Fighting for the Right, Oliver Optic [easy novels to read .txt] 📗

deal more discretion would become them better, as they are likely to ascertain very soon," added Christy.

"I suppose none of these people here would consider it possible or practicable to land at these islands and pick up the news, as we have done. This was my plan for Nassau, but I did not think of applying it to the Bermudas, till Captain Chantor told me his difficulty as to waiting for the Dornoch."

"It seems to me we have done all we can do here, and there is nothing more to do."

"That is very true; but I supposed it would take at least two days to do our business. We have been much more successful than I anticipated, and performed the duty in half the time I supposed it would require. But it was better to have too much time than too little."

"It is nearly night now, and we have another day to spend here."

"We can rest from our labors in the hope that our works will follow us. I am ready to do a good deal of sleeping in the time that remains to us, for we may not be able to sleep any to-morrow night," added the detective as he threw himself on his bed, and was soon fast asleep.

132 Christy had slept enough the night before and during the morning; and he went out to take a walk in the town. He had taken off his suit of black, and put on the costume he had worn from the ship. He was inclined to see what there was in the town; and he walked about till it was dark, at which time he found himself in the vicinity of the Hamilton Hotel, the largest and best appointed in the town. He was dressed very plainly, but there was nothing shabby in his appearance; and he thought he would inspect the interior of the hotel.

He began to mount the piazza, when he suddenly halted, and started back with astonishment, and his hair almost stood on end. Directly in front of him, and not ten feet distant, sat his uncle, Homer Passford, of Glenfield, talking with a gentleman in uniform. The lantern that hung near him enabled him to see the features of the planter, but he could not see the face of the officer, with whom he was engaged in a very earnest conversation.

Christy's first impulse was to put a long distance between himself and his uncle, for his father's brother might identify him in spite of the 133 color on his face. Such a discovery was likely to prove very annoying to him, and might render useless the information the detective and himself had obtained with so much trouble and risk. But the first question that came into his head was the inquiry as to what his uncle was doing in Bermuda. He was a Confederate of the most positive type, had done everything in his power for his government, as he understood it, and was willing to sacrifice his life and all that he had in the world in its service.

Colonel Passford must be there on some mission. He was a prominent and useful man in his State; and he would not have left it without some very strong motive. The nephew would have given a great deal, and exposed himself to no little peril, to be able to fathom this motive. He moved away from the piazza, and went upon it at another place. If he could hear some of the conversation he might be able to form some idea of the occasion of his uncle's visit.

Walking along the platform, he obtained a position behind Colonel Passford, and at the same time saw the face of the person with whom he was in conversation. He was not a little surprised 134 to discover that the gentleman was Captain Rombold, commander of the Dornoch. He had hardly seen this officer, and he had no fear that he would recognize him; and, if he did, it was of little consequence, for he was there in the capacity of a servant. He took a vacant chair, turned his back to both of the speakers, and opened wide his ears. Probably nine-tenths of the people in the hotel were directly or indirectly concerned in the business of blockade-running; and secrecy was hardly necessary in that locality.

"As I say, Captain Rombold, we need more fast steamers, not to run the blockade, but to prey upon the enemy's commerce. In that way we can bring the people of the North to their senses, and put this unhallowed strife on the part of the Federals to an end," said Colonel Passford.

"Well, Colonel, there are ships enough to be had on the other side of the Atlantic, and your money or your cotton will buy them," added the naval officer.

"We have been rather unfortunate in running cotton out this last year. Several steamers and sailing vessels that I fitted out with cotton myself were captured by my own nephew, who 135 was in command of a small steamer called the Bronx."

"Of course those things could not be helped," replied Captain Rombold; "but with the Gateshead and the Kilmarnock, larger and more powerful steamers than any that have been sent over, you can scour the ocean. They are ready for you when your money is ready."

"It is ready now, for I have sacrificed my entire fortune for the purchase of these steamers; and I wait only for a vessel that will take me to Scotland," replied Colonel Passford.

Christy promptly decided that the steamers mentioned should not be purchased to prey on the commerce of the United States, if he could possibly prevent it.

136 CHAPTER XII AN IMPRACTICABLE SCHEME

Before the War of the Rebellion the commerce of the United States exceeded that of any other nation on the globe. The Confederate steamers, the Sumter, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and other cruisers, swept our ships from the ocean, and the country has never regained its commercial prestige. Christy Passford listened with intense interest to the conversation between his uncle and the commander of the Dornoch, and he came to the conclusion that the latter was a naval officer of no ordinary ability. He evidently believed that the six-gun steamer in his charge was a command not worthy of his talent.

The Sumter, and some other vessels fitted out as privateers or war vessels, had already done a great deal of mischief to the shipping of the Northern States, and the young man fully realized the meaning of his uncle's intentions. Colonel Passford 137 had been supplied with money by his government, with what he had raised himself, to purchase larger and more powerful steamers than had yet been obtained, and Captain Rombold appeared to be his confidant, with whom he must have been in communication for a considerable length of time.

Colonel Passford was going to England and Scotland to purchase the steamers mentioned and recommended as the kind required by his present companion. Christy could think of no manner in which he could serve his country so effectually as by preventing, or even delaying, the adding of these vessels to the navy of the South. But it was a tremendous undertaking for a young man. His uncle had certainly been very indiscreet in talking out loud about his plans; but it could hardly have been supposed that any loyal ears were near enough to hear them, for even the American consul was not safe in the islands.

Christy had doubled himself up in his chair, and pretended to be asleep, so that no notice was taken of him by the two gentlemen in conversation. He continued to listen till he heard a clock strike nine; but he obtained no further information, except in relation to the details of the colonel's plans. He 138 was in great haste to get to England to purchase the vessels, and he had the drafts about him for the purpose. It was a vast sum, for the prices of desirable steamers had largely advanced under the demand for them for running the blockade.

"The easiest and quickest way for you to get to Liverpool or Glasgow is to go to New York, and there take a steamer to either of these ports," suggested Captain Rombold.

"I dare not go to New York, for I should certainly be recognized there. My only brother is one of the most prominent agents of the Yankee government, and every passenger from Bermuda and Nassau is watched and dogged by detectives. It would not be prudent for me to go New York, for some pretext to rob me of the drafts I carry would be found," replied Homer Passford.

"There may be a steamer from Bermuda in a week or a month, for there is no regular line," added the naval officer.

"But there are regular lines from Havana, Mexico, Jamaica, and the Windward Islands," suggested the agent of the Confederate government.

"Very true, and it is not necessary that I should make a port in the Confederate States before I 139 begin my work on the ocean," said Captain Rombold. "I have my commission from your government, with full powers to act, though I desired to make a port in the South, for, as you are aware, my wife is a native of Georgia, and is at her father's plantation at the present time. I captured two Yankee vessels off the Azores, and burned them."

"I have no doubt about your powers; but can you not aid me in getting to England?" persisted the colonel.

"If you will take the chances, I can, Colonel Passford. If you will go on board of my ship to-morrow afternoon, and sail with me, I have no doubt we shall overhaul a steamer bound to England in the course of a week, for I will get into the track of these vessels."

The agent promptly accepted this proposition, and soon after the conference ended, though not till the listener had taken himself out of the way, Christy had turned over in his mind a plan to terminate very suddenly his uncle's mission to purchase steamers, and to obtain possession of his drafts. M. Rubempré was adroit enough to accomplish almost anything, and he intended to have the detective make the colonel's acquaintance, and induce 140 him to embark with them in the Eleuthera, pretending that he was going to France himself, and intended to intercept a French steamer from Progreso, whose course lay but a short distance south of the Bermudas.

But the plan suggested by Captain Rombold, and adopted by Colonel Passford, saved him from what the young officer regarded as his duty in the deception and capture of his uncle. When the Bellevite, while she was still the yacht of Captain Horatio Passford, had gone to the vicinity of Mobile, to the home of his father's brother, Homer had done all in his power to capture the steamer for the use of his government, and had made war upon her with armed vessels. He had done so conscientiously, believing it to be his duty to his country. This fact from the past made it easier for Christy to think of such a thing as the capture of his uncle, even in a neutral country.

The young man returned to the Atlantic Hotel. He found M. Rubempré still fast asleep, for his slumbers the night before had been very brief. He waked him, and told him all that had transpired during the evening, though not till the detective had ordered supper, which they had not partaken 141 of so far. He stated the plan by which he had proposed to himself to prevent the purchase, for the present at least, of the Gateshead and Kilmarnock.

"Not a practicable plan, Christophe," said the detective, shaking his head vigorously.

"Why not?" demanded Christy; and he explained the conduct of his uncle in regard to the Bellevite, when she was on a peaceful errand to convey her owner's daughter back to her home.

Then he related the attempt of the colonel's son, his cousin Corny, to capture the Bronx by a piece of wild strategy.

"But I do not object to your scheme on moral grounds," interposed M. Rubempré. "Have you forgotten the affair of the Trent, when Messrs. Mason and Slidell were taken out of an English steamer? The British government made a tremendous tempest, and would certainly have declared war if the two envoys had not been returned to a British ship-of-war. The English flag waves over these islands, and they are supposed to be neutral ground."

"Neutral with a vengeance!" exclaimed Christy.

"If Colonel Passford had been carried off in the 142 manner you thought of, the United States government would have been compelled to return him to these islands, with all his drafts and other property. I am very