," replied the captain. "Now, how can you get home in the easiest
way?"

"By boat, if I had one."

"You can have three or four if you want that many. You know that we have
captured every sort of craft we could find along the shore, and you can
take your pick of any of those on deck. I don't know that this will be
of any use to you," said the captain, shaking the sheet of paper he held
in his hand, "but I think it would be a good plan for you to take it
along, for there is no telling what may happen. You don't think there is
anything on it, do you? Well, there is, and it is the strongest letter
of recommendation I know how to write. We are going to leave garrisons
scattered all through this region, and if at any time you find yourself
in trouble with them, tell the first officer you can find to hold this
paper before a hot fire and read the words the heat will bring out. The
letter is written with sympathetic ink, and you don't want to use it
until you have to, because, after the characters have once been brought
out, there is no way that I know of to make them invisible again. I am
deeply indebted to you, and wish there was some way in which I could
serve you."

It made Marcy sad to have the captain talk to him in this way. Although
he was impatient to get home, he did not like to take leave of the new
friends he had made on board that ship, for the probabilities were that
he would never see them again. After thinking a moment he replied that
he did not know of anyway in which the captain could favor him, unless
it was by taking a brotherly interest in Aleck Webster and his friends,
who had come off to his ship for the purpose of enlisting.

"They are on deck now," said Marcy, in conclusion, "and I was sorry to
see them come aboard. Of course they have a right to do as they please,
but I had somehow got it into my head that they would stay on shore to
protect those of us who are unable to protect ourselves. But Aleck
thinks we do not need any one to protect us now that all these captured
points are to be held by the Union forces."

"And that is what I think," replied the captain. "The commanding officer
at Plymouth will not stand by and let your rebel neighbors impose on
you. If they don't behave themselves, report them; that's all you've got
to do."

"But you don't know how sly they are, and how hard it is to prove
anything against them. The commodore as good as said that Captain
Beardsley would be released."