e the next thing to it, for there
was no fight to speak of in the Northern people. They told Rodney that
while they gloried in his pluck, they were afraid he had undertaken more
than he could accomplish.

It may seem strange to some of our readers that these enemies of the
government should have the audacity to show their faces among loyal men,
and that the authorities should permit them to go and come whenever they
felt like it, but stranger things than this were being done in the East,
and right under the noses of the President and his cabinet. Rebel agents
in Washington kept their friends in the South posted in all that was
said and done at the capital, and Commander (afterward Admiral) Semmes
had made a business trip through the Northern States, purchasing large
quantities of percussion caps which "were sent by express without any
disguise to Montgomery," making contracts for artillery, powder and
other munitions of war, as well as for a complete set of machinery for
rifling cannon, and had searched the harbor of New York in the hope of
finding a steamer or two that might be armed and used for coast defense.
None of these people were molested, and that was one thing that led the
Southerners to believe that the North would not fight.

Cairo was reached in due time, but there was little in or around the
place to indicate that there was a war at hand except the outlines of a
small fort which was being thrown up to command the river and Bird's
Point on the Missouri shore. There were a few soldiers strolling about
on the levee, and at that time the garrison numbered six hundred and
fifty men. A few months later there was a much larger force in Cairo,
and among the blue coats there was one who was often seen walking along
the levee with his hands behind him and his eyes fastened thoughtfully
upon the ground. He generally wore an old linen duster, a black slouch
hat, and a pair of light blue pants thrust into the tops of heavy boots
which were seldom blacked, but often splashed with Cairo mud. But
everybody stepped respectfully aside to let him pass, and the spruce
young staff officers never failed to salute. It was General Grant.

Once more the _Mollie Able_ swung out into the stream, and at the end of
half an hour rounded the point below the fort and resumed her journey up
the Mississippi. Now Rodney Gray began to show signs of excitement.
Every turn of the paddle wheels brought him nearer to the place where he
must le