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

carry off a woman as a part of the enterprise?" demanded the captain.

"I do not renounce it, though I have no intention to carry off a woman, as you put it. The most I have asked is that she be permitted to go as a passenger of her own free will," replied Mulgate.

"She never will go with him of her own free will," interposed Corny.

"I will not have a woman on board of the 42 vessel, whether she goes willingly or otherwise. Do you renounce that scheme entirely?"

"I think you are driving me into a small corner, Captain Carboneer."

"After what you have said before, I think I am fully justified in what I require. With your private affairs, I have nothing to do. If you choose to marry this young lady, I have nothing to say about that; but no woman can be a passenger in a war vessel under my command. After I have landed you at Bermuda or Nassau, I shall not attempt to run the blockade, which is now enforced, in order to land you and the lady. Besides, we may be in action at any time after we get under way."

"Then if I do not yield the point, you intend to leave me to carry out this enterprise alone?" demanded Mulgate.

"In that case, I wish to go with you, Captain Carboneer," added Corny, with emphasis. "But I want it understood that I shall not leave Bonnydale without telling my uncle to look out for his daughter."

"Then you mean to be a traitor, Corny?" said Mulgate angrily.

43 "Call it what you like."

"All this is absurd, Mulgate," interposed Captain Carboneer. "Without my resources, you can do nothing at all, and it would be foolish for you to attempt the capture of the vessel. You are not a sailor or a navigator, and you could do nothing with the vessel if you succeeded in getting her to sea."

"I have no doubt I could find a hundred men in New York, including half a score of navigators, to assist me in this enterprise," replied Mulgate.

"I have another steamer in view, though the Bellevite is vastly superior to anything I know of in speed and general fitness. Do as you think best, Mulgate; and I shall be able to explain in a satisfactory manner my failure to obtain this vessel."

"The fault will be mine, I suppose," muttered Mulgate.

"The court-martial will decide that point," replied the captain.

Mulgate seemed to be buried in his own reflections, no doubt suggested by the last remark of the other. Possibly he considered that the failure of such an important enterprise because he had insisted 44 upon bringing a lady into the affair would not sound well at home. Whatever he was thinking about, he was greatly agitated, and Captain Carboneer walked in the direction of the road, half a mile from the river. He had no time to consider the matter: he must yield at once, or abandon the scheme.

"I will do anything you ask, Captain Carboneer!" he shouted, forgetting, in his excitement, the demand for secrecy.

The naval officer, as his conversation indicated that he was, turned and retraced his steps to the beach. He did not seem to be at all excited because his associate had changed his mind, for in his judgment it would have been worse than madness for him to persist in his intentions.

"I have stated the case as I understand it, and I have nothing more to say, Mulgate," said he.

"I renounce my scheme, and I will not ask that the lady be a passenger even to Bermuda or Nassau," replied Mulgate, though not without a considerable display of emotion.

"Very well; that is enough. Nothing more need be said about your purpose, since you have renounced it. Now we will visit the Bellevite, 45 and learn what we can in regard to her," said the naval officer, in his usual quiet manner, and whether he was a Confederate or a Unionist, one could hardly have failed to be impressed by his dignified deportment.

At the request of Captain Carboneer, Mulgate climbed to the forward deck of the Florence. She was twenty-eight feet long, and her deck covered more than half of her length. She had a very large cabin for a boat of her size, which was fitted up with berths, with a cook-room forward of it, for Christy Passford was often absent a week in her.

"I think Corny had better go back to the house, and keep an eye on Christy, so as to make sure that he does not disturb us," suggested Mulgate, as the planter's son was about to go on board of the yacht.

"I think we shall want him, and he had better be with us," replied the captain, as one would speak when he expected to be obeyed.

Corny climbed up the stem of the Florence. He had never seen the captain before, and had not even been informed who and what he was; but he appeared to be a more important person than Mulgate, 46 and he did not wait for the latter to argue his point. He had sailed in the Florence very often, and he knew all about her. He took a boathook, and planted its point on the beach, in readiness to shove off.

"Not yet, Corny," said the naval officer, as he sprang lightly to the deck of the sailboat. "Let us see where we are before we do anything."

Captain Carboneer seated himself on one of the cushioned seats in the standing-room, and looked about him. A steamer towing a multitude of canal boats was approaching, and he waited for it to pass. Then no steamer or other craft was to be seen on the river.

"So far as I have been able to discover, there are only two men on board of the Bellevite, and I think we have not a moment to lose," said the naval officer, when he saw that the river was clear of everything that might interfere with his plans. "But we must go on board of her, and make sure of everything before we commit ourselves."

"As you said, Captain Carboneer, I am no sailor; and you don't think of taking the steamer out of the river alone?" added Mulgate.

"I have not come here on a fool's errand, Major 47 Pierson," replied the captain. "We are alone now, and we may call things by their right names."

"But I don't care to have my name used in this vicinity," interposed this gentleman, when addressed by his own name.

"Your wish in this respect shall be respected, Mr. Mulgate. I was about to say that I had a ship's company all ready to take possession of this craft, to handle her at sea, and even to fight a battle if necessary."

"But where are your ship's company?" asked Mulgate, as he wished still to be called.

"I will produce them at the right time. Now you may shove her off, Corny," added the captain, as he took the wheel.

48 CHAPTER IV CORNY PASSFORD PLAYS ANOTHER PART

Captain Carboneer brought the Florence about, and headed her across the river. The Bellevite was moored a short distance from the estate down the stream.

"I have been up here before to-day," said the naval officer, as the boat moved away from the shore, assuring him that no one could be near enough to hear what he said.

"We only reached New York yesterday, and I don't see how you can have picked up a ship's company in that time," replied Mulgate.

"I sent the men before I came myself. I have stationed them in various places on the river, where I can get them when I want them; and I shall want them before the sun rises to-morrow morning," replied the captain.

"To-night!" exclaimed Mulgate, who seemed to be astounded at the revelation.

49 "Yes, to-night; in a few hours from now. I have obtained all the information I could in regard to the steamer, and what we do must be done at once. The Bellevite, as they call her now, has not yet been handed over to the government, though she has been accepted. They are waiting for something, though I don't know what, and she may be sent to the navy yard to-morrow; and then it will be too late for us to do anything."

"But to-night—that is rather hurried," added Mulgate, musing.

Very likely he was thinking of the beautiful Miss Florry in the elegant mansion a short distance up the river. Without a doubt he was Major Pierson, since the naval officer had addressed him by this name and title. He had often met the young lady at Glenfield Plantation, and possibly his sudden visit to the North had not been without some thought of her. However it may have been with her, he was at least very much interested in Miss Florry.

The fact that she was a "Yankee" did not make her less beautiful, and it did not make her any the less the daughter of a millionnaire. No one could say that he was mercenary, however, and no one 50 could say why he was not as deeply interested in the daughter of the planter, for she was hardly less beautiful, though her father was not considered a millionnaire, to say nothing of a ten-millionnaire. Major Pierson did not tell what he was thinking about; but he was certainly astounded and badly set back when the naval officer intimated that the capture of the Bellevite might be undertaken that night.

"You can see for yourself that we must strike at once, or there may be nothing to strike at," replied Captain Carboneer.

"But we shall have no time to work up the case," suggested the major.

"The case is all worked up, and there is nothing more to work up," replied the captain, as he headed the boat for the steamer.

Major Pierson said no more, but he was as much dissatisfied with the promptness of the naval officer as though he had said it in so many words. It would be difficult to imagine how he expected to manage his case with Miss Florry, since he could not enter the house without betraying his identity. Perhaps he intended to lie in wait for her in the grounds of the estate, and trust that her 51 interest in him would induce her to keep his secret.

"Is that you, Christy?" called a voice from the steamer, as the Florence approached the Bellevite.

"Answer him, Corny," said Captain Carboneer, in a low voice. "Say 'yes,' and ask who it is that speaks."

"Yes," repeated Corny. "Who are you?"

"Sampson," replied the man on board of the steamer.

"And who is with him," added the captain.

"Are you alone on board?" demanded Corny, varying his speech a little from his instructions.

"No; Warping is on board, but he has gone to sleep in the pilot-house. Do you want him?"

"No; but you wish to take a couple of friends on board to obtain the measure of a gun-carriage," continued Captain Carboneer.

"No; I don't want Warping; I only wanted to know if he was on board," repeated Corny. "I have a couple of friends here who want to measure a gun-carriage to-night, for they have to leave in the morning."

"Very well, young man; you understand yourself 52 very well," said the captain, in tones of approval.

By this time Captain Carboneer had brought the boat alongside the accommodation steps, the lower part of which were hoisted up to prevent any water tramps from coming on board without permission. But when Corny had delivered the last message, the steps were lowered, and the Florence made fast to them. Corny was told to lead the way, and act as though he were Christy Passford, and owned the ship in his own right.

The planter's son went up the steps, and the other two followed him, though the naval officer had really ascertained all he wished to know. There were only two ship-keepers on board, and they would be no obstacle in the way of the ship's company to which the captain had alluded. But the leader of the enterprise had another object in view, though it was only secondary in its nature. He was afraid to overburden the mind of Corny, and he said nothing more.

"Is everything all right on board, Sampson?" asked Corny, as he stepped down upon the deck of the vessel.

"All right, Christy," replied the man.

53 "I am glad to hear it. Is there anything new?"

"Nothing at all, Christy. I have been overhauling the boilers a little to-day for the want of something to do, and they are in first-rate condition. As you told me to-day that we might expect the order to report at