"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.
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