on the bridge, watching them as they disembarked, and wondering how long
it would be before Captain Benton would tell him that his services were
no longer needed and that he might return to his home; and, while he
watched and thought, he discovered a small party of men on shore with
bundles in their hands or on their shoulders, and who acted as though
they were waiting for a chance to come off to the fleet. He knew, as
soon as he looked at them, that they were Union men who were about to
take the opportunity thus presented to enlist under the old flag.

"That is who they are," thought Marcy, after he had kept his binoculars
pointed at them for a minute or two. "They can't be anything else, for
they are in citizens' clothes. Now, in trying to better their own
condition, are they not making matters worse for their families, if they
have any? I wonder if I am acquainted with any of them? I will soon
know, for they are heading for this ship."

The boats belonging to Captain Benton's vessel had been engaged, with
all the other boats of the fleet, in taking the soldiers to the shore,
and when they placed their last load of bluecoats upon the bank and were
ready to return to their ship, they brought the party of which we have
spoken off with them. As the leading boat drew nearer to the side, so
that Marcy could obtain a fairer view of the man who sat in the
stern-sheets talking to the coxswain, he uttered a cry of surprise and
alarm, and almost let his glass fall from his hand. The man was Aleck
Webster.

CHAPTER XII.

HOME AGAIN.

Marcy Gray waited until the boat drew a little nearer, and then looked
again. There could be no mistake about it. The man in the stern-sheets
with the coxswain was Aleck Webster, the one who had promised to have an
eye on Marcy and his mother while Jack was at sea, and those who
composed his party were men whom Marcy met at the post-office almost as
often as he went there. If they were coming off to enlist, as Marcy
thought they were, wouldn't that break up the band who held meetings in
the swamp? And if that band should be broken up, who would there be to
stand between his mother and the wrath of Captain Beardsley? These
questions and others like them passed through the boy's mind, as he came
down from the bridge and stepped to the gangway to meet Aleck and his
friends when they came on board. Aleck was the first to get out of the
boat and mount the ladder, and when he reached the top, w