orget that I am a nigger," said the skipper,
laughing in his delight to find that he was in good and safe hands.
"Captain Flanger called me Mike always, and that is a good enough name
for me."

"Very well, Mike; you are a free man on board of this ship."

"I ought to be, for I am a whiter man than Captain Flanger."

"Now tell me what you know about that expedition on board of the
Magnolia," said Christy more earnestly. "Mr. Pennant reports that your
passengers claimed that they were peaceable citizens, and that your
sloop was bound to Appalachicola. Was that true?"

"Just then they were peaceable enough; but they were not when Captain
Flanger ordered them to fire on your men. Colonel Passford and I were
the only peaceable citizens on board of the sloop, and I was no citizen
at all," replied the skipper, laughing.

"You are one now, at any rate. Were you bound to Appalachicola?"

"Not just then, captain," chuckled Mike, who seemed to be amused
and delighted to feel that he was telling the secrets of his late
companions.

"We were going to Appalachicola after a while, where we were to pilot
out some vessels loaded with cotton."

"Then there are cotton vessels at that port, are there?" asked Christy,
pricking up his ears at this suggestion.

"Half a dozen of them, and a steamer to tow them to sea."

"Are you sure of this information, Mike?"

"I did not see them there, Captain Passford; but it was your uncle's
business to look after them, as he was doing in St. Andrew's Bay."

"Then my uncle has vessels in that bay which are to run out?" inquired
Christy, deeply interested in the revelations of the skipper.

"Only one, sir: a steamer of five hundred tons, called the Floridian."

"Precisely; that is the vessel we are after. But what was my uncle doing
on board of your sloop, with Captain Flanger and the rest of your
party?"

"My master was the captain of the Floridian, and we came out here to
see if there was any blockader near, that had come up in the fog. The
steamer was to be brought out by the pilot, who has been on board of her
for three days."

"Who were the men with muskets on board of the sloop?"

"Those were the coast guard, sir," replied Mike, chuckling again.

"The coast guard? I don't understand that," replied Christy, puzzled at
the expression.

"Eight of them, sir; and they have been keeping guard on Crooked, St.
Andrew's, and Hurricane Islands, to let them know inside if there was
any b