ld the colonel of the Barrington academy, it was too plain a case.
Tierney had been aboard the schooner all the time, and Marcy might have
found it out if he had been sharp enough to look between decks.

"I'm glad he's come back, for he's the gunner I was telling you about,"
whispered the captain. "We couldn't get along without him, don't you
know we couldn't? Say," he added, as Tierney came up, "didn't you leave
word with your partner that you had discharged yourself and wasn't never
coming back any more? Aint you a pretty chap to show your face aboard my
vessel, and you talking of giving her up to the--"

"Oh, what's the use of keeping that farce up any longer?" cried Marcy,
in disgust. "You can't fool me. I don't know what Tierney's object was
in trying to bamboozle me the way he did--"

"Well, I'll tell you," the man interposed, "and I'll be honest with you,
too. I heard you were a Union man, and I did not want to sail with you
if you were."

"That's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," chimed
in the captain, nodding and winking at Marcy.

"Well, are you quite satisfied with the test you applied to me?"
inquired the pilot.

"I am. I know that you are as good a Southern man as any body in the
country."

"And you are willing to acknowledge that you and the captain talked the
matter over beforehand, and that when you came to me, to urge me to
seize the vessel and turn her over to the Yankees, you did it with his
knowledge and consent?" continued Marcy, controlling himself with an
effort.

"Course he is," exclaimed Beardsley. "I told him he would find you true
as steel, but he--"

"But I wouldn't believe it until I had proved it to my own
satisfaction," chimed in Tierney.

The man acted as though he had half a mind to extend his hand to Marcy
in token of amity, but if he had, he thought better of it, and in
obedience to the captain's order called the other ship-keeper aft to
assist in hoisting the mainsail.

"He didn't offer to shake hands, and that proves that he isn't as
friendly as he lets on to be," thought Marcy. "He and the captain are
playing into each other's hands. That story was all made up, and if I
don't keep my eyes open, they will spring another plot on me. This is a
lovely way to live; but I've got to keep suspicion down in someway, and
I don't know how else I can do it."

Nothing exciting or interesting occurred during the run to Newbern, for
there were no war-vessels i