THE MEETING WITH THE BELLEVITE AT NIGHT Christy looked at his watch when the sail was reported to him, and found that it wanted ten minutes of eleven.

The Bronx had been steaming for just about three hours, and must have made about forty miles, as he hastily figured up the run in his mind.
"How was the weather when you left the deck, Mr.Flint ?" asked the commander.
"Clear as a bell, and bright starlight," replied the executive officer.
"Not a night for blockade runners," added the captain.
"No, sir." "The sail is reported on the port bow, which looks as though she might be coming in from sea," continued Christy, as he went into his stateroom with his navy revolver in his hand.
He put the formidable weapon back into the drawer from which he had taken it; but the lesson of the evening had made a strong impression on his mind.

Though he had permitted Captain Flanger to believe that he was not at all disturbed by his presence in his cabin, and had kept up the humor with which the intruder had introduced himself, yet he had felt a sense of humiliation through the whole of the scene.

It was a new thing to be confronted by an enemy in his own cabin; and the privateersman, armed with two heavy revolvers, had all the advantage, while neither he nor the steward had a weapon of any kind.
With even an ordinary revolver in his hip pocket, he would not have been helpless, and he might have saved himself without requiring this service of the steward.

Opening his valise, he took from it a smaller revolver, and put it in his hip pocket, which he had never used for any other purpose; and he resolved not to be caught again in an unarmed condition, even when no danger was apparent.