MONSIEUR GILFLEUR EXPLAINS
The two officers and ten men that had been sent off to the Chateaugay
after she got under way, had evidently been considered necessary by the
authorities on shore after the receipt of the intelligence that another
vessel for the Confederates had been sent to Bermuda. A steamer had
arrived that day from Liverpool, and Captain Passford must have received
his mail after he landed from the tug. Captain Chantor had waited
several hours for the signal to get under way, and there had been time
enough to obtain the reinforcement from the Navy Yard.
The officer in command of the detachment of sailors said that he had
been ordered to follow the Chateaugay, and he had been provided with a
fast boat for this purpose. The steamer proceeded on her course as soon
as the transport boat had cast off her fasts, and everything suddenly
quieted down on board of her. The distance between the Ionian and the
man-of-war was soon reduced to about a mile. It was beginning to grow
dark, but the crew had been stationed and billed while the ship lay off
the Navy Yard; but the new hands sent on board were assigned to watches
and quarter-watches, stationed and billed, as though they were a part of
the regular ship's company. One of the two additional officers was
placed in each of the watches.
Before it was really dark everything on board was in order, and the ship
was put in perfect trim. Christy could not help seeing that Captain
Chantor was a thorough commander, and that his officers were excellent
in all respects. He walked about the ship, wishing to make himself
familiar with her. His father had not written to him in regard to the
second vessel which the Chateaugay was to look out for in the vicinity
of the Bermuda Islands, and he only knew what the captain had told him
in regard to the matter.
If the steamer was armed, as probably she was, an action would be likely
to come off, and the young lieutenant could not remain idle while a
battle was in prospect. His quick eye enabled him to take in all he saw
without much study, and only one thing bothered him. In the waist,
secured on blocks, was something like the ordinary whaleboat used in the
navy; but it was somewhat larger than those with which he was familiar
in the discharge of his duties, and differed in other respects from
them. The first watch would begin at eight o'clock, and all hands were
still on duty.
"What do you call this boat, Mr. Carlin?" asked Christy, as the third
lieutenant was passing him.
"I call it a nondescript craft," replied the officer, laughing. "It is
something like a whaleboat, but it isn't one."
"What is it for?" inquired the passenger.
"That is more than I know, sir. It was put on deck while we were still
at the Navy Yard. I never saw a boat just like it before, and I have not
the remotest idea of its intended use. Probably the captain can inform
you."
Christy was no wiser than before, but his curiosity was excited. He
strolled to the quarter-deck, where he found the captain directing his
night-glass towards the Ionian, which showed her port light on the
starboard hand, indicating that the Chateaugay was running ahead of her.
The commander called the second lieutenant, and gave him the order for
the chief engineer to reduce the speed of the ship.
"The Ionian is a slow boat; at least, she is not as fast as the
Chateaugay, Mr. Passford," said Captain Chantor, when Christy had halted
near him.
"That is apparent," replied Christy. "How many knots can you make in
your ship, Captain Chantor?"
"I am told that she has made fifteen when driven at her best."
"That is more than the average of the steamers in the service by three
knots," added Christy. "I have just been forward, Captain, and I saw
there a boat which is not quite on the regulation pattern."
"It is like a whaleboat, though it differs from one in some respects,"
added the commander.
"Is it for ordinary service, Captain Chantor?"
"There you have caught me, for I don't know to what use she is to be
applied," replied the captain, laughing because, as the highest
authority on board of the ship, he was unable to answer the question.
"You don't know?" queried Christy. "Or have I asked an indiscreet
question?" said the passenger.
"If I knew, and found it necessary to conceal my knowledge from you,
I should say so squarely, Mr. Passford," added the commander, a little
piqued. "I would not resort to a lie."
"I beg your pardon, Captain Chanter; I certainly meant no offence,"
pleaded Christy.
"No offence, Mr. Passford; my hand upon it," said the commander, and
they exchanged a friendly grip of the hands. "I really know nothing at
all in regard to the intended use of the boat; in my orders, I am simply
directed to place it at the disposal of Mr. Gilfleur at such time and
place as he may require, and to co-operate with him in any enterprise in
which he may engage. I must refer you to the French gentleman for any
further information."
The passenger went below to the ward room. The door of the detective's
room was closed, and he knocked. He was admitted, and there he found Mr.
Gilfleur occupied with a file of papers, which he was busily engaged in
studying. In the little apartment were two middle-sized valises, which
made it look as though the detective expected to pass some time on his
present voyage to the South.
"I hope I don't disturb you, Mr. Gilfleur," said Christy in French.
"Not at all, Mr. Passford; I am glad to see you, for I am ordered to
consult very freely with you, and to inform you fully in regard to all
my plans," replied the Frenchman.
"Perhaps you can tell me, then, what that boat in the waist is for,"
Christy began, in a very pleasant tone, and in his most agreeable
manner, perhaps copying to some extent the Parisian suavity, as he had
observed it in several visits he had made to the gay capital.
"I can tell you all about it, Mr. Passford, though that is my grand
secret. No other person on board of this ship knows what it is for; but
you are my confidant, though I never had one before in the practice of
my profession," replied Mr. Gilfleur, fixing his keen gaze upon his
associate. "A man's secret is the safest when he keeps it to himself.
But I will tell you all about it."
"No! no! I don't wish you to do that, Mr. Gilfleur, if you deem it wise
to keep the matter to yourself," interposed Christy. "My curiosity is a
little excited, but I can control it."
"I shall tell you all about it, for this affair is different from the
ordinary practice of my profession," replied the detective; and he
proceeded to give a history of the boat in the waist, and then detailed
the use to which it was to be applied.
"I am quite satisfied, and I should be glad to take part in the
expedition in which you intend to use it," said Christy when the
explanation in regard to the boat was finished.
"You would be willing to take part in my little enterprise!" exclaimed
the Frenchman, his eyes lighting up with pleasure.
"I should; why not?"
"Because it may be very dangerous, and a slight slip may cost us both
our lives," replied the detective very impressively, and with another of
his keen and penetrating glances.
"I have not been in the habit of keeping under cover in my two years'
service in the navy, and I know what danger is," added Christy.
"I know you are a very brave young officer, Mr. Passford, but this
service is very different from that on the deck of a ship of war in
action. But we will talk of that at a future time," said Mr. Gilfleur,
as he rose hastily from his arm-chair at the desk, and rushed out into
the ward room.
Christy had heard footsteps outside of the door, and he followed his
companion. They found there Mr. Suppleton, the ship's steward, with the
two extra officers who had been sent on board.
"Do you speak French, gentlemen?" asked the detective, addressing
himself to the two officers.
"Not a word of it," replied Mr. Gwyndale, one of them.
"Not a syllable of it," added Mr. Tempers, the other.
"Excuse me, gentlemen," said Mr. Gilfleur, as he retreated to his room.
Mr. Suppleton introduced the two new officers to Christy, and he then
followed his associate. The Frenchman was afraid the new-comers
understood his native language, and had been listening to his
explanation of the use of the strange boat; but he had spoken in a
whisper, and no one could have heard him, even if the listener had been
a Frenchman.
"We are all right," said the detective when they had both resumed their
seats, and the Frenchman had begun to overhaul his papers.
Mr. Gilfleur proceeded to explain in what manner he had obtained his
knowledge of the plot to send the gun-making machinery to the South. One
of Captain Passford's agents had ascertained the name of Hillman Davis,
who was in correspondence with those who were fitting out the ships for
the Confederate service.
"But that is all we learned from the letters--that the men who were
sending out the ships were in correspondence with this man Davis, who is
a very respectable merchant of New York," Mr. Gilfleur proceeded.
"Is that all you had to start with, my friend?" asked Christy.
"That was all; and it was very little. Your American detectives are more
cautious than Frenchmen in the same service."
"I don't see how in the world you could work up the case with nothing
more than a mere name to begin with," added Christy, beginning to have a
higher opinion than ever of the skill of the French detective.
"I tell you it was a narrow foundation on which to work up the case. It
may amuse you, but I will tell you how it was done. In the first place,
Captain Passford gave me all the money I needed to work with. I applied
for a situation at Mr. Davis's warehouse. He imported wines and liquors
from France; when his corresponding clerk, who spoke and wrote French,
was commissioned as a lieutenant in the army, he was looking for a man
to take his place. He employed me. I had charge of the letters, and
carried the mail to him in his private counting-room every time it
came."
"I don't believe that any of our American detectives would have been
competent to take such a position," suggested Christy, deeply interested
in the narrative.
"That is where I had the advantage of them. I was well educated, and was
graduated from the University of France, with the parchment in that
valise, signed by the minister of education. The carrier brought all the
letters to my desk. I looked them over, and when I found any from
England or Scotland, or even France, I opened and read them."
"How could you do that?" asked Christy curiously.
"I was educated to be a lawyer; but before I entered upon the
profession, I found I had a taste for the detective service. I did some
amateur work first, and was very successful. I afterwards reached a high
position in the service of the government. I acquired a great deal of
skill in disguising myself, and in all the arts of the profession.
I could open and reseal a letter so that no change could be discovered
in its appearance, and this was what I did in the service of Mr. Davis.
He was a mean man, the stingiest I ever met, and he was as dishonest and
unscrupulous as a Paris thief. I copied all the letters connected with
the case I had in hand, and this enabled me to get to the bottom of the
traitor's plot. He wrote letters himself, not only to England and
Scotland, but to people in the South, sending them to Bermuda and
Nassau. I took copies of all these, and saved one or two originals.
My pay was so small that I resigned my situation," and he flourished a
great file of letters as he finished.