by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XI
THE MAJOR IN COMMAND OF FORT GAINES
Percy Pierson retained his position on the rail when his brother themajor came up the gangway steps, which had been put over for him. Asthe latter went up, he could not help seeing him; and his astonishmentevidently mounted to the highest degree, as manifested in hisexpression. The owner and the commander stood near the rail, to givethe visitor a pleasant reception.
But the major took no notice of them; for his attention was plainlyabsorbed in his surprise at seeing his brother, dressed in uniform, onthe rail of the steamer. He halted as soon as he had mounted the rail,over which he must pass to reach the deck. He looked at Percy for sometime, without being able to say a word, and seemed to be not quite surethat it was he.
The younger brother was as silent as the older one; for he had had somerather exciting times with him in the matter of enlisting, and he wasnot very confident of his reception at the hands of the commander ofFort Gaines. He looked at him with interest, not unmingled with somepainful solicitude for the future.
"Percy!" exclaimed Major Pierson at last, when he was entirely satisfiedthat the young man was his brother, in spite of the uniform of blue hewore, though the gray had not yet come into extensive use.
"Lindley!" added the younger, evidently desiring to go no faster thanthe occasion might require of him.
"I am glad to see you back again," continued the major, without offeringto take his hand. "You deserted like a coward, and I have been ashamedof you ever since. A young fellow like you, eighteen years old, who willnot fight for his country, ought to lose the respect of even his ownbrother."
"That is a pleasant greeting," replied Percy, with the suspicion of asneer on his face.
"It is all that a coward deserves," replied Lindley severely.
"I am no coward, any more than you are," protested Percy. "You know thatfather did not wish me to join the army, though I wished to do so."
"I know that you wished to do so just as any other coward does,--overthe left."
"What could I do when father told me not to go to the war?"
"What could you do? You could have gone! If you had not been a poltroon,you would have joined the first regiment that came in your way."
"I never was in the habit of disobeying my father," pleaded the youngagent.
"You were not? You ran away to New Orleans last winter when your fathertold you not to go. You came home from the academy when he told you toremain there. You have spent the evening in Mobile when he told you notto go there. I could tell you instances all day in which you disobeyedhim, and mother too," continued the soldier warmly.
"That was different."
"It was different; and you could obey your father in a bad cause, butnot in a good one. I am heartily ashamed of you, and I don't feelwilling to own you as a brother of mine."
"But my father told me that I could better serve the good cause by goingwith him than I could by joining the army."
"And you were willing to go with him, for then you could keep out ofdanger. Father is getting old, and he is not fit to serve in the army;and you have been his pet since you were born. But that is no excuse foryou; and if I can get you back into the army, I mean to do so."
Percy was afraid he might succeed, and he did not feel as confident ashe had been; and he lost, for the time, some of his self-possession. Hewas confronting the fate he had dreaded when he found the steamer wasleaving Nassau.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the major, looking down upon thedeck of the vessel for the first time.
"I am taking this steamer into the bay, where she is to go into theservice of the Confederate States," answered Percy, plucking a littlemore confidence from the nature of his present occupation.
"You are taking her into the bay!" exclaimed the older brother.
"That is what I said, and that is what I mean," added Percy, glad to seethat his mission had produced an impression.
"Taking this steamer into the bay!" repeated the major, evidently unableto comprehend the mission of his brother. "Do you mean to say that _you_are taking her in, Percy?"
"That is what I mean to say, and do say."
"Are you the pilot of the steamer? I should think you might have been,for she was aground just now," sneered the commander of the fort.
"I am not the pilot, and I don't pretend to be a sailor; but the steameris in my charge," replied Percy, elevating his head to the need of theoccasion.
"In charge of the steamer! I would not trust a coward like you in chargeof a sick monkey," added Lindley, with his contempt fully expressed inhis face.
"See here, Lindley, I don't mean to be insulted on board of this steamerby my own brother. If you can't be decent, I have nothing more to say toyou!" cried Percy, his wrath breaking out quite violently.
"If you give me an impudent word, I will take you into the boat and putyou into the fort," added the major, as he stepped down upon the deck.
"No, you won't. I will jump overboard before I will be carried to thefort. I have done just what my father told me to do, to say nothing ofmy mother; and I won't be insulted by you. It is you who are the cowardand the poltroon, to do so," continued Percy, boiling over with rage.
Whatever provocation the major had had for his savage treatment ofhis brother, the owner of the Bellevite thought his conduct wasunjustifiable. The young man was under age; and whether or not hisfather was less a patriot than his older son, the latter was certainlyunkind, ungenerous, and even brutal. Without being a "milk-and-waterman," Captain Passford was full of kindness, courtesy, and justice. Hedid not like the behavior of the major towards his brother.
It looked like a family quarrel of the two brothers on board of thesteamer; for Percy was evidently "a weak chicken," after all, though hehad become desperate under the stings and reproaches of the major. Underpresent circumstances, it did not appear that Percy could be of anyservice on board of the Bellevite, for his brother would not hear a wordhe said. Captain Passford directed the commander to have every thingready for a hurried movement at once, for there was but little hope ofsatisfying a man as unreasonable as the commander of the fort had provedhimself to be in his dealing with his brother.
The captain of the steamer went to Mr. Vapoor, who was standing near thedoor of the engine-room, and said something to him, which soon produceda lively effect among the coal-passers below.
"I will attend to your case in a few minutes, Percy, for I do not allowany one to be impudent to me," growled the major.
"Nor I either. If you put a finger on me, I will put a bullet throughyour head, if you are my brother!" yelled Percy, as he took a smallrevolver from his hip-pocket.
This demonstration increased the anger of Lindley; and he ran up thesteps to the rail again, where he called upon two soldiers to come ondeck. At the same moment, Captain Breaker, as instructed by the owner,rang the bell on the quarter, and the engine began to move again. Beforethe men from the boat could leave it, the steamer was moving, and it wasno longer possible for them to obey the order.
"What are you about, sir?" demanded Major Pierson, rushing to thecommander, not a little excited by what had been done.
"I think this thing has gone about far enough, sir," replied CaptainBreaker, as calmly as though there had not been a ripple on the surfaceof affairs.
"But I came on board of this steamer to make an examination of thecharacter of the vessel," protested the major, who evidently did notlike the present aspect of the situation.
"I have waited for you to do so; but I do not care to lose the tidewhile you are quarrelling with your brother, sir," added the commander.
"But I order you to stop, sir!" continued the major.
"What am I to do, Mr. Percy?" asked Captain Breaker, addressing theyoung man with a revolver in his hand.
There was something on the part of the commander which indicated thathe was playing a part, as were all on board, though he seemed to bea little amused to find that he was taking his orders from a
boy ofeighteen. At the same time he nodded his head slightly, though verysignificantly, to the young agent.
"Go ahead just as fast as you can make the steamer travel, CaptainBreaker," said Percy, with as much energy as though he had been incommand of a Confederate fleet.
"Certainly, Mr. Percy; I shall obey your order, as you have charge ofthe vessel," added the commander.
This passage between the authority of the steamer and his brotherabsolutely confounded the major, and for a couple of minutes he wasunable to say any thing at all. But Captain Breaker, who was the onlypilot on board, was obliged to leave the ship's guest in order to lookout for the course of the steamer.
It seemed to be useless to attempt to get over the bar where hehad tried to do so; and he directed the vessel towards the mainship-channel, finding plenty of water to enable him to reach it. But hewould have to run the gauntlet of Fort Morgan, and the chances of a shotwere against him.
"Do you mean to say that Percy is in charge of this steamer, CaptainBreaker?" demanded Major Pierson, who had by this time recovered someportion of his self-possession.
"That is what both he and I said to you," replied Captain Breaker.
"And the vessel is to be in the service of the Confederate States,"added Percy, with more pluck than he had displayed before. "If mybrother will not let her pass into the bay, I will go on shore atFort Morgan, and explain the situation to the officer in command,"blustered Percy; and perhaps he would have done just as much under thecircumstances if he had known the vessel was on the other side in thecoming conflict.
"Where are your papers, sir?" asked the major.
"We have no papers; and that is why I am come in charge of the steamer,"replied the agent, who seemed to be quite able to strain a point whennecessary.
"We met Colonel Richard Pierson in Nassau, and I believe he is yourfather and Mr. Percy's," answered Captain Breaker.
"He is; but I can hardly understand how he happened to send my brotherhome in charge of this fine steamer," said the major, glancing at hisbrother.
"Going into the army is not all the duty a man has to do for hiscountry," said Percy warmly.
"May I ask where this vessel came from?" inquired the commander of thefort.
"From New York before she went to Bermuda and Nassau; before that, fromEngland," replied the commander evasively.
"If you are really in charge of the steamer, Percy, I have nothing moreto say," continued Major Pierson. "Now may I ask who owns her?"
"Captain Horatio Passford, who stands there?"
The officer in command of the fort started back as though he hadreceived another surprise, greater than before.