nfield, if the conflict were
raging there, as she would be at Bonnydale under the same circumstances.
From the nature of the case, the burden of the fighting, the havoc and
desolation, will be within the Southern States, and few, if any, of the
battle-fields will be on Northern soil, or at least as far north as our
home."

"From what I have seen of the people near the residence of your brother,
they are neither brutes nor savages," added the lady.

"No more than the people of the North; but war rouses the brute nature
of most men, and there will be brutes and savages on both sides, from
the very nature of the case."

"In his recent letters, I mean those that came before we sailed from
home, Homer did not seem to take part with either side in the political
conflict; and in those which came to us at the Azores and Bermuda, he
did not say a single word to indicate whether he is a secessionist, or
in favor of the Union. Do you know how he stands, Horatio?"

"My means of knowing are the same as yours, and I can be no wiser than
you are on this point, though I have my opinion," replied Captain
Passford.

"What is your opinion?"

"That he is as truly a Union man as I am."

"I am glad that he is."

"I do not say that he is a Union man; but judging from his silence, and
what I know of him, I think he is. And it is as much a part of my desire
and intention to bring him and his family out of the enemy's country as
it is to recover Florry."

"Then we shall have them all at Bonnydale this summer?" suggested Mrs.
Passford. "Nothing could suit me better."

"Though I am fully persuaded in my own mind that Homer will be true to
his country in this emergency, I may be mistaken. He has lived for many
years at the South, and has been identified with the institutions of
that locality, as I have been with those of the North. Though we both
love the land of our fathers on the other side of the ocean, we have
both been strongly American. As he always believed in the whole country
as a unit, I shall expect him to be more than willing to stand by his
country as it was, and as it should be."

"I hope you will find him so, but I am grievously sorry that Florry is
not with us."

"Tug-boat alongside, Captain Passford," said the commander.

The owner of the Bellevite wished the tug to wait his orders.

CHAPTER III

DANGEROUS AND SOMEWHAT IRREGULAR

In various parts of the deck of the Bellevite, the officers, seamen,
engi