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

is it for?" inquired the passenger.

"That is more than I know, sir. It was put on deck while we were still at the Navy Yard. I never saw a boat just like it before, and I have not the remotest idea of its intended use. Probably the captain can inform you."

Christy was no wiser than before, but his curiosity was excited. He strolled to the quarter-deck, where he found the captain directing his night-glass towards the Ionian, which showed her port light on the starboard hand, indicating that 51 the Chateaugay was running ahead of her. The commander called the second lieutenant, and gave him the order for the chief engineer to reduce the speed of the ship.

"The Ionian is a slow boat; at least, she is not as fast as the Chateaugay, Mr. Passford," said Captain Chantor, when Christy had halted near him.

"That is apparent," replied Christy. "How many knots can you make in your ship, Captain Chantor?"

"I am told that she has made fifteen when driven at her best."

"That is more than the average of the steamers in the service by three knots," added Christy. "I have just been forward, Captain, and I saw there a boat which is not quite on the regulation pattern."

"It is like a whaleboat, though it differs from one in some respects," added the commander.

"Is it for ordinary service, Captain Chantor?"

"There you have caught me, for I don't know to what use she is to be applied," replied the captain, laughing because, as the highest authority on board of the ship, he was unable to answer the question.

52 "You don't know?" queried Christy. "Or have I asked an indiscreet question?" said the passenger.

"If I knew, and found it necessary to conceal my knowledge from you, I should say so squarely, Mr. Passford," added the commander, a little piqued. "I would not resort to a lie."

"I beg your pardon, Captain Chanter; I certainly meant no offence," pleaded Christy.

"No offence, Mr. Passford; my hand upon it," said the commander, and they exchanged a friendly grip of the hands. "I really know nothing at all in regard to the intended use of the boat; in my orders, I am simply directed to place it at the disposal of Mr. Gilfleur at such time and place as he may require, and to co-operate with him in any enterprise in which he may engage. I must refer you to the French gentleman for any further information."

The passenger went below to the ward room. The door of the detective's room was closed, and he knocked. He was admitted, and there he found Mr. Gilfleur occupied with a file of papers, which he was busily engaged in studying. In the little apartment were two middle-sized valises, 53 which made it look as though the detective expected to pass some time on his present voyage to the South.

"I hope I don't disturb you, Mr. Gilfleur," said Christy in French.

"Not at all, Mr. Passford; I am glad to see you, for I am ordered to consult very freely with you, and to inform you fully in regard to all my plans," replied the Frenchman.

"Perhaps you can tell me, then, what that boat in the waist is for," Christy began, in a very pleasant tone, and in his most agreeable manner, perhaps copying to some extent the Parisian suavity, as he had observed it in several visits he had made to the gay capital.

"I can tell you all about it, Mr. Passford, though that is my grand secret. No other person on board of this ship knows what it is for; but you are my confidant, though I never had one before in the practice of my profession," replied Mr. Gilfleur, fixing his keen gaze upon his associate. "A man's secret is the safest when he keeps it to himself. But I will tell you all about it."

"No! no! I don't wish you to do that, Mr. Gilfleur, if you deem it wise to keep the matter to 54 yourself," interposed Christy. "My curiosity is a little excited, but I can control it."

"I shall tell you all about it, for this affair is different from the ordinary practice of my profession," replied the detective; and he proceeded to give a history of the boat in the waist, and then detailed the use to which it was to be applied.

"I am quite satisfied, and I should be glad to take part in the expedition in which you intend to use it," said Christy when the explanation in regard to the boat was finished.

"You would be willing to take part in my little enterprise!" exclaimed the Frenchman, his eyes lighting up with pleasure.

"I should; why not?"

"Because it may be very dangerous, and a slight slip may cost us both our lives," replied the detective very impressively, and with another of his keen and penetrating glances.

"I have not been in the habit of keeping under cover in my two years' service in the navy, and I know what danger is," added Christy.

"I know you are a very brave young officer, Mr. Passford, but this service is very different from that on the deck of a ship of war in action. But 55 we will talk of that at a future time," said Mr. Gilfleur, as he rose hastily from his arm-chair at the desk, and rushed out into the ward room.

Christy had heard footsteps outside of the door, and he followed his companion. They found there Mr. Suppleton, the ship's steward, with the two extra officers who had been sent on board.

"Do you speak French, gentlemen?" asked the detective, addressing himself to the two officers.

"Not a word of it," replied Mr. Gwyndale, one of them.

"Not a syllable of it," added Mr. Tempers, the other.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," said Mr. Gilfleur, as he retreated to his room.

Mr. Suppleton introduced the two new officers to Christy, and he then followed his associate. The Frenchman was afraid the new-comers understood his native language, and had been listening to his explanation of the use of the strange boat; but he had spoken in a whisper, and no one could have heard him, even if the listener had been a Frenchman.

"We are all right," said the detective when 56 they had both resumed their seats, and the Frenchman had begun to overhaul his papers.

Mr. Gilfleur proceeded to explain in what manner he had obtained his knowledge of the plot to send the gun-making machinery to the South. One of Captain Passford's agents had ascertained the name of Hillman Davis, who was in correspondence with those who were fitting out the ships for the Confederate service.

"But that is all we learned from the letters—that the men who were sending out the ships were in correspondence with this man Davis, who is a very respectable merchant of New York," Mr. Gilfleur proceeded.

"Is that all you had to start with, my friend?" asked Christy.

"That was all; and it was very little. Your American detectives are more cautious than Frenchmen in the same service."

"I don't see how in the world you could work up the case with nothing more than a mere name to begin with," added Christy, beginning to have a higher opinion than ever of the skill of the French detective.

"I tell you it was a narrow foundation on which 57 to work up the case. It may amuse you, but I will tell you how it was done. In the first place, Captain Passford gave me all the money I needed to work with. I applied for a situation at Mr. Davis's warehouse. He imported wines and liquors from France; when his corresponding clerk, who spoke and wrote French, was commissioned as a lieutenant in the army, he was looking for a man to take his place. He employed me. I had charge of the letters, and carried the mail to him in his private counting-room every time it came."

"I don't believe that any of our American detectives would have been competent to take such a position," suggested Christy, deeply interested in the narrative.

"That is where I had the advantage of them. I was well educated, and was graduated from the University of France, with the parchment in that valise, signed by the minister of education. The carrier brought all the letters to my desk. I looked them over, and when I found any from England or Scotland, or even France, I opened and read them."

"How could you do that?" asked Christy curiously.

58 "I was educated to be a lawyer; but before I entered upon the profession, I found I had a taste for the detective service. I did some amateur work first, and was very successful. I afterwards reached a high position in the service of the government. I acquired a great deal of skill in disguising myself, and in all the arts of the profession. I could open and reseal a letter so that no change could be discovered in its appearance, and this was what I did in the service of Mr. Davis. He was a mean man, the stingiest I ever met, and he was as dishonest and unscrupulous as a Paris thief. I copied all the letters connected with the case I had in hand, and this enabled me to get to the bottom of the traitor's plot. He wrote letters himself, not only to England and Scotland, but to people in the South, sending them to Bermuda and Nassau. I took copies of all these, and saved one or two originals. My pay was so small that I resigned my situation," and he flourished a great file of letters as he finished.

59 CHAPTER V AN ABUNDANCE OF EVIDENCE

Captain Passford had certainly kept his own counsel with punctilious care; for he had never even mentioned the skilful detective in his family, though the members of it had met the gentleman in Paris and in Havre. Mr. Gilfleur was in constant communication with him while he was working up the exposure of the treason of Davis, who might have been a relative of the distinguished gentleman at the head of the Southern Confederacy, though there was no evidence to this effect.

"If the captain of this steamer manages his affair well with the Ionian, I expect to find letters on board of her signed by Davis," continued Mr. Gilfleur. "From the information I obtained, your father put American detectives on the scent of Davis, who dogged him day and night till they found the Ionian, and ascertained in what manner 60 she obtained her cargo; but she had been partly loaded before they reached a conclusion, and it is suspected that she has arms under the pieces of machinery, perhaps cannon and ammunition."

The detective continued to explain his operations at greater length than it is necessary to report them. Christy listened till nearly midnight, and then he went on deck to ascertain the position of the chase before he turned in. He found the captain on the quarter-deck, vigilant and faithful to his duty, and evidently determined that the Ionian should not elude him.

"You are up late, Mr. Passford," said the captain, when he recognized his passenger in the gloom of the night.

"I have been busy, and I came on deck to see where the Ionian was before I turned in," replied Christy.

"I think the rascal has a suspicion that we have some business with him, for at four bells he turned his head in for the shore," added the commander. "If you go forward you will see that we have dowsed every glim on board, even to our mast-head and side lights."

"You are carrying no starboard and port light?"

61 "None; but we have a strong lookout aloft, and in every other available place. When the chase headed for the shore, we kept on our course for half an hour, and then put out the lights. We came about and went off to the eastward for another half-hour. Coming about, we went to the westward till we made her out, for she has not extinguished her lights. It is dark enough to conceal the ship from her, and no doubt she thinks we are still far to the southward of her. At any rate, she has resumed her former course, which was about south, half west."

Christy was satisfied with this explanation, for the Ionian was doing just what she was expected to do. She was not inclined to be overhauled by a gunboat, and she had attempted to dodge the Chateaugay. Besides, if she were bound to Wilmington, as her clearance stated, she would turn to the south-west two or three points by this time. The young officer seated himself in his room, and figured on the situation. If the steamer were