"Don't be alarmed, miss," said James Playfair, in a gentle voice, "but be so good as to tell me how I come to have the honour of having you on board?"
The young girl hesitated a moment, then reassured by the Captain's look, she made up her mind to speak.
"Sir," said she, "I wanted to join my father at Charleston; the town is besieged by land and blockaded by sea. I knew not how to get there, when I heard that the 'Dolphin' meant to force the blockade. I came on board your ship, and I beg you to forgive me if I acted without your consent, which you would have refused me."
"Certainly," said James Playfair.
"I did well, then, not to ask you," resumed the young girl, with a firmer voice.
The Captain crossed his arms, walked round his cabin, and then came back.
"What is your name?" said he.
"Jenny Halliburtt."
"Your father, if I remember rightly the address on the letters, is he not from Boston?"
"Yes, sir."
"And a Northerner is thus in a southern town in the thickest of the war?"
"My father is a prisoner; he was at Charleston when the first shot of the Civil War was fired, and the troops of the Union driven from Fort Sumter by the Confede-
