"I came prepared for anything. I hoped we might be able to capture the Teaser, but I did not expect it." "I suppose you expect to do it now." "Yes, I do; and I ought to be broken if I don't do it. I am sorry to let all those men enter the rebel navy; and that is all that vexes me at the present moment." "Perhaps they can be picked up to-morrow, or later to-night," suggested Flint. "From what I heard, I think she was to have a fighting crew of about forty men. Of course they will try to join the steamer to-night or to-morrow; and why not let them do it?" chuckled Flint. "We will attend to this affair first, but I like the idea." They reached the Teaser in due time, and all hands went on board of her. Captain Folkner, with a couple of men he had contrived to retain, with two firemen, was at work on his apparatus to float a vessel drawing ten feet in six feet of water or less. Alongside he had a hundred or more of empty barrels which he was sinking under the sides by hauling them down with a line under the bottom of the vessel. He did the work partly with his windlass worked by steam, and he had lifted the bow of the Teaser at least three feet out of water. Captain Folkner expatiated with enthusiasm on his plan, and explained the details to the lieutenant. Christy saw that he had considerable mechanical genius, but he certainly lacked a balance-wheel. The officer had set him down as a timid man, but this conversation assured him that the captain was a brave man. He was carried away with his idea, though it was plain that he had not examined the question in all its bearings. "When I have lifted the steamer four feet, she can go through the sound, for I have taken a boat through that drew six feet. With your men to help me, I shall get the casks down by midnight, and then all we have to do is to go ahead," continued the enthusiast. "Precisely so; and the Teaser is a screw steamer," added Christy. "Of course she is; you have known her for two months, Gilder." "When she has been lifted up four feet, she is to go ahead," repeated Christy, in the tone of a musing man. "That is what I said; she is to go ahead." "But what is to drive her ahead? Is she expected to go of herself?" "Go of herself? Of course not. She is to be driven ahead by her engine as she always is," replied Captain Folkner, suspending the work upon which he was engaged, and trying to see the face of the pilot through the darkness. "How do steamers generally go ahead?" "If they are screw steamers, they are propelled by the pressure of the blades of the screw," answered Christy. "And that is just the way the Teaser will be propelled through the sound," replied Captain Folkner. "This steamer is to be a privateer, and I own her. She has cost me about all the money I have in the world, and I don't want to lose her before I get to sea. If I can get into blue water with her, I am not at all concerned but that she will run away from anything afloat."