elling boarders.

"There seems to be some music in the air," said Lonley, after he had
listened for a few moments to the sounds that came from the direction of
the steamer.

"To return to the subject of the morality of telling stories, your men
do not seem to be a mile to the eastward, where their bags were left,"
added Christy good-naturedly.

"You had a glance at them in the boats, though the darkness and fog were
rather too thick for you to count them," replied Lonley, chuckling over
the deception he had practised upon the lieutenant of the Bellevite.

"Yes, I saw them, and I concluded that they could not be where their
bags were."

"All is fair in war."

"That seems to be the generally received maxim, and he is the smartest
man who the most thoroughly deceives the enemy," added Christy, who
found himself tolerably well satisfied with the situation, though he was
a prisoner.

"That is so, and of course I can find no fault with you for deceiving
me," returned Lonley, chuckling as though he was even better satisfied
with the situation than his companion.

"Thank you, Mr. Lonley; you are magnanimous, and with equal sincerity
I can say that I have no fault to find with you," replied the Union
officer. "But I have my doubts whether, after this, either of us will be
likely to believe what the other says. But, for my part, I wish to say
that I don't believe in telling anything but necessary and patriotic
lies."

"That is my view of the matter exactly; and if there is any man that
despises a liar, I am that man," said Lonley warmly. "But it seems to
me they are making a good deal of a racket off there," he added, as the
noise of pistol shots and the clash of cutlasses came over the smooth
waters of the gulf.

"They seem to be at it quite earnestly," replied Christy.

"By the way, how many men did you leave on board of the Teaser?" asked
the privateersman, whose manner seemed to have suddenly become
considerably changed.

"How many men?" repeated the lieutenant of the Bellevite.

"That is the question I asked," replied the lieutenant of the Teaser.

"I suppose you would not believe me if I should tell you," answered
Christy.

"I judge that you can speak the truth if you try," added Lonley, with
more asperity than the occasion seemed to require.

"I know that I could," said Christy, very decidedly; "and I may add that
I was in the habit of doing so on all occasions before this cruel war
began."

"Then s