t the blind letter, and
then at the other. There was certainly an error, for his letter said
"and they comprise about one of crew of each vessel." This was nonsense,
for he had accidentally omitted the word "half" after "one." He inserted
the word above the line in its proper place, and gave it back to the
copyist. It was clear enough that Mulgrum was disappointed in the result
of this interview; but he took the letter and returned to the table.

At the end of another quarter of an hour, he brought the first copy of
the letter. He knocked as before, and though Christy told him in a loud
tone to come in, he did not do so. He repeated the words, but the
conspirator, possibly aware of the blunder he had made before, did
not make it again. Then he wrote on his tablet, after the captain had
approved his work, that he found the table very uncomfortable to write
upon while the ship was pitching so smartly, and suggested that he
should be allowed to make the rest of the copies on the desk in
the state room, if the captain did not desire to use it himself.
Unfortunately for the writer, he did desire to use it himself, and he
could not help smiling at the enterprise of the deaf mute in his attempt
to obtain an opportunity to forage among the papers in his drawers.

Mulgrum certainly did his work nicely and expeditiously, for he had
finished it at three bells in the forenoon watch. He was dismissed
then, for his presence was not particularly agreeable to the commander.
Christy locked his desk and all the drawers that contained papers, not
as against a thief or a burglar, but against one who would scorn to
appropriate anything of value that did not belong to him, for he had no
doubt now that Mulgrum was a gentleman who was trying to serve what he
regarded as his country, though it was nothing but a fraction of it.

In fact, inheriting, as it were, the broad and generous policy of his
father, Christy had no personal prejudices against this enemy of his
country, and he felt just as he would if he had been sailing a boat
against him, or playing a game of whist with him. He was determined to
beat him if he could. But he was not satisfied with locking his papers
up; he called Dave, and set him as a watch over them. If the conspirator
overhauled his papers, he would have been more concerned about what he
did not find than in relation to what he did find, for the absence of
the original of Warnock's letter would go far to convince him th