"Do you fully understand your orders, French ?" "Perfectly, Mr.Passford; and I will do my duty as well as I know how," answered the able seaman, who, like many others in the service, deserved a better position.
The new officer and crew went to work on the sails, and in a few minutes they were ready to be set.

Another bank of fog was rolling up, in which the two vessels would soon be involved.

But the Tallahatchie was in a position where it was plain sailing now, and her future troubles would all come from the blockaders.
"There you are!" exclaimed the engineer, as the peal of a gun boomed over the water from the westward.

"The steamer has been seen by a blockader, and she will catch it now." "I don't believe that was one of the Bellevite's guns," added Christy.
"Captain Breaker would not take a position over to the westward, for that would give him the outside track, and he always goes at anything by the shortest way." "We have the fog again for the next ten or fifteen minutes.

The blockader that fired that shot must have got a sight at the steamer, and she is still pegging away at her.