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 it was. we hear no more pistol shots and no more clashing of cutlasses," replied lonley, uneasily. "but i expected to hear the triumphal shout of our men when they had carried the deck of the teaser."
"i have not heard anything like a triumphal shout," added christy, very quietly. "it is barely possible that your men have not carried the deck of the teaser."
"of course, it is possible they have not; but i don't believe they have failed," replied lonley.
the privateersman listened for a few minutes in silence. he appeared to be entirely confident that the victory must be with his men. he evidently believed that the captors of the teaser had sent 295 her two boats off to a distance of a mile, and thus weakened whatever force she had on board of her. he did not seem to have any idea that the party he had met in pensacola bay had been increased in numbers, or that the officer in command had reported to the ship to which they belonged. christy realized what lonley was thinking about, and he clearly believed that the teaser had been left in charge of not more than a dozen or fifteen men, reduced by at least six then on boat duty.
"help! help!" shouted a man in the water at no great distance from the shore.
"what does that mean?" said lonley, springing to his feet.
"it is a call for help, and, as my hands are tied behind me, i cannot respond to it, as i would gladly do, be the man who needs it friend or enemy," replied christy. "there is the canoe in which we came ashore, lieutenant lonley, and you can use that."
the privateersman sprang into the boat, shoved it off, and pulled in the direction from which the appeal came. he disappeared in the fog in a moment; but a little later was seen again approaching the shore. he had not taken the sufferer into 296 the boat, but he had clung to it. as he got upon his feet, christy saw that there were two of them, for one helped the other up the beach.
"what does this mean?" demanded lonley, very much excited. "have you run away from the others?"
"no, sir; but we were beaten in the fight, our boats captured, and all hands taken prisoners except us two," replied the uninjured of the two men.
lieutenant lonley, whatever his views of the morality of lying to the enemy, uttered an exclamation which grated very harshly on the ears of lieutenant passford. the result, as stated by the man who had swum to the shore, was as unwelcome as it was unexpected. he had not deemed a defeat even possible. he learned from the guard-boat that the steamer had been captured. he had spent the time after he was landed with his companions at town point, and organized his force for the recapture of the teaser. the failure of the final attack was as severe upon him as the loss of his vessel had been upon captain folkner.
"who are you?" demanded lonley, when he had 297 in some measure recovered from the shock which the failure gave him.
"i am levick, the boatswain; and this is lieutenant folkner, who was wounded in the shoulder in the first of it," replied the man. "he was knocked from the rail into the water when we boarded, and he held on to an oar. when the fight was over, and we had lost it, i slipped into the water, and helped the lieutenant along on his oar, till i was about used up, and then i called for help."
"are you much hurt, mr. folkner?" asked lonley of the injured officer.
"i don't know; my shoulder feels numb, and i can't use my arm," replied folkner. "but i can use my legs, and i think that is what we had better be doing."
"i don't understand it," protested lonley, very much dissatisfied with the result of the action, as may well be supposed. "i was sure you would carry her deck at once."
"i was as sure as you were, lonley; but i believe they had fifty men all ready for us. they let us leap on deck without much opposition, and then they surrounded us, and took us by surprise, 298 for i did not suppose, after what you said, that they had a dozen men," replied the wounded lieutenant.
"i did not suppose they had even a dozen men left on board," lonley explained, with humiliation in his tones.
"i staid in the boat till i had seen all my men on deck," continued mr. folkner. "they surrounded our force, and tumbled them into the hold as though they had been pigs, slashing them with their cutlasses if they tried to get out. i saw the fat officer in command of the enemy; he was very active, and i leaped on deck, determined to cross weapons with him. but he hit me in the shoulder with his cutlass, and i lost my hold on the rail."
"you ought to have led your men, not followed them," said lonley bitterly.
"that is easy enough for you to say; but i wanted to be where i could see my men," retorted the first lieutenant, of whom the second had a very mean opinion, perhaps because he got his position on account of being the captain's brother.
"whether i did right or not, i can tell you all one thing; and that is, that we shall be prisoners if 299 we stay here any longer. they have got our men under the hatches, and they have ordered out a boat to look for an officer they sent ashore."
"we can do nothing here, and we may as well put ourselves in safer quarters, for we have two prisoners to lose," said lonley. "mr. passford, i shall have to trouble you to march to the other side of the island."
"i am your prisoner, mr. lonley, and i must obey your orders, though i am sorry to be away from my ship in the hour of victory," replied christy submissively.
but he felt that his plan had been fully carried out.
