for I have not time to answer them
now," said he hastily. "Go to your room and pack all your things as
quick as you possibly can, and without saying a word to any one."

"Why, papa!"

"Not a word, my dear child," he added, kissing her.

"It will not take me five minutes, papa; for I have been packing my
trunk this afternoon, when I had nothing else to do."

"Where is your room, Florry?"

"It is on the lower floor, next to the library."

"I will be there in a few minutes. Dress yourself, and be ready to leave
at a minute's notice," continued Captain Passford. "Where is Christy?"

"He went out about an hour ago, when he saw from the window a young man
I did not know," replied Florry, as she passed into her room.

Captain Passford wondered who the young man was whom his son had gone
out to meet; for no one was allowed to leave the deck of the Bellevite
who belonged to her, and he was not aware that Christy had any friend in
the vicinity. He was annoyed at his absence, for he wanted him at that
very moment.

Mrs. Passford and Gerty were up-stairs, where nimble fingers were busily
at work for the soldiers of the Southern Confederacy, as they were also
in the North for the Union. The captain looked all about the house, but
he could not see or hear of his son.

CHAPTER XV

BROTHER AT WAR WITH BROTHER

Captain Passford was very much annoyed at the absence of Christy at
that particular moment, for it seemed to be heavily laden with momentous
events to him and his family; though Christy could not possibly know
what had transpired in the library between the two brothers. He waited
very uneasily in the hall, after his return from his search.

Homer Passford did not come out of his library, and he sat brooding over
the remarkable interview which had taken place between the brothers. No
doubt he would have been glad to believe that he had been wrong; for he
had nothing but the kindest feelings in the world towards his brother,
and had never had in all his life. He was five years older than Horatio;
and, in their earlier life, he had been to some extent his guardian and
protector, and he had never lost the feeling of boyhood.

But he had proved himself to be a patriot of the severest type, and
proposed to rob his brother of his steamer, his only means of conveying
his daughter to his home, for the benefit of the fraction of the nation
which he called his country, and more to prevent her from being
transferred