The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-01-22

com4ited antagonist, and laying our
course straight and true for Whining
tom. IL was now s O'Clock in the
evening. a hundred miles btween us
and our dangerous destination, and
daylight came early In the summer
months. By the closest calculation
we might without accidents, reach the
Cape Fear by sun rise. and then In
q disabled condition how could we
hope to run the gauntlet OF the block
aiding feet? Il was resolved to do IL
or die. Fortune had favored us In an
extremity, perhaps she would still be
kind We had an anxious night: sleep
eve after the excitement and exhaus-
ton OF the previous day, was impos-
sible. We saw the first faint streaks
OF day of Masonboro sound, where
our watchful Gregory picked up the
signal lights ashore and passed the
word along the beach for our protec-
ton by the fort 1t was a cloudy morn
ing; on n on We drove the little
ship; she seemed to feel the crisis
while she lahored like q sentiment be-
ing to meet her fate as speedily as pos
sible. AT last, in the friendly haze OF
dawn, We were among them: block
aders 10 the right of us, blockaders TO
the left Of US, blockaders ahead Of us
doomed up like monsters Of the deep.
Craig colly but anxiously peered ahead.
Long Tom. well forward on the tuEle
back, whispered the words, which a
line of picked men reported TO the
bridge. Again and again We stopped
for the passage of a picket barge or
gunboat in the darkness ahead. who
saw us not, and for the bearings. when
IN our devious course We had lost in
confusion. Once more We slowly pro-
ceeded when suddenly out of the dark
ness n close aboard flashed tie fer,
train of a rocket, and a deep, COM
mnding voice, just over the side shout
ed "Heave TO, or I'll sink you!"
Quickly our bridge responded AYE.
aye, sir, we stop the engines" Back
your engines, sir, and stand by for my
boats called the lusty man Of war.
But our paddles were not reversed.
LOckhart said he never needed such
an order with the bar at hand; on the
contrary our engines were evidently
running away with the ship, and,
while the confident blockader, diverted
from his guns. was engaged in over
ing his boats, the Phantom" true to
her name, was gliding away towards
the bar. A trail of rockets and Drum
lights and bomb-shells from the
rest OF the fleet followed in our wake.
but the friendly flash of signals from
the fort encouraged us while Gregory
with his masked lights, revealed to
them our steady progress until we an
chored under the confederate guns. 1t
was now broad daylight and the block
aiding feet had sullenly withdrawn to
a safe diStnce. We proceeded toward
Fort Anderson and came to anchor at
The clouds had passed
away revealing in the brightness of
the morning light the stately white
columns Of Orion House in the dis
lance. Accompanied by our faithful
Sclpio and escorted beyond the fort by
its courteous Colonel Hedrick, we pro-
ceeded in silence through st. Philips
churchyard and the dead colonial town
o Brunswick, past RusselbOro, where
Governor Tryon met the first armed
coloinsts (the cradle of American in
through the long avenue
Of oaks, where, looking ahead, we be-
o1Sllb "IllSu Inccfcu Jul HcdTlS,
my uncle and his daughter surrounded
by the yelping hounds returning from
chase, for %reynard,'s brush was at
her saddle bow. With mutual ex-
of establishment and de-
light we learned that the young cap
tain had written by a flag Of true, of
his c~onvalescence in a northern hos
pital. / will not say the touching
words that Scipio heard, as, with
hands clasped by master and mistress,
and with bowed head, he received their
fearful benedictions. My uncle has long
gone to his eternal rest and
Scipio's white soul soon followed him.
They are buried at Orion in a grove
where the hooking bird builds it's
nest and sings; where, above the muir
muir Of the tree tops, which bend to
the soft south wind, is heard the dis
tant booming of the sea, and in their
death they were not divided.-Char-
lotte Observer.