so badly frightened.

"Being an old sailor he can't help it."

"Of course he will mistrust what brought us out here, and spread it all
through the settlement," added Marcy.

"That is just what he will do," said Jack truthfully.

"And what will Shelby and Dillon and the rest of them do to us--to
mother?"

"You must make it your business to see Aleck Webster as soon as you get
home," replied Jack. "Tell him that Beardsley has returned, that he
caught us out here, and that the time has come for him and his friends
to show their hands. I think you will have time to see Aleck before
Beardsley gets home, because he's got to go to Newbern with his cargo."

All this while Captain Beardsley's blockade-runner had been swiftly
drawing near to the mouth of the Inlet, where the _Fairy Belle_ lay
rising and falling with the waves, and now she dashed by within less
than a stone's throw of them. The boys, who were standing up in their
skiff holding fast to the _Fairy Belle's_ rail, could not see a man on
her deck except the lookout in the bow and the sailor at the wheel. The
lookout was Beardsley himself; Marcy and his brother would have
recognized his tall form and broad shoulders anywhere. He kept his eyes
fastened upon the _Fairy Belle_ as he swept by, but he did not say a
word or change his course by so much as an inch. In five minutes more he
was out of sight.

"Now will somebody tell me what that old villain wants of a pilot?"
exclaimed sailor Jack, as he climbed over the rail and turned about to
help Marcy up. "He knows more about Crooked Inlet than you do, or he
couldn't run it with all his muslin spread and no buoys to mark the
channel."

"I always said he didn't need a pilot," replied Marcy. "He has kept me
with him on purpose to torment mother."

"He'll not do it any longer," said Jack confidently. "You must send word
to those Union men as soon as you get home. If you don't, Beardsley will
make it so very hot for you that by the time the fire gets through
burning mother won't have a roof to go under when it rains. Stand by,
Julius."

Jack and the darkey went forward to hoist the headsails, and Marcy,
filled with the most gloomy forebodings, undid the fastenings of the
wheel and laid his uninjured hand upon one of the spokes. One after the
other the sails were given to the breeze, lights were put out to show
the first cruiser they met that they were honest folks going about
honest business, and Jack came aft to