THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED
cabin by the Yankee officers while we are kept below in this miserable hole? I tell you those fellows are birds of ill omen. These galvanized rascals mean trouble for some one."
This conversation with Fulkerson certainly put a damper on my hope, and the more I thought of the conversation the more depressed I became, until hope had almost fled. When we separated it was coming daylight. The ship was rolling badly and there seemed to be much commotion on the upper deck. The guard at the hatchway was doubled and no one was allowed to go on deck. The engines had stopped working. By some means I got on deck, though how I got there I never could tell, and tried to ascertain the cause of the commotion. I heard one of the ship's officers say, "We are aground, sir, off Folly Island. Where should have been the Cape Romaine Light, we are stuck fast in the sand;" which later proved to be true. The night was very dark. The route was new to the
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