n would be guilty of loading vessels to run the
blockade, but there was at least one such craft in Boston--the _West
Wind;_ and through the good offices of his old commander, the captain of
the _Sabine_, Jack Gray was shipped on board of her as second mate and
pilot. Her cargo was duly consigned to some house in Havana, but the
owners meant that it should be sold in Newbern; and there were scattered
about among the bales and boxes in her hold, a good many packages that
would have brought the vessel and all connected with her into serious
trouble, if they had been discovered by the custom-house officers.

When the _West Wind_ was a short distance out from Boston, the second
mate learned by accident that one of his best foremast hands was also
bound for his home in North Carolina. His name was Aleck Webster, and
his father lived on a small plantation which was not more than an hour's
ride from Nashville. Being a poor man Mr. Webster did not stand very
high in the estimation of his rich neighbors, but that made no sort of
difference to Jack Gray, and a warm and lasting friendship at once
sprung up between officer and man. Although they belonged to a vessel
that was fitted out to run the blockade they were both strong for the
Union, and many an hour of the mid-watch did they while away in talking
over the situation. All they knew about their friends at home was that
they were opposed to secession; but they dared not say so, because they
were surrounded by rebels who would have been glad of an excuse to burn
them out of house and home. The two friends got angry as often as they
talked of these things, but of course they could not decide upon a plan
of operations until they had been at home long enough to "see how the
wind set," and "how the land lay." We have told what they did when they
got ashore. When they were paid off and discharged in Newborn they made
their way home by different routes, Jack arousing his brother in the
dead of the night by tossing pebbles against his bedroom window, and
afterward going off to the Federal fleet to enlist under the flag he
believed in. Aleck Webster remained ashore for a longer time; and
finding that his father belonged to an organized band of Union men who
held secret meetings in the swamp, and whose object it was to oppose the
tactics pursued by their rebel neighbors, he joined his fortunes with
theirs, and went to work with such energy that in less that two weeks'
time he had the sett