"Now go to the captain of the vessel," he added, "give him my compliments, and request him to step to my state-room." The orderly saluted again, faced about as if on a pivot, and walked away. "Here, come back, sir," called the Colonel. "What did I tell you?" "You told me, sir, to give your compliments to the captain of the vessel, and request him to step to your state-room," replied the soldier. "My God! he understood the first time," exclaimed the Colonel. "Been in the old army, I see. Quite right, sir; go on." In a few minutes the marine functionary was closeted with the military potentiality. "Sit down, Captain," said the Colonel. "Take a glass of wine." "No, thank you, Colonel," said the Captain, a small, brown, quiet-mannered, taciturn man of forty-five, his iron-grey locks carefully oiled and brushed, and his dark-blue morning-suit as neat as possible. "I make it a rule at sea," he added, "never to take any thing but a bottle of porter at dinner." "Very good: never get drunk on duty--good rule," laughed the Colonel. "Well, here are our orders. Look them over, Captain, if you please." The Captain read, lifted his eyebrows with an air of comprehension, put the paper back in the envelope, returned it to the Colonel, and remarked, "Ship Island." "It would be best to say nothing about it at present," observed Carter. "Some accident may yet send us back to New York, and then the thing would be known earlier than the War Department wants." "Very good. I will lay the proper course, and say nothing." And so, with a little further talk about cleaning quarters and cooking rations, the interview terminated. It was not till the transport was off the beach of Ship Island that the Tenth Barataria became aware of its destination. Meantime, taking advantage of a run of smooth weather, Carter disciplined his green regiment into a state of cleanliness, order and subserviency, which made it a wonder to itself. He had two daily inspections with regard to personal cleanliness, going through the companies himself, praising the neat and remorselessly punishing the dirty. "What do you mean by such hair as that, sir?" he would say, poking up a set of long locks with the hilt of his sabre. "Have it off before night, sir. Have it cut short and neatly combed by to-morrow morning." For offences which to the freeborn American citizen seemed peccadilloes or even virtues, (such as saying to a second-lieutenant, "I am as good as you are,") men were seized up by the wrists to the rigging with their toes scarcely touching the deck. The soldiers had to obey orders without a word, to touch their caps to officers, to stop chaffing the sentinels, to keep off the quarter-deck, and out of the cabin. "By (this and that) I'll teach them to be soldiers," swore the Colonel. "They had their skylarking in Barataria. They are on duty now."