for not one of those in it is a sailor."

Christy was not a little interested in the situation; for he thought his
father must have gone on board of the Bellevite, or she would not have
changed her position. It was all a mystery to him as well as to the
commandant of Fort Gaines, and the boat in the distance had been to the
shore for the purpose of investigating it.

He had an idea in his head, and he continued to examine the interior of
the pilot-house till he found a number of paper rolls in a drawer, which
looked very much like local charts of the bay. He examined several of
them, and found one which covered the portion of the waters around him.
He had noted the direction taken by the Bellevite the day before, and he
had no difficulty in placing the inlet where she had moored at the
wharf.

"What have you got there, Mr. Passford?" asked the major, who had been
looking on the floor, thinking what he should do in his present dilemma.

[Illustration: "You a Sailor?" (Page 215)]

"It is a chart of these waters, which appears to have been considerably
improved with a pen and ink," replied Christy, still examining it.

"That is the work of Captain Pecklar. They call him the best pilot for
Mobile Bay there is about here, though he has been here but two years."

"Here is the inlet, or river, where we passed the night; and the captain
has marked the wharf on it."

"What good is the chart without a man that knows how to steer a
steamer?" asked the major, who was becoming very impatient in the
presence of the delay that confronted him; for the illness of Captain
Pecklar deprived him of the ability to do any thing, even to return to
the fort.

"You forget that I am a sailor, Major Pierson," said Christy.

"You a sailor? I thought you were the son of a millionnaire, who could
not possibly know any thing except how to eat and sleep," replied the
soldier, laughing.

"I have steered the Bellevite for a great many hundred miles, and my
father says I am competent to do duty as a quartermaster."

"You astonish me; and, as we are both engaged in the same good cause,
I am heartily delighted to find that you are a sailor."

"Probably I shall astonish you still more before we have got through.
With this chart before me, I have no doubt I can find my way about here
in the Leopard," said Christy.

"Then I give you the command of the steamer in the absence of Captain
Pecklar," continued the major. "This boat and another are