have been sailors on board of my coaster. They are
good men, and I can vouch for their loyalty, though not for their
education. They are all petty officers."

"I have a mission for your men, to be undertaken at once, and I shall
be likely to want the first three you named for important positions, if
my orders do not fetter me too closely," said Christy. "As the matter
stands just now, Mr. Flint, it would hardly be expedient for us to
capture a schooner running the blockade for the want of an officer to
act as prize master."

"The three quartermasters I named are competent for this duty, for they
are navigators, and all of them have handled a vessel."

"I am glad to hear it; we are better off than I supposed we were. My
father told me that several vessels had been sent to the South short of
officers, and we are no worse off than some others, though what you say
makes us all right."

"I can find three officers on board who are as competent as I am, though
that is not saying much," added Flint.

"I can ask no better officers, then. But to return to this letter.
I have spent a considerable part of my time at Bonnydale in talking
with my father. He is in the confidence of the naval department."

"He ought to be, for he gave to the navy one of its best steamers, to
say the least."

"I don't want to brag of my father," suggested Christy, laughing;
"I only wanted to show that he is posted. Coming to the point at once,
putting this and that together of what I learned on shore, and of what
I have discovered on board of the Bronx, I am inclined to believe that
Pawcett and Hungerford have their mission on board of this steamer in
connection with the Scotian and the Arran. I will not stop now to
explain why I have this idea, for I shall obtain more evidence as
we proceed. At any rate, I thought I would put the ghost of a
stumbling-block in the path of these conspirators; and this is the
reason why I have put thirteen American seamen on board of each of the
expected steamers. If my conjectures are wrong the stumbling-block will
be nothing but a ghost; if I am right, it will make our men somewhat
cautious as to what they do if we should be so fortunate as to fall in
with the two vessels."

"I understand you perfectly, Captain Passford. You said that you had
something for my men to do at once; but you did not explain what this
duty was," said Flint. "If you require their services at once, I will
instruct them."

"I did not