bow, which looks as though she might
be coming in from sea," continued Christy, as he went into his stateroom
with his navy revolver in his hand.

He put the formidable weapon back into the drawer from which he had
taken it; but the lesson of the evening had made a strong impression on
his mind. Though he had permitted Captain Flanger to believe that he was
not at all disturbed by his presence in his cabin, and had kept up the
humor with which the intruder had introduced himself, yet he had felt a
sense of humiliation through the whole of the scene. It was a new thing
to be confronted by an enemy in his own cabin; and the privateersman,
armed with two heavy revolvers, had all the advantage, while neither he
nor the steward had a weapon of any kind.

With even an ordinary revolver in his hip pocket, he would not have been
helpless, and he might have saved himself without requiring this service
of the steward. Opening his valise, he took from it a smaller revolver,
and put it in his hip pocket, which he had never used for any other
purpose; and he resolved not to be caught again in an unarmed condition,
even when no danger was apparent. In action he carried a navy revolver
in each of his hip pockets.

Thus prepared for any emergency, though none might come for years, he
went on deck, and made his way to the bridge, where he could get the
best view of the approaching sail. He obtained his first sight of the
vessel as soon as he reached the bridge, and saw that the sail was a
steamer, much larger than the Bronx. She carried no sail, for the wind
was from the west; but the commander soon realized that she was moving
at great speed.

"We must be about forty miles off the station of the blockaders before
the entrance to Mobile Bay," said Christy, after he had thought the
matter over for a moment.

"I should think so," replied the first lieutenant.

"That sail appears to be headed for the station. She is a large steamer,
and I judge by the way she is coming up with us that she is very fast,"
added Christy with some anxiety in his tones.

"She must be a steamer of fifteen hundred tons, and perhaps more," said
Mr. Flint, after he had looked at her through his night glass.

"In that case she is too big for us to fight her, and too fast for us
to run away from her; and Captain Flanger may be a free man in a few
hours."

"It does not follow that we shall have to fight her or run away from
her," added the first lieutenant