Flint what the next movement of the Bronx was to be.
She had already been ordered to proceed to the eastward, and her sealed
instructions would reveal the enterprise in which she was to engage.
The steamer had been so successful while in command of Captain Blowitt
in breaking up the shipping of cotton in a port where a larger vessel
could not operate, that Christy promptly concluded that she was to
be used in a similar enterprise. The listener was amused rather than
impressed by the conversation which was in progress so near him, and
especially at the display of dignity and authority on the part of his
cousin.
Mr. Galvinne had proved himself to be a very gentlemanly officer in what
little Christy had seen of him on the voyage from New York; but the
situation was entirely changed so far as he was concerned. It appeared
from the conversation, as the listener had for some time supposed,
that the second lieutenant of the Vernon was the real leader of the
enterprise of which Corny was the nominal head. Probably the restraint
of over a week imposed upon him had fretted his spirit, and when he
found himself alone with his incompetent superior, he became conscious
of the superiority his knowledge and training gave him.
Christy rather sympathized with him in his contempt for the one who was
only nominally his superior, though that could not excuse the breach of
good manners of which he had been guilty, whether in the old or the new
navy.
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