"Buoy on the port hand!" cried the man on the other side, a minute later.
"We are all right," added the lieutenant. "We are between the middle ground and the island. The buoy on the port is the southwest point of the island."
The Bellevite was not the only man-of-war that lay off Pensacola, for the Brooklyn and other vessels were there to assist in the defence of Fort Pickens, which the enemy were determined to capture if possible. The government had done everything within its means to "hold the fort," though an army of about ten thousand men had been gathered in the vicinity to reduce it. The dry-dock which had floated near Warrenton, and which the Confederates intended to sink in the channel, had been burned, and a force of Unionists, including the Zouaves, called "The Pet Lambs," had been quartered on the island of Santa Rosa. It had looked for several days as though the enemy were preparing for a movement in retaliation for the destruction of the dry-dock, which was a bad set-back for them.
The getting to sea of the Teaser had no connection with this movement, it appeared afterwards, and if Lieutenant Passford's enterprise had been carried out only an hour or two later, he would have found the situation quite different. He had sent the most of Captain Folkner's force on board ashore, and had it all his own way afterwards. He was sorry to leave these men, and the rest of the ship's company of the Teaser, to assist in fighting the battles of the Confederacy, and he was filled with the hope that they might yet be captured.
As soon as the Teaser was well to the southward of the island, Christy gave two short and a long blast on the steam whistle, which was the signal he had agreed to make when he approached the Bellevite, though Captain Breaker had laughed at him when he suggested that he might return in the prize. The same signal was made in reply, and repeated several times to aid him in finding the ship. The water was comparatively smooth, and the prize came alongside the Bellevite, where it was made fast.
The lieutenant's first duty was to report to the captain of the Bellevite, and taking Dave with him, he hastened on board. He found Captain Breaker on deck, for there was a feeling in the fleet and in the fort that some important event was about to transpire in the vicinity.
"I am glad to see you, Mr. Passford," said he; and possibly it occurred to him that he had sent the young man on a difficult mission, practically within the enemy's lines. "You have brought the prize with you, I see; and I was before informed of the fact that you had her by the signal whistles."
"Yes, sir; the Teaser is alongside. She is not a vessel of the Confederate Navy, but was fitted out on private account. She is a privateer," replied Christy.
"So much the better that you have captured her," added the captain. "Did you have a severe fight, Mr. Passford?"
"We had no fight at all, sir. I was instructed to avoid a fight if possible, and I have done so. Not a blow has been struck or a shot fired, sir."