Christy had a good deal better opinion of Major Pierson than he had of his brother in the pilot-house with him; but just then the latter was able to be more useful to him than the commandant of the fort.

"I can now almost promise that you shall be put on board of the Bellevite, if I succeed in reaching her myself," said Christy.

"That is all I can expect of you; and I will do whatever you tell me, if it be to sink the Leopard. But we can't do a thing. The engineer will not start the engine for us; and I don't see but what we must stay here till my brother comes back from his errand, whatever it may be."

"I don't feel quite so helpless as that," added Christy, as he took a revolver from his hip-pocket, where he had carried it all the time since the steamer left Nassau, and while she was there.

"What are you going to do with that, Christy?" asked Percy, impressed with the sight of the weapon.

"I am going to start this tug with it, if necessary. Now hear me."

Percy was all attention.

CHAPTER XXIV - THE engineer GOES INTO THE FORECASTLE

The wind from the southward seemed to be increasing in force, though it was not yet what old salts would call any thing more than half a gale, and hardly that; but the long-boat from the Leopard made bad weather of it, and rolled wildly in the trough of the sea. The soldiers pulled badly, for they had had no training in the use of the oars, and very little experience.

The boat had made very little progress towards the Bellevite, and Christy was in no hurry to put his plan in operation. He showed his revolver to Percy, and then restored it to his hip-pocket. But he watched the expression of his companion in the pilot-house very closely; for, as the case then stood, one of them belonged to the blue, while the other was of the gray. But Percy's patriotism was hardly skin deep, and he had already spoken freely enough to make himself understood.

"I don't see how you are going to start the tug with that pistol if the fellow at the engine don't look at it in that light," said Percy, as his companion restored the weapon to his pocket.

"I don't intend to use it if it can be avoided," replied Christy. "I shall not ask Spikeley to start the engine, and if he don't interfere with me, I shall not harm him; for he seems to be a cripple, and it would hurt my feelings to have to lay hands on him, or even to point a revolver at his head."

"If Spikeley don't start the engine, I reckon it will not start itself," suggested Percy.