The Blockade Runner — page 252: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BLOCKADE RUNNER. 253 port beam, Bentham went below and coolly took posses- sion of Captain Powers’ stateroom. There were several Yankee cruisers on the station, but not one had been sighted up to the instant he had quitted the deck. : The clouds were opaque above, with a heavy sea _ be- low, and a dense mist ee and the general prospect not encouraging to the young gunner, though quite satisfactory to everybody else, if we except Jupe; in the ship. aay . ~The negro was very alert and active on the main eun-deck. ' . He glided from gun to gun, pausing at each for a while, and paying great attention to the breech of the weapon. What was he doing? His movements escaped notice, and by and by he went on the upper deck and crawled under the tarpaulin that protected the huge Armstrong rifle amidships. Some time afterward he might have been seen on the rise of the forecastle, where the wicked-looking bow-chaser was snugly wrapped in its canvas over- coat. : After that Jupe nee persistently to the waist of the privateer, and sought shelter from the rain and spray under the cover of the pivot rifle, but maintained a position where he could easily command a view of the quarter-deck. 2 Bentham was below when a steamer was reported about five miles dead astern, and he immediately went on deck. This was the Seabird, as already described, but her Comichoo KS (E©)