r had hoisted her canvas to give it an airing, and
Marcy saw a large figure "9" painted on her fore and main sails.

"That's to make folks believe that she is a pilot-boat," chuckled Mr.
Beardsley. "We'll be almost certain to find some fellow creeping along
inside of Diamond shoals, thinking of no danger, and he'll never try to
sheer off when he sees us coming, kase he'll think we're friendly. He'll
think different when he sees a puff of smoke go up from our bows, but
then it will be too late for him to square away. Good scheme; don't you
think so?"

Although Marcy had never felt greater contempt for a man in his life, he
managed to get through the interview to his satisfaction; but whether or
not Mr. Beardsley was satisfied, the boy could not tell. Sometimes he
acted as if he was, and then again he looked and talked as if he
suspected that Marcy was not half as enthusiastic as he pretended to be,
and that his heart was set on something besides privateering.

"I'd like to capture this vessel, hoist Dick Graham's flag over it, and
give her up to some man-of-war," he said to himself. "But if I should
try it, I'd never dare show myself around home again. The game isn't
worth the candle. Some of Uncle Sam's boys will knock her into
kindling-wood if she stays outside long enough, and possibly they may
send me to Davy's locker along with her. It's rather a desperate chance,
but it's the only thing that will save mother from persecution. Perhaps
the neighbors will be a little more civil to her when they find that I
am in the service of the Confederacy." Then aloud he said: "When she
gets her guns and stores aboard she will draw a good deal of water for
Crooked Inlet, and I'd feel safer if I could have Julius at my elbow
when--"

"Oh, that wouldn't do at all," interrupted Mr. Beardsley, stamping about
the deck and shaking his head most emphatically. "Julius is a nigger and
an abolitionist, and we don't want no such around. I've had carpenters
at work on the schooner for almost two weeks, and there aint been one of
my black people aboard of her."

"But they must all know that you have been doing something to her,"
replied Marcy.

"Of course. I told 'em that I was getting ready to go a-trading between
Plymouth, Edenton, and Newbern, and that I was fixing on her up so't I
could carry big cargoes."

"Mebbe they believed it and mebbe they didn't," was the boy's mental
comment. "If the darkies hereabouts are as sharp as they