g for.

The officer wasted no words in leave-taking, but went at once, and Marcy
Gray felt more gloomy than ever when he found himself alone on the ocean
with nobody but the boy Julius for a companion. He sent the latter to
the wheel and went forward to act as lookout and pilot, intending to
follow Captain Beardsley's example and run through Crooked Inlet under
full sail. He thought he could remember about where the buoys had been
placed, and besides he had the flood tide to help him. If he succeeded,
he would run across the Sound and hunt up some little bay in which he
could go into hiding until such time as he thought it safe to come out
and start for home.

This programme was duly carried out, and the good luck that had thus far
attended him stayed with him to the end. He piloted the schooner through
the Inlet without the least trouble, ran across the Sound without being
seen by anybody, and put into the mouth of a little bayou, where he tied
up and turned in for a much needed rest. He remained there all that day
and the ensuing night, and at sunrise on the following morning ran
Sailor Jack's Confederate flag up to the _Fairy Belle's_ peak, and stood
boldly out for Roanoke Island.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONCLUSION.

As soon as the schooner was straightened on her course so that Marcy
could manage her with one hand, he came aft and took the wheel.

"Go below and hide that Union flag," said he. "These rebels may not be
as easily satisfied this time as they were when we went down, and if
they send a boat aboard of us I don't want them to find anything. I
don't care to know where you put the flag. All you have to do is to hide
it where we can find it again when we want it."

Julius was gone not more than five minutes, and when he returned to take
the wheel Marcy walked forward, carrying in his hand one of the Newbern
papers which he had folded and twisted, newsboy fashion, so that it
could be thrown a considerable distance.

The first thing that attracted his attention, after the _Fairy Belle_
passed the foot of the island, was a steamer, whose crew were busy
adding to the obstructions that had already been placed in Croatan
Sound. But there was a wide clear space close under the guns of Fort
Bartow, and into this Julius held his way, passing so near the steamer
that Marcy was able to throw his paper among the crew.

"Newbern," he shouted to the Confeder