rcy, 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 eve