There was a general jubilee! They were not yet in sight of land, but they could not be far from port, for the pilot boat was coming!
Half an hour later the pilot boat was alongside and the pilot on deck, with a batch of the latest New York and Washington papers, and with news—such news!
A crowd gathered around him at once.
His papers were taken right and left, and all the men turned eagerly to the first columns of the first page of his own particular sheet to read:
“Latest Dispatches from the Seat of War.”
Before every man’s face fluttered the open newspapers like spread sails, while they devoured the news!
But the pilot’s oral news, which was so very fresh that it had not had time to get into the morning papers, was more interesting to our immediate party than all the rest.
Mr. Force, who was deep in news from the peninsula, caught the words:
“Lieut. Com. Force.”
And he looked up.