"That's Dallberg, without any doubt; but he must be five miles off. He can't reach the steamer for a long time," said the major, when he had examined the boat. "But we shall be no better off than we are now when she gets here, for not one of those in it is a sailor."
Christy was not a little interested in the situation; for he thought his father must have gone on board of the Bellevite, or she would not have changed her position. It was all a mystery to him as well as to the commandant of Fort Gaines, and the boat in the distance had been to the shore for the purpose of investigating it.
He had an idea in his head, and he continued to examine the interior of the pilot-house till he found a number of paper rolls in a drawer, which looked very much like local charts of the bay. He examined several of them, and found one which covered the portion of the waters around him. He had noted the direction taken by the Bellevite the day before, and he had no difficulty in placing the inlet where she had moored at the wharf.
"What have you got there, Mr. Passford?" asked the major, who had been looking on the floor, thinking what he should do in his present dilemma.
"You a Sailor?" (Page 215)
"It is a chart of these waters, which appears to have been considerably improved with a pen and ink," replied Christy, still examining it.
"That is the work of Captain Pecklar. They call him the best pilot for Mobile Bay there is about here, though he has been here but two years."
"Here is the inlet, or river, where we passed the night; and the captain has marked the wharf on it."
"What good is the chart without a man that knows how to steer a steamer?" asked the major, who was becoming very impatient in the presence of the delay that confronted him; for the illness of Captain Pecklar deprived him of the ability to do any thing, even to return to the fort.