Part 36 (1/2)

”Yes. You're just like my brothers.”

”Look here now, Jennie,” he protested, ”don't you go telling me that you'll be a sister to me. I've got a lot of sisters at home and I don't need any more--”

”I didn't mean it that way, d.i.c.k,” she responded tenderly. ”My brothers are just the finest, bravest men that G.o.d ever made in this world--that's what I meant.”

”Don't you like me a little?”

”I almost love you to-night--maybe it's our victory--maybe it's the fear that made me pray for you and the boys on that house top the other night--I don't know--”

”Did you pray for me?” he asked softly.

”Yes--”

”I ought to be satisfied with that, but I'm not--I want you! Won't you be mine?”

She smiled into his eager face in a gentle, whimsical way. A half promise to him was just trembling on her lips when Socola's slender, erect figure suddenly crossed the street. He lifted his hat with a genial bow.

d.i.c.k ground his teeth in a smothered oath, and Jennie spoke abruptly:

”Come--it's late--we must go in.”

Through the long night the girl lay awake with the calm, persistent, smiling face of the foreigner looking into the depths of her brown eyes.

CHAPTER XII

A LITTLE CLOUD

The first aggressive act of the President of the Confederacy revealed his alert and far-seeing mind. His keen eye was bent upon the sea, with an instinctive appreciation of the tremendous import of the long Southern coast line.

Without a s.h.i.+p afloat or a single navy yard, by a stroke of his pen he created a fleet destined to sweep the commerce of the North from every sea. His task was to create something out of nothing and how well he did it events swiftly bore their testimony.

The United States Government was the only nation which had refused to join the agreement to abandon the use of letters of marque and reprisal for destroying the unarmed vessels of commerce in time of war. This unfortunate piece of diplomacy gave Jefferson Davis the opportunity to strike his first blow at the power and prestige of the North.

He immediately issued a proclamation offering to issue such letters to any s.h.i.+p that would arm herself and enlist under the ensign of the Confederate navy. The response was quick and the ultimate result the lowering of the flag of the Union from practically every s.h.i.+p of commerce that sailed the ocean.

Gideon Welles conferred with his Chief in Was.h.i.+ngton and Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation which at the time created scarcely a ripple of excitement. And yet that order was the most important doc.u.ment which came from the White House during the entire four years of the war.

When the test came sixteen captains, thirty-four commanders and one hundred and eleven mids.h.i.+pmen resigned and cast their fortunes with the South. Not one of them attempted to use his position to surrender a s.h.i.+p.

Small as it was, the entire navy of the United States was practically intact. It comprised ninety s.h.i.+ps of war--forty-two of them ready for active service. The majority of the vessels ready for war were steam-propelled craft of the latest improved type.

The United States had been one of the first world powers to realize the value of steam and rebuild its navy accordingly. In twenty years, practically a new navy had been constructed, ranking in effective power third only to England and France. Within the past five years, the Government had built the steam frigates, _Merrimac_, _Niagara_, _Colorado_, _Wabash_, _Minnesota_, and _Roanoke_. In addition to these twelve powerful steam sloops of war had been commissioned--the _Hartford_, _Brooklyn_, _Lancaster_, _Richmond_, _Narragansett_, _Dakota_, _Iroquois_, _Wyoming_, and _Seminole_. They were of the highest type of construction and compared favorably with the best s.h.i.+ps of the world.

These s.h.i.+ps at the opening of the war were widely scattered, but their homeward bound streamers were all fluttering in the sky.

President Lincoln in his proclamation ordered the most remarkable blockade in the history of the world. This doc.u.ment declared three thousand miles of Southern coast, from the Virginia Capes to the Rio Grande, closed to the commerce of the world.