This was a problem by no means easily solved. They were both penniless and without friends, save such as they had made during their brief but exciting stay on board the Minnesota. Under other circumstances, no doubt, the captain of the frigate, as some reparation for running down the Sea-Slipper, would have exerted himself to send them forward; but he, poor fellow, had been severely wounded in the fighting, and the other officers were too deeply engrossed in the pressing duties of the moment to give any attention to less important matters.
It was in this crisis that Terry's really daring and devoted services to the wounded during the thick of the battle brought forth fruit. He was wandering disconsolately about the beach at Fortress Monroe, wondering how he could make his way back to Halifax and set himself right at Drummond and Brown's, when one of the Minnesota's lieutenants came along, and hailed him pleasantly,—
"Where away, Terry? You look kind of down on your luck this morning."
"Indeed that I am, sir," responded Terry promptly. "I've just been axin' myself how I'm to get back to Halifax, and faith I can't make it out at all, at all."
"Oh, you want to get back to Halifax, do you?" said the lieutenant. "Well, I can't say about that, but it's only fair you should be sent back to Boston, for you would have been there long ago if we hadn't run you down, wouldn't you?"
"It's the truth you're sayin', sir!" answered Terry; "and," here an eager appealing look came into his face, "if you can say a word to the captain, sir, and have Captain Afleck and myself given a lift that way, it's more obliged than I can tell you we'd both be."
The lieutenant evidently took kindly to the suggestion, and clapping the boy on the back, he said,—
"I'll do it, Terry. You did us all a good turn on board the Minnesota by taking water round when nobody could attend to it. Our captain's in hospital, but I'll speak to the officer in command in his place, and he'll do the square thing, I'm sure."
The lieutenant was as good as his word. He took considerable pains to press the matter, with the result that on the following day Captain Afleck and Terry were provided with railroad passes clear to Boston, and sufficient funds to pay their expenses en route.
They made a light-hearted pair, the big bronzed man and the freckle-faced boy, as they set out for Baltimore, rejoicing in getting away from the scenes of bloodshed and destruction, of which they had grown profoundly weary.