two bells to stop her. Then he gave some orders to the quartermaster,
and rang three bells to back her. The Bronx came alongside of the
Scotian as handsomely as though she had been a river steamer making one
of her usual landings.
166
The hands who had been stationed for the purpose immediately used their
grappling irons, and the two vessels were fast to each other.

"Boarders!—" the first lieutenant shouted at a sign from the
captain; but before he could complete the order, Pawcett, for we may now
call him by his right name, leaped on the bulwarks of the Bronx.

"This is a United States"—he began to say, but he was allowed
to proceed no farther, for the first lieutenant raised the revolver he
carried in his left hand, doubtless for this very purpose, and
fired.

Pawcett did not utter another word, but fell back upon the deck of
the Bronx; where no one took any further notice of him.

"Boarders, away!" shouted the first lieutenant.

This time the sentence was finished, and the order was promptly
executed. Hardly a half minute had been lost by the attempt of Pawcett
to prepare the officers of the Scotian to do their duty; but he had said
enough to enable the ship's company to understand what he would have
said if he had finished his announcement. The officers and seamen were
both surprised, and there was a
167
panic among the latter, though the former rallied them in a moment. But
they had lost all their chances, and after an insignificant struggle,
the deck of the steamer was in possession of the boarders. The crew were
driven forward by the victorious "Bronxies" as Giblock called them. "Do
you surrender?" said Mr. Baskirk to the officer he took for the
captain.

"I do not see that I have any other alternative," replied the
commander of the Scotian, politely enough, but it was evident that he
was sorely afflicted, and even ashamed of himself. "I understand now
that I am the victim of a Yankee trick."

"Allow me to introduce you to Captain Passford, commander of the
United States steamer Bronx," continued Mr. Baskirk, as Christy came on
board of the prize.

The captain of the Scotian retreated a pace as Christy stepped up in
front of him, and gracefully lifted his cap to the unfortunate
commander.

"I beg your pardon, sir, but did I understand you to say that this
young gentleman is the commander of the steamer alongside?" demanded the
captain, looking at Christy from head to foot.

168
"He is the commander, sir; Captain Passford," added Baskirk.

"May I be allowed to ask whom I have the honor to address?" Christy
began, lifting his cap again, as did the other also.

"Captain Dinsmore, at your service."

"I sincerely regret your personal misfortune while I rejoice at the
result of this action, as a loyal citizen of the United States," replied
Christy.

Then he invited the captain to his cabin.

CHAPTER XV

THE SCOTIAN BECOMES THE OCKLOCKONEE

As he went to the deck of the Bronx, the young commander sent the
first lieutenant on board of the prize to superintend the arrangements
for disposing of the ship's company. Captain Dinsmore was requested to
produce his papers, and Christy conducted him to his cabin. As his
father had advised him always to be on such occasions, he was studiously
polite, as in fact he was at all times. Whether the other captain was
usually so or not, he was certainly courteous in every respect, though,
with the heavy misfortune which had befallen him, it was vastly more
difficult for him to control his feelings, and conduct himself in a
gentlemanly manner. Captain Passford desired to understand in what
capacity the Scotian was approaching the American coast before he made
his final arrangements. After giving his guest, as he regarded him, or
rather treated him,
170
a chair in his cabin, Christy called Dave, who had followed him
below.

"Will you excuse me a moment or two while I attend to a necessary
duty?" said he, turning to Captain Dinsmore, as he seated himself at the
table.

"Certainly, captain; I am not so much in a hurry as I have been at
other times," replied the other with a rather sickly smile.

"Keep a sharp lookout for the Arran," Christy wrote on a piece of
paper, and handed it to the steward. "Give that to Mr. Flint."

Captain Passford had observed when he visited the deck of the Scotian
that she was well armed, and he had no doubt that her consort was
similarly provided for the business of war. It was therefore of the
highest importance that the Arran should not come unexpectedly upon the
Bronx at a time when she was hardly in condition to meet an enemy.

"Now, Captain Dinsmore, may I trouble you for your papers?" he
continued, turning to his guest, as he preferred to regard him.

"I admit your right to examine them under present circumstances,"
replied Captain Dinsmore, as he delivered the package to him.

171
"Perhaps we may simplify and abbreviate this examination to some extent,
sir, if you are so disposed," added Christy, as he looked the other full
in the face.

"I shall be happy to have you do so, Captain Passford," replied the
visitor in the cabin, with something like eagerness in his manner. "You
conduct yourself like a gentleman, sir, and I am not at all disposed to
embarrass you unnecessarily."

"Thank you, sir; I appreciate your courtesy."

"I am afraid it is not so much courtesy as it is desperation, for if
I should act in accordance with my feelings, I should blow my brains out
without any delay," said Captain Dinsmore. "I should not say as much as
this to any but a generous enemy; but I feel that I am ruined, and that
there is nothing more in the future for me."

Christy really sympathized with him, and could not help thinking how
he should feel if the situations were reversed. He realized that the
commander of the Scotian had been very careless in the discharge of his
duty in permitting any vessel to come alongside of her without
considering that she might be an enemy. This inefficiency was doubtless
the cause of his distress. Christy had
172
kept uppermost in his mind the advice of his father at the last moment
before he sailed, and he asked himself if, while the prisoner was thus
exciting his sympathy and compassion, the latter was not expecting the
Arran would appear and reverse the fortunes of war.

"I am sorry you take such a severe view of your situation," added the
captain of the Bronx. "But my first duty is to ascertain the character
of the vessel which you surrender."

"You shall have no doubt in regard to that, Captain Passford,"
answered the commander of the Scotian, proudly. "I am not a dickering
merchant, trying to make money out of the situation of my country. The
Scotian, as you call her, is the Confederate steamer Ocklockonee, and
here is my commission as a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy," he added
as he took the document from his pocket and tendered it to his
captor.

Christy looked at the paper, and then examined the other papers in
the packet. They left no doubt in his mind as to the character of the
Ocklockonee, if he had had any before. He folded up the commission and
politely returned it to the owner. The examination was completed so far
as he was
173
concerned; but Captain Dinsmore did not seem to be satisfied, though he
made no complaint that anything was wrong in the proceedings. He was
evidently a very proud and high-strung man, and appeared to be unable to
reconcile himself to the situation.

"I am a ruined man!" he exclaimed several times; and when he looked
at the commander of the Bronx, measuring him from head to foot, as he
had already done several times, it seemed to increase his distress of
mind, and make him more nervous than before.

"While I regret that a brave man like yourself, captain, should be at
war with the government which I honor and love, I hope that personally
your future will be as bright as I am sure your merit deserves," said
Christy.

"If it had been a square and well-fought action, I should not feel as
I do about it. You will pardon me, and understand that I mean no
disrespect to you, captain, but I look upon myself as the victim of a
Yankee trick," said Captain Dinsmore, bitterly. "But please to consider
that I do not charge any blame or treachery upon you, sir."

"I think I can understand your feelings, sir;
174
but I cannot see that in resorting to strategy to save my men, my
conduct has been in any manner dishonorable," replied Christy, holding
his head a little higher than usual. "I should hold that I had been
guilty of misconduct if I had failed to take advantage of the
circumstances under which I have captured the Ocklockonee."

"I quite agree with you, Captain Passford. I should have done the
same thing myself if the opportunity had been presented to me," the
guest hastened to say. "But that does not in the least degree relieve me
from the consequences of my own negligence. When you are more at
leisure, I hope you will permit me to make an explanation of the
situation in which I was placed."

"I shall be happy to listen to anything you may desire to say to me
when I have the leisure to hear you."

"Thank you, sir."

Christy hastened on deck to attend to the many duties required of
him. The first sight that presented itself when he reached the head of
the companion way was the form of the second lieutenant, which remained
as it had fallen from the rail. He sent for Dr. Spokely, and directed
him
175
to ascertain whether or not Pawcett was dead. While the surgeon was
examining him, Mr. Sampson came up from below with a bolt in his hand,
and touched his cap to the commander.

"You are at work on the engine of the Ocklockonee, are you?" asked
Christy, and this inquiry was one of the duties which had been on his
mind before he left the cabin.

"Yes, sir; and I have already examined her engine; I suppose you mean
the Scotian, for that is the name on her stern, they tell me," replied
the chief engineer.

"Her new name is the Ocklockonee."

"I have examined the engine," replied Sampson.

"Is the damage very serious?" asked the captain anxiously.

"Far from it; she has broken a bolt which disables her, and she ought
to have had one to replace it without more than five minutes' delay, but
it appears that they have not one on board; at least none could be found
when it was wanted, and they were at work forging one when the Bronx
came alongside."

"All right; repair the damage as soon as possible. I heard a scuffle
in the engine room just as
176
we were running alongside the Ocklockonee," said the captain, looking
inquiringly at the engineer.

"Yes, sir; there was a scuffle there. Pink Mulgrum was rushing down
the ladder when I stopped him. He tried to push by me when I made signs
to him to return to the deck. Then he gave a spring at my throat, and as
I saw that he had a revolver in his hand, I did not hesitate to hit him
on the head with a bar of iron I had in my hand. He dropped on the deck.
I put his revolver in my pocket, and stretched him out on the sofa. He
did not move, and I left him there."

"I will send the surgeon to him," added the captain, as he went on
board of the prize, followed by Sampson.

The first lieutenant had been busy on the deck of the vessel, but he
had been able to accomplish but little in the absence of definite
instructions from the captain. All the seamen were held in the forward
part of the deck, and there were twenty-four of them, including the
petty officers, but not the stokers, as the firemen were called. The
engineers and all connected with their department remained below so far
as could be learned. Two officers remained seated on the quarter deck;
177
but they did not appear to be so thoroughly cast down as the captain,
doubtless because they were not called upon to bear the responsibility
of the capture.

"Have you set a sharp lookout, Mr. Flint?" asked the captain.

"The lookout remains the same on board of the Bronx, though I have
cautioned the quartermaster on the fore yard to keep his eyes wide open;
and I have stationed four men on board of the Scotian."

"Very well; we are all right so far; but if the other vessel is as
well armed as this one she is capable of giving us a great deal of
trouble," replied the captain.

"I only hope we may find her," added Flint heartily.

"We shall look for her at any rate. But we must get things regulated
on board of both vessels at once, for I judge that the Arran cannot be
far off, for the officers hailed us as the Arran when we were
approaching, which shows that they were confident in regard to her
identity, or they would not have given themselves away so readily."

"We have made a lucky hit, and I hope we
178
shall be able to reap the full benefit of it," added Flint.

"We must provide for the immediate future without any delay,"
continued Christy. "Our first duty will be to search for the Arran, and
we can use the Ocklockonee, which the captain says is her present name,
to assist in the chase, for we have force enough to man both vessels,
though we are not oversupplied with officers."

"There are two more quartermasters who are nearly as good men as
Baskirk," replied the first lieutenant.

"I ask no better officer than Baskirk has proved himself to be. I
shall retain him on board of the Bronx, and for the present I shall ask
you to take command of the Ocklockonee; and you may select your own
officers. The probability is that, if we find the Arran, we shall have a
fight with her."

"Then I shall make McSpindle my first lieutenant, and Luffard my
second," added Flint, evidently pleased with the idea of having even a
temporary command.

"I shall appoint Baskirk in your place on board of the Bronx; but I
need one more."

179
"I recommend Amblen, though he is not as well qualified as the others I
have named."

"Send for these men at once," added the captain.

One of them was on the topsail yard of the Bronx, but all of them
soon appeared in the waist of the prize. They were informed of the honor
which had been conferred upon them, and were immediately assigned to
duty. The crew of the Ocklockonee were divided between the two steamers,
and were put under guard below.

CHAPTER XVI

CAPTAIN PASSFORD'S FINAL ORDERS

A tolerable state of order and regularity had been brought out of the
confusion that prevailed on board of the Ocklockonee, and the newly
appointed officers went to the stations where they belonged. Sampson
reported the engine of the steamer as in good order, and ready for
service.

"Who is the chief engineer of the Ocklockonee, Mr. Sampson?" asked
Captain Passford, after he had listened to the report.

"His name is Bockburn; he is a Scotchman, and appears to be a very
good fellow," replied the engineer of the Bronx.

"Does he talk at all about what has just happened on board of his
steamer?" asked the captain, deeply interested, for he had some
difficulty in arranging the engineer's department on board of the prize,
as he considered the new order of things.

181
"Yes, sir; he talks at the rate of twenty knots an hour, and if his
steamer can get ahead as well as his tongue, she is a fast one," replied
Sampson, laughing.

"Well, what does he say? I want to know how he stands affected by the
present condition of affairs," continued the captain rather impatiently,
for he was too busy to enjoy the humor of the engineer.

"He is a thrifty Scotchman; and I don't believe he has any interest
in anything under the sun except his wages; and he is a little sour on
that account to find that his cruise is finished, as he
puts it."

"Send for him and his assistants, Mr. Sampson."

The engineer went to the engine hatch, and called the men below.

"Now send for Mr. Gawl," added the captain. "He is your first
assistant; is he a competent man to run an engine?"

"As competent as I am myself; and the engine of this steamer is
exactly like that of the Bronx, so that he can have no trouble with it,
if you think of retaining him on board of the Ocklockonee," replied
Sampson.

182
"I propose to make him chief engineer of her."

"You could not find a better man," said Sampson, as he went to summon
Gawl.

The three engineers of the prize came on deck, and the captain took
the chief aside.

"Mr. Bockburn, I believe, the chief engineer of the Ocklockonee?"
said Christy.

"Of the Scotian, sir; for I know nothing of the jaw-cracking names
that the officers in the cabin have given her," replied the engineer,
shrugging his shoulders, and presenting a dissatisfied air.

"Are you an engineer in the Confederate Navy, sir?" asked Christy,
bringing the business to a head at once.

"No, sir, I am not," answered the engineer very decidedly. "You see,
captain, that the Scotian was sold to come across the water, and I was
out of a job, with a family to support. They did not say anything about
the service in which the Scotian was to be engaged, but I understood it.
When they spoke to me about it, I was glad to keep my place as long as
she did not make war on the United Kingdom. In truth, I may say that I
did not care a fig about the quarrel in the States, and was as ready to
run an engine on one side as
183
the other as long as I got my wages, and was able to support my family
handsomely, as, thank God, I have always done. I am not a student of
politics, and I only read enough in the newspapers to know what is going
on in the world. I always find that I get ahead better when I mind my
own business, and it can't be said that Andy Bockburn ever—"

"Precisely so, Mr. Bockburn; but I will hear the rest of your story
at another time," interposed the captain when he found that the man was
faithful to the description Sampson had given of his talking powers.

"You understand perfectly what has transpired on board of the Scotian
as you choose still to call her; in a word, that she is a prize to the
United States steamer Bronx?"

"I understand it all as clearly as though I read it in a book; and it
was all on account of the want of a bolt that I was sure I put on board
of the vessel before she sailed; and I am just as sure of it now as I
ever was. But then, you see, captain, a man can't always be sure of the
men under him, though he may be sure of himself. I have no
doubt—"

184
"Short yarns, if you please, Mr. Bockburn. You understand the situation,
and I will add that I intend to use this vessel as well as the Bronx in
the service of my government. Are you willing to do duty on board of her
in any capacity in which I may place you in the engineer department,
provided you receive the same wages as before?"

"I am, sir; and I was paid a month in advance, so that I shall not
lose anything," chuckled the careful Scotchman.

"If you are regularly appointed, though I can only give you a
temporary position, in addition to your wages, you will be entitled to
your share in any prize we may hereafter capture."

"Then I will take any position you will please to give me," answered
the engineer, apparently delighted with the prospect thus held out
to him.

"I shall appoint you first assistant engineer of the Bronx,"
continued the captain, not a little to the astonishment of Flint, who
wondered that he was not assigned to the Ocklockonee.

"I am quite satisfied, captain," replied Bockburn, bowing and
smiling, for wages were more
185
than rank to him. "I will bring up my kit at once, sir. You see,
captain, when a man has a family he—"

"Precisely as you say, Mr. Bockburn," interrupted the captain. "You
will report to Mr. Sampson in the engine room of the Bronx for further
orders."

"Thank you, sir; I supposed I was out of a job from this out, and I
was feeling—"

"Feel your way to the engine room of the Bronx. Mr. Gawl," the
captain proceeded.

"On duty, sir," replied the first assistant engineer of the Bronx,
touching his cap as respectfully as though the commander had been forty
years old.

"You are appointed temporarily as chief engineer of the Ocklockonee,
and you will take your place in the engine room as soon as possible,"
said the captain, as brusquely as though favors cost nothing.

Mr. Gawl was taken to the engine room and introduced to the first and
second assistants, Rowe and Leeds, and was kindly received by them, for,
like their late chief, the question of wages was the only one that
affected them. They promised to be faithful to the government they were
to serve,
186
and to discharge their duties faithfully under the direction of the new
chief. The two officers on the quarter deck had watched all these
proceedings with interest. They were the only persons remaining on board
who had not been disposed of in some manner.

Christy approached them while Captain Flint, as he was now to be
called by courtesy, was making his final arrangements with the crew that
had been assigned to the prize. Both of the officers bowed civilly to
the commander as he presented himself on the quarter deck. They were
older men than Captain Dinsmore, though neither was over forty-five.
Christy suspected that they were not Confederate officers as soon as he
had a chance to look them over.

"May I ask, gentlemen, if you are officers of the Confederate Navy?"
asked Christy, as he looked from one to the other of the men.

"We are not, sir," replied the senior of them.

"Of course you are aware that you are serving in a Confederate
man-of-war?" added Christy.

"I should say that was hardly true up to date. The captain holds a
commission in the Confederate Navy, but the ship has never been into a
Confederate
187
port, Captain Passford," replied the senior, who had learned the
commander's name.

"As you call me by name, perhaps you will enable me to do as much
with you," added Christy.

"My name is Farley Lippard; I shipped as first officer of the
Scotian," replied the senior.

"And mine is Edward Sangston; and I shipped as second officer of the
steamer."

"We shipped only for the voyage, and were told that we could not
retain our situations after the ship's company was fully organized,"
added Mr. Lippard.

"Then I hope you were paid in advance, as the engineers were," said
Christy with a smile.

"We were, sir, thank you," added the first officer. "Though we were
told that we could not obtain any rank in the navy because there were
more officers than ships, the agent said we should find plenty of
employment on board of blockade runners coming out with cotton."

"I suppose you are Englishmen?" said the captain.

"Scotchmen, sir, but British subjects."

"I cannot put you on shore and I may not have
188
an opportunity to ship you to your homes by another vessel. I shall
leave you on board of the Ocklockonee, and the acting commander will
assign to you such quarters in the cabin as may be at his command,"
continued Christy. "It is only necessary that I should say I expect you
to remain neutral, whatever occurs on board of the steamer."

"That is understood," replied Mr. Lippard.

"You will be regarded as passengers; but of course if you commit any
act hostile to the government of the United States, you will be
considered as enemies, and treated as prisoners of war," Christy
proceeded. "I hope the situation is clearly understood."

"Certainly, sir; we have no interest in the quarrel in the States,
and we are not in the pay of the Confederacy, as they call it," replied
Mr. Lippard.

"Then there will be no trouble. Captain Flint," called the
commander.

Flint, who had been very busy appointing petty officers and
organizing the new crew, came at the call and was introduced to the late
officers of the prize. The understanding which had just been reached in
regard to them was repeated for
189
the benefit of the new captain. He was quite as pliable as his superior
had always been, and there was no indication that any friction would
result from their presence on board of the prize, now temporarily put
into the service of the navy.

"Have you made all your arrangements, Captain Flint?" asked Christy
when he was all ready to return to the Bronx.

"I have very nearly completed them, Captain Passford; and I can
easily finish them after we get under way," replied Flint. "All I need
before we part is my orders."

"From all that I can learn, the Arran must be to the eastward of the
Ocklockonee," said Christy, who had given this subject all the thought
his time would permit. "The officers of the prize hailed the Bronx
coming from that direction, and that indicates that she was expected
from that quarter. Our coming from that way seems to have made Captain
Dinsmore confident that the Bronx was the Arran. I shall lay the course
of my ship to the northeast, while you will proceed to the southwest.
After you have gone fifty miles in that direction, you will make a
course due east, as I shall also after I have made the same distance.
Having run
190
due east twenty miles, you will run to the northeast, as I shall to the
southwest. If you discover the Arran fire your midship gun, and I will
do the same."

Christy shook hands with Flint, and went on board of the Bronx. The
order was given on board of both vessels to cast off the grapnels; the
gong bell sounded in each engine room, and both vessels went ahead, the
Bronx coming about to her new course.

CHAPTER XVII

A COUPLE OF ASTONISHED CONSPIRATORS

The fog had been very variable in its density, and had been lifting
and settling at times during the day of the capture. By the time the two
vessels were ready to get under way, it had become more solid than
before. The night had come, and the darkness with it, at about the same
time. The lookouts were still in their places; but so far as seeing
anything was concerned they might as well have been in the hold. If the
Arran was still in the vicinity, as no doubt she was, the Bronx might
run into her. Wherever she was, it was well assured that her officers
knew nothing of the capture of the Ocklockonee, for not a great gun had
been discharged, and the combat had been so quickly decided that there
had been very little noise of any kind.

Everything worked without friction on board of the Bronx; and Captain
Passford felt even
192
more elastic than usual. Doubtless the capture he had just made afforded
him a good deal of inspiration; but the fact that the mystery of the
deaf mute and the second lieutenant had been solved, and the
unfathomable catastrophe which their presence on board threatened had
been escaped was a great source of relief.

The two conspirators were disabled and confined to the sick bay, and
they were not likely to make any trouble at present. If they had had any
definite plan on which they intended to act, they had certainly lost
their opportunities, for the visit of Hungerford to the engine room of
the Bronx, no doubt for the purpose of disabling the machinery, and the
effort of Pawcett to warn the officers of the prize, had been simply
acts of desperation, adopted after they had evidently failed in every
other direction.

Pawcett was not really a loyal officer, and his expression and
manners had attracted the attention of both the captain and the first
lieutenant. The deaf mute had been brought on board in order to obtain
information, and he had been very diligent in carrying out his part of
the programme. As Christy thought the matter over, seated at his
193
supper in his cabin, he thought he owed more to the advice of his father
at their parting than to anything else. He had kept his own counsel in
spite of the difficulties, and had done more to blind the actors in the
conspiracy than to enlighten them. He had hoped before he parted with
the prize for the present to obtain some information in regard to the
Arran; but he had too much self-respect to ask the officers of the
Ocklockonee in regard to such matters.

The seamen who had been spotted as adherents of the late second
lieutenant had done nothing, for there had been nothing that they could
do under the circumstances. Spoors and two others of them had been
drafted into the other vessel, while the other three remained on board
of the Bronx. They were not regarded as very dangerous enemies, and they
were not in condition to undertake anything in the absence of their
leaders.

Christy had inquired in regard to the condition of Pawcett and
Hungerford before he went to his cabin, and Dr. Spokeley informed him
that neither of them would be in condition to do duty on either side for
a considerable period. They were in no
194
danger under careful treatment, but both of them were too seriously
injured to trouble their heads with any exciting subjects.

"Good evening, Captain Dinsmore," Christy said, when he went into his
cabin, after he had attended to all the duties that required present
attention. "I hope you are feeling better this evening."

"Hardly better, Captain Passford, though I am trying to reconcile
myself to my situation," replied the late captain of the
Ocklockonee.

"Supper is all ready, sir," interposed Dave, as he passed by the
captain, after he had brought in the dishes from the galley.

"Take a seat at the table, Captain Dinsmore," continued Christy,
placing a chair for him, and looking over the table to see what cheer he
had to offer to his guest.

It looked as though the cook, aware that the commander had a guest,
or thinking that he deserved a better supper than usual after the
capture of a prize, had done his best in honor of the occasion. The
broiled chickens looked especially inviting, and other dishes were quite
tempting to a man who was two hours late at the meal.

195
"Thank you, captain," replied the guest, as he took the seat assigned to
him. "I can't say that I have a very fierce appetite after the
misfortune that has befallen me; but I am none the less indebted to you
for your courtesy and kindness."

"I acknowledge that I am in condition to be very happy this evening,
Captain Dinsmore, and I can hardly expect to be an agreeable companion
to one with a burden on his mind; but I can assure you of my personal
sympathy."

"You are very kind, captain. I should like to ask if many of the
officers of the old navy are young gentlemen like yourself?" inquired
the guest, looking at his host very curiously.

"There are a great many young officers in the navy at the present
time, for the exigency has pushed forward the older ones, and there are
not enough of them to take all the positions. But we shall all of us
grow older," replied Christy good-naturedly, as he helped the officer to
a piece of the chicken, which had just come from the galley fire.

"Perhaps you are older than you appear to be," suggested the guest.
"I should judge that you were not over twenty, or at least not much
more."

196
"I am eighteen, sir, though, unlike a lady, I try to make myself as old
as I can."

"Eighteen!" exclaimed Captain Dinsmore.

But Christy told something of his experience on board of the
Bellevite which had prepared him for his duties, and his case was rather
exceptional.

"You have physique enough for a man of twenty-five," added the guest.
"And you have been more fortunate than I have."

"And I have been as unfortunate as you are, for I have seen the
inside of a Confederate prison, though I concluded not to remain there
for any length of time," added Christy, laughing.

"You are a fortunate young man, and I do not belong to that class,"
said Captain Dinsmore, shaking his head. "I have lost my steamer, and I
suppose that will finish my career."

"Perhaps not;" but Christy was satisfied that he had lost his vessel
by a want of care, and he could not waste any compliments upon him,
though he had profited by the other's carelessness.

"I was confident when the Bronx approached the Ocklockonee that she
was another vessel," continued the guest.

"What vessel did you take her to be?"

197
"You will excuse me if I decline to go into particulars. I can only say
that I was sure your steamer was another, and I had no suspicion that I
was wrong till that man mounted the rail of the Bronx, and began to tell
us to the contrary," replied Captain Dinsmore. "A bolt in the engine was
broken, and the engineer could not find another on board. We expected to
obtain one when the Bronx approached us. I was deceived; and that is the
reason why I am here instead of in the cabin of my own ship."

The guest seemed to feel a little better after he had made this
explanation, though it contained nothing new to the commander of the
Bronx. Possibly the excellent supper, of which he had partaken heartily
in spite of his want of appetite, had influenced his mind through the
body. He had certainly become more cheerful, though his burden was no
lighter than when he came on board of the Bronx. Christy was also
light-hearted, not alone because he had been so successful, but because
he felt that he was no longer compelled to watch the conspirators.

"I am sorry to be obliged to impose any restrictions upon you,
Captain Dinsmore," said Christy,
198
as he rose from the supper table. "The circumstances compel me to
request you to remain in my cabin."

"Of course I am subject to your will and pleasure, Captain Passford,"
replied the guest.

"You are a gentleman, sir, and if you will simply give me your word
to remain here, there will be no occasion for any unpleasantness. It is
possible that we may go into action at any time; and in that case you
can remain where you please below."

"I give you my word that I will remain below until I notify you of my
intention to do otherwise," replied the prisoner, though Christy
preferred to regard him as his guest.

"I am entirely satisfied. I shall be obliged to berth you in the ward
room, and you are at liberty to pass your time as you please in these
two apartments. I shall be happy to introduce you to the first
lieutenant," added the captain, as he led the way to the ward room.

Mr. Baskirk received the prisoner very politely, a berth was assigned
to him, and Christy went on deck. It was as dark as Egypt there, but Mr.
Amblen, the new acting second lieutenant,
199
on the bridge, said the wind was hauling to the westward, and he thought
there would be a change of weather before morning. Mr. Baskirk had made
all his appointments of petty officers rendered necessary by sending a
portion of the seamen to the Ocklockonee. Everything was in good order
on deck, and Christy next went down to the sick bay, where Hungerford
and Pawcett were the only occupants. He found Dr. Spokeley there, and
inquired in regard to the condition of the wounded men. The surgeon
described the wounds of his patients, and pointed them out to the
captain.

"Does Mr. Hungerford talk any now?" asked Christy.

"Who is Mr. Hungerford?" asked the doctor.

"He is the deaf mute. He was the first officer of the Confederate
steamer Yazoo when we captured her in the Bellevite last year," replied
the captain, upon whom the eyes of the wounded man were fixed all the
time.

"He has not spoken yet in my hearing, though I have thought that he
could hear."

"His duty on board of the Bronx was to obtain information, and he
procured a good deal of it,
200
though not all of it was as reliable as it might have been."

"Indeed! Then he was a traitor," added the surgeon.

"He is a gentleman in spite of the role he has been playing, and I am
sorry he has been injured, though Mr. Sampson obeyed my order when he
struck him down in the engine room."

"Struck me from behind like an assassin," added Hungerford
feebly.

"Did you expect to arrange a duel with him at such a time, Mr.
Hungerford?" asked Christy. "You went into the engine room to disable
the machine when you found you could do nothing else. If you had
returned to the deck when the engineer told you to do so, he would not
have disabled you. You crowded past him, and then he did his duty."

"I have been in the habit of serving with men who were square and
above board," muttered Hungerford.

"Was that where you learned to listen at my cabin door, and to
conceal yourself under the berth in my state room?" asked Christy,
rather sharply for him. "Is that the reason why Mr.
201
Pawcett wished to have you do the copying of my papers?"

"I can only say that I tried to do my duty to my country and I have
failed," added Hungerford, as he turned over in his berth, and showed
his back to the captain.

"May I ask, Captain Passford, who told you my name?" asked the late
second lieutenant, who seemed to be confounded by what he had heard.

"You called Mr. Hungerford by his real name, and he called you by
yours, in the interview you had with him the first night out from New
York. I have known you from the first," replied Christy.

Pawcett was as disgusted as the other had been, and he turned his
face to the ceiling of his berth. Christy was satisfied that these men
would give him no more trouble at present.

CHAPTER XVIII

A TRIANGULAR ACTION WITH GREAT GUNS

When Mr. Baskirk went on deck to take his watch at midnight, the fog
had disappeared, and a fresh breeze was blowing from the westward. This
change was reported to the captain, and he went on deck. No sail had
been seen since the fog cleared off, and Christy returned to his state
room, where he was soon asleep again. He was called, as he had directed,
at four in the morning, but no change in the weather was reported, and
no sail had been seen.

At four bells in the morning watch two sails were reported to him,
one dead ahead, and the other on the port beam. He hastened to the deck,
and found Mr. Amblen using his spyglass, and trying to make out the
distant sails. The one at the northeast of the Bronx was making a long
streak of black smoke on the sky, and there was
203
no such appearance over the other. Both were steamers.

"The one ahead of us is the Ocklockonee," said Captain Passford,
after he had used the spyglass. "I have no doubt the other is the Arran.
Probably she has a new name by this time, but I have not heard it yet.
Pass the word for Mr. Ambleton."

This was the gunner, and he was directed to fire a single shot,
blank, from the midship gun. This was immediately done, and was the
signal agreed upon with Flint if either discovered the Arran. It was
promptly answered by a similar discharge on board of the Ocklockonee,
indicating that she had seen the steamer in question.

"Now, make her course southeast, Mr. Amblen," said Christy, after the
two signals had been made.

"Southeast, sir," responded the second lieutenant, giving the course
to the quartermaster at the wheel.

The commander of the Ocklockonee changed his course as soon as the
Bronx had done so. Both steamers were headed directly towards the sail
in the southeast, and both were running for the apex of the triangle
where the third steamer was located.

204
The captain visited every part of the vessel, and gave orders to have
breakfast served at once, for he expected there would be lively times
before many hours. Everything was overhauled, and put in order. At eight
bells, when Mr. Baskirk took the deck, the captain did not care how soon
the battle began. Everything was ready and waiting, and he went below
for his breakfast.

From delicacy or some other motive Captain Dinsmore spent most of his
time in the ward room; but he was called to breakfast with the
commander. Both captains were as polite to each other as they had been
the evening before, but it was evident to Christy that his guest was
quite uneasy, as though he had discovered what had transpired on deck;
and the movements there were quite enough to inform him without a word
from any one. He had not asked a question of any person on board; and it
was impossible for him to know that a sail supposed to be the Arran was
in sight.

"I have heard some firing this morning, Captain Passford," said he as
he seated himself at the table, and watched the expression of his host's
countenance.

205
"Merely a couple of signals; the distant shot came from the
Ocklockonee," replied Christy lightly.

"I thought it possible that you had fallen in with another steamer,"
added the guest.

"I have considered it more than possible, and within the limits of
probability, that we should fall in with another steamer ever since we
ran so opportunely upon the Scotian, as she was formerly called."

"Opportunely for you, but very inopportunely for me," added Captain
Dinsmore with a faint smile.

"I am happy to inform you that we have passed beyond both possibility
and probability, and come into the region of fact," continued
Christy.

"Then you have made out a sail?" asked the guest anxiously.

"We have; a steamer on our port beam; and I am reasonably confident
it is the vessel you supposed was coming alongside the Ocklockonee last
evening."

"Indeed?" added the guest, as though he did not know just what to
say, and did not mean to commit himself.

206
"In other words, I am almost sure this steamer is the Arran, though
doubtless you have changed her name," said Christy, as he helped the
other from the choicest dish on the table.

"The Arran?" repeated Captain Dinsmore, manifesting but not
expressing his surprise that his companion in a different service from
his own knew this name.

"Perhaps you can give me her later name, as I have no doubt she is or
will be called after some southern river, which is quite proper, and
entirely patriotic. Perhaps she is called the Perdido, which is not very
far from Perdition, where I shall do my best to send her unless she
surrenders within a reasonable time, or runs away from me," said Captain
Passford lightly. "Is your coffee quite right, Captain Dinsmore?"

"It is very good indeed, captain, thank you."

"Perhaps it is too strong for you, like the United States Navy, and
you would prefer it weaker," suggested Christy.

"It is quite right as it is, and, like the United States Navy of
which you speak, it will be used up in a short time," replied the guest
as pleasantly as the captain of the Bronx.

207
"That is yet to be settled," laughed Christy.

"Well, captain, the coffee is settled, and that is more than can be
said of our navy, which will be as clear as this in due time."

"I thought it best to inform you that we might be in action in the
course of a couple of hours, and you were to notify me in case you
wished to change your status on board," added Christy more
seriously.

"I am much obliged to you, Captain Passford, for your courtesy and
kindness, but I see no reason to change my position. I will still
confine myself to the cabin and ward room. I cannot wish you success in
the action in which you are about to engage, for it would break my heart
to have the Arran, as you call her, captured," added the guest.

"I think you may fairly count upon such a result," replied Christy
confidently.

"You must excuse me, Captain Passford, but I think you are reckoning
without your host, and therein your youth makes its only manifestation,"
said the guest, shaking his head. "I can only say that, when you are a
prisoner on board of the Escambia, I shall do my best to have you
208
as handsomely treated as I have been in your cabin."

"Thank you, captain; I assure you I shall appreciate any courtesy and
kindness extended to me. The Escambia is her name then. That is not so
near Perdition as the word I suggested, and I am glad it is not so long
as the name you gave the Scotian. I shall expect to come across an
Apalachicola in due time. They are all very good names, but we shall be
compelled to change them when they fall into our hands," said
Christy.

"I have plenty of spare time on my hands just now, and perhaps I had
better think up a new name for the Bronx; and Apalachicola would be as
good as any other. I wonder you did not call her the Nutcracker, for her
present name rather suggests that idea."

"I have heard a similar remark before; but she is not big enough for
such a long name as the one you suggest, and you would have to begin to
pronounce it before breakfast in order to get it out before the dog
watches," said Christy, as he rose from the table and went on deck.

The first thing he noticed when he came on the
209
bridge was that the Ocklockonee was headed to intercept the Bronx.
Captain Flint signalled that he wished to speak to him, and he changed
his course to comply with the request. At the end of another hour they
came together, the Arran being still at least four miles distant, going
very slowly if she was moving at all.

Christy had written out his orders for Captain Flint in full. So far
as he had been able to judge of the speed of the other steamer, it
appeared to be about the same as that of the Bronx. He had directed the
Ocklockonee to get to the southward of the Arran. A boat was sent to her
with the orders, and Flint immediately proceeded to obey them. The Bronx
slowed down her engines to enable the other to gain her position; but
the Arran did not seem to be willing to permit her to do this, and gave
chase to her at once.

The commander of the Bronx met this change by one on his own part,
and went ahead with all the speed he could get out of her. The
Confederate steamer was farther to the eastward than either of the other
two, and after the changes of position which Christy had brought about
in speaking the Ocklockonee, the Arran was nearly southeast of
210
both of the others. Flint went directly to the south, and Christy ran
for the enemy.

All hands had been beaten to quarters on board of the Bronx, and the
captain was on the bridge, watching with the most intense interest the
progress of the other two vessels. It was soon apparent to him that the
Ocklockonee could not get into the position to which she had been
ordered under present circumstances, for the enemy was giving his whole
attention to her.

"There goes a gun from the enemy!" exclaimed Mr. Amblen, as a puff of
smoke rose from the forward deck of the Arran.

"The shot struck in the water," added Christy a moment later; "but
the two vessels are within range. There is the first shot from the
Ocklockonee! Captain Flint is not asleep."

The firing was done on both vessels with the heavy midship guns, and
doubtless the calibre of the pieces was the same; but Flint was the more
fortunate of the two, for his shot struck the smokestack of the enemy,
or partly upset it. Christy thought it was time for him to take a hand
in the game, and he ordered the midship gun to be fired, charged as it
was with a solid
211
shot. The gunner aimed the piece himself, and the shot was seen to tear
up the water alongside of the enemy. He discharged the piece four times
more with no better result. Evidently he had not got the hang of the
gun, though he was improving at every trial.

Three steamers were rushing towards each other with all the fury
steam could give them, for the overthrow of the funnel of the enemy did
not disable her, though it probably diminished the draught of her
furnaces. Through the glass it could be seen that they were making an
effort to restore the fallen smokestack to its position. All three of
the steamers were delivering the fire of their midship guns very
regularly, though with little effect, the distance was so great. The
gunner of the Bronx was evidently greatly nettled at the number of solid
shots he had wasted, though the gun of the Ocklockonee had done little
better so far as could be seen. The three vessels were not much more
than half a mile from each other, and the enemy had begun to use his
broadside guns.

"Good!" shouted Mr. Amblen suddenly after the gunner had just let off
the great gun. "That
212
shot overturned the midship piece of the Arran. Ambleton has fully
redeemed himself." The announcement of the effect of this last shot sent
up a volley of cheers from the crew.

The Bronx and her consort had set the American flag at the beginning
of the action, and the Confederate had promptly displayed her ensign, as
though she scorned to go into action without having it fully understood
what she was. She did not claim to be a blockade runner, and do her best
to escape, but "faced the music," even when she realized that she had
two enemies instead of one.

Christy had evidently inherited some of the naval blood on his
mother's side, and he was not satisfied with the slow progress of the
action, for the shots from the broadside guns of the enemy were
beginning to tell upon the Bronx, though she had received no serious
injury. He caused the signal to prepare to board to be set as agreed
upon with Captain Flint. The orders already given were to be carried
out, and both vessels bore down on the Arran with all speed.

CHAPTER XIX

ON THE DECK OF THE ARRAN

Captain Passford had carried out the programme agreed upon with
Captain Flint, and the latter had been working to the southward since
the Bronx came into the action, and as soon as the order to get ready to
board was given, the Ocklockonee went ahead at full speed, headed in
that direction. She had reached a position dead ahead of the Arran, so
that she no longer suffered from the shots of the latter's broadside
guns, and the Bronx was getting the entire benefit of them.

Both vessels had kept up a full head of steam, and the coal passers
were kept very busy at just this time. The Arran's midship gun had been
disabled so that she could not make any very telling shots, but her crew
had succeeded in righting her funnel, which had not gone entirely over,
but had been held by the stays. Yet it could be seen that there was a
big opening near the deck, for the smoke did not all pass through the
smokestack.

214
The broadside guns of the Arran were well served, and they were doing
considerable mischief on board of the Bronx. Christy was obliged to hold
back until her consort was in position to board the Arran on the port
hand, and he manœuvred the steamer so as to receive as little
damage as possible from her guns. He was to board on the starboard hand
of the enemy, and he was working nearer to her all the time. Mr.
Ambleton the gunner had greatly improved his practice, and the commander
was obliged to check his enthusiasm, or there would have been nothing
left of the Arran in half an hour more. Christy considered the final
result as fully assured, for he did not believe the present enemy was
any more heavily manned than her consort had been, and he could throw
double her force upon her deck as soon as the two steamers were in
position to do so.

"Are you doing all you can in the engine room, Mr. Sampson?" asked
Christy, pausing at the engine hatch.

"Everything, Captain Passford, and I think we must be making sixteen
knots," replied the chief engineer.

"Is Mr. Bockburn on duty?"

215
"He is, sir; and if he were a Connecticut Yankee he could not do any
better, or appear to be any more interested."

"He seems to be entirely impartial; all he wants is his pay, and he
is as willing to be on one side as the other if he only gets it," said
Christy. "Has any damage been done to the engine?"

"None at all, sir; a shot from one of those broadside guns went
through the side, and passed just over the top of one of the boilers,"
replied the engineer. "Bockburn plugged the shot hole very skilfully,
and said it would not be possible for a shot to come in low enough to
hit the boilers. He knows all about the other two vessels, and has
served as an engineer on board of the Arran on the other side of the
Atlantic."

Just at that moment a shot from the Arran struck the bridge and a
splinter from the structure knocked two men over. One of them picked
himself up, but said he was not much hurt, and refused to be sent below.
The other man was Veering; he seemed to be unable to get up, and was
carried down by order of the boatswain. This man was one of the
adherents of Hungerford and Pawcett, though so far he had been of no
service to them.

216
Christy hastened forward to ascertain the extent of the damage done to
the bridge. It was completely wrecked, and was no longer in condition to
be occupied by an officer. But the pilot house was still in serviceable
repair, and the quartermaster had not been disturbed. By this time, the
Ocklockonee had obtained a position on the port bow of the Arran, and
the commander directed the quartermaster at the wheel to run directly
for the other side of the enemy.

The time for decisive and final action had come. Mr. Baskirk placed
the boarders in position to be thrown on board of the Arran. He was to
command the first division himself, and Mr. Amblen the second. The
Ocklockonee was rushing at all the speed she could command to the work
before her.

The captain of the Arran.

For some reason not apparent the Arran had stopped her screw, though
she had kept in motion till now, doing her best to secure the most
favorable position for action. Possibly her commander believed a
collision between the vessels at a high rate of speed would be more
fatal to him than anything that could result from being boarded. It was
soon discovered that she was backing, and
217
it was evident then that her captain had some manœuvre of his own
in mind, though it was possible that he was only doing something to
counteract the effect of a collision. Doubtless he thought the two
vessels approaching him at such a rapid rate intended to crush the Arran
between them, and that they desired only to sink him.

He was not allowed many minutes more to carry out his policy,
whatever it was, for the Ocklockonee came up alongside of the Arran, the
grapnels were thrown out, and the whole boarding force of the steamer
was hurled upon her decks. But the commander was a plucky man, however
he regarded the chances for or against him, and his crew proceeded
vigorously to repel boarders. Christy had timed the movements of the
Bronx very carefully, and the Ocklockonee had hardly fastened to the
Arran on one side before he had his steamer grappled on the other.

"Boarders, away!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, and flourishing
his sword over his head, not however with the intention of going into
the fight himself, but as a demonstration to inspire the men.

Baskirk and Amblen rushed forward with cutlasses in their hands,
leaping upon the deck of the
218
enemy. The crew was found to equal in numbers about the force that the
Ocklockonee had brought to bear upon them. The boarders from the Bronx
attacked them in the rear while they were fully occupied with the
boarders in front of them. The officers of the enemy behaved with
distinguished gallantry, and urged their men forward with the most
desperate enthusiasm. They struck hard blows, and several of the
boarders belonging to the consort had fallen, to say nothing of wounds
that did not entirely disable others. Some of the men belonging to the
Arran, doubtless shipped on the other side of the ocean or at the
Bermudas, were disposed to shirk their duty, though their officers held
them well up to the work.

One of the brave officers who had done the boarders a good deal of
mischief fell at a pistol shot from Mr. Amblen; this loss of his
leadership caused a sensible giving way on the part of his division, and
his men began to fall back. The other officers, including the captain,
who fought with a heavy cutlass, held out for a short time longer; but
Christy saw that it was slaughter.

The captain of the Arran was the next to go down, though he was not
killed. This event
219
practically ended the contest for the deck of the steamer. The boarders
crowded upon the crew and drove them to the bow of the vessel, where
they yielded the deck, and submitted to the excess of numbers.

"Don't butcher my men!" cried the captain of the Arran, raising
himself partially from his place where he had fallen. "I surrender, for
we are outnumbered two to one."

But the fighting had ceased forward. Mr. Baskirk was as earnest to
save any further slaughter as he had been to win the fight. Christy came
on board of the prize, not greatly elated at the victory, for it had
been a very unequal affair as to numbers. The Arran was captured; that
was all that could be said of it. She had been bravely defended; and the
"honors were even," though the fortunes of the day were against the
Arran and her ship's company.

"Allow me to introduce myself as the commander of the United States
steamer Bronx," said Christy, approaching the fallen captain of the
Arran. "I sincerely hope that you are not seriously
injured, sir."

"Who under the canopy are you?" demanded
220
the commander of the prize, as he looked at the young officer with
something like contempt in his expression.

"I have just informed you who under the canopy I am," replied
Christy, not pleased with the manner of the other. "To be a little more
definite, I am Captain Christopher Passford, commander of the United
States steamer Bronx, of which the Arran appears to be a prize."

"The captain!" exclaimed the fallen man. "You are nothing but a
boy!"

"But I am old enough to try to be a gentleman. You are evidently old
enough to be my father, though I have no comments to make," added
Christy.

"I beg your pardon, Captain Passford," said the captain of the Arran,
attempting to rise from the deck, in which he was assisted by Christy
and by Mr. Baskirk, who had just come aft. "I beg your pardon, Captain
Passford, for I did not understand what you said at first, and I did not
suspect that you were the captain."

"I hope you are not seriously injured, sir," added Christy.

"I don't know how seriously, but I have a cut
221
on the hip, for which I exchanged one on the head, parrying the stroke
so that it took me below the belt."

"Have you a surgeon on board, Captain —— I have not the
pleasure of knowing your name, sir."

"Captain Richfield, lieutenant in the Confederate Navy. We have a
surgeon on board, and he is below attending to the wounded," replied the
captain.

"Allow me to assist you to your cabin, Captain Richfield," continued
Christy, as he and Baskirk each took one of the wounded officer's
arms.

"Thank you, sir. I see that you have been doubly fortunate, Captain
Passford, and you have both the Escambia and the Ocklockonee. I did the
best I could to save my ship, but the day has gone against me."

"And no one could have done any more than you have done. Your ship
has been ably and bravely defended; but it was my good fortune to be
able to outnumber you both in ships and in men."

Captain Richfield was taken to his state room, and assisted into his
berth. A steward was sent for the surgeon, and Christy and his first
lieutenant
222
retired from the cabin. The captured seamen of the Arran were all sent
below, and everything was done that the occasion required.

Christy asked Captain Flint to meet him in the cabin of the Bronx for
a consultation over the situation, for the sealed orders of the
commander had been carried out to the letter so far as the two expected
steamers were concerned, and it only remained to report to the flag
officer of the Eastern Gulf squadron. But with two prizes, and a
considerable number of prisoners, the situation was not without its
difficulties.

"I hope you are quite comfortable, Captain Dinsmore," said Christy as
he entered his cabin, and found his guest reading at the table.

"Quite so, Captain Passford. I have heard a great deal of firing in
the last hour, and I am rather surprised to find that you are not a
prisoner on board of the Escambia, or perhaps you have come to your
cabin for your clothes," replied the guest cheerfully.

"I have not come on any such mission; and I have the pleasure of
informing you that the Confederate steamer Escambia is a prize to the
Bronx," replied Christy quite as cheerfully. "I
223
am sorry to add that Captain Richfield was wounded in the hip, and that
Mr. Berwick, the first lieutenant, was killed."

The Confederate officer leaped out of his chair astonished at the
news. He declared that he had confidently expected to be released by the
capture of the Bronx. Christy gave a brief review of the action; and
Captain Dinsmore was not surprised at the result when informed that the
Ocklockonee had taken part in the capture. The commander then requested
him to retire to the ward room, and Flint came in. They seated
themselves at the table, and proceeded to figure up their resources and
consider what was to be done. Mr. Baskirk was then sent for to assist in
the conference.

CHAPTER XX

THE NEW COMMANDER OF THE BRONX

"Captain Flint, the first question to be settled is in regard to the
engineer force," said Christy, as the three officers seated themselves
at the table.

"I think we shall have no difficulty on that score, Captain Passford,
for I have already sounded those on board of the Arran, or the Escambia,
as her officers call her. As long as their wages are paid, they don't
care which side they serve. Mr. Pivotte is the chief, and he is as
willing to go one way as the other."

"Very well; then he shall retain his present position, and Bockburn
shall be restored to the Ocklockonee. Of course the arrangements made
after the capture of the first vessel were only temporary, and I propose
to report to the flag officer with everything as nearly as possible in
the condition in which we left New York," continued Christy.

225
"Of course I expected to resume my former position on board of the Bronx
as soon as we had disposed of the two steamers; and I can say that I
shall not be sorry to do so," said Flint with a pleasant smile, as
though he did not intend to grieve over the loss of his command.

"In a few days more, we shall move down a peg, and I shall cease to
have a command as well as yourself," added Christy.

"And I suppose I shall be relegated to my position as a
quartermaster," said Baskirk; "but I shall be satisfied. I don't care to
wear any spurs that I have not won, though I shall be glad to have a
higher rank when I deserve it."

"You deserve it now, Mr. Baskirk, and if you don't receive it, it
will not be on account of any weakness in my report of the events of the
last twenty-four hours," added Christy heartily.

"Thank you, captain; I suppose I could have procured a better
position than that of able seaman, but I preferred to work my
way up."

"It was wise not to begin too high up, and you have already won your
spurs. Now, Mr. Baskirk, I shall ask you to take the deck, relieving Mr.
Amblen," added Christy, who wished to talk with Flint alone.

226
"I shall be really glad to get back into the Bronx, for I feel at home
here with you, captain," said Flint.

"You will be back to your berth here very soon. Now we have to send
these two steamers to New York. They are fine vessels, and will be
needed. We want two prize masters, and we must have able men. Have you
any suggestion to make, Mr. Flint? I first thought of sending you as the
principal one; but I cannot spare you, and the service in the Gulf
needs you."

"I am entirely willing to go where my duty calls me, without regard
to personal preferences," replied Flint. "I have a suggestion to make:
which is that Baskirk take one of the steamers."

"That is exactly my own idea; from what I have seen of him, there is
no more devoted officer in the service."

"I have known him for many years, and I believe in him. McSpindle is
almost as good, and has had a better education than Baskirk. I don't
think you could find two better men in the navy for this duty."

"Very well; then I will appoint them both."

Flint was instructed to communicate their appointment
227
to Baskirk and McSpindle, and make all the preparations for the
departure of the Escambia and the Ocklockonee. Christy went to his state
room, and wrote his report of the capture of the two steamers, in which
he commended the two officers who were to go as prize masters, and then
wrote a letter to his father, with a strong appeal in their favor. Then
he wrote very careful instructions for the government of the officers to
be sent away, in which he directed them to use all necessary precautions
in regard to the prisoners. In a couple of hours after the capture of
the Escambia, the two prizes sailed for New York. Captain Dinsmore
expressed his thanks very warmly to Captain Passford for his courtesy
and kindness at parting.

Christy had visited every part of the two steamers, and talked with
the officers and men, and especially with the engineers, and he
discovered no elements of discord on board of either. Hungerford and
Pawcett were transferred to the Escambia, and committed to the care of
the surgeon of the ship. Both of them were suffering from fever, and
they were not likely to give the prize master any trouble during the
228
passage, which could only be three or four days in duration. Baskirk and
McSpindle were required to make all the speed they could consistent with
safety, though Christy hardly thought they would encounter any
Confederate rover on the voyage, for they were not very plenty at this
stage of the war.

It seemed a little lonesome on board of the Bronx after the two
steamers had disappeared in the distance, and the number of the crew had
been so largely reduced by the drafts for the prizes. The steamer was
hardly in condition to engage an enemy of any considerable force, and
Sampson was directed to hurry as much as possible. Christy had heard of
the Bellevite twice since he left her off Pensacola Bay. She had been
sent to other stations on duty, and had captured two schooners loaded
with cotton as prizes; but at the last accounts she had returned to the
station where the Bronx had left her.

Christy was not so anxious as he had been before the recent captures
to fall in with an enemy, for with less than twenty seamen it would not
be prudent to attack such a steamer as either of those he had captured,
though he would not have objected
229
to chase a blockade runner if he had discovered one pursued by the
gunboats.

It was a quiet time on board of the Bronx compared with the
excitement of the earlier days of the voyage. In the very beginning of
the trip, he had discovered the deaf mute at the cabin door, and his
thought, his inquiries, and his action in defeating the treachery of the
second lieutenant had kept him busy night and day. Now the weather was
fine most of the time, and he had little to do beyond his routine
duties. But he did a great deal of thinking in his cabin, though most of
it was in relation to the events which had transpired on board of the
Bronx.

He had captured two valuable prizes; but he could not feel that he
was entitled to any great credit for the achievements of his vessel,
since he had been warned in the beginning to look out for the Scotian
and the Arran. He had taken the first by surprise, and the result was
due to the carelessness of her commander rather than to any great merit
on his own part. The second he had taken with double the force of the
enemy in ships and men; and the latter was not precisely the kind of a
victory he was ambitious to win.

230
At the same time, his self-respect assured him that he had done his duty
faithfully, and that it had been possible for him to throw away his
advantage by carelessness. If he had fallen in with both the Scotian and
the Arran at the same time, the result might have been different, though
he was sure that he should have fought his ship as long as there was
anything left of her. In that case there would have been more room for
manœuvring and strategy, for he did not admit to himself that he
should have been beaten.

Amblen continued to hold his place as second lieutenant, and McLinn
was appointed acting third lieutenant. The carpenter repaired the
bridge, though Christy would not have been very sorry if it had been so
thoroughly smashed as to be beyond restoration, for it was hardly a
naval institution. The men who had been only slightly wounded in the
action with the Escambia were progressing finely under the care of Dr.
Spokeley, and when the Bronx was off the southern cape of Florida, they
were able to return to duty. The latest information located the flag
officer off Pensacola, and in due time Christy reported to him. The
Bellevite was still there, and the commander
231
went on board of her, where he received an ovation from the former
officers and seamen with whom he had sailed. He did not take any pains
to recite his experience, but it was soon known throughout the
fleet.

"Christy, I shall hardly dare to sail in command of a ship of which
you are the executive officer," said Lieutenant Blowitt, who was to
command the Bronx, with a laugh.

"Why not? Is my reputation so bad as that?" asked Christy.

"Bad! No, it is so good. The fact of it is, you are such a tremendous
fellow, there will be no room for any other officer to shine in the
same sky."

"I have been in command for a few days, hardly more than a week, but
I assure you that I can and shall obey the orders of my commander to the
very letter," added Christy.

"But you took two steamers, each of them of nearly twice the tonnage
of your own ship, in mid ocean."

"But I took them one at a time. If I had fallen in with both at the
same time, the affair might have gone the other way. We captured the
first one
232
by accident, as it were, and the second with double the force of the
enemy. I don't take much credit to myself for that sort of thing. I
don't think it was half as much of an affair as bringing out the Teaser,
for we had to use some science on that occasion," replied Christy
quietly.

"Science, is it?" laughed Mr. Blowitt. "Perhaps you can assist me to
some of your science, when it is required."

"I shall obey my superior officer, and not presume to advise him
unless he asks me to do so."

"Well, Christy, I think you are the most audacious young fellow I
ever met," added the future commander of the Bronx.

"I haven't anything about me that I call audacity, so far as I
understand myself. When I am told to do any duty, I do it if it is
possible; and whether it is possible often depends upon whether you
think it is or not."

"I should say that it was audacious for you to think of capturing two
steamers, fitted out for war purposes, and twice the size of your own
ship, with the Bronx," added Mr. Blowitt, still laughing, to take off
the edge of his criticism.

"Why did the Navy Department instruct me
233
in my sealed orders to look out for these steamers, if I was to do so in
a Pickwickian sense?" demanded Christy earnestly. "What would you have
done, Mr. Blowitt?"

"Perhaps I should have been as audacious as you were, Christy, if
such had been my orders."

This conversation took place on the deck of the Bellevite where
Christy had come to see his friends; and it was interrupted by a boat
from the flag ship which brought a big envelope for Mr. Blowitt. It
instructed him to go on board of the Bronx, to the command of which he
had been appointed. Another order required him to proceed to a point on
the western coast of Florida, where the enemy were supposed to be
loading vessels with cotton, and break up the depot established for the
purpose, where it could be supplied by the Florida Railroad.

The new commander packed his clothing, and he was sent with Christy
in one of the Bellevite's boats to the Bronx. They went on board, where
the late acting commander had already removed his own property to the
ward room, and Captain Blowitt was conducted to his cabin and state
room, of which he took formal possession. He seemed to
234
be very much pleased with his accommodations since the government had
put the vessel in order, though he had been on board of her, and fought
a battle on her deck, while she was still the Teaser.

"I am sure I could not ask for anything better than this cabin," said
he, after he had invited his first lieutenant to come in.

"I found it very comfortable," added Christy. "Flint is second
lieutenant, and Sampson chief engineer; and that is all there are of
those who were in the Bellevite. I will introduce you to the acting
third lieutenant, Mr. Amblen, and you can retain him or not as you
please."

Mr. Amblen was called in and presented to the captain, and then Flint
was ordered to get under way.

CHAPTER XXI

AN EXPEDITION IN THE GULF

The Bronx had been three days on the station, Christy had made his
report in full on her arrival, and the flag officer had visited the
vessel in person, in order to ascertain her fitness for several
enterprises he had in view. The Confederates were not sleepy or
inactive, and resorted to every expedient within their means to
counteract both morally and materially the efficiency of the
blockade.

The Bronx was admirably adapted to service in the shoal waters where
the heavier vessels of the investing squadron could not go, and her
arrival solved several problems then under consideration. Captain
Blowitt and Christy had been sent for, and the late commander of the
Bronx was questioned in regard to the steamer, her draught, her speed,
and her ship's company. The damage done to her in the conflict with the
Escambia had been
236
fully repaired by the carpenter and his gang, and the steamer was in as
good condition as when she sailed from New York.

"In regard to the present officers, Mr. Passford, excepting present
company, of course, they are excellent," said Captain McKeon, the flag
officer. "For the service in which the Bronx is to be engaged, its
success will depend upon the officers, though it is hardly exceptional
in this respect. I understand that you sailed from New York rather
short-handed abaft the mainmast."

"Yes, sir, we did; but fortunately we had most excellent material of
which to make officers, and we made them," replied Christy.

"I should like to know something about them; I mean apart from
Captain Blowitt and yourself, for you have already made your record, and
yours, Mr. Passford, is rather a dazzling reputation for one so
young."

"I am willing to apologize for it, sir," replied Christy, blushing
like a maiden, as he was in duty bound to do, for he could not control
the crimson that rose to his browned cheeks.

"Quite unnecessary," replied Captain McKeon, smiling. "As long as you
do your duty nobody
237
will be jealous of you, and you will be a fit officer for all our young
men to emulate. You were the acting commander on the voyage of the Bronx
from New York. Your executive officer is the present second lieutenant.
Is he qualified for the peculiar duty before you?"

"No one could be more so, sir," replied Christy with proper
enthusiasm.

"I can fully indorse this opinion of Mr. Passford," added Captain
Blowitt. "In the capture and bringing out of the Teaser, Mr. Flint was
the right hand man of the leader of the enterprise."

"And I gave him the command of the Ocklockonee, after her capture,
and she took an active part in the affair with the Escambia, sir," said
Christy.

"Then we will consider him the right man in the right place," replied
the flag officer. "Who is the present third lieutenant?"

"Mr. Amblen is acting in that capacity at present, and he is a very
good officer, though he holds no rank," answered Christy.

"Then I can hardly confirm him as second lieutenant," added Captain
McKeon.

"In my report of the affairs with the Ocklockonee
238
and the Escambia, I have strongly recommended him and three other
officers for promotion, for all of them are fitted by education and
experience at sea to do duty on board of such vessels as the Bronx."

"Have you any officer in mind who would acceptably fill the vacant
place, Captain Blowitt?"

"I know of no one at present who holds the rank to entitle him to
such a position, and I shall appeal to Mr. Passford," replied the new
commander.

"You have named Mr. Amblen, Mr. Passford; is he just the officer you
would select if the matter were left to you?" asked the flag
officer.

"No, sir, though he would do very well. Mr. Baskirk, who served as
executive officer while Mr. Flint was away in the Ocklockonee, is better
adapted for the place," said Christy. "He commanded the first division
of boarders on board of the Escambia, and he fought like a hero and is a
man of excellent judgment. I am confident that he will make his mark as
an officer. I am willing to admit that I wrote a letter to my father
especially requesting him to do what he could for the immediate
promotion of Mr. Baskirk."

239
"Then he will be immediately promoted," added Captain McKeon with an
expressive smile.

"I may add also that I was presumptive enough to suggest his
appointment as third lieutenant of the Bronx," continued Christy.

"Then he will be the third lieutenant of the Bronx; and what you say
would have settled the matter in the first place as well as now," said
the flag officer, as much pleased with the reticence of the young
officer as with his modesty. "Amblen may remain on board till his
commission comes, and you can retain him as third lieutenant, Captain
Blowitt, if you are so disposed. I have ordered a draft of twelve seamen
to the Bronx, which will give you a crew of thirty, and I cannot spare
any more until more men are sent down. I may add that I have taken some
of them from the Bellevite."

"I am quite satisfied, sir, with the number, though ten more would be
acceptable," replied the commander of the Bronx.

The two officers were then dismissed and ordered on board of their
ship. A little later the draft of seamen was sent on board, and among
them Christy was not sorry to see Boxie, the old
240
sheet-anchor man of the Bellevite, who had made him a sort of pet, and
had done a great deal to instruct him in matters of seamanship, naval
customs, and traditions not found in any books.

The commander and the executive officer paid their final visit to the
Bellevite the next day, and the order was given to weigh anchor. When
all hands were called, Christy thought he had never seen a better set of
men except on board of the Bellevite, and the expedition, whatever it
was, commenced under the most favorable auspices.

The Bronx sailed in the middle of the forenoon, and the flag officer
was careful not to reveal the destination of the steamer to any one, for
with the aid of the telegraph, the object of the expedition might reach
the scene of operations in advance of the arrival of the force. At four
o'clock in the afternoon Captain Blowitt opened his envelope in presence
of the executive officer. He looked the paper through before he spoke,
and then handed it to Christy, who read it with quite as much interest
as the commander had.

"Cedar Keys," said the captain, glancing at his associate.

"That is not a long run from the station,"
241
added Christy. "We are very likely to be there before to-morrow
morning."

"It is about two hundred and eighty statute miles, I had occasion to
ascertain a week ago when something was said about Cedar Keys," replied
Captain Blowitt. "We have been making about fifteen knots, for the Bronx
is a flyer, and we ought to be near our destination at about midnight.
That would be an excellent time to arrive if we only had a pilot."

"Perhaps we have one," added Christy with a smile.

"Are you a pilot on this coast, Mr. Passford?" asked the commander,
mistaking the smile.

"No, sir, I am not; but I remember a conversation Mr. Flint and I had
with Mr. Amblen, who was engaged in some sort of a speculation in
Florida when the war came on. He was so provoked at the treatment he
received that he shipped in the navy at once. I only know that he had a
small steamer in these waters."

"Send for Mr. Amblen at once!" exclaimed the commander, who appeared
to have become suddenly excited. "There will be no moon to-night in
these parts, and we may be able to
242
hurry this matter up if we have a competent pilot."

Christy called Dave, and sent him for the acting third lieutenant,
for he knew that Mr. Flint had had the watch since four o'clock. Mr.
Amblen was sunning himself on the quarter deck, and he promptly obeyed
the summons.

"I am glad to see you, Mr. Amblen, and I hope you will prove to be as
useful a person as I have been led to believe you may be," said the
captain.

"I shall endeavor to do my duty, sir," replied the third lieutenant,
who was always very ambitious to earn the good opinion of his superiors.
"I mean to do the best I can to make myself useful, Captain
Blowitt."

"I know that very well; but the question now is what you know rather
than what you can do as an officer. Mr. Passford informs me that you
were formerly engaged in some kind of a speculation on the west coast of
Florida."

"Hardly a speculation, sir, for I was engaged in the fish business,"
replied Mr. Amblen, laughing at the name which had been given to his
calling. "When I sold a small coaster that belonged to me, I got in
exchange a tug boat. I had been out of
243
health a few years before; I spent six months at Cedar Keys and Tampa,
and got well. Fish were plenty here, and of a kind that bring a good
price farther north. I loaded my tug with ice, and came down here in
her. I did a first-rate business buying from boats and in catching fish
myself, and for a time I made money, though ice was so dear that I had
to sell in the South."

"Did you have a pilot on board of your tug?" asked the captain.

"No, sir; I was my own pilot. I had the charts, and I studied out the
bottom, so that I knew where I was in the darkest night."

"Then you are just the person we want if you are a pilot in these
waters."

"What waters, sir? We are now off Cape St. Blas and Apalachicola Bay.
I have been into the bay, but I am not a pilot in those waters, as you
suggest."

"I have just opened my orders, and I find we are ordered to Cedar
Keys," interposed the commander.

"That is quite another thing, sir; and there isn't a foot of bottom
within five miles of the Keys to which I have not been personally
introduced.
244
When I was down here for my health I was on the water more than half of
the time, and I learned all about the bay and coast; and I have been up
the Suwanee River, which flows into the Gulf eighteen miles north of the
Keys."

"I am exceedingly glad to find that we have such an excellent pilot
on board. I am informed in my orders that schooners load with cotton at
this place, and make an easy thing of getting to sea," added Captain
Blowitt.

"I should say that it was a capital port for the Confederates to use
for that sort of business. Small steamers can bring cotton down the
Suwanee River, the railroad from Fernandina terminates at the Key, and
this road connects with that to Jacksonville and the whole of western
Florida as far as Tallahassee."

"We may find a steamer or two there."

"You may, though not one any larger than the Bronx, for there is only
eleven feet of water on the bar. Probably no blockaders have yet been
stationed off the port, and it is a good place to run out cotton."

"I am much obliged to you, Mr. Amblen, for the information you have
given me, and your services
245
will probably be in demand this very night," added the commander, rising
from his chair.

"I am ready for duty at all times, sir," replied Mr. Amblen, as he
retired from the cabin.

The charts were then consulted, and sundry calculations were made. At
one o'clock that night the Bronx was off Cedar Keys.

CHAPTER XXII

A NIGHT EXPEDITION IN THE BOATS

During the evening Captain Blowitt had consulted his officers, and
arranged his plans for operations, or at least for obtaining information
in regard to the situation inside of North Key, where the landing place
is situated. He had already arranged to give the command of the boat
expedition to Christy, with the second lieutenant in another boat, Mr.
Amblen being with the executive officer in the first.

"Now, Mr. Passford, I do not expect you to capture the whole State of
Florida, and if you should return without accomplishing anything at all,
I shall not be disappointed, but I shall feel that you have done
everything that could be done," said the captain, with a very cheerful
smile, when all had been arranged.

"I shall endeavor to obey my orders, Captain Blowitt, if I can do so
in the exercise of a reasonable
247
prudence," replied Christy, who took in all that his superior looked, as
well as all that he said.

"A reasonable prudence is decidedly good, coming from you, Mr.
Passford," said the captain, laughing outright.

"Why is it decidedly good from me rather than from anybody else?"
asked Christy, somewhat nettled by the remark.

"You objected once on board of the Bellevite when I mildly hinted
that you might sometimes, under some circumstances, with a strong
temptation before you, be just a little audacious," said the captain,
still laughing, as though he were engaged in a mere joke.

"That statement is certainly qualified in almost all directions, if
you will excuse me for saying so, captain," replied Christy, who was
fully determined not to take offence at anything his superior might say,
for he had always regarded him as one of his best friends. "If I
remember rightly the mild suggestion of a criticism which you gently and
tenderly applied to me was after we had brought out the Teaser from
Pensacola Bay."

"That was the time. Captain Breaker sent you to ascertain, if you
could, where the Teaser was,
248
and you reported by bringing her out, which certainly no one expected
you would do, and I believe this part of the programme carried out on
that excursion was not mentioned in your orders."

"It was not; but if I had a good chance to capture the steamer, was
it my duty to pass over that chance, and run the risk of letting the
vessel get out?"

"On the contrary, it was your duty, if you got a good chance, to
capture the steamer."

"And that is precisely what I did. I did not lose a man, or have one
wounded in the expedition; and I have only to be penitent for being
audacious," laughed Christy; and he was laughing very earnestly, as
though the extra cachinnation was assumed for a purpose. "I suppose I
ought to dress myself in ash cloth and sashes, shut myself up in my state
room always when off duty, and shed penitential tears from the rising of
the sun to the going down of the same, and during the lone watches of
the night, and in fortifying my soul against the monstrous sin of
audacity. I will think of it."

"I hope you have no feeling about this matter,
249
Mr. Passford," said the captain, rising from his chair and taking
Christy by the hand.

"Not a particle, Captain Blowitt. I am absolutely sure that you would
have done precisely what I did, if you had been in my situation,"
protested Christy. "About the last thing my father talked about to me
when we parted in this cabin in New York Harbor was the necessity of
prudence and discretion in the discharge of my duties; and I am sure his
advice saved me from falling into the traps set for me by Hungerford and
Pawcett, and enabled me to capture two of the enemy's crack
steamers."

"I will never use the word audacity or the adjective audacious to you
again, Christy. I see that it nettles you, to say the least," added the
captain, pressing his hand with more earnestness.

"I am perfectly willing you should apply both words to me when I
deserve it. Audacity means boldness, impudence, according to Stormonth.
Audacious means very bold, daring, impudent. It may have been bold to
run out the Teaser, and the enemy would even call it impudent, for the
meaning of a word sometimes depends upon which side you belong to. My
father was quite as impudent
250
as I was when he ran the Bellevite out of Mobile Bay, under the guns of
Fort Morgan. He was audacious, wasn't he?"

"We should hardly apply that word to him."

"Why not? Simply because my father was forty-five years old when he
told Captain Breaker to do it. If I were only thirty years old I should
not be audacious. I am a boy, and therefore anything that I do is
daring, audacious, impudent, imprudent."

"I rather think you are right, Mr. Passford, and it is your age more
than the results of your actions that is the basis of our judgment,"
said Captain Blowitt.

"I wish to add seriously, captain, as a friend and not as an officer,
I do not claim that the command of this expedition should be given to me
because I am first lieutenant of the Bronx, or for any other reason,"
added Christy with an earnest expression. "Perhaps it would be better to
give the command to the second lieutenant; and if you do so, I assure
you, upon my honor, that it will not produce a particle of feeling in my
mind. I shall honor, respect, and love you as I have always, Captain
Blowitt."

251
"My dear fellow, you are entirely misunderstanding me," protested the
commander, as earnestly as his subordinate had spoken. "I give you the
command of this expedition because I honestly and sincerely believe you
are the very best person on board to whom I can commit such a
responsibility."

"That is enough, captain, and a great deal more than you were under
any obligations to say to me; and I shall obey my orders with all the
prudence and discretion I can bring to bear upon them," said Christy,
taking the captain's offered hand. "If I fail it will not be because I
do not try to be prudent."

"There is such a thing as being too prudent, and I hope that nothing
which has been said to you by your father or by me will drive you to the
other extreme."

Though this conversation had at times been very animated, Christy was
glad that it had taken place, for it gave him a better insight into his
own standing than he had before. He did not look upon it as a very great
affair to command a couple of boats, in a night expedition, for he had
recently commanded two steamers, and brought them off
252
victorious. He had it in mind to ask the captain to send Flint in
command of the expedition, though it would compel him, on account of his
rank, to remain inactive on board of the Bronx; but he could not do
this, after what had been said, without leaving some evidence that he
was disaffected by what the commander had said to him about
audacity.

It was found after a calculation of the run very carefully made that
the Bronx would arrive too soon at her destination, and she was slowed
down as the evening came on. In the ward room, of which Christy was now
the occupant of the forward berth on the starboard side, he studied the
chart with Amblen a good part of the waiting hours, and the executive
officer obtained all the information he could from the third lieutenant.
There were three principal keys, or cays, one of which, called the North
Key, was the nearest to the mainland, and was set in the mouth of a bay.
This was the nearest to the peninsula at the end of which the railroad
terminates. About southwest of it is the Seahorse Key, on which there is
a light in peaceful times. To the south of the point is the Snake Key,
and between the last two is the
253
main channel to the port, which twists about like the track of a snake.
There is a town, or rather a village, near the landing.

Six bells struck on deck, and all the officers, including the
captain, adjourned to the bridge, which was a useful institution on such
occasions as the present. A sharp watch had been kept by Lieutenant
Flint in charge; but though the night was clear, nothing had been made
out in the direction of the shore. All lights on board had been put out,
and the Bronx went along in the smooth sea as quietly as a lady on a
fashionable promenade, and it was not believed that anything could be
seen of her from the shore.

About midnight the lookout man aloft reported that he could see a
twinkling light. It was promptly investigated by Mr. Amblen, who went
aloft for the purpose. He was satisfied that it was a light in some
house in the village, probably in the upper story. It soon disappeared,
and it was thought to be occasioned by the late retiring of some
person.

"I should say, Captain Blowitt, that we are not more than five miles
outside of Seahorse Key," said Mr. Amblen, after he had interpreted the
254
meaning of the light. "It is after midnight, and these people are not in
the habit of sitting up so late."

"If they are shipping much cotton from this port, it is not
improbable that there is a force here to protect the vessels, whatever
they are," added the commander.

"Of that, of course, I can know nothing; but I shall expect to find a
Confederate battery somewhere on the point, and I know about where to
look for it."

"The place has never been of any great importance, and you can hardly
expect to find a very strong force in it," added the captain.

It has since become a place of more note, both as a resort for
invalids and pleasure-seekers, and as the termination of the railroad
from Fernandina and Jacksonville, and steamers have run regularly from
the port to Havana and New Orleans.

"If you will excuse me, Captain Blowitt, I should say that it was not
advisable to take the Bronx nearer than within about four miles of the
Seahorse Key," suggested Mr. Amblen.

"I was just thinking that we had gone as far as
255
it is prudent to go. Do you think you could take the Bronx up to the
landing?" added the captain.

"I am very sure that I could, for I have been in many a time on a
darker night than this."

"We will not go in to-night, but perhaps we may have occasion to do
so to-morrow. We shall know better what to do when we get a report of
the state of things in the place," replied the captain, as he gave the
word through the speaking tube to stop the steamer.

Christy had been given full powers to make all preparations for the
boat expedition, and was allowed ten men to each of the quarter boats.
He had selected the ones for his own boat, and had required Flint to
pick his own crew for the other. The oars had been carefully muffled by
the coxswains, for it was desirable that no alarm should be given in the
place. The starboard quarter boat was the first cutter, pulled by six
oars, and this was for Christy and Mr. Amblen, with the regular coxswain
and three hands in the bow. The second cutter was in charge of Mr.
Flint, and followed the other boat, keeping near enough to obtain her
course in the twists of the channel.

256
It was a long pull to the Seahorse Key, and a moderate stroke was taken
as well not to tire the men as to avoid all possible noise. When the
first cutter was abreast of the Key, the pilot pointed out the dark
outline of the peninsula, which was less than a mile distant. No vessel
could be seen; but the pilot thought they might be concealed by the
railroad buildings on the point. Christy asked where the battery was
which the pilot thought he could locate, and the spot was indicated to
him. Christy wanted a nearer view of it, and the cutter was headed in
that direction.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE VISIT TO A SHORE BATTERY

The first cutter reached the Seahorse Key closely followed by the
second. It was within an hour of high tide, the ordinary rise and fall
of which was two and a half feet. On the Key was a light house, and a
cottage for the keeper of it; but the former was no longer illuminated,
and the house was as dark as the head of the tower. So far as could be
discovered there was no one on the Key, though the boats did not stop to
investigate this matter. The crews still pulled a moderate stroke with
their muffled oars, the men were not allowed to talk, and everything was
as silent as the inside of a tomb.

The pilot stood up in the stern sheets of the cutter, gazing intently
in the direction of the point nearly a mile ahead. The outlines of the
buildings could be discerned, and Amblen soon declared that he could
make out the tops of the
258
masts of several vessels to the westward of the point with which the
peninsula terminated. This looked hopeful, and indicated that the
information upon which the expedition had been sent out was correct.
Christy began to think he should have a busy night before him when
Amblen said there were at least three vessels at the port.

The battery was first to be visited and cared for if there was one,
and it was not probable that a place so open to the operations of the
blockading force would be without one, especially if the people were
actually engaged in loading cotton, as the masts of the vessels
indicated, though the hulls could not yet be seen. As the first cutter
approached nearer to the place the outlines became more distinct, and
soon embodied themselves into definite objects. Both officers in the
stern sheets watched with the most anxious vigilance for any moving
object denoting the presence of life and intelligence.

As the boats came nearer to the shore, a breeze sprang up, and cooled
the air, for early as it was in the season, the weather was very warm,
and it was not uncommon for the thermometer to rise above ninety. These
breezes were usually present
259
to cool the nights, and doubtless the inhabitants slept the sounder for
the one which had just begun to fan the cheeks of the officers and
seamen of the expedition.

"There is a battery there, Mr. Passford," said the pilot in a very
low tone. "I can make it out now, and it is just where I supposed it
would be."

"I can see something that seems like an earthwork at the right of the
buildings," added Christy. "Can you make out anything that looks like a
sentinel?"

"I can see nothing that denotes the presence of a man. If there were
a sentinel there, he would be on the top of the earthwork, or on the
highest ground about it, so that he could see out into the bay, for
there can be no danger from the land side of the place," added
Amblen.

"I can hardly imagine such a thing as a battery without a sentinel to
give warning if anybody should try to carry it off. There must be a
sentry somewhere in the vicinity."

"I can't say there isn't, though I can't make out a man, or anything
that looks like one," replied the pilot.

"Very likely we shall soon wake him up, Mr.
260
Amblen; and in that case it will be necessary for us to find a safer
place than in front of the guns of the battery, for I do not feel at
liberty to expose the men to the fire of the works, whatever
they are."

"All you have to do is to pull around to the other side of the point
into the bay, where the vessels are. I am confident there is no battery
on that side, and there can hardly be any need of one, for this one
commands the channel, the only approach to the place for a vessel larger
than a cutter."

"I fancy this battery does not amount to much, and is probably
nothing more than an earthwork, with a few field guns behind it. Suppose
we should wake it up, and have to make for the bay, can we get out of it
without putting the boats under the guns of the battery?"

"Without any difficulty at all, sir. We have only to pull around the
North Key, and pass out to the Gulf, beyond the reach of any field gun
that can be brought to bear on us," replied Mr. Amblen.

"If they have one or two field batteries here, they may hitch on the
horses, and follow us," suggested Christy, who, in spite of the audacity
with
261
which he had been mildly charged, was not inclined to run into any trap
from which he could not readily withdraw his force.

"We shall have the short line, and if they pursue us with the guns,
we can retire by the way of the channel, which they will leave
uncovered."

"We are getting quite near the shore," continued Christy. "How is the
water under us?"

"The bottom is sandy, and we shall take the ground before we reach
the shore if we don't manage properly. But we can tell something by the
mangroves that fringe the land," replied the pilot; "and I will go into
the bow of the cutter and look out for them."

Mr. Amblen made his way to the fore sheets, and asked Boxie, who was
there, for the boathook, with which he proceeded to sound. When he had
done so, he raised both his hands to a level with his shoulders, which
was the signal to go ahead, and the men pulled a very slow stroke. He
continued to sound, after he had selected the point for landing.

When the first cutter was within three lengths of the shore, he
elevated both his hands above his head, which was the signal to cease
rowing, though
262
the two bow oarsmen kept their oars in the water instead of boating them
as the others did. Mr. Amblen continued to feel the way, and in a few
minutes more, aided by the shoving of the two bow oarsmen, he brought
the boat to the shore.

Then he gave his attention to the second cutter, bringing it to the
land alongside of the first. Stepping out on the sand himself, he was
followed by all the crew, with cutlass in hand, and revolvers in
readiness for use. The men were placed in order for an advance, and then
required to lie down on the sand, so that they could not readily be seen
if any stroller appeared on the ground.

Leaving the force in charge of Mr. Flint, Christy and Amblen walked
towards the battery, crouching behind such objects as they could find
that would conceal them in whole or in part. The earthwork was
semicircular in form, and was hardly more than a rifle pit. No sentinel
could be discovered, and getting down upon the sand, the two officers
crept cautiously towards the heaps of sand which formed the fort.

Christy climbed up the slope with some difficulty, for the dry sand
afforded a very weak foothold. On the top of it, which was about six
feet
263
wide, they found a solid path which had evidently been a promenade for
sentinels or other persons. Behind it, on a wooden platform, were four
field guns, with depressions in the earthwork in front of the
muzzles.

Christy led the way down the slope on the inside to the pieces, which
were twelve-pounders. At a little distance from the platform was a sort
of casemate, which might have been constructed for a magazine, or for a
place of resort for the gunners if the fort should be bombarded. Not a
man could be seen, and if there was any garrison for the place, they
were certainly taking things very comfortably, for they must have been
asleep at this unseemly hour for any ordinary occupation.

Not far from the battery was a rude structure, hardly better than a
shanty, which Christy concluded must be the barracks of the soldiers if
there were any there. He walked over to it; but there was not a human
being to be seen in the vicinity. It was half past one at night, when
honest people ought to be abed and asleep, and the first lieutenant of
the Bronx concluded that the garrison, if this shanty was their
quarters, must be honest people.

264
Christy walked very cautiously to the side of the building, for the
entrance was at the end nearest to the fort, and found several windows
there, from which the sashes seemed to have been removed, if there had
ever been any. The bottom of each opening was no higher than his head,
and he went to one of them and looked in.

Extending along the middle of the interior was a row of berths. It
was very dark inside, and he could not make out whether or not these
bunks were occupied. The windows on the other side of the shanty enabled
him to see that there were two rows of berths, each backing against the
other. There were two in each tier, and he judged that the barrack would
accommodate forty-eight men.

He retained his place at the window in order to discover any movement
made by a sleeper that would inform him whether or not the berths were
occupied. If there were any soldiers there, they were as quiet as
statues; but while he was watching for a movement, he heard a decided
snore. There was at least one man there, and he continued to hear his
sonorous breathing as long as he remained at the window, which was the
first on the side of the shanty.

Christy walked the whole length of the shanty.

265
Christy decided to push the investigation still farther, and he went to
a window in the middle of the building. He regarded the berths with
attention for a few minutes, but he could perceive no movement. He could
hear two snorers who seemed to be competing with each other to see who
could make the most noise.

If the berths were all occupied, three snorers were not a very great
proportion in forty-eight. He was very anxious to ascertain if this was
the number of soldiers in the place, but it was too dark in the shanty
for him to determine whether or not the bunks were all in use. It was
too many for him to encounter with his force of twenty men and three
officers in the open field.

Christy returned to the end of the building, and tried the door. It
was not locked, and he decided to make use of a little of the audacity
of which he was accused of having a good deal. Taking off his shoes, and
passing his sword to Mr. Amblen, he entered the barrack on tiptoe.

The boards of the floor began to creak under his weight; he stooped
down and felt till he found the nail holes; then he knew that he was on
a timber, and he walked the whole length of the shanty,
266
returning on the opposite side, counting the occupied berths, for he
passed within three feet of all of them. The count gave seventeen men as
the number of sleepers, though this might not be all the force at the
place.

He had ascertained all he wished to know, and he walked back to the
shore where the men were concealed. Apart from the men, he had a
conference with Flint and Amblen, giving them the details of what he had
discovered. Then he stated his plan, and the men were marched silently
to the battery, and were posted behind the breastwork. Not a man was
allowed to move, and Christy and Flint went to the casemate, which
looked like a mound of sand.

It was locked, but taking a bar of iron they found with some tools
for digging, they tore off the padlock. A lantern had been brought from
the steamer, which was lighted. The structure was found to be for the
protection of the artillerists in the first instance; but the apartment
was connected with the magazine, the lock of which was removed.

Amblen was sent for ten men, and all the ammunition they could carry
was removed. The
267
rest of it was thrown into a pool of water made by recent rains. The
powder, solid shot, and shells were carried to the boats. The rest of
the men drew the four guns to the shore, where one was placed, with its
carriage, in each of the cutters, and the other two put where they could
be carried to the Bronx, or thrown overboard in deep water, as occasion
might require.

The seventeen soldiers, reinforced by any that might be in the town,
were thus deprived of the power to do any mischief except in a
hand-to-hand fight. If the place was not actually captured, it was
practically lost to the enemy. The next business of the expedition was
to examine the bay, and ascertain what vessels were at the landing
place. The boats shoved off, and pulled around the point.

CHAPTER XXIV

CAPTAIN LONLEY OF THE STEAMER HAVANA

The two twelve-pounders in each boat were believed to weigh about six
hundred pounds each, while the ordinary bronze boat gun of the same
calibre weighs seven hundred and sixty pounds. The four guns, therefore,
were rather too heavy a burden for the size of the cutters. But Christy
was unwilling to throw the two without carriages overboard, for the
water in this locality was so clear that they could have been seen at a
depth of two or three fathoms. They were useless for the duty in which
the expedition was engaged, and the commander of the expedition decided
to land them on the Seahorse Key till he had completed his operations in
the bay, when they could be taken off and transported to the Bronx as
trophies, if for nothing better.

Mr. Flint was disposed to object to this plan, on account of the time
it would require; but he
269
yielded the point when Christy informed him that it was only half past
two, as he learned from the repeater he carried for its usefulness on
just such duty as the present expedition.

The guns and all that belonged to them were landed on the Key, and
the boats shoved off, the lieutenants happy in the thought that they
were no longer embarrassed by their weight, while they could not be
brought to bear upon them.

The boats had hardly left the little island behind them when the
noise of paddle wheels ahead was reported by one of the trio in the bow
of the first cutter. Christy listened with all his ears, and immediately
heard the peculiar sounds caused by the slapping of the paddle wheels of
a steamer upon the water.

"We are in for something," said he to the pilot, as he listened to
the sounds. "What might that be?"

"It is a steamer without any doubt coming around the point, and she
will be in sight in a moment or two," replied Mr. Amblen. "It may be a
river steamer that has brought a load of cotton down the Suwanee, and is
going out on this tide."

270
"Then we may need those guns we have left on the key," suggested
Christy.

"If she is a river steamer, there is not much of a force on board of
her," replied the pilot.

"We might return to the island, and use the two guns with carriages
there."

"If she is a river steamer, we shall not need great guns to
capture her."

Christy had ordered the men to cease rowing, and the two cutters lay
motionless on the full sea, for the tide was at its height by this time.
Even in the darkness they could make out whether the approaching vessel
was a river or a sea steamer as soon as she could be seen.

"Whatever she is, we must capture her," said Christy, very
decidedly.