"She is; and, unless something is done at once to restore her to her home, she may have to remain in the enemy"s country for months, if not for years," answered the father, with a slight trembling of the lips.
"But what can be done?" asked the mother anxiously.
"The answer to that question has agitated me more than any thing else which has come to my mind for years, for I cannot endure the thought of leaving her even a single month at any point which is as likely as any other to become a battle-field in a few days or a few weeks," continued Captain Pa.s.sford, with some return of the agitation which had before shaken him so terribly.
"Of course your brother Homer will take care of her," said the terrified mother, as she gazed earnestly into the expressive face of the stout-hearted man before her.
"Certainly he will do all for Florry that he would do for his own children, but he may not long be able to save his own family from the horrors of war."
"Do you think she will be in any actual danger, Horatio?"
"I have no doubt she will be as safe at Glenfield, if the conflict were raging there, as she would be at Bonnydale under the same circ.u.mstances.
From the nature of the case, the burden of the fighting, the havoc and desolation, will be within the Southern States, and few, if any, of the battle-fields will be on Northern soil, or at least as far north as our home."
"From what I have seen of the people near the residence of your brother, they are neither brutes nor savages," added the lady.
"No more than the people of the North; but war rouses the brute nature of most men, and there will be brutes and savages on both sides, from the very nature of the case."
"In his recent letters, I mean those that came before we sailed from home, Homer did not seem to take part with either side in the political conflict; and in those which came to us at the Azores and Bermuda, he did not say a single word to indicate whether he is a secessionist, or in favor of the Union. Do you know how he stands, Horatio?"
"My means of knowing are the same as yours, and I can be no wiser than you are on this point, though I have my opinion," replied Captain Pa.s.sford.
"What is your opinion?"
"That he is as truly a Union man as I am."
"I am glad that he is."
"I do not say that he is a Union man; but judging from his silence, and what I know of him, I think he is. And it is as much a part of my desire and intention to bring him and his family out of the enemy"s country as it is to recover Florry."
"Then we shall have them all at Bonnydale this summer?" suggested Mrs.
Pa.s.sford. "Nothing could suit me better."
"Though I am fully persuaded in my own mind that Homer will be true to his country in this emergency, I may be mistaken. He has lived for many years at the South, and has been identified with the inst.i.tutions of that locality, as I have been with those of the North. Though we both love the land of our fathers on the other side of the ocean, we have both been strongly American. As he always believed in the whole country as a unit, I shall expect him to be more than willing to stand by his country as it was, and as it should be."
"I hope you will find him so, but I am grievously sorry that Florry is not with us."
"Tug-boat alongside, Captain Pa.s.sford," said the commander.
The owner of the Bellevite wished the tug to wait his orders.
CHAPTER III
DANGEROUS AND SOMEWHAT IRREGULAR
In various parts of the deck of the Bellevite, the officers, seamen, engineers, and coal-pa.s.sers of the steamer were gathered in knots, evidently discussing the situation; for the news brought on board by the pilot had been spread through the ship.
Captain Pa.s.sford hardly noticed the announcement made to him by the commander, that the tug was alongside, for he was not yet ready to make use of it. Even the wife and the son of the owner wondered what the mission of the little vessel was to be; but the husband and father had not yet disclosed his purpose in coming to anchor almost in sight of his own mansion.
"Why have you come to anchor here, Horatio?" asked Mrs. Pa.s.sford, taking advantage of the momentary pause in the interesting, and even exciting, conversation, to put this leading question.
"I was about to tell you. I have already adopted my plan to recover Florry, and bring my brother and his family out of the enemy"s country,"
replied the owner, looking with some solicitude into the face of his wife, as though he antic.i.p.ated some objection to his plan.
"You have adopted it so quick?" inquired the lady. "You have not had much time to think of it."
"I have had all the time I need to enable me to reach the decision to rescue my child from peril, and save my brother and his family from privation and trouble in the enemy"s country. But I have only decided what to do, and I have yet to mature the details of the scheme."
"I hope you are not going into any danger," added the wife anxiously.
"Danger!" exclaimed Captain Pa.s.sford, straightening up his manly form.
"War with all its perils and hardships is before us. Am I a villain, a poltroon, who will desert his country in the hour of her greatest need? I do not so understand myself."
"Of course I meant any needless exposure," added Mrs. Pa.s.sford, impressed by the patriotic bearing of her husband.
"You may be a.s.sured, Julia, that I will incur no needless peril, and I think I am even more careful than the average of men. But, when I have a duty to perform, I feel that I ought to do it without regard to the danger which may surround it."
"I know you well enough to understand that, Horatio," said the lady.
"I believe there will be danger in my undertaking, though to what extent I am unable to say."
"But you do not tell me how you intend to recover Florry."
"I intend to go for her and my brother"s family in the Bellevite."
"In the Bellevite!" exclaimed the lady.
"Of course; there is no other possible way to reach Glenfield," which was the name that Homer Pa.s.sford had given to his plantation.
"But Fort Morgan, at the entrance of Mobile Bay, is in the hands of the Confederates, and has been for three or four months," said Christy, who had kept himself as thoroughly posted in regard to events at home as the sources of information would permit.
"I am well aware of it; and I have no doubt, that, by this time, the fort is strongly garrisoned, to say nothing of other forts which have probably been built in the vicinity," replied Captain Pa.s.sford.
"It says in this paper that the ports of the South have been blockaded,"
said Christy, glancing at the journal in his hand.
"The President has issued a proclamation to this effect, but there has hardly been time to enforce it to any great extent yet. But of these matters I have nothing to say yet. The important point now is that I shall go in the Bellevite to Mobile Bay, and by force or strategy I shall bring off my daughter and the family of my brother."
"Then I suppose Christy and I are to be sent on sh.o.r.e in the tug alongside," suggested Mrs. Pa.s.sford.
"That is precisely what I wanted the tug for," added the husband.
"I should be willing to go with you, and share whatever dangers you may incur," said the lady, who had by this time come to a full realization of what war meant.
"I should be a heathen to allow you to do so. A woman would be more of a burden than a help to us. You had better return to Bonnydale, Julia, where I am sure you can render more service to your country than you could on board of the steamer. All that I am, all that I have, shall be at the service of the Union; and I wish you to act for me according to your own good judgment."