ze up the other visitors at the hotel. From this high point
of view they could see the harbor, crowded with vessels.

CHAPTER XVIII

AN AFFRAY IN NASSAU

Christy's first care was to look about among the guests of the hotel
gathered on the piazza, in order to ascertain if there was any person
there whom he had ever met before. Very few of them were what could be
classed as genteel people, and some of them were such people as one
would not expect to see at a first-class hotel. They were dressed in
seaman's garments for the most part, though not as common sailors; and
doubtless many of them were commanders or officers of the vessels in the
harbor.

Putting on an indifferent air he walked about the veranda, observing
every person he encountered, as well as those who were seated in groups,
engaged in rather noisy conversation, intermixed with a great deal of
profanity. He breathed easier when he had made the circuit of the
piazzas on the first floor, though there were two others on the stories
above it, for he found no one he could identify as a person he had seen
before.

There were quite a number of steamers in the harbor, or in that part of
it which lies inside of the bar and in front of the town, with at least
three times as many sailing craft. No doubt many of the latter, as well
as the former, had brought cargoes of cotton from Confederate ports; for
though the blockade was regarded as effective, and treated as such by
foreign nations, many small vessels contrived to escape from obscure
harbors on the Southern coast. Christy had been concerned in the capture
of a considerable number of such. On the wharves were stacks of cotton
which had been landed from these vessels, and several of them were
engaged in transferring it to small steamers, for large ones were unable
to cross the bar. But the visitors had no business with the vessels thus
engaged, for they had completed their voyages, and were exempt from
capture.

"I have taken not a few prisoners in or off Southern ports, and it would
not greatly surprise me if I should meet some one I had met before,"
said Christy, in French, as he resumed his seat by the side of the
detective.

"Then I fear that your coming with me was a mistake," replied M.
Rubempre. "You must be extremely cautious, not only for your own
protection, but because you may compromise me, and cause me to fail in
the accomplishment of my mission here."

"I should be sorry to interfere w