"I shall not blame you for thinking so; but you are utterly mistaken all the same," added Christy.
"Did you come here to take the command out of my hands? Is that the reason why you sent all my men to Town Point?" demanded the captain, getting an idea of the situation.
"If you had been a magician, you could not have come any nearer to the truth."
"Who are you? I thought you were Gilder."
"I am not Gilder, though I found it convenient to answer to that name.
It is reported that the Teaser is a very fast steamer, and I wanted her."
"Do you mean to say that you are a pirate?" asked Captain Folkner, stepping back as if to emphasize his disgust at such a person. "I have told you that the Teaser is a privateer, and it seems that you want her more than I do; but I don"t believe it."
"Privateers and pirates are about the same in this age of the world.
I am neither a pirate nor a privateer. Permit me to introduce myself more precisely than I have thought it wise to do before. I am Lieutenant Pa.s.sford, of the United States steamer Bellevite; and I take possession of the Teaser as a lawful prize. I think we need not discuss the matter any longer, especially as the tide is high enough by this time to run out of the bay. Disarm him."
"Say, what sort of a joke is this?" demanded the captain.
"If you are good-natured enough to regard it as a joke, I have not the least objection," replied Christy. "But I shall be under the painful necessity of confining you in your stateroom for the present, and I hope you will make yourself as happy as possible, Captain Folkner."
The lieutenant directed Flint to have the prisoner conveyed to his stateroom, and to have a man stationed at the door to see that he did not escape, or do any mischief. The sentinel was to keep his eye on him all the time, and not allow the room to be closed for a moment. The most reliable man of the party was selected for this duty, for the captain, in a fit of desperation over the loss of his vessel, which was his fortune, might attempt some reckless act.
Accompanied by six men, Christy visited the engine-room, where nearly all the hands remaining on board were employed. If there was to be any trouble at all in completing the capture, it would be in this department. Everything was in working order, and an engineer was on duty, for the engine had been used in dragging the casks under the bottom of the vessel.
Beeks was directed to arrest the men on duty, and the engine was handed over to Sampson, who had been brought for such a position if the expedition needed him in that capacity. But there was only an a.s.sistant engineer and several firemen on duty, and these were disposed of without any delay. They were all conducted to the wardroom, where they were disarmed and a guard placed over them. A couple of sailors were detailed to serve as firemen, and the work of taking possession was completed.
For the first time the lieutenant had an opportunity to examine the prize, as she would be if he succeeded in getting her out of the bay.
She was certainly a fine little steamer, and, with the heavy gun mounted on a pivot, she would have been capable of doing a great deal of mischief among the unprotected merchant ships of the nation.
When he visited the cabin, he found two colored men there, one of whom appeared to be a very intelligent fellow. He was very polite to the lieutenant, and it was evident that he had no personal interest in the success of the Teaser in the business for which she had been fitted out.
He was the cabin steward, and he had heard everything that had been said in regard to the vessel since he came on board of her.
"What is your name, my man?" asked Christy, addressing the steward.
"My name is Davis Talbot; but no one ever calls me anything but Dave,"
replied the man, with a cheerful smile, as though he was not at all disconcerted by the change which had come about in the ownership of the Teaser.
"How long have you been on board of this steamer, Dave?" asked the officer, much pleased with the intelligent face of the steward.
"About two months, sir."
"Where did this steamer come from?"
"Captain Folkner bought her somewhere in the West Indies, and brought her here before the blockade was fairly established."
"Then she is an English-built steamer?"
"I suppose she is, sir; but I don"t know anything about it."
"Then she has been here a long while. What has Captain Folkner been doing all this time?" asked Christy curiously.
"Inventing, sir," replied Dave, chuckling.
"I see; he has that on the brain."
"The government threatened to take his vessel if he did not fit her out and take her to sea. Then he hurried up, and got a crew ready; but they had a quarrel last night, and most of the men would not come on board."
"Yes; I know all about that," added Christy, as he looked at his watch by the light of the shaded lamp in the cabin. "I suppose you insist upon serving the Confederacy, Dave?"
"I don"t insist on anything, sir; I go where the ship takes me, and I don"t mean to quarrel with anybody."
"In other words, will it be necessary to put you under guard?" asked Christy.
"I don"t think it would do me any good, sir," replied Dave, laughing.
"Which side do you belong on?" demanded the officer, rather impatiently.
"I belong on Dave"s side, sir."
"Which is Dave"s side?"
"The side of freedom," replied the steward, with some embarra.s.sment.
"I don"t know you, sir; you don"t wear the uniform of a Yankee or a rebel, and the darkey gets crushed between the upper and the nether millstone."
"Then to make the matter plainer to you, I am the third lieutenant of the United States steamer Bellevite, and I have captured this vessel as an officer of the United States Navy," replied Christy.
"That"s all I want to know: the darkey knows where to go, when it is safe to go there," replied Dave.
"Then if it is safe for you to go to the pilot-house, you may come with me," added the lieutenant, as he led the way to the deck.
Beeks, with the men who had not been a.s.signed to other duty, was cutting away the ropes that held the casks in place, and had already turned adrift all the raft of them alongside. All the rubbish the nautical inventor had collected to carry out his famous scheme of floating the vessel through the sound was cleared from the deck, and cut loose from the side.
"I think everything is clear, sir," reported Beeks, as Christy appeared on deck with Dave.
"Stand by to get up the anchor, then," added the lieutenant.
"No anchor down, sir," interposed Dave. "She is made fast to the buoy."
"So much the better. I suppose Captain Folkner did not trouble himself about the forts, Dave, did he?" Christy inquired.
"Yes, sir, he did; Captain Folkner never slept a wink when he did not have Fort Pickens on his stomach for a nightmare," replied Dave, with a chuckle.
"But Fort Pickens is all of four miles from the entrance to the channel of the sound."
"He was in mortal terror of the guns, all the same."
"How was it in regard to Fort Barrancas and Fort McRae?"
"Of course they would not fire on his vessel; if he went out in a fog or dark night, he was to burn a blue light; and I reckon you can do the same thing, though I don"t believe it could be seen to-night from the forts," replied Dave, who appeared to be willing to make a good use of his knowledge.