. His heir had no taste for the sea, and the steamer was
sold at a price far beyond her cost; and the purchaser had succeeded in
getting her into Mobile Bay with a valuable cargo. She was of about
eight hundred tons burden, and it was said that she could steam twenty
knots an hour. She was believed to be the equal of the Alabama and the
Shenandoah. The Bellevite had been especially notified not to allow the
Trafalgar to escape. She had recently had her bottom cleaned, and her
engine put in perfect order for the service expected of her, for she was
the fastest vessel on the blockade.

When Captain Breaker had assured himself that he was out of hearing of
the officer of the deck, he invited Christy to take a seat at his side.
He spoke in a low tone, and was especially careful that no officer
should hear him.

"Perhaps I meddle with what does not concern me, Christy; but I cannot
help having ideas of my own," said the commander, when he was satisfied
that no one but the executive officer could hear him. "There is Fort
Morgan, with Fort Gaines three miles from it on the other side of the
channel. Mobile Point, as it is called at this end of the neck, extends
many miles to the eastward. It is less than two miles wide where it is
broadest, and not over a quarter of a mile near Pilot Town."

"I have studied the lay of the land very carefully, for I have had some
ideas of my own," added Christy, as the commander paused.

"If Fort Morgan had been Fort Sumter, with bad memories clinging to it,
an effort would have been made to capture it, either by bombardment by
the navy, or by regular approaches on the part of the army," continued
Captain Breaker. "They are still pounding away at Fort Sumter, because
there would be a moral in its capture and the reduction of Charleston,
for the war began there. Such an event would send a wave of rejoicing
through the North, though it would be of less real consequence than the
opening of Mobile Bay and the cleaning out of the city of Mobile. Except
Wilmington, it is the most pestilent resort for blockade-runners on the
entire coast."

"Then you think Fort Morgan can be reduced from the land side?" asked
Christy, deeply interested in the conversation.

"I have little doubt of it; and while I believe Farragut will resort to
his favorite plan of running by the forts here, as he has done by those
of the Mississippi, the army will be planted in the rear of both these
forts. As we have lain here