"It makes the Warwick creek too short and too straight."
"I found it very long," said I; "and it is wide, and it is deep, and it cannot be turned on the James River side except by the fleet."
"The fleet is not going to turn that line; the fleet is doing nothing, and probably will do nothing until the Merrimac is disposed of."
"Doctor, how in the world do you get all your information?"
"By this and that," said the Doctor.
"How we are to get at the rebels I can't see," said I.
"On the Yorktown end of their line," replied the Doctor.
"It seems to me a singular coincidence," said I, "that our troops should have been advancing behind me all day yesterday."
"Do you object?" he asked.
"Not at all; I was about used up when they found me. What I should have done I don't well see."