tempt of yours,
even if it didn't come off as you hoped."

Thus commanded, Terry ascended the gangway again, feeling sorely
crestfallen, yet as determined as ever to seize the next opportunity
that presented itself of getting away from the frigate. When given a
sailor's suit that fitted him fairly enough, he at first refused to put
it on; but Captain Afleck insisted, and so he yielded, on condition
that he might resume his own garments as soon as they were dried.

Thanks to his being in uniform, he was allotted a hammock that night,
and forgot his disappointment in the most comfortable sleep he had
enjoyed since going on board the vessel, from which he was roused the
next morning by an unusual bustle on deck, which foretold the nearness
of some important enterprise.

When he came on deck, he found the _Minnesota_ already well under way,
making up Hampton Roads towards Newport News in company with two other
frigates, the _Roanoke_ and the _St. Lawrence_. There was intense
excitement on board, and every one whose duty permitted him to be on
deck seemed to be watching eagerly for something to appear out of the
Elizabeth River to the southward. Presently an officer who stood on
the main-truck with a powerful glass called out,--

"I see her! She's coming down past Craney Island Flats."

All eyes were at once strained in the direction indicated; but it was
some time yet before there came into general view, just off Sewell's
Point, so strange a craft that it was at once agreed it could be none
other than the much-dreaded naval novelty of which such disturbing
stories had been in circulation.

So far as Terry could make out, this mysterious marine marvel was like
a queer-looking house afloat on a raft. There were no masts; a short,
thick funnel explained how she was propelled. The roof of the house
was flat, surrounded by a light iron railing, and boasting two slight
poles, from which floated Confederate flags. The side walls sloped in
at a decided angle, and the two ends were rounded off into a
semicircular shape, the whole being heavily plated with iron.

From a single row of port-holes the muzzles of ten powerful rifled guns
projected, the entire effect being warlike in the extreme; for the
thing was evidently a fighting-machine, and nothing else, whose power
for harm had yet to be gauged by actual experience.

At first the new-comer's course was pointed straight in the direction
of the _Minnesota_, and there