"May I ask you for a few minutes in private, Captain Passford?" continued Percy.
"Certainly;" and the owner retired with him to the weather-rail.
"I have seen this vessel, and I have heard what you say of her. Now I am better informed in regard to her than my father is. I am not authorized to name a price, but I am very sure that he will buy her."
"So he said to me himself, Mr. Percy," added the owner with a smile.
"He said so to you, sir!" exclaimed the young man, starting back; for he believed that he had accomplished all that had been done towards buying the vessel.
"I had an interview with him, and stated most explicitly that the Bellevite could not be purchased by any person at any price; and when I hinted very guardedly to him, as I do to you, in the strictest confidence, that I am hound for Mobile Bay, he did not urge the matter. He was satisfied that the steamer was to be used in a good cause; and I can give you the same assurance, Mr. Percy."
The young man looked positively humble after he had listened to the remark of the owner, for he felt that his father had "taken all the wind out of his sails." He looked in the direction of the receding island of Nassau, and realized that he had been wasting his time, to say nothing of the wasted strategy he had bestowed on his enterprise.
"You have stated that you are bound for Mobile Bay, sir," said he. "That is a long distance from New Providence, as I have learned from experience."
"But this trip will give you the satisfaction of being restored to your own home in a very short time, for there is no faster vessel afloat than the Bellevite," added Captain Passford.
"It will put me into the army," said Mr. Percy; but he felt at once that he had made a slip of the tongue, and he hastened to correct the effect of his involuntary speech. "Of course, I wanted to go into the army of my country, as every patriotic fellow in the South does; but my father objects simply because I can be of more service to the good cause in another field of action, and I had to yield the point."