Marcy the Blockade Runner

ght hours from the time her lines were made fast to the wharf, the blockade-runner was ready for her return trip. Meanwhile Marcy Gray and the rest of the crew had little to do b

pes. Marcy was both astonished and shocked to find that nearly every one with whom he conversed believed that the Union was already a thing of the past, and that

us to see the Union destroyed, I don't see why they don't ship under the Confeder

n pieces; but she's too big a coward to come out and help us open and above board, and so she's helping on the sly. I wish the Yankees would do something to madden her, but they're too sharp. They have give up the Herald-the brig I was telling you about that sailed from Wilmington j

and he was glad to learn that there was to be no trouble on that score. But England could not long keep her meddlesome fingers out of our pie. She did all she dared to aid the Confederacy, and w

d some little bundles

. "What w

ther, and in the others there was nothing but medicine,"

turn over about three times when we get back to Newbern. You'll clear about three hundred dollars, when you might jus

ary of telling the captain that he inten

y remained in port two

passed as many more, b

cy, in obedience to Bea

blem up to the

s no such steamers sailing into this port before the war. Them fellows over the water are sending in goods faster

had it not been for the credulity or stupidity of a Union naval captain. This particular night, for a wonder, was clear; the stars shone brightly, and Marcy Gray, who sat on the cross trees with the night-glass in his hand, had been instructed to use extra vigilance. There was a heavy ground swell on, showing that there had recently been a blow somewhere, and the scho

eck,

the answer. "

traight a

and moved aside so that the captain could find a place to stand on the crosstrees. Either the latter's eyes were sharper than Marcy's, or

heavy steamer," he added, as Marcy moved to the other side of the mast, and the mate came up and stood beside the captain, "and if she can

up," replie

straight for

ge the course a few points and t

broadside on. Then there came an interval of anxiety and suspense, during which Marcy Gray strained his eyes until he saw a dozen lights dancing before them instead of two, as there ought to have been, and at last Captain Beardsley's worst fears were confirmed. The relative position of

to himself. "And unless something turns up in our favor, it will

troubled by the same gloomy thoughts, fo

urse for nowhere, neith

heel when we did, and t

othing else. See any

whe

a hasty glance around the horizon. "There

when things did not go to suit him-and then he said, a

ow is worth a cool hundred thousand dollars in Newbern, if they're worth anything, and my commission will be somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-five

out of trouble when you get her into it. There can't no advice be given that I can see, unless it

e cargo was safe out of the hold and sunk to the bottom, I couldn't say that I am in ballast, because I ain't got a pound of any sort of ballast

thing he could do was to make the best of the situation, d

rgo overboard the Y

ewbern fellows the satisfaction of knowing that I saved their goods by sending them to the bottom? Not by a great sig

nearer than they seemed to be, for the shape of the steamer could be made out by the unaided eye. When Beard

g we shall see will be a small boat coming off. I hope the swell'll turn it upside down and drown every mother's son of her crew

, as he backed down slowly from the crosstrees. "I don't care if she cuts us

occur when it looks as though there might be room for all the navies of the world to pass in review." So it was now. The two vessels drifted toward each other, broadside on, and the breeze was so light that the Hattie was almost helpless; but the stranger was well handled; her huge paddle wheels

ahoy!" cam

ardsley, who had been allowed a little leis

hooner i

rk," shouted Beardsle

cargo of sugar

s eastward of your course, and showing no lights?" asked the voice; and Marcy

some afloat, and I can't afford to fall in with any of 'em, kase everythin

ras, where you will be safe? There's a big flee

will put that way as fast as this breeze will take me.

stranger's gong sounded again, and she also went on her way. There was scarcely a word spoken above a whisper until her lights had disappeared; then the schooner's own lanterns

mance of shipping his mates on the back. "By gum, I done it, didn't I! What sort of a Yankee do you reckon

to save the schoon

be all right if I put a bold face on the matter. And that's what I done. Oh, I'm a sharp one, and it takes a better man than a Yankee to get ahead of me. I was really much obliged to him for telling me of that blocka

himself, as he too went below to take a little needed rest. "Why, it seems like a dream; and somehow I can hardly bring myself to

nd looked for nothing else but to see an armed boat put off to test the truth of Captain Beardsley's statements regarding the Hattie and her cargo. The mate, Morgan, was completely

and favoring wind that then filled the schooner's sails held out, her keel would be plowing the waters of the Sound by midnight or a little later, and Captain Beardsley's commission would be safe. At least that was what the latter told Marcy; and, while he talked, he jingled some keys in his pocket with as much apparent satisfaction as though they were the dollars he hoped to put there in a few days more. But the old saying that there is many a slip came very near holding true in Beardsley's case. The latter was so certain that he had left all danger beh

to bring with him. "Of course the skipper will run her through without any aid from me, as he did before, and so-what in

was standing there joking with his mates, and congratulating them and himself on the safe and profitable run the Hattie had made; and as Marcy c

"for goodness' sake don't do that again! Keep still! The

d to him. His hearty laugh was broken short off in the middle, so to speak, and when turned so

managed

of the mates, rather contemptuously. "Where

ly. "I only tell you what I saw with my own eyes. Here's t

s and all the rest of the crew, with the exception of the man at the wheel. With trembling hands Bear

e're lost, and the Yankee fleet may be within less than a mi

that she won't show as plainly as she would if she lay broadside to us. Do you see those lo

t, the schooner had by this time drawn so near her that he could make out two suspicious objects in her bow-one he was sure was a howitzer, and the other looked very like the upright, motionless figur

e'll blow you o

are satisfied!"

t. It required an emergency to bring out what there was in him, and wh

s in the Inlet. Morgan, go to the wheel and hold her just as she is. Don't luff

t toward the point where he thought the entrance of the Inlet ought to be. "The cruiser to which thi

u!" came the order, in loud

ssing the man who had been stationed in the waist to pass his commands. "Ten to one

lied Marcy, wondering at

ee it there

d ones of our'n, and they hit us at the water-line

k the flying jib-boom, breaking it short off and rendering that sail useless, glanced and splintered the rail close by the spot where the captain and his pilot were standing, went shrieking off over the water, and finally exploding an eighth of a mile astern. The skipper and Marcy were both prostrated by a splinter six feet long and four inches thick that was torn from the rail; but they scrambled to their feet again almost as soon as they touched the deck, and when they looked ahead, fully expectin

CAPTAIN BEARD

ere the lower portion of his anatomy that had been injured instead of the upper. "She's got a steam ingine aboard of her, and them oars of her'n was onl

nd that he could not move his hand at all unless he raised his arm at the shoulder. He was not conscious of much pain, although he afterward said that his arm felt a good deal as it did when Dick Graham acciden

listen to him. "That first buoy is a black one, and you want to leave it to port. If you keep on

holding fast to his elbow with one hand and to his shoulde

otter," and he knew how to handle both of them. He had been sent out by one of the blockading squadron to patrol the coast and watch for just such vessels as the Hattie was, and although he had steam up all the while, he used his twenty-four muffled oars, twelve on a side, as his motive power; and this enabled him to slip along the coast without