ty
touchy lot, I can tell you; and if they find you letting on that you
want the Southerners to win, there's no sayin' how hot they'll make it
for you."

Terry promised to be careful, adding with a rueful face,--

"Oh! but it's meself that wants to be off the botherin' ship. Sure I
never axed to be aboard her, and it's sick I am of her entirely."

Captain Afleck could not keep back a laugh. The boy seemed so deeply
concerned about his perplexities whenever he stopped to think of them,
although he could forget them so completely when something else engaged
his mind.

"Keep your heart up, Terry," he said, in a cheering tone. "We're on a
losin' tack now seemingly, but we may 'bout ship soon. Come along with
me and see if they won't give us some breakfast."

They found a ready welcome at one of the sailors' messes, and a big
piece of bread washed down with steaming coffee perceptibly lightened
Terry's spirits, for the time being at all events.

All that day and the next the _Minnesota_ maintained her strenuous
speed; and as the afternoon wore on, the signs of bustle and excitement
on board, and the earnest way in which the men talked together, showed
that they were rapidly nearing their destination.

The approach of battle is a serious enough matter when the forces on
both sides are pretty well known, and the character of the undertaking
can be at least measurably estimated; but it is a very different matter
when neither of these things is known, and when the affair is very much
of a leap in the dark.

Now this was just the state of things on the _Minnesota_. No one on
board, not even her captain, had any clear knowledge of the perils and
difficulties to be encountered. The Confederate naval force might be
found overwhelmingly strong or miserably weak. Moreover, there were
certain disturbing rumours afloat about an alarming novelty, in the way
of a naval monster, against which no wooden vessel would have the
slightest chance. Of this mystery the Norfolk navy-yard still held the
secret, although it was generally believed to be about ripe for
revelation.

CHAPTER VI.

IN HAMPTON ROADS.

To make entirely clear the position of the _Minnesota_ at this point,
some words of explanation are necessary here. The American Civil War
was raging hotly, with the advantage if anything on the side of the
Southern Confederacy. In the spring of the year 1861, the Federal
forces had hurriedly abandoned their grea