A Little Traitor to the South

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  _MACMILLAN'S STANDARD LIBRARY_

  "Miss Fanny Glen detested a masterful man."]

  A Little Traitor to the South

  A WAR-TIME COMEDY

  With a

  TRAGIC INTERLUDE

  By

  Cyrus Townsend Brady

  The Illustrations are by A. D. RahnDecorations by C. E. Hooper.

  NEW YORKGROSSET & DUNLAPPUBLISHERS

  Copyright, 1903,By CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.

  Copyright, 1904,By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

  Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1904. ReprintedAugust, 1904; March, September, 1907; April, 1908; April, 1909.

  Norwood PressJ. 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 affectionsreally happened as I have described it. The men who went to their deathbeside 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. Thesenames should be written in letters of gold on the roll of heroes. Nomore gallant exploit was ever performed. The qualities and characteristicsof that death trap, the _David_, were well known to everybody. Thehistory of former attempts to work her is accurately set down in thetext 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 theharbor, about one hundred feet from the wreck of the _Housatonic_,with her bow pointing toward the sloop of war and with every man of hercrew dead at his post,--just as they all expected.

  I shall be happy if this novel serves to call renewed attention to thissplendid exhibition of American heroism. Had they not fought for acause 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 girldoes not espouse the brave Union soldier, or the beautiful Northerngirl the brave Southern soldier. They were all Southern, all true tothe South, and they all stayed so except Admiral Vernon, and he doesnot count.

  CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.

  BROOKLYN, N.Y.,February, 1904.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I. Hero _versus_ Gentleman 15

  II. She Hates them Both 33

  III. A Strife in Magnanimity 51

  IV. Opportunities Embraced 65

  V. What happened in the Strong Room 81

  VI. An Engine of Destruction 103

  VII. The Hour and the Man 115

  VIII. Death out of the Deep 125

  IX. Miserable Pair and Miserable Night 141

  X. A Stubborn Proposition 157

  XI. The Confession that Cleared 171

  XII. The Culprit is Arrested 185

  XIII. Companions in Misery 199

  XIV. The Woman Explains 223

  XV. The General's Little Comedy 241