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Updated: June 9, 2025
"You can sleep as well in the scuppers as anywhere else, Bokes; and you ain't more'n half awake any time." "Must have my berth, Cap'n, or I go ashore," persisted the seaman. "Small loss anyhow," growled the captain. "How is the cabin, Captain Sullendine?" interposed Graines. "Two staterooms and four berths," replied the master.
The captain of the steamer had evidently waited for a favorable moment to start on his perilous voyage, and the engineer noticed when he went forward after he had secured Captain Sullendine, that the fog was again settling down on the bay. "On board the steamer!" shouted French, as directed. "Anchor aweigh, sir!" Then a minute later, "All clear, and the towline slack!"
Graines. "Then you cheated me more'n I thought." "Is this all the complaint you have to make, Captain Sullendine?" asked Captain Breaker, turning to the master of the West Wind. "I reckon that's enough!" protested the complainant. "I say it was not a fair capture, and you ought to send my vessel back to Mobile Point, where your officers found her."
Two of the ship's seamen were at the oars, French was in the stern sheets, and the engineer soon recognized Captain Sullendine as the fourth person. French ascended the gangway followed by Captain Sullendine. The seaman who had acted as prize-master of the West Wind touched his cap very respectfully to the first officer he met when he came on board. Christy had asked the chief engineer to send Mr.
Gilfleur, the French detective, with whom he had been associated on his cruise some months before, he did not appear at all different from most of those who listened to Captain Sullendine. He had laid aside his gentlemanly gait and bearing, and acted as though he had lately joined the "awkward squad." "How d'e?" called the orator to him, as he saw him join the group of listeners.
"I let him out then, and his first move was to get at his whiskey; but the door was locked. He begged like a child for a drink; but I did not give him a drop. Sopsy and Bokes, who were tied up forward, did the same; but they did not get any. Captain Sullendine ate his breakfast, and I told him his vessel was a prize to the United States steamer Bellevite.
Bird is a big fellow in his own estimation; but it struck me that Captain Sullendine had an ignorant and self-willed fellow for a mate, and probably he took the best one he could find; for I think good seamen, outside of the Confederate navy, must be very scarce in the South."
"No doubt of it; he has not had two hours yet in his berth, and he is good for two hours more at least." "I think we shall be on board of the Bellevite in ten minutes more," continued Christy, as he noted the position of the ship. "Have you instructed French what to do with Captain Sullendine if he should attempt to make trouble?"
The lieutenant stooped down so that he could see into the cabin, and discovered a man with a lighted match in his hand, fumbling at the door of the closet where Captain Sullendine kept his whiskey. "Is that the captain?" whispered Christy, who could not make out the man, though he was not as tall as the master of the West Wind. "No; it is Bokes," replied Graines.
He had settled the liquor question to his own satisfaction in the deck-house, returning the bottle to French. When Graines went below, a minute or two later than Captain Sullendine, he saw his new superior in the act of tossing off another glass of whiskey, as he concluded it was from the label on the bottle which stood on the cabin table.
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