Part 17 (1/2)

”What have you been doing to yourself, Mr. Gilfleur?” asked Christy, as soon as he discovered the detective, for he had completely changed his appearance, and looked like an elderly gentleman of fifty, with a full beard, grizzled with the snows of many winters.

”I don't care to be shut up in this stateroom during the voyage to New York,” replied the Frenchman with a pleasant laugh. ”This is one of my useful costumes, and I don't believe Captain Rombold will recognize me now.”

”I am very sure he will not,” added Christy, looking him over, and wondering at the skill which could so completely change his appearance.

”I want you to see the steamer which is approaching, bound to the westward. If I am not mistaken, we have seen her before.”

”I am all ready, and I will go on deck with you; but you must contrive to let the captain know who I am, or he will order me below, or have too much to say about me,” replied the detective, as he followed Christy to the quarter-deck.

Colonel Pa.s.sford and Captain Rombold had seated themselves abaft the mizzenmast, and seemed to be interested in the reports respecting the approaching steamer. Christy called Captain Chantor to the rail, and explained what the commander had already scented as a mystery in regard to the gentleman with the grizzled beard. He laughed heartily as he gazed at the apparent stranger, and declared that he thought he might be another Confederate commissioner, for he looked respectable and dignified enough to be one.

”I think that steamer is the Cadet, Captain Chantor; and I have brought Mr. Gilfleur on deck to take a look at her.”

The Frenchman had no doubt the steamer was the Cadet, for she was peculiar enough in her build to be identified among a thousand vessels of her cla.s.s. For some time they discussed the character of the vessel, and minutely examined her build and rig. Neither of them had any doubt as to her ident.i.ty, and the pa.s.senger reported the result of the conference to the commander, who immediately ordered the American flag to be displayed at the peak; and gave the command to beat to quarters.

”We are over six hundred miles from any Confederate port, Mr. Pa.s.sford,”

said the captain. ”I should not like to have one of my captures surrendered to her owners.”

”Of course you have your law books in your cabin, Captain; but I have studied them so much that I can quote literally from one bearing on this case,” continued Christy. ”'The sailing for a blockaded port, knowing it to be blockaded, is, it seems, such an act as may charge the party with a breach of the blockade.' Besides the evidence of her course, and that of the nature of her cargo, there are two witnesses to the declaration of the captain that he was intending to run into Wilmington.”

”She has come about, and is running away from you, Captain!” exclaimed the pa.s.senger, who was the first on the quarter-deck to notice this change.

The commander ordered a gun to be fired across her bow, for the Cadet was hardly more than a quarter of a mile from the Chateaugay. No notice was taken of the shot, and a moment later the mids.h.i.+p gun sent a shot which carried away her pilot-house and disabled the wheel.

CHAPTER XVI

AMONG THE BAHAMAS

”I am sorry to disturb you, gentlemen, but I feel obliged to ask you to retire to my cabin until this affair is settled,” said Captain Chantor, addressing Colonel Pa.s.sford and Captain Rombold.

”I beg your pardon, Captain Chantor, but do you consider that you have a right to capture that steamer?” asked the late commander of the Dornoch, who seemed to be very much disturbed at the proceedings of his captor.

”Undoubtedly; and I have no doubt I shall be able to procure her condemnation on the ground that she is loaded for a Confederate port, no other than Wilmington, and has the 'guilty intention' to run the blockade.”

”I don't see where you could have obtained the information that enables you to make sure of her condemnation at the very first sight of her,”

replied the Confederate officer.

”Well, Captain Rombold, if I succeed in proving my position before the court, out of the mouth of Captain Vickers, her commander, would that satisfy you?” asked the commander with a cheerful smile. ”But you must excuse me from discussing the matter to any greater length, for I have a duty to perform at the present time.”

The Chateaugay was going ahead at full speed when the two gentlemen retired from the quarter-deck. She stopped her screw within hail of the Cadet. Her crew were clearing away the wreck of the pilot-house; but the destruction of her steering gear forward did not permit her to keep under way, though hands were at work on the quarter-deck putting her extra wheel in order for use. Of course it was plain enough to the captain of the Cadet that the Chateaugay, after the mischief she had done with a single shot, could knock the steamer all to pieces in a few minutes.

The first cutter, in charge of Mr. Birdwing, the executive officer, was sent on board of the disabled steamer, and Christy was invited to take a place in the boat. Captain Vickers was a broken-hearted man when he realized that his vessel was actually captured by a United States man-of-war.

”Do you surrender, Captain Vickers?” said Mr. Birdwing, as he saluted the disconsolate commander.

”How did you know my name?” demanded he gruffly.

”That is of no consequence, Captain Vickers. You will oblige me by answering my question. Do you surrender?” continued the lieutenant.