"What do you think of her, Mr. Fillbrook?" he asked, after the executive
officer had reported to him.
"There are so many steamers coming over from British ports about this
time, bound to Confederate ports, that it is not very difficult to guess
what she is," replied the first lieutenant. "She is either a blockade
runner, or a steamer fitted out to prey upon the commerce of the United
States."
"That seems to be plain enough; and from the position in which we find
her, she has come out of the Bermudas, or is bound there," added the
commander. "Bring my glass from my state room," he continued to his
cabin steward, who was sunning himself on the deck.
When it was brought, the captain and the executive officer went forward
and mounted the top-gallant forecastle. Mr. Fillbrook procured a glass
from the pilot house, and both of them looked long and earnestly at the
speck in the distance. The steamer was hull down, and they soon agreed
that she was bound to the eastward.
"We have no business with her at present," said Christy, as he shut up
his glass.
"But I have no doubt she has already run the blockade, and came out of
Wilmington or Savannah.
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