Blockade Runner (11 page)

“Oh, Leah, I’m so unhappy!”

“Do you think that he loves you?” Leah asked cautiously.

“Yes, he does. I know he does, and that bothers me too.”

“It never bothered you before. You always liked to have men in love with you. You’ve said so to me many times.”

“And it wasn’t right! Love isn’t a game. I’ve been wrong, flirting the way I have. I know I’ve made some young men pretty unhappy. Now it’s my turn. I suppose it’s only right.”

For a long time, Leah sat listening. Belle wanted to talk, and she let her feelings pour out in a way she never had before.

Finally, the Rebel Spy took out her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. “Look at me, crying over a man! Never thought it would come to that.” She got up and left the cabin without saying another word.

“I think she really cares for him,” Leah said aloud. “But she’d be in a lot of trouble if she married him, and I guess he would be too.”

Later that afternoon, Leah was walking the deck as she often did. The deck was swarming with people from Boston.

Jeff soon came up to stand beside her. “Look at that! They’ve all come on board to see the famous Belle Boyd.”

“Oh! I thought they’d come to see the ship.”

“Well, that too. The
Greyhound’s
a pretty famous ship, but it’s mostly Belle they came to see, I guess. She’s very famous.”

Leah turned to him. “I’m worried about her. I pray they don’t send her to prison.”

“You’d better pray that for the captain too. He asked me to pray for him, and I told him …” Jeff’s face fell, and he shuffled his feet slightly “… I told him he’d better ask you to pray for him. That you were pretty good at it.”

“Why, what a nice thing to say, Jeff. It’s not true, of course.”

Jeff looked up. “Yes, it is true. I know it now better than I ever did.”

Leah smiled and started to speak, but he interrupted. “I’m worried about the captain. He really may have to go to prison.”

“I’ve been thinking about him too. He’s such a nice man. I wish we could do something!”

“I think we ought to try,” Jeff said, his face growing stubborn.

“Try what?”

“Try to get him off this ship—help him escape.”

“Why, we’re prisoners ourselves.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think they’re gonna put us in jail.” Then Jeff said cautiously, his eyes glowing, “Let’s go talk to Miss Belle. She’s had lots of experience,
being a spy and all. I bet she can think of some way to get the captain out of here.”

Leah thought for a moment, then nodded. “Well, it can’t hurt to try. Let’s go see her quick—before they take her away.”

Belle Boyd listened to them carefully. “We’ve got to do something,” she agreed. “Let me think about it. Ensign Hardinge told me that we’d be leaving the ship tomorrow. We’ll have to do something quickly.”

And here the fire and zeal that had made her famous all over the land became apparent. Her eyes glowed, and her chin looked determined. “Come along,” she said. “Let’s go find the captain. Something can be done, I am sure.”

“I just don’t think it can be done, Miss Belle.” Captain Bier seemed touched that Jeff and the girls had thoughts of finding a way for him to escape, but he had little confidence that any attempt would work.

“Why, there’s always a way to do things, Captain,” Belle insisted. “Men get out of prison camps all the time.”

“A ship is different, Miss Belle.”

“No, it’s just another kind of prison camp. It can be done.”

“I think we ought to try, Captain,” Jeff spoke up. “It’ll be harder to get out of almost any prison camp than it will be to escape from the
Greyhound.”

Captain Bier scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Well, there’s something in that. Those camps are tough. But I still don’t see how anything can be done.”

Belle leaned forward and said intently, “There’s a little boat on the stern of the ship.”

“Yes, the dory. But getting to it would be the trouble. There will be guards on deck.”

“Not too many, I think,” Belle insisted.

“Nobody’s really expecting you to try to escape,” Leah urged. “You can catch them off guard.”

“Well, let’s see …” Captain Bier began to get interested. “There’s one guard outside the door of this cabin. It’s never left unguarded. You’d have to find a way to get him out of the way.”

Belle smiled, her blue gray eyes gleaming. “I think I have an answer for that, Captain.”

“But—how?”

“He’s a man, isn’t he?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“I’ve gotten men to do things before, Captain.” Belle smiled with confidence. “That part won’t be hard.”

“Well, then the officers will have to be out of the way—away from the stern.”

“We’ll just have to hope they are.” Leah nodded. “They usually stay in the bow, don’t they?”

“Come to think of it, they do.”

Belle thought hard, then said, “Is it hard to get the dory into the water?”

“Well, it takes a little time—and it’s noisy.”

“We’ll have to get it down—maybe John Pollard will help.”

Bier shook his head. “We’d be noticed. We couldn’t do it without someone seeing us.”

“Have some faith, Captain,” Belle urged. “We’ve got to try—even if we don’t succeed. I can put up with anything but quitting!”

Bier’s eyes gleamed with humor and admiration. “I’ll bet you gave your captors a hard time when you
were held in Old Capitol Prison, didn’t you, Miss Belle?”

Belle laughed aloud. “I did! They were glad to be rid of me.”

“What did you do, Miss Belle?” Jeff asked.

“They put me in a room on the second floor. The first day some fool of a Union officer came to force me to take the oath of allegiance. I told him to leave my quarters—and I said it loud enough so that the other prisoners heard. They cheered like anything!”

“Was it very hard—being in prison?”

“Not for me. They fed me well, and the Washington secessionists managed to smuggle all kinds of good food to me. I shared it with the others, of course. The first time Major Doster called on me, I was eating peaches and reading
Harper’s
magazine. I told him that I could stay there if the Yankees could afford to keep me. It made him very angry.”

“What else did you do?” Bier asked.

“Oh, I gave them a concert nearly every night—all good Southern songs, of course. I always sang ‘Maryland, My Maryland,’ and I sang the line ‘I scorn the Northern scum’ at the top of my lungs!”

“Did they try to make you stop?” Leah asked.

“Yes, but I just said, ‘I shan’t do it,’ and sang louder.”

“I don’t see how you got by with it.” Bier shook his head.

“I always took a broom and swept the floor whenever the Yankee guards came in. It made them furious.”

“I’ll bet it did!”

“And I went to church every Sunday—but I went with a Confederate flag sewed on the bosom of my dress. Oh, my, that did insult them!”

“You’re a caution, Belle Boyd,” Bier said. “All right, we’ll try it. Make whatever plans you can—and have John Pollard help you.”

“You be ready to go at any hour.” Belle got up to leave. “We’ll get you out of this yet!”

“Do you really think it’ll work, Belle?” Leah asked as they walked back to their cabins.

Belle smiled, her eyes gleaming. Obviously this was exactly the sort of thing she loved! “We’ll do it, Leah—all we have to do is hold our heads up and show a little spunk!”

C
aptain Almy of the
Connecticut
had reason to be proud of his prize. Not only would he share generously in the proceeds of the captured vessel, but the newspapers would carry the story of his capture of “The Siren of the Shenandoah,” Belle Boyd.

Leaning back in his chair, Captain Almy felt very pleased with himself. He ran over again in his mind the money that would come from the seizure of the
Greyhound
and then began to write his report to Rear Admiral S. P. Lee, Commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron:

After he had finished writing his report, Captain Almy placed it in an envelope. He went to the sailor
on guard outside his cabin door, handed him the letter, and said, “Take this and see that it gets posted.”

“Aye, sir.”

Boston harbor was filled with ships. He looked them over with a critical eye and then pulled a newspaper clipping from his pocket and reread it. It was dated May 20:

Captain Almy was a humorless man and smiled little. However, his lips turned up slightly as he considered again the fame that would come to him as the man who had captured Belle Boyd.

When Ensign Hardinge came by Almy’s cabin late in the morning, he was surprised by the pleasant, almost jovial, aspect of his captain.

Leaning back in his chair, Almy stared at the ensign.

“Do you have any orders, Captain Almy?”

“No, Ensign Hardinge, not for the moment.” The captain stared at the young officer for a moment longer and smiled. “How’s your romance with the Rebel going?”

Ensign Hardinge flushed. He knew that the captain, as well as others on board, had been aware of his feelings for Belle Boyd. He had taken considerable teasing from the men and even from the dour Captain Almy himself.

“It’s not something I’d like to joke about, sir,” he said rather shortly—as shortly as he dared with his captain.

“Now, now, my boy, these things happen! She’s an attractive young lady, and you’re a young man. It’s quite natural, I’m sure.” He studied the ensign. “But impossible, of course. You know what the woman is.”

“I know she’s a very dedicated, beautiful young woman!” Ensign Hardinge declared.

“Dedicated? She’s dedicated, all right! She’s dedicated to overthrowing the government of the United States of America.” His face grew stern, and he said in a voice that raked on the young officer’s nerves, “Put such things out of your mind! You have a fine career ahead of you in the navy.”

Hardinge bit his lip nervously. “I’m sorry you take such a dim view of it, Captain.”

“I think only what everyone would think if you get involved with such a woman. I don’t understand you. Don’t you know what she’s famous for?”

“I beg your pardon, sir?”

“Why, she eats young Union officers like a black widow spider,” Almy said grimly. “She charms them, gets military information from them, and then throws them away. According to the papers, she’s done it dozens of times.”

“That’s not the way this is, sir!”

Almy appeared shocked. “Why, Ensign, you’re not serious about this woman?”

“Yes, sir, I am.”

“But—but that’s
impossible!”

“No, sir, it isn’t impossible.”

“Why, you’d be throwing your career down the drain. Besides,” he said, “chances are she’ll wind up
in the Old Capitol Prison again. The authorities are tired of her antics. You must surely be aware of all of this, aren’t you?”

“If that did happen, sir, it wouldn’t change my feelings.”

Hardinge had not intended to reveal so much to the captain. He had hoped that somehow Belle would be set free and the two of them could continue their lives together. He felt sure by this time that Belle loved him, and the many obstacles to their marriage simply caused him to be all the more determined.

For a long time Almy sat arguing with his young officer. Then, obviously seeing it was an impossible situation, he threw up his hands. “Well, this is the end! I give up, Ensign! I thought you were a young man of sense and judgment, but I can see that I was mistaken. You’re dismissed.”

“Yes, sir.”

As Hardinge walked away, he thought soberly,
Well, there goes my career in the navy. Captain Almy would never give me a good recommendation after this
.

“Belle,” Leah asked, a worried look on her face, “are you still sure this will work?”

Belle Boyd’s eyes gleamed with excitement. She said quickly, “I think it will, but even if it doesn’t, how would we be worse off? Captain Bier won’t have a chance after they take him to a prison. And you know what horrible places they are.”

“That’s true.” Then Leah said, “The guards here aren’t very alert, are they?”

“There hasn’t been much need to be when we were at sea. After all, where could anyone go to out
in the middle of the ocean? Now that we’re on land, though, it’s different.”

“Can he swim?” Leah asked in a worried tone.

“I have no idea,” Belle confessed. “But remember the dory. Somehow we’ll have to use that. If he can just get into it, he can make his escape to shore.

“I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Leah said. It all seemed terribly difficult to her.

“Let’s go talk to Mr. Pollard,” Belle said.

The two girls went at once to Pollard’s cabin. He was surprised to see them, and when they stepped inside he looked at Belle carefully. “You’re excited about something,” he said. “I can tell by the look on your faces. What is it?”

Belle made a face. “I can’t hide my feelings,” she said. “Yes, I am. There’s something we want to do, John.”

“What is it?”

“We’d like to help Captain Bier escape.”

Surprise washed over Mr. Pollard’s face. “So would I, but I don’t see any chance of that.”

“But there is!” Belle insisted. “All we’ve got to do is get him off this ship. Once he gets to shore—he’s a clever man. He can disguise himself, hire a wagon or a horse, and ride out of Boston. It would be a difficult trip, making his way through the lines, but he could do it.”