THE MAJOR IN COMMAND OF FORT GAINES
Percy Pierson retained his position on the rail when his brother the
major came up the gangway steps, which had been put over for him. As
the latter went up, he could not help seeing him; and his astonishment
evidently mounted to the highest degree, as manifested in his
expression. The owner and the commander stood near the rail, to give
the visitor a pleasant reception.
But the major took no notice of them; for his attention was plainly
absorbed in his surprise at seeing his brother, dressed in uniform, on
the rail of the steamer. He halted as soon as he had mounted the rail,
over which he must pass to reach the deck. He looked at Percy for some
time, without being able to say a word, and seemed to be not quite sure
that it was he.
The younger brother was as silent as the older one; for he had had some
rather exciting times with him in the matter of enlisting, and he was
not very confident of his reception at the hands of the commander of
Fort Gaines. He looked at him with interest, not unmingled with some
painful solicitude for the future.
"Percy!" exclaimed Major Pierson at last, when he was entirely satisfied
that the young man was his brother, in spite of the uniform of blue he
wore, though the gray had not yet come into extensive use.
"Lindley!" added the younger, evidently desiring to go no faster than
the occasion might require of him.
"I am glad to see you back again," continued the major, without offering
to take his hand. "You deserted like a coward, and I have been ashamed
of you ever since. A young fellow like you, eighteen years old, who will
not fight for his country, ought to lose the respect of even his own
brother."
"That is a pleasant greeting," replied Percy, with the suspicion of a
sneer on his face.
"It is all that a coward deserves," replied Lindley severely.
"I am no coward, any more than you are," protested Percy. "You know that
father did not wish me to join the army, though I wished to do so."
"I know that you wished to do so just as any other coward does,--over
the left."
"What could I do when father told me not to go to the war?"
"What could you do? You could have gone! If you had not been a poltroon,
you would have joined the first regiment that came in your way."
"I never was in the habit of disobeying my father," pleaded the young
agent.
"You were not? You ran away to New Orleans last winter when your father
told you not to go. You came home from the academy when he told you to
remain there. You have spent the evening in Mobile when he told you not
to go there. I could tell you instances all day in which you disobeyed
him, and mother too," continued the soldier warmly.
"That was different."
"It was different; and you could obey your father in a bad cause, but
not in a good one. I am heartily ashamed of you, and I don't feel
willing to own you as a brother of mine."
"But my father told me that I could better serve the good cause by going
with him than I could by joining the army."
"And you were willing to go with him, for then you could keep out of
danger. Father is getting old, and he is not fit to serve in the army;
and you have been his pet since you were born. But that is no excuse for
you; and if I can get you back into the army, I mean to do so."
Percy was afraid he might succeed, and he did not feel as confident as
he had been; and he lost, for the time, some of his self-possession. He
was confronting the fate he had dreaded when he found the steamer was
leaving Nassau.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the major, looking down upon the
deck of the vessel for the first time.
"I am taking this steamer into the bay, where she is to go into the
service of the Confederate States," answered Percy, plucking a little
more confidence from the nature of his present occupation.
"You are taking her into the bay!" exclaimed the older brother.
"That is what I said, and that is what I mean," added Percy, glad to see
that his mission had produced an impression.
"Taking this steamer into the bay!" repeated the major, evidently unable
to comprehend the mission of his brother. "Do you mean to say that _you_
are taking her in, Percy?"
"That is what I mean to say, and do say."
"Are you the pilot of the steamer? I should think you might have been,
for she was aground just now," sneered the commander of the fort.
"I am not the pilot, and I don't pretend to be a sailor; but the steamer
is in my charge," replied Percy, elevating his head to the need of the
occasion.
"In charge of the steamer! I would not trust a coward like you in charge
of a sick monkey," added Lindley, with his contempt fully expressed in
his face.
"See here, Lindley, I don't mean to be insulted on board of this steamer
by my own brother. If you can't be decent, I have nothing more to say to
you!" cried Percy, his wrath breaking out quite violently.
"If you give me an impudent word, I will take you into the boat and put
you into the fort," added the major, as he stepped down upon the deck.
"No, you won't. I will jump overboard before I will be carried to the
fort. I have done just what my father told me to do, to say nothing of
my mother; and I won't be insulted by you. It is you who are the coward
and the poltroon, to do so," continued Percy, boiling over with rage.
Whatever provocation the major had had for his savage treatment of
his brother, the owner of the Bellevite thought his conduct was
unjustifiable. The young man was under age; and whether or not his
father was less a patriot than his older son, the latter was certainly
unkind, ungenerous, and even brutal. Without being a "milk-and-water
man," Captain Passford was full of kindness, courtesy, and justice. He
did not like the behavior of the major towards his brother.
It looked like a family quarrel of the two brothers on board of the
steamer; for Percy was evidently "a weak chicken," after all, though he
had become desperate under the stings and reproaches of the major. Under
present circumstances, it did not appear that Percy could be of any
service on board of the Bellevite, for his brother would not hear a word
he said. Captain Passford directed the commander to have every thing
ready for a hurried movement at once, for there was but little hope of
satisfying a man as unreasonable as the commander of the fort had proved
himself to be in his dealing with his brother.
The captain of the steamer went to Mr. Vapoor, who was standing near the
door of the engine-room, and said something to him, which soon produced
a lively effect among the coal-passers below.
"I will attend to your case in a few minutes, Percy, for I do not allow
any one to be impudent to me," growled the major.
"Nor I either. If you put a finger on me, I will put a bullet through
your head, if you are my brother!" yelled Percy, as he took a small
revolver from his hip-pocket.
This demonstration increased the anger of Lindley; and he ran up the
steps to the rail again, where he called upon two soldiers to come on
deck. At the same moment, Captain Breaker, as instructed by the owner,
rang the bell on the quarter, and the engine began to move again. Before
the men from the boat could leave it, the steamer was moving, and it was
no longer possible for them to obey the order.
"What are you about, sir?" demanded Major Pierson, rushing to the
commander, not a little excited by what had been done.
"I think this thing has gone about far enough, sir," replied Captain
Breaker, as calmly as though there had not been a ripple on the surface
of affairs.
"But I came on board of this steamer to make an examination of the
character of the vessel," protested the major, who evidently did not
like the present aspect of the situation.
"I have waited for you to do so; but I do not care to lose the tide
while you are quarrelling with your brother, sir," added the commander.
"But I order you to stop, sir!" continued the major.
"What am I to do, Mr. Percy?" asked Captain Breaker, addressing the
young man with a revolver in his hand.
There was something on the part of the commander which indicated that
he was playing a part, as were all on board, though he seemed to be
a little amused to find that he was taking his orders from a boy of
eighteen. At the same time he nodded his head slightly, though very
significantly, to the young agent.
"Go ahead just as fast as you can make the steamer travel, Captain
Breaker," said Percy, with as much energy as though he had been in
command of a Confederate fleet.
"Certainly, Mr. Percy; I shall obey your order, as you have charge of
the vessel," added the commander.
This passage between the authority of the steamer and his brother
absolutely confounded the major, and for a couple of minutes he was
unable to say any thing at all. But Captain Breaker, who was the only
pilot on board, was obliged to leave the ship's guest in order to look
out for the course of the steamer.
It seemed to be useless to attempt to get over the bar where he
had tried to do so; and he directed the vessel towards the main
ship-channel, finding plenty of water to enable him to reach it. But he
would have to run the gauntlet of Fort Morgan, and the chances of a shot
were against him.
"Do you mean to say that Percy is in charge of this steamer, Captain
Breaker?" demanded Major Pierson, who had by this time recovered some
portion of his self-possession.
"That is what both he and I said to you," replied Captain Breaker.
"And the vessel is to be in the service of the Confederate States,"
added Percy, with more pluck than he had displayed before. "If my
brother will not let her pass into the bay, I will go on shore at
Fort Morgan, and explain the situation to the officer in command,"
blustered Percy; and perhaps he would have done just as much under the
circumstances if he had known the vessel was on the other side in the
coming conflict.
"Where are your papers, sir?" asked the major.
"We have no papers; and that is why I am come in charge of the steamer,"
replied the agent, who seemed to be quite able to strain a point when
necessary.
"We met Colonel Richard Pierson in Nassau, and I believe he is your
father and Mr. Percy's," answered Captain Breaker.
"He is; but I can hardly understand how he happened to send my brother
home in charge of this fine steamer," said the major, glancing at his
brother.
"Going into the army is not all the duty a man has to do for his
country," said Percy warmly.
"May I ask where this vessel came from?" inquired the commander of the
fort.
"From New York before she went to Bermuda and Nassau; before that, from
England," replied the commander evasively.
"If you are really in charge of the steamer, Percy, I have nothing more
to say," continued Major Pierson. "Now may I ask who owns her?"
"Captain Horatio Passford, who stands there?"
The officer in command of the fort started back as though he had
received another surprise, greater than before.