s ship! Why, you don't know
enough to lay off the course of the ship, or even to box the compass."

"I know enough to understand when I am treated like a gentleman. Change
your manners, or I will order you to leave my cabin. You talk to me as
though I were a small boy, and had nothing to do with the enterprise in
which we are engaged," returned Corny.

"Do you expect me to obey your orders?" demanded the executive officer
in a sneering tone.

"If you don't, I will send for the second lieutenant and a file of men
to put you out of my cabin."

There was a silence for a few moments.

"This will never do, Passford," said the tyrannical officer.

"I don't think it will, Galvinne. Behave like a gentleman, and we shall
have no difficulty," added Corny.

"Will you permit me to see your orders, Mr. Passford?" said the officer.

The breach was closed, and Corny produced the sealed envelope.

CHAPTER XIII

THE OPENING OF THE SECRET ORDERS

Christy listened with interest to the conversation in the captain's
cabin, though so far it had afforded him no information in regard to the
present situation, and it was hardly likely to do so, for he had already
been told by Mr. Flint what the next movement of the Bronx was to be.
She had already been ordered to proceed to the eastward, and her sealed
instructions would reveal the enterprise in which she was to engage.

The steamer had been so successful while in command of Captain Blowitt
in breaking up the shipping of cotton in a port where a larger vessel
could not operate, that Christy promptly concluded that she was to
be used in a similar enterprise. The listener was amused rather than
impressed by the conversation which was in progress so near him, and
especially at the display of dignity and authority on the part of his
cousin.

Mr. Galvinne had proved himself to be a very gentlemanly officer in what
little Christy had seen of him on the voyage from New York; but the
situation was entirely changed so far as he was concerned. It appeared
from the conversation, as the listener had for some time supposed,
that the second lieutenant of the Vernon was the real leader of the
enterprise of which Corny was the nominal head. Probably the restraint
of over a week imposed upon him had fretted his spirit, and when he
found himself alone with his incompetent superior, he became conscious
of the superiority his knowledge and training gave him.

Christy rather sympathized wit