There were already a couple of score of passengers aboard, some of
whom had expended their last money in securing a passage, but the
captain lay off the Blackwater until five in the afternoon, picking up
passengers until the seated decks were even dangerously crowded.  He
would probably have remained longer had it not been for the sound of
guns that began about that hour in the south.  As if in answer, the
ironclad seaward fired a small gun and hoisted a string of flags.  A
jet of smoke sprang out of her funnels.