Taken by the Enemy by the Enemy by Oliver Optic (novel books to read txt) 📖

she expects to reach here in the West Indies. When she finds it, I 74 will let you know by mail, if you will give me your address," rattled Christy with abundant self-possession.

"No, no, now! You are chaffing me."

"Do you know, brother mortal of mine, that I suspect you are a Yankee; for they say they live on baked beans, and earn the money to buy the pork for them by asking questions."

"I am not a Yankee; I am a long way from that."

"Then perhaps you sympathize with the meridonial section of the nation on the other side of the Gulf Stream."

"Which section?" asked the stranger, looking a little puzzled.

"The meridonial section."

"Which is that? I don't know which meridian you mean."

"I mean no meridian. Perhaps the word is a little irregular; I studied French when I was in the Bangerwhangerlang College in China, and I am sometimes apt to get that language mixed up with some other. Let me see, we were speaking just now, were we not?"

"I was."

75 "Sometimes I can't speak any English, and I had forgotten about it. If you prefer to carry on this conversation in Hebrew or Hindostanee, I shall not object," added Christy gravely.

"I think I can do better with English."

"Have your own way about it; but 'meridonial' in French means 'southern,' if you will excuse me for making the suggestion."

"Then I am meridonial," replied the stranger, and he seemed to make the admission under the influence of a sudden impulse.

"Your hand on that!" promptly added Christy, extending his own.

"All right!" exclaimed the other. "My name is Percy Pierson. What is yours?"

"Percy Pierson!" exclaimed Christy, starting back with astonishment, as though his companion had fired a pistol in his face.

"What is the matter now?" demanded Percy Pierson, surprised at the demonstration of the other.

"What did you say your name was? Did I understand you aright?"

"I said my name was Percy Pierson. Is there any thing surprising about that?" asked Percy, puzzled at the demeanor of Christy.

76 "See here, my jolly high-flyer, who told you my name?" demanded the son of the owner of the Bellevite, with a certain amount of indignation in his manner.

"You did not, to be sure, though I asked you what it was."

"What sort of a game are you trying to play off on me? I am an innocent young fellow of sixteen, and I don't like to have others playing tricks on me. Who told you my name, if you please?"

"No one told me your name; and I don't know yet what it is, though I have asked it of you."

"Oh, get away with you! You are playing off something on me which I don't understand, and I think I had better bid you good-morning," added Christy, as he started to move off.

"Then you won't tell me your name. Stay a minute."

"You know my name as well as I do, and you are up to some trick with me," protested Christy, halting.

"'Pon my honor as a Southern gentleman, I don't know your name."

77 "If you are a Southern gentleman, I must believe you, for I did not come from as far north as I might have come. My name is Percy Pierson," added Christy seriously; for he felt that this was actually war, and that the strategy that does not always or often speak the truth was justifiable.

"Percy Pierson!" exclaimed the real owner of the name. "Didn't I just tell you that was my name?"

"Undoubtedly you did, and that is the reason why I thought you were making game of me."

"But how can that be when my name is Percy Pierson?"

"Give it up; but I suggest that in London, where I came from, there are acres of King Streets, almost as many Queens; and, though you may not be aware of the fact, there are seven thousand two hundred and twenty-seven native and foreign born citizens of the name of John Smith. Possibly you and I are the only two Percy Piersons in the country, or in the world."

"Now you say you are from London, and a little while ago you said you were from farther north than I am. Which is it?"

78 "Isn't London farther north than any Southern State?"

"Enough of this," continued Percy impatiently.

"Quite enough of it," assented Christy.

"Will you tell me what steamer that is, where she is bound, and what she is here for?"

"My dear Mr. Pierson, it would take me forty-eight hours to tell you all that," replied the representative of the Bellevite, taking out his watch. "If you will meet me here to-morrow night at sundown, I will make a beginning of the yarn, and I think I can finish it in two days. But really you must excuse me now; for I have to dine with the Chinese admiral at noon, and I must go at once."

"I can put the owner of that craft in the way of making a fortune for himself, if he is willing to part with her," added Percy, as his companion began to move off.

"That is just what the owner of that steamer wants to do: he desires to part with her, and he is determined to get rid of her. I have the means of knowing that he will let her go just as soon as he can possibly get rid of her."

"Then he is the man my father wants to see; 79 that is, if the vessel is what she appears to be, for no one is allowed to go on board of her."

"I am sorry to tear myself away from you, but positively I must go now; for the Chinese admiral will get very impatient if I am not on time, and I have some important business with him before dinner," said Christy, as he increased his pace and got away from Mr. Percy Pierson, though he was afraid he would follow him.

But he did not; instead of doing so, he began to talk with a boatman who had some kind of a craft at the landing. Christy was not in so much of a hurry as he had appeared to be, and he waited in the vicinity till he saw his Southern friend embark in a boat which headed for the Bellevite. He concluded that his communicative friend meant to go on board of her, thinking the vessel was for sale.

80 CHAPTER VII A COMPLICATION AT GLENFIELD

The boat in which Christy had come on shore carried off to the steamer the last load of supplies, and she sailed in the middle of the afternoon. Captain Passford and Christy were standing on the quarter deck together; and, as the latter had not had time to tell his father his adventure before, he was now relating it.

The captain was amused with the story, and told his son that he had been approached by a gentleman who said his name was Pierson, and he was probably the father of the enterprising young man who had been so zealous to assist in the purchase of a suitable vessel for the service of the Confederates.

"Let me alone! Take you hands off of me!" shouted a voice that sounded rather familiar to Christy, as he and his father were still talking 81 on the deck. "Let me alone! I am a Southern gentleman!"

"I know you are," replied Mr. Dashington, as he appeared on deck, coming up from the companionway that led to the cabin and ward-room, holding by the collar a young man who was struggling to escape from his strong grasp. "Don't make a fuss, my hearty: I want to introduce you to the captain."

"What have you got there, Mr. Dashington?" asked Captain Breaker, who was standing near the owner.

"I have got a young cub who says he is a Southern gentleman; and I suppose he is," replied the first officer. "But he is a stowaway, and was hid away under my berth in the ward-room.—Here you are, my jolly frisker: and that gentleman is the captain of the steamer."

As he spoke, the officer set his victim down rather heavily on the deck, and he sprawled out at full length on the planks. But he was sputtering with rage at the treatment he had received; and he sprang to his feet, rushing towards Mr. Dashington as though he intended to annihilate him. But, before he reached his 82 intended victim, he stopped short, and eyed the tall and wiry first officer from head to foot.

He concluded not to execute his purpose upon him, for he could hardly have reached his chin if he resorted to violence. But he turned his back to the captain, so that the owner and his son did not get a look at his face. Captain Breaker walked up to him and began to question him.

"If you are a Southern gentleman, as I heard you say you were, don't you think it is a little irregular to be hid in the ward-room of this vessel?" was the first question the commander asked.

"I am what I said I was, and I am proud to say it; and I don't allow any man to put his hands on me," blustered the prisoner.

"But I think you did allow Mr. Dashington to put his hands on you," replied the captain.

"Of course I did not know that he was a Southern gentleman when I snaked him out from under the berth," added the first officer.

"I accept your apology," said the prisoner, coming down from his high horse with sudden energy; possibly because he felt that he had a mission on board of the steamer.

83 All present laughed heartily at the apology of the giant mate, and Christy changed his position so that he could see the front of the stowaway.

"Why, that is the gentleman I met on shore,—Mr. Percy Pierson!" exclaimed the owner's son, as soon as he saw the face of his late companion at the landing.

"I am glad to see you again, Mr. Percy Pierson," said the original of that name, as he extended his hand to Christy.

"I did not expect to meet you again so soon, and under such circumstances," replied he, taking the offered hand; for his father had proclaimed his own principle on board, that, though the war was not to be conducted on peace principles, it was to be carried on in an enlightened, and even gentlemanly manner, so far as he was concerned.

"I am right glad to see you, Mr. Percy Pierson, for I think you can assist me in the object I have in view," said the first officer's victim, looking now as though he was entirely satisfied with himself.

"What do you mean by calling each other by the same name?" inquired Captain Breaker, somewhat astonished at this phase of the conversation.

84 "That is the most astonishing thing in the world, that my friend here should have the same name I have; and he even thought I was playing a game upon him when I told him what my name was," replied Percy, laughing, and apparently somewhat inflated to find a friend on board.

"Precisely so," interposed Captain Passford, before the commander had time to say any thing more about the name. "But, as you both have the same name, it will be necessary to distinguish you in some manner, or it may make confusion while you remain on board."

"I see the point, sir, though I do not expect to remain on board for any great length of time; or possibly you may not," answered Percy.

"Then, I suggest that you be called simply Percy, for that is a noble name; and the other young man shall be addressed as Pierson. By doing this we shall not sacrifice either of you," continued the owner, who did not understand what his son had been doing.

"I have not the slightest objection. My friend Pierson gave me some information in regard to this steamer which made me very desirous to get on board of her. That must explain why I was 85 found here under circumstances somewhat irregular, though a true gentleman can sacrifice himself to the needs of his suffering country."

"To what country do you allude, Mr. Percy?" asked Captain Passford.

"To our country," replied Percy with strong and significant emphasis, as though he were sure that this would cause him to be fully understood.

"Exactly so," added the owner.

"But I see that you are sailing away from Nassau as fast as you can, and I think I had better explain my business as soon as possible," continued Percy, who seemed to be as confident as though he had already accomplished his purpose as hinted at in his conversation with Christy.

"I shall have to ask you to excuse me for a few minutes, for I have