THE LIEUTENANT'S DARING EXPLOIT Captain Breaker was perplexed when his ship came alongside the enemy and was made fast to her, for things were not working according to the usual rules made and provided for such occasions, and Captain Rombold was evidently resorting to some unusual tactics.

The two steamers were of about the same height above water, so their decks were very nearly on a level.
The men with muskets on both sides were reloading their weapons, and those with navy revolvers were discharging them at the enemy; but the officers of divisions concealed their men behind the bulwarks when the order to board did not come.
Christy saw the perplexity of the commander at his side, and it was evident to both of them that some unusual strategy was to be adopted, and Captain Breaker did not intend to fall into a trap if he could avoid it.

They could see nothing that looked suspicious except the position of the enemy's force on the starboard side of the ship.
Before the captain could stop him, the first lieutenant had leaped into the mizzen rigging, and ascended far enough to obtain a view of the quarter deck over the bulwarks, while the commander walked aft far enough to accomplish the same purpose by looking through the aperture made by the shot which had carried away the wheel of the enemy, without exposing himself to the fire of the seamen on board of her.
Christy's action occupied but the fraction of a minute; but several muskets and revolvers were discharged at him in this brief time.

Letting go his hold of the rigging, he dropped to the deck before the captain could see what he was doing; and it was supposed that the daring officer had been brought down by the shots fired at him.
"Second division, follow me!" he cried, as he picked up the cutlass he had dropped.
About thirty men rushed to the quarter-deck, hurried on by Mr.Walbrook.
Christy leaped upon the rail, with the cutlass in his right hand, and the revolver in his left, and dropped down upon the quarter deck of the Tallahatchie, upon a squad of seamen who were lying low behind a thirty-pounder, whose carriage was close to the bulwark, the piece pointed forward.
The first lieutenant had seen from his position in the mizzen rigging the trap which had been set for the crew of the Bellevite.

They were expected to leap to the rail, and cut away the boarding nettings--not always used, but were on this occasion--and then drop down to the deck.
The first command would naturally have been to "Repel boarders;" but this was not given, and no fighting was to be done till the boarders reached the ship, when the thirty-pounder, doubtless loaded with grape or shrapnel, was to mow down the invaders of the deck.
Christy's men poured down after him, and before the crew of the gun, who had no doubt been ordered to conceal themselves, could get upon their feet they were cut down by the impetuous tars from the Bellevite.