nd they shoved off. The men were soldiers, and they had had but little
practice in rowing, having taken it up at the fort. They made rather
bad work of it; but, more by luck than skill, the boat cleared the tug
without being stove.

"Spikeley!" shouted the major.

"Here, sir," replied the engineer, hobbling out of his room.

"Stop the engine, and remember what I told you," added the commandant.

"All right, sir: I will do just as you ordered me."

"What does he want to stop the engine for?" asked Percy. "She don't roll
so badly when the engine is going."

"That is very true; but your brother knows what he is about," replied
Christy, his eyes beginning to light up with an unwonted fire.

"Well, what is he about?"

"He is going to capture the Bellevite."

"He will have a nice time of it!" exclaimed Percy. "That steamer can
blow him out of the water a dozen times before he gets near her."

"I don't believe your brother has any idea that the Bellevite is heavily
armed," added Christy.

"But he has been on board of her."

"That is very true; but the two heavy guns were covered up, and the
others were sent down into the hold. All the soldiers in the boat
with your brother have their muskets; and he would not have taken the
lieutenant and six men with him if he were simply going for the doctor
for Captain Pecklar, as he told me he was."

"I believe Lindley is a fool to think of such a thing as capturing the
Bellevite with eight men," added Percy.

"I don't know what else he can intend to do, but I do know why he don't
take the tug any nearer to the steamer. He don't want my father to know
what has become of me."

"Can't you make some sort of a signal to him, Christy?"

"I can do something better than that."

"What's that?"

"I can show myself to him. But, before I do that, I must know how you
stand, Percy."

"How I stand? You know as much about me as I know about myself. I want
to get on board of the Bellevite, and I am not a bit anxious to fight my
brother's battle for him. I know what he is after, now I think of it."

"Well, what is he after?"

"He is after the Bellevite; and if he can take her, he is sure of a
colonel's commission."

"I should say that he could not do any thing better for the Confederacy
than to present it with the finest steamer in the world. But you are not
with him, you say, Percy."

"I am not. I belong to the Confederacy the same as he does; but I want
to get aboard of the