, Commander Passford," he
added, with exceeding warmth. "I know that you deserved this promotion,
and I was sure you would get it from the moment I saw you in the mizzen
rigging of the Bellevite, and within the same minute leaping over the
rail of the Tallahatchie, closely followed by thirty or forty of your
seamen. I lost all hope of taking your ship then, for almost at the same
instant came the discharge of the thirty-pounder I had prepared to lay
low half your boarders. I told you this would come, but you seemed to be
doubtful of it; and I repeat what I have said before, that God makes
some fully-developed men before they are twenty-one."

The surgeon followed the example of his fellow-prisoner; and then
Christy's mother and sister hugged and kissed him, and he heartily
returned their affectionate embraces.

"I have only to add that my son has been appointed to the command of the
St. Regis, a steamer of over eight hundred tons, and reputed to have a
speed of twenty knots an hour, though I have some doubts in regard to
the last item," said Captain Passford.

"I cannot wish him success in his new command, for that would be
treason; but I have no doubt he will damage our cause even more than he
has in the past; and so far as he is personally concerned, I can wish
him success with all my heart," added Captain Rombold. "I have kept a
list of the names of the vessels in the Federal navy so far as I could
obtain them; but it does not include the St.-- What you call her?
I never heard the name before."

"The St. Regis, after a river in the Adirondacks," said Captain
Passford, laughing. "But I can assure you, Captain, that you know her
better than any of the rest of us, for I never even saw her."

"The St. Regis?" interrogated the commander, puzzled by the assertion.

"Just now this steamer is something like a newly-married widow, for she
is entering upon her third name," continued the host, very lightly.
"Formerly she was the Trafalgar, a highly honored name in British
history; but more recently she received the name of Tallahatchie; and
now she becomes the St. Regis."

"I see," replied the Confederate commander, evidently trying to hide his
intense chagrin that the magnificent steamer, purchased by Colonel Homer
Passford for him, had so soon become a ship belonging to the Federal
navy. "You expressed a doubt in regard to her speed, my dear Captain."

"I simply doubted if she could make twenty knots an hour, for the