not
follow the regular markets of trade. It always had its peculiar channels
of commerce; its cotton had an undiscoverable destination.

The colonel, as we will still call him, was, from his earliest memory,
sternly brought up under an atmosphere of uncanniness and secrecy, nor
did he leave his fertile island, except, as we shall mention, until his
father died and made him sole proprietor of land, slaves and family
traditions. Fully two hundred acres were under cotton cultivation. The
insignificant remainder was unentangled marsh.

Colonel Oddminton's father died in eighteen hundred and sixty-one. Then
the colonel began to expand. He had two hobbies that consumed his
imagination by day and agitated his visions by night. The one had been
shared by his deceased parent, namely, an inordinate desire to be rich;
not as wealthy as the richest family in Charleston, but as rich as all
the merchants in the "City by the Sea" put together. Cotton had always
given a comfortable living, but cotton was declining. It became
unsatisfactory. It was not enough.

Colonel Oddminton's other hobby was a fast boat. He had always been a
more than enthusiastic sailor. When the boy was only eighteen, his
father had given him a ten-ton sloop and allowed him to go anywhere,
provided he did not touch the mainland. This order was in accordance
with the old man's peculiarities, but was strictly obeyed. With his
black sailors the boy had cruised in every bay and inlet for a hundred
miles about. Though no one else knew it, he was the best pilot those
waters ever saw. During the war, when he was master, he never left his
island except to put his own cotton aboard English blockade runners. In
these hazardous attempts he never failed. This experience cultivated his
native qualities of courage and of self-possession.

On this island of his there was a bay that afforded fine anchorage for
two large boats. It abutted on the marsh. It was there he had built a
small camphouse. Neither the cove nor the house could be seen from the
open sea. The former could only be entered through an intricate channel,
and that when the wind and tide were favorable. The latter was
approached through heavy underbrush by a winding passage that was known
only to a few.

Colonel Oddminton was a tall, fine-looking man. He wore a long flowing
beard that had never seen the razor. His build was massive; his height
was manly.

About the time of which we are writing--this was in--