"I intend to return to my home in her, and to take my daughter back to her mother," replied Horatio, as unmoved as though he had uttered a commonplace expression.
"Take Florry back to her mother!" exclaimed Homer, springing out of his armchair as though his five-and-forty years counted for nothing. "I hope that nothing at all is the matter with your brain, Horatio."
"Nothing at all, so far as I am aware, Homer. You seem to think it is a great undertaking to take my daughter home," added Horatio.
"But it is war in this country, and all along the coast. You will certainly be captured, and your daughter sent to a prison, at least till she can be sent home. You have not more than one chance in ten to get to New York."
"Do you think so?" asked Horatio, smiling.
"If you don't know it, I do, my dear brother, that the Southern Confederacy has sent out agents to buy up all the suitable vessels they can find, to do duty as cruisers and privateers. You are almost sure to be captured, and think what Florry would suffer in such an event."
"You seem to think that the North is going to hold still, and let you do all this, Homer," added the owner of the Bellevite.
"I don't see how the North can help itself."
"My information is rather meagre; but I am informed that the Government of the United States has proclaimed the blockade, and even that it is enforced farther north, as I am sure it will be on the south."
"That is all nonsense, Horatio, and you know it."