THE BATTLE FOUGHT, THE VICTORY WON
Whatever doubts Louis had in the first instance about Captain Scott's
management of the defence of the Maud, he now believed that he honestly
and sincerely desired to escape from the difficult and trying situation
without an encounter with the pirate. He had feared the temptation to
make a hero of himself would lead him into a conflict with the enemy
when it might be avoided.
Without "showing the white feather," he had conducted himself with quite
as much prudence as resolution. He had done his best to escape from the
bay without any fighting. Before his reformation he was generally
"spoiling for a fight" when there was any dispute or difficulty; but on
the present occasion he had done his best to avoid one.
He had tried to do just as he believed Louis, his model in morals and
conduct, would have done if he had been in command of the Maud. The
hearty approval which his mentor had expressed of all he had done so far
afforded him intense satisfaction, and he was sure that Captain Ringgold
could find no fault with his management up to this moment.
"Here we are, Louis; and, so far as my plan is concerned, we are
euchred. It is a failure," said Captain Scott, as he took a survey of
the surroundings, which remained precisely the same as they had been
from the beginning.
"Through no fault of the plan or yourself, Captain. If there was no
channel here to deep water, of course you could not pass through it,"
replied Louis. "You have done everything you could."
"I have been asking myself if I was to blame for getting into the trap;
for we certainly are in a trap," continued Scott. "I followed the
instructions of Captain Ringgold to the letter; and when I brought the
Maud to her anchorage by the ledge, the pirate was not in sight, and I
knew no more of what had become of him than I did in regard to the
Guardian-Mother."
"You have no occasion to censure yourself for anything," replied Louis.
"You have obeyed your orders, and our present difficult situation is the
result of the non-appearance of the ship. Don't blame yourself, Captain
Scott, for not a shadow of an imputation can rest upon your conduct."
"Thank you, my dear fellow. I hope I shall get out of this bay without
forfeiting your generous approval," added Scott.
"Here we are, Captain, as you say, and it looks as though we were in a
bad scrape. All we have to do is to turn our attention to the manner of
getting out of it. If there were any reason to reproach yourself or
anybody else, we have no time to attend to that matter. What can be
done next?" demanded Louis, rousing his energies to face the difficulty.
"What we do next depends mainly upon what the Fatimé does; and she isn't
doing anything," replied Captain Scott, apparently roused to new
exertion by the burst of energy on the part of his companion in the
pilot-house. "I have no doubt Mazagan intends to make an effort to get
possession of our millionaire as soon as he has the opportunity; but he
will never succeed unless he knocks the Maud all to pieces with his
twelve-pounders, which I don't believe he can do, Louis. You have
comforted me so effectually, my dear fellow, that I begin to think it is
time for me to do something of the same sort for you."
"I don't feel the need of comfort and consolation yet," said Louis quite
merrily. "I am not at all alarmed; and what I say is not braggadocio."
"If the Maud is wrecked by the guns and sent to the bottom, we still
have the whole island of Cyprus open to us," added the captain.
"To come down to the hard pan of business, allow me to ask a foolish
question or two, and you may laugh at them if you please. What is the
Fatimé waiting for? Why doesn't Mazagan proceed to carry out his threat
to capture me?" asked Louis.
"For the simple reason that he cannot; and the question calls for a
review of the situation," replied the captain, as he took from his
pocket a paper on which he had drawn a diagram of the position of both
vessels, with the shape of the bay, the ledge, and the soundings so far
as they were known. "Here is the Maud," he continued, making a small
cross on the paper at the point in the inside channel where she had come
to the shoal water. "There is no way to get out of this place except
that by which we came in."
"I understand all that; for we have the shore on one side of us and the
ledge on the other, and the channel is not deep enough to permit us to
go ahead," added Louis.
"That is our position. The Fatimé lies in deep water at least a mile
from us. She is a steamer of four hundred tons, and she must draw at
least fifteen feet of water; for both of these steamers were built where
they put them down deeper in the water than they do in our country. The
pirate would take the ground anywhere near the ledge, and she could not
come into the channel by which we reached this point. Therefore, she can
do nothing; and her guns would not hit us a mile distant, if they would
carry a ball as far as that. You can see why she can do nothing yet a
while."
"But the tide is rising, and we now have an hour of the flood,"
suggested Louis.
"But the tide is rising for the Fatimé as well as for the Maud."
"There was nine feet of water on the ledge at low tide, and there will
be twelve feet at high tide."
"That will not be till nine o'clock this evening. But even if it were
now I should not dare to undertake the task of piloting the Maud over
the ledge; for I know nothing about the soundings on it except on the
south edge. That would not do. We must get to deep water by the way we
came in here," said the captain very decidedly.
"A shot from the pirate!" shouted Felix at this moment, as he noted the
flash.
A moment later the report came to the ears of all on board, and the
gun-made noise enough to startle a timid person. All watched for the
ball, and saw it strike the water about half way between the two
vessels.
"Bully for you, Mazagan!" exclaimed Felix. "You fired at the water, and
you hit it."
"He is only trying his gun, and he will do better than that after he
gets his hand in," said the captain. "The piece was depressed too much
to prove what it would do if properly aimed."
"They are getting up the anchor!" shouted Felix a couple of minutes
later, after he had brought his spy-glass to bear upon the pirate.
"She is evidently going to do something," said the captain, who had
taken his usual place at the wheel, while Louis was on the other side of
it, where both had remained after the steamer stopped.
"What do you suppose Mazagan intends to do now?" asked Louis.
"I have not the remotest idea, except that, in a general way, he will
try to keep us shut up in this channel. For that reason I do not
propose to remain here any longer;" and he rang the gong to go ahead.
The tide must have risen six or eight inches by this time, increasing
the depth in the channel to that extent. Scott had taken the bearings
very carefully when he came in, and he soon rang the speed bell. The
Maud proceeded at full speed till she came to the turn in the passage,
where the captain rang to stop her, in order to take an observation.
The Fatimé had not yet got under way, and she appeared to be having some
difficulty with her cable or anchor. As soon as the Maud had lost her
headway the port gun belched out another flash and cloud of smoke. The
Maud was at about the same distance from the pirate as when the latter
fired before, and Scott watched with interest for the result of the
discharge. The solid shot plumped into the water half a mile from the
mark, just as though it had been dropped from some point overhead.
"I don't know much of anything about gunnery, except with four-pounders
on a yacht; but that last gun was elevated so that we know about the
range of her pieces," said the captain. "It is less than half a mile,
and her shots would not do much damage at more than half that distance."
"She has weighed her anchor, and started her screw," reported Felix, who
was still watching the enemy with the glass.
Scott rang the gong, and the Maud went ahead again. At the same time he
directed Felipe to be ready to give the steamer her best speed.
"Another shot!" shouted Felix.
This one was discharged from her starboard gun, as she came about; but
its range fell considerably short of that of the other piece. The Maud
was still in the channel, and the ledge could be seen through the clear
water on the port hand; what the soundings were on the starboard hand
had not yet been demonstrated. The steamer was moving at her ordinary
speed. The Fatimé had turned her head to the south; and, though she was
still nearly a mile distant, her engine gong could be heard when it rang
for the vessel to go ahead.
The pirate soon changed her course, with the apparent intention of
"cutting across lots," in order to reach the Maud. A hand was heaving
the lead, indicating that Mazagan was not sure of his soundings. She
went ahead on the new course not more than the eighth of a mile before
she came about, showing that the depth of water was not satisfactory to
her commander.
"If the tide were not rising, I should know better what to do; for we
might go back to the angle in the channel, out of the reach of the guns,
and remain there till the morning tide, and then work out into deep
water," said Captain Scott, after he had observed the movements of the
enemy for a couple of minutes. "But with two feet more water, the Fatimé
can go at least up to the verge of the ledge, and that plan would not
work anyhow."
"Another gun!" cried Felix, as he caught the flash.
The enemy was a little nearer than before, but the shot fell hardly less
than half a mile from the Maud. Mazagan had "swung to" in order to fire
this shot, but resumed his course at once. Scott desired to gain some
time by leaving the channel, and heading to the south-east. Morris was
sounding with his boathook, and reported only thirteen feet when the
Maud began to move in that direction.
"Twelve feet and a half!" shouted the first officer a little later.
"This won't do," said Scott, shaking his head. "The water shoals to the
southward, and all we can do is to face the music."
"What do you mean by that, Captain?" asked Louis.
Scott made a couple of crosses on his diagram, and passed it to his
companion.
"The cross on your left is our present position near the outlet of the
channel," the captain explained. "On the port we have the ledge, and we
can't run over that. On the starboard the water is too shoal for us. We
can go neither to the right nor the left."
"Therefore you must run dead ahead."
"Precisely so, or right into the guns of the enemy."
"Couldn't you retreat up the channel again?" asked Louis; and it began
to look to him as though "the end of all things had come;" and it even
appeared possible that he might be captured, after all.
"Heave the lead, Flix!" called the captain, without answering the
question.
"And a half two!" reported the Milesian.
"That means fifteen feet," said the captain. "The Fatimé could come into
this position now, or at least within an hour. After we had run as far
as we could go up the channel, we should hardly be more than four
hundred and fifty feet from her, and she could batter the Maud to pieces
at her leisure. We must face the music. That is our only safety, if
there is any safety anywhere."
"I am with you, Captain Scott. But we are taking all the shot, and
giving none. I am not a nonresistant in such a situation as this," said
Louis. "We can't run away, and we must fight!"
"I am glad the suggestion comes from you, Louis," replied Scott.
"Morris, bring out your company of riflemen! You will act as
sharpshooters, and pay particular attention to the bridge and
pilot-house of the enemy."
"Ay, ay, Captain!" returned Woolridge.
Louis left the pilot-house to join the ranks. Don came up from the
fire-room, and Morris led his force to the hurricane deck, which
commanded the best view of the enemy. By this time the Fatimé was within
the eighth of a mile of the Maud. Her engineer was forcing her to her
best speed; but she was coming head on, and could not use her broadside
guns without swinging to, which Mazagan seemed to be unwilling to do, as
it caused considerable delay every time it was done.
She was coming in ahead of the Maud, and her starboard gun would soon be
available at a distance of not more than twenty yards. The work of the
riflemen on the upper deck was evidently having its effect, and one man
had been seen to fall on the bridge of the pirate.
Suddenly the helm of the Fatimé was put to starboard, and the steamer
presented her broadside to the Maud. The gun was discharged then, and
the shot struck the house on deck of the little steamer, tearing its way
through the galley. Scott, perhaps maddened by the crashing boards
behind him, put the helm to port. Felipe was driving the engine to its
full power, and the bow of the Maud struck the broadside of the Fatimé,
crushing in about six feet of her plates. Then he rang to back her, and
the little steamer went clear of the disabled pirate.