Marcy the Blockade Runner

hands as they did at the period of which we write. There was

ailing about the sound in the Fairy Belle with the boy Julius for a companion; and so he spent a little of his time in visiting among the neighboring planters, and a good deal more in "pottering" a

ow of friendship. Some of it, as they afterward learned, was genuine; while the rest was assumed for the purpose of leading them on to "declare" themselves. It was a mean thing for neighbors to be guilty of, but you must remember that, like Rodney Gray when he wrote that mischievous letter to Bud Goble, they did not know all the time what they were doing. Of course the high-spirited Marcy grew restive under such trea

said he. "Now the Yank

r regular wages, and, better than all, you run no sort of risk. It may surprise you to know that I have been turning the matter over in my

on was just coward enough to engage in some such disreputable business. "You are just the lad for it. It is suc

e was perforce engaged, sometimes led him to come dangerously near to betraying himself. Allison looked s

he companionship of the ignorant foreigners who composed the Osprey's crew was more to his liking than d

et on with Captain Bear

ft the schooner, but I will speak to th

to do something for the glorious cause of

ain says in his letter is that he

r or not the Hollin

at I have eight hundred and seventy-live dollars more to my cred

on. "How long did it take

ve hours, I

ve hours' work! Marcy, you have struck a gold mine. Yo

Sam will allow such-such work t

ot the hardest job on his hands he ever undertook. There never was a better place for carrying on such bu

"pirates") "will be swept from the face of the earth in less than a year; so that I shall have no chance to get rich. But I'll have

, his filly never breaking her lope until she turned through the gate into the yard, and drew up before the steps t

Jack were only here, and I was about to engage in some honorable business, I should be glad to

t not dreadful!"

to the government, and half of the remainder was divided among the three officers, Beardsley getting the lion's share, I bet you. The sixteen members of the crew get an equal share of the other fourteen thousand, t

burn your fingers

f course, I don't expect to keep it. Now, mother, please help me get of

d fears of spies and organized bands of robbers. He sent word to Morris, the coachman, to have the carriage brought to the door, loitered about doing nothing while his mother packed his valise, and in twenty minutes more was on

nd ran his eyes over the crowds of excited people that were gathered upon the platforms of all the depots they passed. "But, after all, what difference does it make? If I don't g

away, the sight of her masts told him that she was still on top of the water. She would soon be ready to sail, too, for her crew were rushing her stores aboard, while Captain Beard

me back, didn't yon?" sa

e did yon expect me to do? I was on the road in l

ain approvingly. "But I didn't look for you to

could see; and Allison

ring for the Confederacy and doing never a thing to help us gain our independence. His place is i

ve that if he managed the matter rightly, Beardsley would soon let him know whether or not he was concerned in that little plot, as M

over the stern and looking very angry indeed. "I always

be run off the place, they could attend to the matter themselves. I wouldn't have the first thing to do with it. I was given to under

ly right. And wha

for he sent no

nything to Han

he attended strictly to his busines

y do it himself. The latter walked squarely into the trap without appearing to realize that he had done it,

during the cruise," thought Marcy. "But I do say that if he w

and Dillon to tell me all about it; and if that overseer of yourn is really Union, perh

s he might have done if the schooner had been under way and he wanted to ma

lars don't grow in every boy's dooryard. I tell you. And, Marcy," he went on in a lower tone, "I've got as much m

Captain Beardsley for giving him nearly nine hundred dollars of an

othes for quite a spell, won't it?" the captain continued. "But law! what

hing. He thought he knew wha

I don't," said the latter. "The Yankees don't come of fighting stock, like we Southe

he settlement," answered the pilot. "You know we'

captain cautiously-so very cautiously that

money. How could w

I reckon you've got right

Wilmington, but just how much

ing the provisions aboard, but for all that, he could see that Beardsl

in that there house," was what t

gave him a chance to do it." And then he asked the captain when he expected to get the schoo

y they should call 'em blockade-runners when we didn't think there was a blockade at all, excepting the paper one that appeared in Lincoln's proclamation; but seeing that the brig Herald ain't been heard from since she run out of W

that prize-money, that if we get into trouble with a Union cruiser you will take command

Herald might be captured, and that the United States people will

h bad luck as that?" inquired

ions, must be effectual," said the captain, quoting the language his agent had often used in his hearing. "A paper blockade won't do; and if the Yankees can't send ships enough here to shut up our

ncle Sam won't

folks down on him; and between the two of us we'll give

ever thought of before. Almost the first lesson he learned in history was that England had no l

has always been friendly to us, and didn't she send troops h

hile Marcy was at home on his leave of absence. "Was it because she had any love for republican-republican-ah-er-institutions? No, sir. It was bec

his quarter-deck, lighted a fres

t a going to last long, and so I think some of dropping it

ied that h

ading-running

orts?" ask

cine back. Medicine is getting skurse and high-priced already. And percussion caps. They're the things you can make money on. Why, I have heard it said that there wasn't enough gun caps in the Confederacy to fight a battle with till Captain Semmes made that tower of his through the

ed to hear him announce that after he gave up privateering and took to blockade-running he would no longer need the services of a pilot. But if such a thou

ing for safe-keeping. "He's got me fast, and there's no chance for escape as long as the Osprey remains in commission. Well, there's one comfort: B

more to say about the money that was supposed to be hidden in Mrs. Gray's house; but he didn't, for the captain had almost come to the conclusion that there was no money there. If there

ceded States, and of this immense territory all that remained to the Union were the few acres of ground enclosed within the walls of Fortress Monroe and Forts Pickens, Taylor, and Jefferson. Loyal Massachusetts men had been murdered in the streets of Baltimore; battles of more or less importance had been fought both in the East and West, and on the very day that Marcy joined the privateer, the future leader of the Army of the Potomac won a complete victory over the rebel forces at Rich Mountain. The Richmond papers had very little to sa

one of these days, and then every ship that floats the old flag will

o, and history tells how faithfully he carried

turned out that there were, for the brig Herald had been captured and taken to a Northern port-they were stationed farther down toward Hatteras Inlet, and the schooner's lookouts did not see any of them until she had

shouted Capt

ding straight across our bows," was

ring to mount to the crosstrees with a spy-glass

and she's running alon

m us. Put a fifteen-second shell in that bow gun

nvisible. The moment Marcy caught sight of her top-hamper, and while he stood with the halliards in his hand waiting for the order to run up the Stars and Stripes, Captain Beardsley began swearing most lustily and shout

and see if that won't quiet his feelings. Them war ships down to Hatteras have posted

ls. It looked to Marcy like a most desperate undertaking, for you will remember that the schooner was far ahead of the brig, and that the merchant captain was about to run by her. It didn't seem possible that he could succeed, but the sequel proved that he knew just what his vessel was capable of doing. She came up at a "hand gall

t that she will get away," was the

en even more fervent if he had