He examined several of them, and found one which covered the portion of the waters around him.
He had noted the direction taken by the Bellevite the day before, and he had no difficulty in placing the inlet where she had moored at the wharf.
"What have you got there, Mr.Passford ?" asked the major, who had been looking on the floor, thinking what he should do in his present dilemma.
[Illustration: "You a Sailor ?" (Page 215)] "It is a chart of these waters, which appears to have been considerably improved with a pen and ink," replied Christy, still examining it.
"That is the work of Captain Pecklar.

They call him the best pilot for Mobile Bay there is about here, though he has been here but two years." "Here is the inlet, or river, where we passed the night; and the captain has marked the wharf on it." "What good is the chart without a man that knows how to steer a steamer ?" asked the major, who was becoming very impatient in the presence of the delay that confronted him; for the illness of Captain Pecklar deprived him of the ability to do any thing, even to return to the fort.
"You forget that I am a sailor, Major Pierson," said Christy.
"You a sailor?
I thought you were the son of a millionnaire, who could not possibly know any thing except how to eat and sleep," replied the soldier, laughing.
"I have steered the Bellevite for a great many hundred miles, and my father says I am competent to do duty as a quartermaster." "You astonish me; and, as we are both engaged in the same good cause, I am heartily delighted to find that you are a sailor." "Probably I shall astonish you still more before we have got through.
With this chart before me, I have no doubt I can find my way about here in the Leopard," said Christy.
"Then I give you the command of the steamer in the absence of Captain Pecklar," continued the major.

"This boat and another are in the service of the forts; and if you don't want to join the army with Percy, perhaps I can obtain the appointment for you, especially as you are hardly old enough to go into the ranks.

We will see about that." "We will leave all that open for future action, if you please, Major Pierson," replied Christy, as he rang the bell for the steamer to go ahead.
The major watched him with the most intense interest, as though he feared that the young man would prove to be a failure as a steamboat captain.

But the steamer went ahead at the sound of the bell, and in a minute or two Christy had her on her course in the direction of the approaching boat.