oes he? I must be
cautious. Well, go on; what does the old man say?"

"He says he has engaged you to act as pilot," replied the man, with some
confusion.

"So he has; and if he chooses to trust his vessel in my hands in
channels and inlets that he knows nothing about, what have you to say?
He wouldn't do it if he did not think I would serve him to the best of
my ability, would he? But what has my politics to do with the position I
hold aboard that privateer?"

"Nothing much," answered Tierney, turning away. "But they have a good
deal to do with the proposition I was going to make to you if I had
found you to be the good Union I heard you were."

Now Marcy thought he began to see daylight, but he said not a word.
Tierney acted as though he was about to go away, but the boy knew he
wouldn't.

"I'm a Union man," said he.

"That's nothing to me, but if you are, I don't see why you stay about
here. You've no friends in this State to speak of. Go up to the United
States."

The ship-keeper was evidently waiting for Marcy to ask him about the
proposition to which he had referred a moment before, but he waited in
vain. It was no part of Marcy's plan to draw the conversation back into
that channel. Tierney saw that he must take the initiative himself, and
he did it very abruptly.

"Look here, pilot," said he. "There's no use in your mincing matters
with me in this way. Just a moment," he added, seeing that the boy
raised his hand as if he were about to speak. "I am a Union man all
over, my pardner is another, and you are another. I know it as well as I
know anything, and the old man knows it--I mean, he as good as said he
had heard of it, too."

"Well, what of it?" inquired Marcy. "What did he hire me for, when he
knows that it is in my power to run his schooner hard and fast aground
if a ship of war gets after us?"

"But he doesn't quite believe all he has heard, and he's willing to give
you a chance to prove that you are true blue," said Tierney, with an
awkward attempt to undo the mischief he had done by talking too
rapidly.

"I am true blue," replied Marcy, "although I confess that my actions
just about this time do not show it," he added, to himself. "As long as
I remain aboard that schooner I shall do my duty the best I know how."

"And will you take her out of harm's way if a ship of war heaves in
sight?"

"I will if I can."

"Then it isn't of any use for me to say more, I suppose?"

"Not the slightes