mean to be again," replied the
sentinel. "On deck, there! Bring a lantern out of the engine-room!"

"Don't bring a lantern in sight!" protested Christy impatiently.

"What's the row there, Sampson?" called Paul Vapoor, mounting the rail,
and looking through the darkness at the steps, down which the vigilant
sentinel had descended more than half way to the water.

"This fellow says he is Christy Passford; and I don't know whether it is
Christy or not," replied Sampson.

"Is that you, Christy?" asked Paul.

"Of course it is," replied the middy. "We are wasting time."

"He hasn't the word," added the sentinel.

"Pass him, Sampson; he is all right," said the engineer; and Christy
rushed up the steps, and leaped down upon the deck of the steamer.

"I gave out a word for all who had to leave the ship for any purpose
during the evening," Paul explained.

"Never mind that now," interposed the midshipman in command. "Have you
plenty of steam on?"

"Enough to give her fifteen knots," replied the engineer. "The cable
is buoyed, and the long gun loaded. I believe everything is in perfect
order to carry out your instructions, though we did not point the gun
when we loaded it, for I thought you would prefer to do that yourself,"
the engineer reported.

"All right, Paul," added Christy. "The steamer, whose name is the
Vampire, is on her way up the river, and I should say she would reach
the bend in about half an hour. Mr. Watts is down there, and I have
arranged certain signals with him."

The midshipman made a careful examination for himself of the ship.

CHAPTER X

A SHOT FROM THE LONG GUN

Christy Passford, as soon as he found that all the other preparations
for the decisive event had been made, turned his attention to the aiming
of the long gun. He had practised with it somewhat before; and in the
ambitious spirit of a boy, he had often amused himself by sighting over
the top of the piece.

There was no sort of duty on board of a vessel, even a war steamer, in
which he had not done his best to make himself a proficient. He had done
duty as an engineer, and even as a fireman. He had taken his trick at
the wheel as a quartermaster, and there was nothing he had not done,
unless it was to command a vessel, and he had done that on a small
scale. Doubtless he had no inconsiderable portion of a boy's vanity,
and he believed that he could do anything that anybody else could do;
or if he was satisfied that he c