"I am afraid I should have too little cheek to attempt to do that, for the president is a rather obstinate man, and I fear he would not see the point. Besides, I am a very modest man, though you may not have observed this shining trait in my character. No; I am too diffident to ask for a place I have not won by service." "Then what would you do in the way of persuasion?" asked Christy, though he wondered why he was prolonging the interview. "I should use my powers of persuasion upon you, Captain Gilder, in the first place." "I don't think it would be of any use, for I am too well posted in that way of doing it to be influenced," replied Christy, trying to withdraw his hand from the grasp of the privateersman. "I must go on board of the Teaser again when you have delivered your message to me, as that was what you wished to see me for." "I did say I had a message for you, didn't I? Well, upon my life, I have quite forgot what it was, but it was from President Jefferson Davis, and he was particular that I should deliver it to you to-night or this morning. Isn't it very strange that I should forget a message of so much importance that it could not be trusted to writing?" "Passing strange, I should say," answered Christy, who began to understand that he had fallen into a trap of some sort. "While you are thinking of it, I will go on board, and persuade Captain Folkner not to run the Teaser to the eastward if he should take it into his head to do so. I had no idea there was a Yankee gunboat in that direction, and I don't believe the captain had. Besides, he don't know where he is in this fog, and he needs me." As he spoke, Christy tried to withdraw his hand from the grasp of Lonley, as he had not succeeded in doing before when he tried. But the privateersman suddenly fell upon him, and both of them went down. A tremendous struggle followed, but before it was decided, two men rushed out of the gloom, and took part in the affair; and they soon settled the matter in favor of the Confederacy, much to the chagrin of the second lieutenant of the Bellevite. [Illustration: "A tremendous struggle followed."--Page 284.] Flint had remained in the canoe, which had been partly drawn up on the beach; but the moment he sprang out upon the sand to go to the assistance of his officer, he was set upon by two men and secured. Both of them were deprived of their weapons, and their hands tied behind them. Beyond a doubt the lieutenant and the master's mate were prisoners before they had any clear idea of the situation. "Are you there, Mr. Folkner?" called Lonley, as soon as the prisoners were secured, speaking now in an energetic tone, as he had not before. "I am here," replied a man who seemed to be in a boat not far from the spot. "You have kept me a long time waiting for you!"