Within The Enemy's Lines by Oliver Optic (great books of all time .TXT) 📗

will remember in future, Mr. Mulgate," replied Corny.

"That sounds better, Neal. If we lose the game it will be by your blundering," continued the major, or Mulgate, as he preferred to be called on the present occasion.

"I suppose you have no talent for blundering, Mulgate; and that is the reason why you happen to be here at the present moment," retorted Corny, not at all pleased with the speech of the other.

"None of your impudence, Neal!" said Mulgate, sharply.

"If you lose the game, you say that it will be by my blundering, Mulgate," continued Corny. "That makes it seem as though I was to bear the responsibility of a failure; and I don't like the looks of things. If I am to be responsible for a failure, I ought to have something to say about the manner of conducting the enterprise."

"Shut up, Neal! We have no time to talk 30 nonsense of that sort. I am to conduct the enterprise, and you are to obey my orders. That is the whole of it," replied Mulgate, impatient at the position taken by the young man. "You are still under my command, and you will obey me or take the consequences. Now to business: what have you learned?"

"Nothing at all," answered Corny, rather sullenly.

"What have you been about? Haven't you discovered anything?"

"Nothing at all; I have but just arrived here. I took supper with my uncle, and told him the fish story you invented for me."

"Did he believe it?"

"I don't know whether he did or not; but he and the rest of the family treated me very handsomely, which made me feel meaner than a dead catfish."

"Never mind your feelings; you are here to assist in a great enterprise, and you are expected to do your duty to your country without regard to your own notions. Report what you have done."

"I haven't done anything but introduce myself into the house, and explain how I happen to be 31 here," replied Corny, as he proceeded to give the details of his meeting with his uncle.

"Is Miss Florry at home?" asked Mulgate, in a more gentle tone, as though he had a deeper interest in the direction he had indicated.

"She is at home, and was at the supper table with us."

"How does she seem to be?" asked the stranger.

"First rate; she is as jolly as though no one ever heard of such a thing as war," replied Corny, with enthusiasm.

"Did she say anything about her stay at Glenfield?" inquired Mulgate, whose interest seemed to mount to the pitch of anxiety.

"Not a word; she did not even hint at Glenfield, or anything connected with it," answered Corny; and, after the sharp tones of the other, he seemed to take pleasure in thorning him with negative answers.

"Did she say anything about me?"

"Not a word."

"Didn't she mention my name?"

"She did not."

"Didn't she ask about my health, or want to know where I was?"

32 "Florry did not allude to you in any manner. If she wanted to know where you were, she did not say a word about it to me," replied Corny, in the most decided tones.

It was still light enough to see that there was something like a frown on the brow of Mr. Mulgate. He had evidently believed that the daughter of the millionnaire of Bonnydale was interested in him, and his inquiries indicated that he expected her to ask about him; but she had not made the remotest allusion to him. Besides, she was as jolly as she had been at Glenfield, when war was a matter of the future, which few believed would ever be realized. She had not grown thin and pale during her absence from him, and she did not appear to be wasting her sweetness in pining for him.

"What in the world are you talking about, Mulgate?" suddenly demanded his companion on his side of the fence. "I thought we were here for business, and you are talking about some girl."

"She is the lady of whom I spoke to you; she spent the last winter with her uncle at the Glenfield Plantation. I am interested in her," replied 33 Mulgate, as though he had given a sufficient excuse for the questions he had put to Corny.

"Are we to capture her and take her back to the State of Alabama?" demanded the other, who seemed to be a gentleman of forty at least.

"I don't know; that depends; but, Captain Carboneer, I hope you will be my friend in this little matter," added Mulgate.

"I don't know any thing about the little matter; but I am not willing to jeopardize the enterprise that brings us here to help you out with a love affair," replied the older gentleman. "There will be time enough for you to look for a wife after the war is over, and you have more time to attend to the affair."

"Mr. Mulgate, I should like to know something more about your intentions before we go any farther," interposed Corny, in a tone so decided that Mulgate had to listen to him, especially as he had obtained so little sympathy from the elderly gentleman.

"Speak quick then, for we have no time to spare," added Mulgate.

"Do I understand from what you have said that you intend to take Florry Passford back to 34 the South with you?" asked Corny, with his teeth closely pressed together, so that it was rather difficult for him to speak intelligibly.

"I answer, as I did before, that I don't know what I shall do; that depends," replied Mulgate evasively.

"Depends upon what?"

"I have no time to discuss that matter now," added Mulgate, turning to his companion.

"But I have time to say that I will ruin the whole enterprise if you mean to commit an outrage such as you appear to have in your mind," replied Corny, as vigorously as though he had been the military equal of the one he had called "major" by accident.

"Do you mean to be a traitor to your country, Neal?" demanded Mulgate angrily.

"Neither to my country nor to my uncle."

"Your uncle is a Yankee, and is doing all he can to subjugate the free South. He has no rights which we are bound to respect," said Mulgate fiercely.

"This will never do," interposed Captain Carboneer; and this may or may not have been his real name. "We are getting into a disagreement at the very first step of our enterprise."

35 "I don't know you, Captain Carboneer, but I wish to be understood as meaning every word I have said; and I will wreck this enterprise, if I am shot for it, rather than allow my cousin to be carried off in connection with it," protested Corny stoutly. "I will do my duty faithfully; but I will not assist in robbing my uncle of his daughter."

"You are quite right, young man; and I would rather be sent to the fort as a prisoner of war than take part in such an enterprise," added Captain Carboneer, in mild but forcible tones.

"You astonish me, captain!" said Mulgate. "Why do you talk about an outrage? I claim to be a gentleman, and to be above any such villainy as you and Corny suggest. I do not propose to rob Captain Passford of his daughter. What I may do depends—depends upon the consent of the lady. If she is willing to go with me"—

"She is not willing to go with you; and she never will be willing to go with you," Corny interposed. "I don't know what you are thinking about, Mr. Mulgate; but Florry cares no more about you than she does about Uncle Pedro, my father's house-servant. She saw you both at Glenfield, and I can't tell which she likes best."

36 "We had better drop the subject," added Captain Carboneer.

"Drop it, then," replied Mulgate sullenly. "Get over the fence, Corny. Nobody is using that sailboat, and we may as well take it for a while."

37 CHAPTER III THE DIGNIFIED NAVAL OFFICER

Corny climbed over the high palisade fence, with the assistance of Mulgate, and the party walked to the sailboat at the beach below. By this time it was dark, though the gloom was not very dense under a clear sky.

"Do you know anything about this boat, Corny?" asked Mulgate, as the trio approached the handsome craft, for such she was beyond a doubt.

The crusty tones of the speaker indicated that he had not yet recovered from the set-back he had plainly received in the late conversation, though he denied that he had any evil intentions in regard to Miss Florry.

"I do; I know all about her," replied Corny.

"Well, why don't you tell what you know?" demanded Mulgate.

"What do you wish to know about her?" inquired 38 Corny, who was disposed to maintain his equality in spite of the military rank of his companion, which he had incautiously betrayed in the beginning.

"Whose boat is it?" asked Mulgate.

"She belongs to my cousin, Christy Passford."

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know, sir."

"Was he at the house when you were there?"

"He was not; and his mother had become rather anxious because he did not return to supper," replied Corny, becoming a little more pliable.

"This is a rather large boat, Captain Carboneer," added Mulgate, as he surveyed the trim sloop. "She is rather too large for our purpose."

"She will answer very well," replied the captain, as he applied his shoulder to the stem of the craft to ascertain how heavily she rested upon the beach. "Now, do you know whether there is any person on board of that steamer?"

"Of course, I don't know anything about it," said Mulgate.

"I am sure I don't," added Corny.

"I sent you up here to ascertain all about the Bellevite," continued Mulgate, rather sharply.

39 "I have not had time to find out anything," Corny explained, with some indignation in his tones.

"Corny has done as well as he could in the time he has had to do it in," interposed Captain Carboneer. "I think you are inclined to stir up bad blood with this young man, Mulgate. It appears now that you have a purpose of your own to accomplish, and that Corny will not allow you to carry it out."

"My first purpose is the same as your own," replied Mulgate.

"You admit that you have a second object; and I cannot tell when you will decide to make it your principal purpose," added Captain Carboneer. "I am not satisfied with the situation. I have done everything I can to accomplish our patriotic object. You endanger it by your crusty manner to this young man, who seems to be willing to do his duty; and he is in a position to be of great service to our enterprise."

"If you think it is necessary, I will take off my cap to this young man," said Mulgate, with a sneer in his tones.

"Be reasonable, Mulgate."

40 "What can I do more than I have done?" demanded the military gentleman, as his title indicated that he was.

"The first thing to do on your part is to renounce this idea of taking a lady passenger with you in the steamer," replied Captain Carboneer, in a very decided tone. "Women are not permitted on board of naval vessels, especially in time of war."

"I don't think I have any idea to renounce," muttered Mulgate.

"You certainly hinted that you desired to take a lady on board, and convey her to our destination," said the captain, rather earnestly.

"Not against her will, as you and Corny will have it," protested Mulgate.

"Do you renounce that plan or that idea, whatever it may be?"

"I do not renounce it. If the lady is willing to go with me, as I believe she will be, I know of no reason why she should not go as a passenger," argued Mulgate.

"I think we had better abandon the enterprise in the beginning, for I think we can be of more service to our country at liberty than within the 41 walls of Fort Lafayette," added the captain, with not a little disgust mingled with his indignation.

Whatever his object in visiting this locality, he was clearly a high-toned gentleman, and the idea of prosecuting a love adventure in connection with what he regarded as a highly patriotic duty was repulsive to his nature. He found by trial that the Florence was not grounded very hard on the beach, for the tide was rising, and he drew the boat farther up from the water, as he turned to walk away from the spot.

"Am I to understand that you retire from this enterprise, Captain Carboneer?" asked Mulgate.

"Am I to understand that you renounce your scheme to