ng so."

"Will you deny that you were employed as a servant at the house of
Captain Passford, at Bonnydale on the Hudson?" demanded Christy, with
not a little energy in his tones and manner.

"Where, sir, if you please?" asked the sailor, with a sort of bewildered
look.

"At Bonnydale!"

"Boddyvale? I never heard of the place before in my life, sir," answered
the runaway servant.

Possibly the man under examination was not wholly responsible for his
distortion of the name of Captain Passford's estate, as Christy was
beginning to reap the penalty of his imprudence the night before, in
exposing himself barefooted and half-clothed to the chill midnight
air, and was developing a cold in the head that already affected his
enunciation.

"Bonnydale!" repeated the officer, after using his handkerchief, and
thus improving his utterance of the word.

"I never heard of the place before, sir," persisted the seaman.

"Byron!" called a boatswain's mate from the forecastle.

"That's my name--Byron, sir, at your service," said the man, as he
touched his cap to the lieutenant, and rushed forward in answer to the
call of his superior, evidently glad to escape from the inquisition to
which he had been subjected. "On deck!" he added, as he made his way to
the forecastle.

Christy was a passenger on board of the Vernon, and he had nothing to
do. The commanding officer appeared to be engaged in the details of his
duty, though the steamer was in charge of a pilot. He could see from
his shoulder straps that he was an ensign, and the officers in the waist
and on the forecastle were of the same rank. If there were any other
passengers on board of the vessel who were commissioned officers, they
were not visible on the deck, though they might be in their staterooms,
arranging their affairs for the voyage.

The young lieutenant leaned against the rail, and gave himself up to the
consideration of what had occurred since he came on board. He had been
bewildered by one mystery the night before, and he could not help asking
himself if the conduct of Walsh had anything to do with the visit of the
intruder at Bonnydale. He could not trace out any connection between the
two events; but, on the other hand, he was unable to satisfy himself
that the mysterious visit, the sudden disappearance of the man-servant,
and the denial of his identity by the latter, were not in some manner
related to each other.

He had no premises on which to base an