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Updated: May 14, 2025
"Not if you don't start it for a month!" added the major sternly. "But you are going off, Major Pierson," suggested Spikeley. "If that steamer over yonder looks like she was going to run over the Leopard, I am not to start the engine to keep her from being sent to the bottom of the bay?" "No!" exclaimed the officer. "All right, major; then you may find me on the bottom when you come back."
The men were soldiers, and they had had but little practice in rowing, having taken it up at the fort. They made rather bad work of it; but, more by luck than skill, the boat cleared the tug without being stove. "Spikeley!" shouted the major. "Here, sir," replied the engineer, hobbling out of his room. "Stop the engine, and remember what I told you," added the commandant.
Christy could not see a single one of them from the upper deck; but he had gone but a few steps aft before he heard the voice of the major who seemed to be "laying down the law" in a forcible manner to his men. "Do you understand me, Spikeley?" demanded the major slowly and loudly, as though he were talking to a deaf man.
"I hear you, and I understand now what I am to do," replied Spikeley. "All right, so far; but do you understand what you are not to do?" demanded the officer sharply, as though he fully comprehended the obtuseness of the engineer. "I reckon I do: I am not to start the engine till you tell me to start it," answered the dull engineer.
"Did Spikeley agree to run the engine?" "No, he did not; he is locked up in the forecastle. Captain Pecklar is at the engine; but he is all ready to take the wheel when I say the word." "I can keep the wheel, for I think I understand it very well now." "I did not wish to take you away from the wheel, for I saw that you liked the work; and I said so to Captain Pecklar.
"The steamer will shelter the water on that side of her." "Spikeley!" called the major, in a loud voice; and the engineer came out of his den. "Start her up now." "Run her at about half speed, major," and the commandant repeated his direction to the engineer.
"I reckon I won't start the engine for him, or anybody else but you, major. You can bet your commission on that," added the engineer, with more vim in his speech than he had used before. "All right, Spikeley; and I will see that you don't lose any thing, if you are faithful to your duty. You must keep a sharp lookout for Passford: that's the young fellow at the wheel.
He ought to head her for some point to the southward of the Bellevite; but the more mistakes he makes, the better it will be for us." "I see that he don't seem to be headed anywhere in particular." "Now, Percy, I am going below to have it out with Spikeley," continued Christy, taking the revolver from his pocket, while he drew a box of cartridges from another.
"I reckon I do," replied Spikeley. "My brother, who was down here a little while ago, will also remain on board; and Captain Pecklar will be in his room, for he cannot leave it. That is all that will be on board. But no one will bother you, unless it should be the fellow now at the wheel; and he can't do any harm as long as you don't start the engine for him."
"You are not to start the engine under any circumstances," continued the major, in a louder tone than before, as if the man had failed to hear him. The man addressed as Spikeley must be the engineer then, and not a soldier, Christy realized at once.
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