Cyrus Townsend Brady
Reading edition
The Illustrations are by A. D. Rahn Decorations by C. E. Hooper.
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1903, By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
Copyright, 1904, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1904. Reprinted August, 1904; March, September, 1907; April, 1908; April, 1909.
Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
To "Patty"
Most Faithful and Efficient of Coadjutors
PREFACE
"The tragic interlude" in this little war-time comedy of the affections really happened as I have described it. The men who went to their death beside the Housatonic in Charleston harbor were Lieutenant George F. Dixon of the Twenty-first Alabama Infantry, in command; Captain J. F. Carlson of Wagoner's Battery; and Seamen Becker, Simpkins, Wicks, Collins, and Ridgway of the Confederate Navy, all volunteers. These names should be written in letters of gold on the roll of heroes. No more gallant exploit was ever performed. The qualities and characteristics of that death trap, the David, were well known to everybody. The history of former attempts to work her is accurately set down in the text of the story. Dixon and his men should be remembered with Decatur, Cushing, Nields, and Hobson.
The torpedo boat was found after the war lying on the bottom of the harbor, about one hundred feet from the wreck of the Housatonic, with her bow pointing toward the sloop of war and with every man of her crew dead at his post,—just as they all expected.
I shall be happy if this novel serves to call renewed attention to this splendid exhibition of American heroism. Had they not fought for a cause which was lost they would still be remembered, as, in any event, they ought to be.
For the rest, here is a love story in which the beautiful Southern girl does not espouse the brave Union soldier, or the beautiful Northern girl the brave Southern soldier. They were all Southern, all true to the South, and they all stayed so except Admiral Vernon, and he does not count.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
Brooklyn, N. Y., February, 1904.
CONTENTS
ChapterPage
Hero versus Gentleman15
She Hates them Both33
A Strife in Magnanimity51
Opportunities Embraced65
What happened in the Strong Room81
An Engine of Destruction103
The Hour and the Man115
Death out of the Deep125
Miserable Pair and Miserable Night141
A Stubborn Proposition157
The Confession that Cleared171
The Culprit is Arrested185
Companions in Misery199
The Woman Explains223
The General's Little Comedy241
ILLUSTRATIONS
"Miss Fanny Glen detested a masterful man"Frontispiece
"'Ah, Sempland, have you told your little tale?'"43
"The door was suddenly flung open"95
"Poor little Fanny Glen ... she had lost on every hand"153
"'You were a traitor to the South!' said General Beauregard, coldly"191
"'Would they shoot me?' she inquired"219
