room the volume on "Ordinance and
Gunnery," by Simpson, and he had diligently studied it.

"Mr. Passford," said one of the hands at the head of the companion
ladder.

"On deck," replied Christy.

"Steamer on the port bow," added the seaman.

"That must be the Bellevite," said the lieutenant.

"Now you may go on deck, Bokes," added Graines, as he drove the boozer
ahead of him, and followed his superior.

He instructed the men in the waist to keep an eye on Bokes, and sent
him forward. Then he took the precaution to lock the doors at the
companion-way, and joined Christy on the quarterdeck.

"That's the Bellevite without a doubt," said Christy, as he directed the
spy-glass he had taken from the brackets, and was still looking through
it. "But she is farther to the eastward than I expected to find her."

"I suppose her commander knows what he is about," replied Graines.

"Certainly he does; and I do not criticise his action."

All the steamers on the blockade except the Bellevite and the one in
the west had been sent away on other duty, for it was believed that the
former would be enough to overhaul anything that was likely to come out
of Mobile Bay at this stage of the war. Sure of the steamer of which he
was the executive officer, Christy directed his glass towards the one
on the other side of the channel. She had received no notice of the
approach of a powerful blockade-runner, and she had not a full head of
steam when she discovered the Tallahatchie. Besides, she was one of the
slowest vessels in the service.

The black smoke was pouring out of her smokestack as though she was
using something besides anthracite coal in her furnaces, and she was
doing her best to intercept the Confederate. She was still firing her
heaviest gun, though it could be seen that her shots fell far short of
the swift steamer.

"They have seen the Bellevite on board of the Tallahatchie, and she has
changed her course," said Graines, while Christy was still watching the
movements of the blockader in the west. "Probably Captain Rombold knows
all about the Bellevite, and he is not anxious to get too near her."

"She has pointed her head to the south-west, and the Bellevite is
changing her course. I hope we shall not miss her," added Christy.

When the fog bank blew over and revealed her presence on board of the
West Wind, the Bellevite was not more than half a mile to the southward,
but she was at least two miles to the eastward of