Though there was war imminent, the insurance offices were content to maintain their terms upon a peace standard.

What, indeed, was to be feared?
The South had not a single vessel.

Here and there a packet-steamer might be caught up and armed, but what would they avail against such fleet and powerful ships as the Brooklyn, the Powhattan, and dozens of others?
There was, then, a condition of perfect security, according to the ideas of all American commercial men.

The arrangement, as they understood it, was that they were to strike the blow, and that no one was to give them the value in return.
It happened that Mr.Davis was of another mind.

He perceived where a blow could be struck, on his part, with terrible emphasis, and how.