Relieved of her gay cargo, the transformation of the Alabama proceeded with rapidity.

The luncheon had been already cleared away, and now seats and flags, and all the rest of the holiday paraphernalia began speedily to disappear.

Late that evening and all the next day the bustle of preparation continued, and at two o'clock in the morning of the 31st July the anchor was once more weighed, and with a strong breeze from the S.W.the "No.

290" started off, ostensibly on a voyage to Nassau in the Bahamas.
Just in time.

That morning the seizure was to have been made.