Year: 1866

considering the reputation of ours +; and
at each burst, when she seemed to gain
upon US, the whole crowd hold their
breath, and as she drops off again, there
is deep drawn, gasping sigh of relief,
like winds in the pines. Even the 'Col-
onel'' has aroused himself from the
dreams of turtle at the St. Charles, and
red fish at Pensacola, and has come on
deck in a shooting jacket and Glengary
cap, that makes him look like jaunty
Fosco. He leans over the stern rail,
putting his cabana in long easy whiffs
as We gain a length, or sending out
short, angry puffs at the Senator as she
creeps up on US.


Foot by foot We gain steadily until
the gap is widened to three or four boat
lengths, though the Senator plies her
fires till the shores behind her, on each
side, glow from their reflection, and her
decks, now black with anxious lockers
on, sends up cheer after cheer, as she
snorts defantly after us.


Suddenly the bank seems to loom up
right under our larboard bow.


"We have cut it too close!'


Two sharp, vicious clicks of the bell.
Our helm goes hard down, and the en-
gines stop with sudden jar, as / catch
a kissing curse break through the set
teeth Of the pilot.


A yell of wild triumph rises from the
Senator's deck On she comes in gal
liant style, shutting the gap and passing
US like race horse, before we can swing
into the channel and recover headway.
1t is splendid sight as the noble boat
passes US, her black hulk standing out,
in the clear moonlight, against the dim,
gray banks like a living monster, and
her great chimneys snorting out volumes
of massive black smoke, that trails out
fiat behind her from her great sweep.
Her side towards us is crowded with
men, women and children; and hats,
handkerchiefs and hands are swung
madly about to aid the effort of the hun
dred voices.


Close down to the waters edge
scarce above the line of foam she cuts
her lower deck lies black and underlined
in the shadow of the great mass above
it.


Suddenly it liz hits up with lurid
flash as the furnace doors are thrown
wide open, and in the hot glare the ne
gro stokers-their stalwart forms jetty
black, naked to the waist and stream
ing with the exertion that makes the
muscle strain out, like the distorted
imps of some pictured inferno. They,
too, have imbibed the excitement. and
with every gesture of anxious haste, and
eyeballs starting from their dusky heads,
some plunge tie long rakes into the red
mouths of the furnace, twisting and
turning the cracking mass with terrific
strength, while others hurl in the huge
logs of resinous pine, already heated by
contact till they burn like pitch. Then
the great doors bang too, the ''yo - Of
the negroes dies away and the whole
hull is blacker from the contrast, while
the Senator putting denser clouds than
ever, swings round the point hundred
yards ahead!


There is dead silence in our boat,
so deep that the rough whisper of our
pilot to the knot around him is heard
the whole length of the deck: "Dam-
nation but I'll overstep her yit or
bust -


''Good, old fellow ~ responded
Styles-''let her out and I'll stand the
wine -


Then the cold Colonel' walks to the
wheel, with his face purple, his glen
gary pushed far back on his head, and
his cigar glowing like the ''red eye of
battle,'' as he puffs angry wheezes of
smoke through his nostrils. I'D
hard, sir-hard. hard Egad! I'd
burn the last ham in the locker to over
take her." and he whirled the glowing
stump after the Senator, as the Spar
tan youth hurled the shields into the
thick of battle, before rushing to re-
claim them. On We speed, until the
trees on the bank seem to fly back past
us, and round the point to see the Sen
ator just turning another curve!


On still, faster than ever, with every
glass on board jingling in its frame, and
every joint and timber trembling, as
with congestive chill!


Still the black demons below ply
their fires with the fattest logs-and
even few barrels of pitch are slyly
slipped in-the smoke behind us
stretched straight and fat from the
smokestack.


Now we enter straight, narrow
reach, with the Senator just before us.
Faster aud faster We 60, till the boat
fairly rocks and swings from side to
side, half lifted with every throb of the
engine. Closer and closer We creep
harder and harder thump the cylinders
until at last we close, our bow just
tapping her stern!


So We run a few yards. Little by lit
tle-so little that we test it by count
ing her wmdows-we reach her wheel
pass by it-lock her bow, andrun neck
and neck for a hundred yards.