Within The Enemy's Lines by Oliver Optic (beach books txt) 📖

service, I shall certainly go in with you," replied Christy.

"An officer with your power of persuasion will be invaluable to me," replied Lonley, still holding the hand of the other. "If I were gifted in this respect as you are, Captain Gilder, do you know what I would do?"

283 "I am sure I have not the least idea, unless it would be to persuade Jeff Davis to send you a commission as a captain in the regular navy," said Christy, laughing at the idea.

"I am afraid I should have too little cheek to attempt to do that, for the president is a rather obstinate man, and I fear he would not see the point. Besides, I am a very modest man, though you may not have observed this shining trait in my character. No; I am too diffident to ask for a place I have not won by service."

"Then what would you do in the way of persuasion?" asked Christy, though he wondered why he was prolonging the interview.

"I should use my powers of persuasion upon you, Captain Gilder, in the first place."

"I don't think it would be of any use, for I am too well posted in that way of doing it to be influenced," replied Christy, trying to withdraw his hand from the grasp of the privateersman. "I must go on board of the Teaser again when you have delivered your message to me, as that was what you wished to see me for."

"I did say I had a message for you, didn't I? Well, upon my life, I have quite forgot what it 284 was, but it was from President Jefferson Davis, and he was particular that I should deliver it to you to-night or this morning. Isn't it very strange that I should forget a message of so much importance that it could not be trusted to writing?"

"Passing strange, I should say," answered Christy, who began to understand that he had fallen into a trap of some sort. "While you are thinking of it, I will go on board, and persuade Captain Folkner not to run the Teaser to the eastward if he should take it into his head to do so. I had no idea there was a Yankee gunboat in that direction, and I don't believe the captain had. Besides, he don't know where he is in this fog, and he needs me."

As he spoke, Christy tried to withdraw his hand from the grasp of Lonley, as he had not succeeded in doing before when he tried. But the privateersman suddenly fell upon him, and both of them went down. A tremendous struggle followed, but before it was decided, two men rushed out of the gloom, and took part in the affair; and they soon settled the matter in favor of the Confederacy, much to the chagrin of the second lieutenant of the Bellevite.

"A tremendous struggle followed."—Page 284.

285 Flint had remained in the canoe, which had been partly drawn up on the beach; but the moment he sprang out upon the sand to go to the assistance of his officer, he was set upon by two men and secured. Both of them were deprived of their weapons, and their hands tied behind them. Beyond a doubt the lieutenant and the master's mate were prisoners before they had any clear idea of the situation.

"Are you there, Mr. Folkner?" called Lonley, as soon as the prisoners were secured, speaking now in an energetic tone, as he had not before.

"I am here," replied a man who seemed to be in a boat not far from the spot. "You have kept me a long time waiting for you!"

"I wanted to give the Yankee boats time to get at least a mile from the Teaser before anything was done. Shove off now, and make things as lively as you can," said Lonley. "Go to your places in the boats," he continued to four men who had assisted in the capture of the two officers.

By this time Christy had a chance to see that he was a victim of a trick which was to eventuate in the recapture of the Teaser; and he was sorry that 286 he was not the only victim, as he looked at Flint. He realized too that the scheme had been very well planned, though he was really happy in the belief that it would be a failure in the end. Lonley seemed to be the leading spirit in the affair, and managed the details. He had intended that the boats should be sent from the Teaser to a point at least a mile off.

He had taken it for granted that the steamer would come to pick them up, or in other words, to capture the forty prisoners. If he was weak in accepting as the truth Christy's statement that the boats had been actually sent away, as desired, he could see no reason why the Yankee officer should try to deceive him. It appeared now that the privateersmen had two boats, which had been brought across the island for the purpose. Lonley had naturally wished that only a few men should be on board, and concluded that it would be an easy matter to capture the steamer, and then to secure the men in the boats when they returned from the eastward.

The four men on shore, who had been put in a place where they could assist Lonley, hastened to the boats, and they shoved off, pulling as silently 287 as though the oars had been muffled, as probably they had been. In a moment more they disappeared in the darkness and fog.

"I think I have improved a great deal in the art of persuasion," said Lonley, as the boats disappeared. "I suppose I persuaded you as effectually as you did Captain Folkner."

"You have done very well, Mr. Lonley," replied Christy, in a patronizing tone, for he was determined that his companion should derive no satisfaction from seeing him cast down by his misfortune.

"You informed me a little while ago that Captain Folkner was on board of the Teaser; and I wish to ask if you are uniformly in the habit of speaking the truth?" continued Lonley.

"Well, that depends upon circumstances. If I have not done so, you cannot expect me to contradict myself."

"You claimed that you were Captain Gilder."

"Hardly, my excellent friend: when Captain Folkner addressed me by that name, I did not object to it."

"That was just as much a lie as though you had claimed it in so many words," protested Lonley.

288 "I admit it; and I hardly expect a true patriot to tell the truth to the enemy. If I remember rightly, you told me yourself that your men had gone to the eastward where they had left their bags. I don't believe that your conscience reproached you when they showed themselves in the boats."

At this moment pistol shots were heard on the water.

289 CHAPTER XXVI THE ACTION ON THE DECK OF THE TEASER

As the Teaser was but a short distance from the shore, Christy had no doubt that the attempt to board her had been made by this time. Mr. Blowitt had quite as many men on board of the steamer as could have been contained in the two boats, and he was not much concerned about the result of the attack, especially as he knew that the second lieutenant was fully prepared and on the lookout for it. The only thing that Christy regretted was that he was not on board of the Teaser to take part in the affair of repelling boarders.

"There seems to be some music in the air," said Lonley, after he had listened for a few moments to the sounds that came from the direction of the steamer.

"To return to the subject of the morality of telling stories, your men do not seem to be a mile 290 to the eastward, where their bags were left," added Christy good-naturedly.

"You had a glance at them in the boats, though the darkness and fog were rather too thick for you to count them," replied Lonley, chuckling over the deception he had practised upon the lieutenant of the Bellevite.

"Yes, I saw them, and I concluded that they could not be where their bags were."

"All is fair in war."

"That seems to be the generally received maxim, and he is the smartest man who the most thoroughly deceives the enemy," added Christy, who found himself tolerably well satisfied with the situation, though he was a prisoner.

"That is so, and of course I can find no fault with you for deceiving me," returned Lonley, chuckling as though he was even better satisfied with the situation than his companion.

"Thank you, Mr. Lonley; you are magnanimous, and with equal sincerity I can say that I have no fault to find with you," replied the Union officer. "But I have my doubts whether, after this, either of us will be likely to believe what the other says. But, for my part, I wish to say that 291 I don't believe in telling anything but necessary and patriotic lies."

"That is my view of the matter exactly; and if there is any man that despises a liar, I am that man," said Lonley warmly. "But it seems to me they are making a good deal of a racket off there," he added, as the noise of pistol shots and the clash of cutlasses came over the smooth waters of the gulf.

"They seem to be at it quite earnestly," replied Christy.

"By the way, how many men did you leave on board of the Teaser?" asked the privateersman, whose manner seemed to have suddenly become considerably changed.

"How many men?" repeated the lieutenant of the Bellevite.

"That is the question I asked," replied the lieutenant of the Teaser.

"I suppose you would not believe me if I should tell you," answered Christy.

"I judge that you can speak the truth if you try," added Lonley, with more asperity than the occasion seemed to require.

"I know that I could," said Christy, very 292 decidedly; "and I may add that I was in the habit of doing so on all occasions before this cruel war began."

"Then suppose you try to do so just now, and tell me how many men your people had on board of the Teaser."

"You must excuse me for the present, for I do not like to make statements to one who will not believe what I say," answered Christy, rather facetiously.

"You are a prisoner now."

"I am painfully aware of the fact, but I doubt if the government service will suffer very much in my absence from duty."

"You are too modest by half, Mr.—but I have not even the pleasure of knowing your name, and conversation is annoying under such circumstances."

"I am simply Midshipman Passford, at your service."

"Only a midshipman!" exclaimed Lonley. "Upon my word, you ought to be a commodore. Passford? Possibly you are a cousin of Colonel Passford of Glenfield."

"Colonel Passford is my uncle. Do you know him?" asked Christy.

293 "I do know him; and there is not a finer man or a truer patriot in the South than Colonel Passford. He is loading a schooner with cotton, and he offered me the command of it. Then you are his nephew, I have heard of you."

"I hope my uncle is quite well, for I have not heard from him for several weeks, or since I left New York."

"I saw him ten days ago, and he was very well then. I am very happy to have made a prisoner of his enterprising nephew, who appears to be capable of doing our cause a great deal of mischief," replied Lonley, looking earnestly in the direction of the Teaser.

"Thank you, Mr. Lonley; I certainly intend to do it all the mischief I can in a legitimate way. I am speaking the truth now," said Christy.

"But you have not answered my question in regard to the number of men on board of the Teaser when you left her."

"And you will excuse me for the present if I do not answer it," added the Union lieutenant.

"Very well, Mr. Passford; I cannot compel you to answer it, though doing so would do no harm to 294 your cause, for I should judge that the question of the hour is settled."

"What is the question of the hour, Mr. Lonley?"

"The question is which side is in possession of the Teaser, yours or mine," replied the privateersman, still gazing out into the gloom.

"Is that question settled?" asked Christy, with interest.

"Of course I don't know, but I should think that