argo of supplies for the Confederacy," replied Marcy. He
said this with an object in view; and that object was to find out how
much Allison knew about Jack's movements and his own. Consequently,
after his interview with Captain Beardsley's daughter, he was not
greatly surprised to hear Allison say:

"Jack hasn't much to tell, has he? As I heard the story he had no
trouble at all in bringing the schooner through--he didn't even see the
smoke of a blockader. But there's one thing about it," he added, in a
lower tone, "you boys have shut up the mouths of some talkative people
around here who have been trying hard to injure you, especially Marcy."

"Why should anybody want to injure me?" exclaimed Marcy, looking
astonished. "I don't remember that I ever misused any one in the
settlement."

"I never heard of it," continued Allison. "But they say that you are for
the Union, and that the only reason you shipped on Beardsley's schooner
was because you had to."

"Some people around here say that I am for the Union?" repeated Marcy,
as though he had never heard of such a thing before. "And that I shipped
because I had to?"

"That's what they say, sure's you're born; but your broken arm gives the
lie to all such tales as that. And as for Jack--did he know that the
_West Wind_ was a smuggler when he joined her in Boston?"

"Of course he knew it," answered Marcy. "He brought out a venture and
cleared twelve hundred dollars by it."

"Whew!" whistled Allison. "I wish I could make as much money as that;
but somehow such chances never come my way. But what is a venture,
anyway?"

"It is a speculation that sailors sometimes go into on their own hook,"
replied Marcy. "For example. Captain Beardsley wanted me to invest my
wages and prize-money in cotton, sell it in Nassau for more than double
what I gave for it, put the proceeds into medicine and gun-caps, and so
double my money again when we returned to Newbern. If I had taken his
advice, I might have been four or five thousand dollars ahead of the
hounds at this minute."

"You don't mean to say that you _didn't_ act upon his advice?" exclaimed
Allison.

"Yes; that's just what I mean to say. You see, we stood a fine chance of
being captured by the Yankees, and Beardsley was so very much afraid of
it that he wouldn't load his vessel himself, but took out a cargo he
obtained through a commission merchant.--I see Jack is going into the
post-office, and we might as well go, too.