"That is all I can expect of you; and I will do whatever you tell me, if it be to sink the Leopard. But we can't do a thing. The engineer will not start the engine for us; and I don't see but what we must stay here till my brother comes back from his errand, whatever it may be." "I don't feel quite so helpless as that," added Christy, as he took a revolver from his hip-pocket, where he had carried it all the time since the steamer left Nassau, and while she was there. "What are you going to do with that, Christy?" asked Percy, impressed with the sight of the weapon. "I am going to start this tug with it, if necessary. Now hear me." Percy was all attention. CHAPTER XXIV THE ENGINEER GOES INTO THE FORECASTLE The wind from the southward seemed to be increasing in force, though it was not yet what old salts would call any thing more than half a gale, and hardly that; but the long-boat from the Leopard made bad weather of it, and rolled wildly in the trough of the sea. The soldiers pulled badly, for they had had no training in the use of the oars, and very little experience. The boat had made very little progress towards the Bellevite, and Christy was in no hurry to put his plan in operation. He showed his revolver to Percy, and then restored it to his hip-pocket. But he watched the expression of his companion in the pilot-house very closely; for, as the case then stood, one of them belonged to the blue, while the other was of the gray. But Percy's patriotism was hardly skin deep, and he had already spoken freely enough to make himself understood. "I don't see how you are going to start the tug with that pistol if the fellow at the engine don't look at it in that light," said Percy, as his companion restored the weapon to his pocket. "I don't intend to use it if it can be avoided," replied Christy. "I shall not ask Spikeley to start the engine, and if he don't interfere with me, I shall not harm him; for he seems to be a cripple, and it would hurt my feelings to have to lay hands on him, or even to point a revolver at his head." "If Spikeley don't start the engine, I reckon it will not start itself," suggested Percy. "I don't believe it will." "What are you going to do, then?" "I am going to start it myself." "Start it yourself! You will blow the whole thing up!" exclaimed Percy, who did not see how the same young fellow of sixteen could know how to steer, and run the engine. "I have been on board the Bellevite a great deal of the time for the last three years, and my mother says I was born a sailor, as my father was before me. I always took a deep interest in every thing connected with the steamer." "I should think you might, on board of such a fine vessel as the Bellevite." "I have stood my trick at the wheel for weeks together; and the quartermasters taught me all they knew about steering, the compass, the log, the lead, and the signals." "Those things have nothing to do with the engine," suggested Percy.