Taken by the Enemy | Page 4

and Christy, though
even more excited by the singular conduct of the owner, and the change
in the course of the steamer, did not venture to interrupt him.
The owner took the other two papers from his pocket, and had soon
possessed himself of all the details of the astounding news; and it was
plain enough to those who so eagerly observed his expression as he
read, that he was impressed as he had never been before in his life.
Before the owner had finished the reading of the papers, the Bellevite
had reached the anchorage chosen by the pilot, and the vessel was soon
fast to the bottom in a quiet sea.
"The tide is just right for going up to the city," said the pilot, who had
left his place in the pilot-house, and addressed himself to the owner in
the waist.
"But we shall not go up to the city," replied Captain Passford, in a very
decided tone. "But that shall make no difference in your pilot's
fees.--Captain Breaker."

The captain of the steamer, who had also come out of the pilot-house,
had stationed himself within call of the owner to receive the next order,
which might throw some light on the reason for anchoring the steamer
so near her destination on a full sea. He presented himself before the
magnate of the yacht, and indicated that he was ready to take his further
orders.
"You will see that the pilot is paid his full fee for taking the vessel to a
wharf," continued Captain Passford.
The captain bowed, and started towards the companionway; but the
owner called him back.
"I see what looks like a tug to the westward of us. You will set the
signal to bring her alongside," the magnate proceeded.
This order was even more strange than that under which the vessel had
come to anchor so near home after her long cruise; but the captain
asked no questions, and made no sign. Calling Beeks, he went aft with
the pilot, and paid him his fees.
When the American flag was displayed in the fore-rigging for the tug,
Captain Passford, with his gaze fixed on the planks of the deck, walked
slowly to the place where his wife was seated, and halted in front of her
without speaking a word. But there was a quivering of the lip which
assured the lady and her son that he was still struggling to suppress his
agitation.
"What is the matter, Horatio?" asked the wife, in the tenderest of tones,
while her expression assured those who saw her face that the anxiety of
the husband had been communicated to the wife.
"I need hardly tell you, Julia, that I am disturbed as I never was before
in all my life," replied he, maintaining his calmness only with a
struggle.
"I can see that something momentous has happened in our country,"
she added, hardly able to contain herself, for she felt that she was in the

presence of an unexplained calamity.
"Something has happened, my dear; something terrible,--something
that I did not expect, though many others were sure that it would
come," he continued, seating himself at the side of his wife.
"But you do not tell me what it is," said the lady, with a look which
indicated that her worst fears were confirmed. "Is Florry worse? Is
she"--
"So far as I know, Florry is as well as usual," interposed the husband.
"But a state of war exists at the present moment between the North and
the South."
CHAPTER II
THE BROTHER AT THE SOUTH
Even five months before, when the Bellevite had sailed on her cruise,
the rumble of coming events had been heard in the United States; and it
had been an open question whether or not war would grow out of the
complications between the North and the South.
Only a few letters, and fewer newspapers, had reached the owner of the
yacht; and he and his family on board had been very indifferently
informed in regard to the progress of political events at home. Captain
Passford was one of those who confidently believed that no very
serious difficulty would result from the entanglements into which the
country had been plunged by the secession of the most of the Southern
States.
He would not admit even to himself that war was possible; and before
his departure he had scouted the idea of a conflict with arms between
the brothers of the North and the brothers of the South, as he styled
them.
Captain Passford had been the master of a ship in former times, though
he had accumulated his vast fortune after he abandoned the sea. His

father was an Englishman, who had come to the United States as a
young man, had married, raised