e daylight came to reveal the presence of the force he
commanded to the people on the shore.

The gong rang again when all these preparations had been made, and the
Havana steamed slowly up the channel towards the bay. The oiler appeared
to have finished his work for the present. He was a more intelligent man
than the others of his color on board, and seemed to understand his
duties. Christy spoke to him, for he said nothing unless he was spoken
to, and he had learned that the commander of the expedition was doing
duty as engineer in the absence of any other competent person.

"How many schooners are there at the landing place at the keys?" asked
Christy.

"Only two schooners, sir," replied the man very respectfully.

"Are they loaded, --what is your name?" asked the engineer.

"My name is Dolly, sir."

"Dolly? That is a girl's name."

"My whole name is Adolphus, sir; but everybody calls me Dolly, and
I can't help myself," replied the oiler soberly, as though he had a
real grievance on account of the femininity of his nickname. "The two
schooners are not quite loaded, sir, but they are very nearly full. They
had some trouble here, among the hands."

"Had some trouble, did they? I should think there were soldiers enough
here to keep everything straight. How many artillerists or soldiers do
they keep here?" added Christy.

"They had about forty, but they don't have half that number now."

"What has become of them?"

"They were sent away to look for the hands that took to the woods. One
of the officers and about half of the men were sent off yesterday,"
replied Dolly, who seemed willing to tell all he knew.

"Why did the men run off?" asked Christy curiously.

"They brought about fifty hands, all slaves, down here to load the
steamer and the schooners. They set them at work yesterday morning, and
they had nearly put all the cotton into the schooners at dinner time.
To make the niggers work harder, they gave them apple jack."

"What is that?" asked the engineer, who never heard the name before.

"It is liquor made out of apples, and it is very strong," answered
Dolly; and he might have added that it was the vilest intoxicant to
be found in the whole world, not even excepting Russian vodka.

"And this liquor made the hands drunk, I suppose."

"They did not give them enough for that, sir; but it made them kind of
crazy, and they wanted more of it. That made the trouble; the hands
struck for liquor before d