"I admit it; and I hardly expect a true patriot to tell the truth to the enemy. If I remember rightly, you told me yourself that your men had gone to the eastward where they had left their bags. I don't believe that your conscience reproached you when they showed themselves in the boats."
At this moment pistol shots were heard on the water.
[CHAPTER XXVI]
THE ACTION ON THE DECK OF THE TEASER
As the Teaser was but a short distance from the shore, Christy had no doubt that the attempt to board her had been made by this time. Mr. Blowitt had quite as many men on board of the steamer as could have been contained in the two boats, and he was not much concerned about the result of the attack, especially as he knew that the second lieutenant was fully prepared and on the lookout for it. The only thing that Christy regretted was that he was not on board of the Teaser to take part in the affair of repelling boarders.
"There seems to be some music in the air," said Lonley, after he had listened for a few moments to the sounds that came from the direction of the steamer.
"To return to the subject of the morality of telling stories, your men do not seem to be a mile to the eastward, where their bags were left," added Christy good-naturedly.
"You had a glance at them in the boats, though the darkness and fog were rather too thick for you to count them," replied Lonley, chuckling over the deception he had practised upon the lieutenant of the Bellevite.
"Yes, I saw them, and I concluded that they could not be where their bags were."
"All is fair in war."