the casks down by midnight, and then all we have
to do is to go ahead," continued the enthusiast.

"Precisely so; and the Teaser is a screw steamer," added Christy.

"Of course she is; you have known her for two months, Gilder."

"When she has been lifted up four feet, she is to go ahead," repeated
Christy, in the tone of a musing man.

"That is what I said; she is to go ahead."

"But what is to drive her ahead? Is she expected to go of herself?"

"Go of herself? Of course not. She is to be driven ahead by her engine
as she always is," replied Captain Folkner, suspending the work upon
which he was engaged, and trying to see the face of the pilot through
the darkness. "How do steamers generally go ahead?"

"If they are screw steamers, they are propelled by the pressure of the
blades of the screw," answered Christy.

"And that is just the way the Teaser will be propelled through the
sound," replied Captain Folkner. "This steamer is to be a privateer, and
I own her. She has cost me about all the money I have in the world, and
I don't want to lose her before I get to sea. If I can get into blue
water with her, I am not at all concerned but that she will run away
from anything afloat."

"How many knots can she do in a smooth sea?"

"Eighteen, and perhaps more."

"Then she is not fast enough for that blockader outside. I saw her
at Mobile when she was a big steam-yacht, and they said she had done
twenty-two knots more than once."

"I don't believe a word of it; and I am willing to take my chances to
run away from her in the Teaser, if I can get out."

"If she is good for eighteen knots, it will not take her more than about
two hours to run through the sound," added Christy, very much amused at
the talk of the captain and owner.

"I don't expect her to go at full speed in that shallow water," said the
enthusiast.

"Do you expect her to go at all when she is hoisted four feet out of
water?" asked Christy, hardly able to keep from laughing.

Captain Folkner was silent for a moment, during which Christy thought
he must have obtained a new idea, for it looked as though he had not
thought of the working of the screw after all his flotation schemes had
been successful.

"I reckon the propeller will have hold enough on the water to make her
go right along, Gilder. I don't reckon you need make any trouble about
that," added the man of mechanical ability, rather sheepishly.

Christy had brought his boat's crew on