A VISIT TO TAMPA BAY
As soon as Mr. Gilfleur had been welcomed back to the Chateaugay the
commander gave the order to the officer of the deck to have the Bahama
boat hoisted to the deck, and disposed of as before.
"I beg your pardon, Captain Chantor; but be so kind as to allow the boat
to remain alongside, for I must return to Nassau," interposed the
detective.
"Return to Nassau!" exclaimed the captain.
"Yes, sir; it is really necessary that I should do so, for you see that
I have come back without Mr. Passford," replied the Frenchman. "He was
attacked by a cowardly ruffian in front of a saloon in the town, and I
lost sight of him after that. I have been terribly distressed about him,
for the ruffian threatened to kill him, and I fear he has executed his
threat."
"Don't distress yourself for another instant, Mr. Gilfleur, for Mr.
Passford is on board of the ship at this moment, and doubtless asleep in
his stateroom," said the captain, cutting short the narrative of the
detective.
"On board of the ship!" exclaimed the Frenchman, retreating a few paces
in his great surprise. "Impossible! Quite impossible! I found our boat
just where we had left it at the back side of the island."
"But what I say is entirely true; and Mr. Passford wished me to have him
called when you came on board," added the commander, as he sent a
quartermaster to summon Christy to the captain's cabin.
"I don't understand how Mr. Passford can be on board of the ship,"
continued the bewildered Frenchman. "Ah, he might have hired a boat like
the Eleuthera to bring him off."
"He might have done so, but he did not," replied Captain Chantor, as he
directed the officer of the deck to go ahead, making the course east, as
soon as he had secured the detective's boat. "Now, if you will come to
my cabin, Mr. Gilfleur, Mr. Passford shall inform you himself that he is
on board of the ship; and he has quite an exciting story to tell."
The commander and the Frenchman went below, and seated themselves in the
cabin of the former.
"Mr. Passford has already informed me that the Ovidio is at Nassau, but
that she has been seized by a British gunboat for violation of the
neutrality laws," said the captain.
"That is quite true, and it is not probable that the case will be
settled for a month to come," replied Mr. Gilfleur. "But I ascertained
by great good luck that her armament was waiting for her at Green Cay,
if you know where that is: I do not."
"It is on the Tongue of the Ocean, as it is called, nearly a hundred
miles to the southward of Nassau. I supposed it would be managed in some
such way as that," added the commander. "But do you think it will be a
month before her case will be settled?"
"Of course I know nothing about it myself; but I found a court official
who was very desirous of talking French, and he invited me to dine with
him at his house. I began to ask him questions about the blockade, and
the vessels in the harbor; and finally he gave me his opinion that a
decision in the case of the Ovidio could not be reached in less than a
month, and it might be two mouths."
At this moment there was a knock at the door of the cabin, and the
captain called to the person to come in. Christy, who had taken the time
to dress himself fully, opened the door and entered the cabin. The
Frenchman leaped from his seat, and embraced the young officer as though
he had been his wife or sweetheart, from whom he had been separated for
years. Christy, who was not very demonstrative in this direction,
submitted to the hugging with the best possible grace, for he knew that
the detective was sincere, and had actually grown to love him, perhaps
as much for his father's sake as for his own.
"Oh, my dear Mr. Passford, you are to me like one who has come out of
his grave, for I have believed for nearly three days that you had been
killed by the ruffian that attacked you in the street!" exclaimed Mr.
Gilfleur, still pressing both of his late companion's hands in his own.
"I was never so rejoiced in all my life, not even when I had unearthed a
murderer."
"Perhaps you expected to unearth another murderer," said Christy with a
smile.
"That was just what I intended to do. I heard the villanous ruffian
swear that he would kill you, and I was almost sure he had done so when
you failed to meet me in the rear of the hotel."
At the request of the commander, Christy repeated the story of his
adventure in Nassau as briefly as possible, up to the time he had been
picked up by the Chateaugay's cutter, and conveyed on board of the ship.
The detective was deeply interested, and listened to the narration with
the closest attention. At the end of it, he pressed the hand of the
young officer again, and warmly congratulated him upon his escape from
the enemy.
Mr. Gilfleur then reported more in detail than he had done before, the
result of his mission. He gave the names of all the intending
blockade-runners in the harbor of Nassau; but the captain declared that
he could not capture them on any such evidence as the detective had been
able to obtain, for it would not prove the intention.
"The Ovidio may not come out of Nassau for two months to come, and then
she will proceed to Green Cay," said Captain Chantor. "I do not think I
should be justified in waiting so long for her, especially as she is to
run her cargo into Mobile. The blockaders will probably be able to pick
her up. I think my mission in the Bahama Islands is finished, and the
Chateaugay must proceed to more fruitful fields."
"But you have not made a bad voyage of it so far, Captain Chantor,"
added Christy. "You sent in the Ionian, sunk the Dornoch, and captured
the Cadet and the Snapper, to say nothing of bagging a Confederate
commissioner, and the son of another. I should have been glad if you had
sent in Colonel Pierson, for he has already done our commerce a great
deal of mischief."
"I am entirely satisfied, and doubtless the information obtained here
and at the Bermudas will enable our fleet to pick up some more of the
steamers you have spotted," added the captain, as he rose from his seat,
and dismissed his guests.
The Frenchman was so exhausted by his labors, and the want of sleep,
that he retired at once to his room, while Christy went on deck with the
commander. The ship had been working to the eastward for over an hour;
but the order was given for her to come about, and the course was laid
for the light at the Hole in the Wall.
"Now, Mr. Passford, we are bound for the Gulf of Mexico, putting in at
Key West for the purpose of attending to the affair of the Snapper,"
said Captain Chantor. "In a few days more no doubt you will be able to
report for duty on board of the Bellevite."
"I shall not be sorry to be on duty again, and especially in the
Bellevite," replied Christy, as he went to his stateroom to finish his
night's sleep.
The next day the Chateaugay overhauled the Snapper; but all was well on
board of her, and the ship proceeded on her course. On the third day she
went into the harbor of Key West. Christy and the captain went to work
at once on the legal questions relating to the prize last taken. The
evidence was deemed sufficient to warrant the sending of her to New
York, and on her arrival the prize-master was directed to proceed to
that port. Captain Flanger and Percy Pierson were transferred to her,
and she sailed the next day; but she encountered a tremendous storm on
the Atlantic coast, and was totally wrecked on Hetzel Spit, near Cape
Canaveral. The prisoners were put into one boat, which upset, and all in
it were drowned, while the other boat, in charge of Lieutenant Carlin,
succeeded in reaching the shore of Florida.
The Snapper's case was settled, therefore, outside of the courts.
Captain Flanger perished in his wickedness, and Percy Pierson never
reached his mother in Mobile. But it was weeks before the news of the
disaster reached the Chateaugay and the Bellevite. Christy did not mourn
the loss of his great enemy, and he was sorry only that the young man
had not lived long enough to become a better man.
The Chateaugay proceeded on her voyage, and reported to the flag-officer
of the Eastern Gulf Squadron; by whom she was assigned to a place in the
fleet off Appalachicola, while Christy was sent in a tender to the
Bellevite, then on duty off the entrance to Mobile Bay.
At this point it became necessary for Christy and Mr. Gilfleur to
separate, for the latter was to proceed to New York by a store-ship
about to sail. The detective insisted upon hugging him again, and the
young officer submitted with better grace than usual to such
demonstrations. He had become much attached to his companion in the late
enterprises in which they had been engaged, and he respected him very
highly for his honesty and earnestness, and admired his skill in his
profession. On the voyage from Key West, Christy had written letters to
all the members of his family, as well as to Bertha Pembroke, which he
committed to the care of Mr. Gilfleur when they parted, not to meet
again till the end of the war.
When Christy went on board of the Bellevite he was warmly welcomed by
Captain Breaker, who happened to be on deck. Mr. Blowitt was the next to
grasp his hand, and before he had done with him, Paul Vapoor, the chief
engineer, the young lieutenant's particular crony, hugged him as though
he were a brother.
Most of the old officers were still in the ship, and Christy found
himself entirely at home where-ever he went on board. He was duly
presented to Mr. Walbrook, the third lieutenant, the acting second
lieutenant having returned to the flag-ship in the tender.
For all the rest of the year the Bellevite remained on duty as a
blockader off Fort Morgan. It was an idle life for the most part, and
Christy began to regret that he had caused himself to be transferred
from the command of the Bronx. The steamer occasionally had an
opportunity to chase a blockade-runner, going in or coming out of the
bay. She was the fastest vessel on the station, and she never failed to
give a good account of herself.
Late in the year the Bellevite and Bronx were ordered to operate at
Tampa Bay, where it was believed that several vessels were loading with
cotton. On the arrival of the ships off the bay, a boat expedition was
organized to ascertain what vessels were in the vicinity. But the
entrance was protected by a battery, and it was supposed that there were
field-works in several places on the shores. One of these was discovered
just inside of Palm Key, and the Bellevite opened upon it with her big
midship gun. Two or three such massive balls were enough for the
garrison, and they beat a precipitate retreat, abandoning their pieces.
There was water enough to permit the steamer to go into the bay nearly
to the town at the head of it.
No other batteries were to be seen, and the Bronx proceeded up the bay,
followed by the Bellevite. When the latter had proceeded as far as the
depth of water rendered it prudent for her to go at that time of tide,
the Bronx went ahead some ten miles farther. The boat expedition,
consisting of three cutters from the Bellevite and one from the Bronx,
moved towards the head of the bay. Christy, in the second cutter of the
Bellevite, was at least two miles from any other boat, when a punt
containing a negro put out from the shore near him.
"Are you a frien' ob de colored man?" demanded the negro as soon as he
came within speaking-distance of the cutter.
"Within reasonable limits, I am the friend of the colored man," replied
Christy, amused at the form of the question.
"What you gwine to do up dis bay, massa?" asked the colored man.
"That will depend upon what we find up this bay."
"You don't 'spect you find no steamers up dis bay, does you, massa?"
"Do you know of any steamers up this bay, my man?" asked Christy. "Do
you know of any vessels up here loading with cotton?" asked Christy.
"P'raps I do, massa; and den, again, p'raps I don't know anyt'ing about
any vessels," replied the negro, very indefinitely.
Christy was provoked at the manner in which the negro replied to his
questions. Ordering his boat's crew to give way with all their might,
he directed the cockswain to run for the punt of the negro. The cutter
struck it on the broadside, and broke it into two pieces. The boatman
was fished up, and hauled on board of the boat.
[Illustration:
"The boatman was fished up and hauled on board the boat." Page 301.]