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Updated: June 11, 2025
"Boat just come round that point," said the captain from the pilot-house, when the party had returned to the forecastle. Captain Pecklar seemed to be hardly able to speak; he was so exhausted by his night watch, and by constant fits of coughing, that he could hardly make himself heard. "What boat is it, Pecklar?" asked the major, straining his eyes to discover it. "I don't see it."
He looked out at the window; but he could not see Captain Pecklar, though he heard him shovelling coal a minute later. The engine still appeared to be doing its best, and the tug was in a fair way to pass clear of the long-boat. "Look out, up there, Christy!" shouted the engineer, a little later.
"I am going below to help Captain Pecklar; but the moment the tug goes wrong, I shall send a ball from my revolver up into the pilot-house." "I understand you, and it looks as though we were getting into a hot place. I will do my duty as well as I know how. Now tell me how I am to steer." "Run for that point you see far off to the northward."
"Dr. Linscott served in the army in Mexico, and had a large practice in New York." "Then he shall see Pecklar. Dr. Linscott is just the sort of a surgeon we want in our army; and I suppose he would not be on board of the Bellevite if he was not of our way of thinking," added the major.
It was an exciting time, when every light on board was extinguished, and the steamer started down the bay with Captain Pecklar and two quartermasters at the wheel. After the Bellevite had passed the dangerous part of the channel, firing was heard from Fort Morgan; but the vessel was soon in the Gulf of Mexico.
Captain Pecklar had held out as long as it was possible for him to stand it, and he had only given up when his senses deserted him. Major Pierson raised him from his position on the floor of the pilot-house, and, with Christy's assistance, bore him out into the air.
"See here, Christy; there is another steamer over beyond the Bellevite, and she is pretty near her, too," said Percy, as he entered the pilot-house. The acting captain brought his glass to bear over the Bellevite, and he was satisfied that the approaching vessel was the yacht described by Captain Pecklar.
"Probably I shall astonish you still more before we have got through. With this chart before me, I have no doubt I can find my way about here in the Leopard," said Christy. "Then I give you the command of the steamer in the absence of Captain Pecklar," continued the major.
There was no excitement on deck, and Christy readily obtained the required permission for his sister. Captain Pecklar, under the skillful treatment of Dr. Linscott, had improved a great deal, though he still remained in his bed. He declared that he felt like a new man; and, whether he lived or died, he was as happy as any man ought to be on the face of the earth.
Three other shots followed the first, one of the balls passing through the boards of the pilot-house, above the helmsman's head; and he saw a splinter fly from a stanchion forward. Captain Pecklar waited for the fourth shot, and he had evidently noticed how many men had muskets in their hands, then he sprang out from his hiding-place, sighted the gun, and pulled the lock-string.
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