nabled me to capture two of the enemy's crack steamers."

"I will never use the word audacity or the adjective audacious to you
again, Christy. I see that it nettles you, to say the least," added the
captain, pressing his hand with more earnestness.

"I am perfectly willing you should apply both words to me when I
deserve it. Audacity means boldness, impudence, according to Stormonth.
Audacious means very bold, daring, impudent. It may have been bold to
run out the Teaser, and the enemy would even call it impudent, for the
meaning of a word sometimes depends upon which side you belong to. My
father was quite as impudent as I was when he ran the Bellevite out of
Mobile Bay, under the guns of Fort Morgan. He was audacious, wasn't he?"

"We should hardly apply that word to him."

"Why not? Simply because my father was forty-five years old when he told
Captain Breaker to do it. If I were only thirty years old I should not
be audacious. I am a boy, and therefore anything that I do is daring,
audacious, impudent, imprudent."

"I rather think you are right, Mr. Passford, and it is your age more
than the results of your actions that is the basis of our judgment,"
said Captain Blowitt.

"I wish to add seriously, captain, as a friend and not as an officer,
I do not claim that the command of this expedition should be given to
me because I am first lieutenant of the Bronx, or for any other reason,"
added Christy with an earnest expression. "Perhaps it would be better to
give the command to the second lieutenant; and if you do so, I assure
you, upon my honor, that it will not produce a particle of feeling in my
mind. I shall honor, respect, and love you as I have always, Captain
Blowitt."

"My dear fellow, you are entirely misunderstanding me," protested the
commander, as earnestly as his subordinate had spoken. "I give you the
command of this expedition because I honestly and sincerely believe you
are the very best person on board to whom I can commit such a
responsibility."

"That is enough, captain, and a great deal more than you were under
any obligations to say to me; and I shall obey my orders with all the
prudence and discretion I can bring to bear upon them," said Christy,
taking the captain's offered hand. "If I fail it will not be because I
do not try to be prudent."

"There is such a thing as being too prudent, and I hope that nothing
which has been said to you by your father or by me will drive you to the
othe