CHAPTER XXIX

BRINGING OUT THE PRIZE

It seemed to Christy, after he had completed his examination of the Reindeer, that she carried an enormous deck-load for a steamer of her size, and that the bales were piled altogether too high for a vessel that was liable to encounter a heavy sea. But the cotton was where it could be readily thrown overboard if the safety of the steamer was threatened by its presence. He found only the six men mentioned by Stopfoot, though he had looked in every part of the vessel, even to the fire-room and the quarters of the crew and firemen.

"I find everything as you stated, Captain Stopfoot; but I should say that you were proposing to go to sea short-handed. I did not even see a person whom I took for the mate. Is it possible that you could get along without one?" said Christy, when he met the commander at the door of the cabin.

"The truth is, that my men deserted me when they saw the two men-of-war come into the bay, for they knew I had no adequate means of making a defence. In fact, the Reindeer was as good as captured as soon as your two steamers came into the bay, for you were morally sure to find her,"

replied the captain.

"But where are your men? How could they get away?" asked Christy.

"They have not got away a great distance. You could see the gangway to the sh.o.r.e; and all they had to do was to land, without even the trouble of taking to a boat. They are all on the long key; and without some sort of a craft they will not be able to leave it. If you desire to spend your time in hunting them down, I have no doubt you could find them all."

"How many of them are there on the island, Captain Stopfoot?"

"The mate, four deck-hands, and two firemen. It would not be a difficult task for you to capture them all, for I did not look upon them as fighting material; they have crowded about all the men of that sort into the army."

"I have no desire to find them, and they may stay on the key till doomsday, so far as I am concerned," replied Christy. "We don't regard the men employed on blockade-runners as of much account. But it is time to get under way, Captain; I have men enough to do all the work, and I think I have learned the channel well enough to find the way out into the deep water of the bay."

"As I said before, Lieutenant Pa.s.sford, I am willing to a.s.sist you, for I am anxious to get back among my own people, and to find a position in the old navy. I have been master of a vessel for the last ten years, and I know the Southern coast better than most of your officers."

"No doubt you will find a place when you want one, for all competent men are taken," replied Christy, as he went to the quarter to see if the Bellevite's cutter was in condition to be towed by the Reindeer.

He had left the boat in charge of Quimp, or rather he had left him in it without a.s.signing any particular duty to him. He was no longer in the cutter, and the officer concluded that he had taken to the long key, and was fraternizing with the renegades who had deserted the Reindeer. The long painter of the boat was taken to the stern and made fast in a suitable place, and Christy hastened to the forward part of the vessel with six of his men, leaving a quartermaster, who was the c.o.c.kswain of the cutter, with two others, in charge of the after part.

On his way he went into the engine-room, which opened from the main deck, where he had before seen the two engineers, the chief of whom had received him very politely. He suggested to the captain that he had made no arrangement with these officers, and he was not quite sure that they would be willing to do duty now that the steamer was a prize.

"There will be no trouble about them, for they are Englishmen, engaged at Na.s.sau, and they will do duty as long as they are paid for it, as they have no interest in the quarrel between the North and the South,"

said Captain Stopfoot; and Christy could not help seeing that he was making everything very comfortable for him.

"We are willing to work for whoever will pay us," added the chief engineer, "and without asking any hard questions."

"I will see that you are paid," returned Christy. "You will attend to the bells as usual, will you?"

"Yes, sir; we will do our duty faithfully," answered the chief.

Christy and the captain proceeded to the pilot-house, which appeared to have been recently added to the vessel to suit the taste of her American owners. The naval officer stationed one of his own men at the wheel, and then took a careful survey of the position of the steamer. He directed his crew to cast off the fasts.

"Is there a United States flag on board of this craft, Captain Stopfoot?" asked Christy.

"To be sure there is, Lieutenant," said the captain with a laugh; "but I do not get much chance to get under its folds."

"Of course you have Confederate flags in abundance?"

"Enough of them," replied the commander, as he drew forth from a signal-box the flags required. "What do you intend to do with these?"

"I intend to hoist the United States flag over the Confederate to show that this steamer is a prize, otherwise the Bellevite might put a shot through her as soon as she shows herself outside of the key," replied Christy.

"A wise precaution," added Captain Stopfoot.

The naval officer rang one bell as one of his men reported to him that the fasts had been cast off, and that all was clear. The grating sound of the engine was immediately heard, with the splash of the paddle wheels. Very slowly the Reindeer began to move forward. Christy had very carefully noted the bearings of the channel by which the steamer must pa.s.s out into the deep water of the bay, and the instructions which the captain volunteered to give him were not necessary.

"I suppose I am as really a Northern man in principle as you are, Mr.

Pa.s.sford," said the captain, as the steamer crept very cautiously through the pa.s.s between the keys.

"If you are, you have taken a different way to show it," replied Christy, glancing at the speaker.

"But the circ.u.mstances have compelled me to remain in the service of my Southern employer until the present time, and this promises to be the first favorable opportunity to escape from it that has been presented to me," Captain Stopfoot explained.

"You have been to Na.s.sau a number of times, I judge; and it was possible for you to abandon your employment any time you pleased," suggested the naval officer.

"It was not so easy a matter as you seem to think; for there were no Northern vessels there in which I could take pa.s.sage to New York, or any other loyal port.

"Mr. Groomer, the mate of the Reindeer, is part owner of her, though he is not competent to navigate a vessel at sea, and he kept close watch of me all the time, on sh.o.r.e as well as on board."

"But I understand that Mr. Groomer, the mate, has deserted you, and gone on sh.o.r.e with the others of your ship's company," added Christy, rather perplexed at the situation indicated by the captain.

"What else could he do?"

"What else could you do? and why did you not abandon the steamer when he did so? If one of the owners would not stand by the vessel, why did you do so?"

"I have told you before why I did not: because I wish to get back to my friends in the North, and find a place in the old navy, which would be more congenial to me than selling cotton for the benefit of the Confederacy," replied Captain Stopfoot with considerable energy.

The explanation seemed to be a reasonable one, and Christy could not gainsay it, though he was not entirely satisfied with the declarations of the commander. He admitted that he regarded the Reindeer as good as captured when he saw the Bellevite and Bronx come into the bay; and he could easily have escaped in a boat to one of the gunboats after the watchful mate "took to the woods," as he had literally done, for the key was partly covered with small trees.

"And a quarter two!" reported the leadsman who had been stationed on the forecastle.

"The water don't seem to vary here," added Christy.

"No, for the owners had done some dredging in this channel; in fact, there was hardly anything like a channel here when they began the work,"

replied Captain Stopfoot. "To which of the steamers do you belong, Mr.

Pa.s.sford?"

"To the Bellevite, the one which lies below the long key. The other has gone up the bay."

"She has gone on a fruitless errand, for there is not another vessel loading in these waters," said the captain. "I suppose you will report on board of the Bellevite, Mr. Pa.s.sford?"

"Of course I shall not leave the Reindeer without an order from the commander of the ship," replied the lieutenant.

"And a half two!" shouted the leadsman.

"The channel deepens," said Christy.

"You will be in deep water in five minutes."