t
for it," Marcy reminded him. "Is your patriotism on the wane?"

"Not much; but you couldn't expect us to keep up that thank-ye business
forever, could you? How would we run the line if we did? We think as
much of the brave boys who are standing between us and Lincoln's
Abolitionists as we ever did; but it takes the hard cash to pay
operators and buy poles and wires."

Marcy had no trouble in getting his check cashed, and when he went back
to the schooner after his valise and bundles, he had twenty-one hundred
dollars in his pocket. But there were seventeen hundred dollars of it
that did not belong to him. He was only keeping it until he could have
opportunity to return it to the master of the _Mary Hollins._ He found
that Captain Beardsley had gone ashore with his agent, and as Marcy had
already said good-bye to him, it was not necessary that he should waste
any valuable time in hunting him up. He took a hasty leave of his
shipmates, hired a darkey to carry his luggage to the depot, and was in
time to purchase his ticket for a train that was on the point of leaving
for Goldsborough. He had hardly settled himself in his seat before he
became aware that nearly all the passengers in the car were looking at
him, and finally one of them came and seated himself by his side.

"You are not in uniform," said the passenger, "but all the same I take
it for granted that it was the Yankees who put your arm in a sling."

"Yes, sir; they did it," answered Marcy.

"Well, now, I want to know if it's a fact that the Yankees outnumbered
us two to one in that fight," continued the man.

"You refer to the battle of Bull Run, I suppose. I don't know. I wasn't
there, and I don't hesitate to say that I am glad of it. One howitzer is
as much as I care to face. I got this hurt while coming into Crooked
Inlet on the schooner _Hattie_. She's a blockade-runner."

"Oh! well, if there's going to be a war, as some people seem to think,
you blockade-runners will be of quite as much use to the Confederacy as
the soldiers. We shall be dependent upon foreign governments for many
things that we used to get from the North, and men like you will have to
supply us. Was it much of a fight?"

Marcy briefly related the story, and when it was finished the man went
back to his old seat; but during the journey the young pilot was obliged
to tell more than a score of people that he was not present at the
battle of Bull Run, and consequently could not have