OFF MOBILE BAY.
Somers was now entirely relieved from duty. He had delivered up the
prize and handed the prisoners over to the proper officers. On the
following day he went on shore to spend a few hours before the supply
steamer sailed. On visiting the fortress, he received the astonishing
intelligence that Mr. Pillgrim had escaped from the officer having him
in charge, even before he had been placed in the casement appropriated
to his use. Somers had cautioned the lieutenant to whom he had delivered
him, of the danger of removing the irons, but his advice had not been
heeded. The careless officer was now under arrest for his neglect of
duty.
By none was this unfortunate event more deeply regretted than by him who
had been the means of foiling the schemes of the traitor and handing him
over to the custody of the government. Pillgrim had boasted that he
would soon be at liberty. He was certainly a talented and a daring
fellow; and to handle him safely, it was necessary to understand him
thoroughly. Somers had a suspicion that the officer from whom the
wretch escaped was bribed by his prisoner; but of course there could be
no evidence on this interesting point.
A careful search had been made by the garrison of the fort, but without
success. Pillgrim was dressed in the full uniform of a naval lieutenant,
and in this garb his ingenuity would enable him to pass the military
lines, if indeed he was not provided with the means of doing so by the
faithless officer in charge of him. The prisoner had escaped on the
preceding day, and there was now little hope of recapturing him; but
Somers gave such information as he possessed in regard to the fugitive.
Captain Walmsley had been less fortunate, and was still in durance.
The story of the traitor's escape was a very simple one. When the boat
which had conveyed the prisoners from the steamer to the shore reached
the pier, and they had landed, Walmsley began to protest against his
confinement, being a British subject. He insisted upon seeing the
commandant of the fortress; and while everybody was listening to this
debate, Pillgrim slipped into the crowd and disappeared, passing the
sentinels, who had no suspicion that he was a prisoner, without a
challenge. Immediate search was made for him; but he must have taken to
the water, since there was no other place of concealment which was not
examined. A calker's stage was moored to the shore near the pier, and
it was afterwards surmised that he had crawled under this, securing a
position so that his head was out of water, and remained there till
evening.
He was gone, and that was all it was necessary to know. The officer who
had permitted him to escape would be court-martialed and broken, and
that would be the end of it. At noon, as Somers was about to embark on
the supply steamer, a letter was handed to him, which had been brought
in by a contraband. The negro said it had been handed to him by "a
gemman wid de anchors on his shoulders," whom he had met on the road to
Williamsburg, nine miles from the fort.
The epistle was from Pillgrim, as Somers would have known from the
writing, without the contraband's description of the person who had
given it to him. He put it in his pocket, and did not open it till he
had taken possession of his state-room on board the steamer. He was
confident that it contained nothing but threats and abuse, and he felt
but little interest in its contents. The writer, chagrined at the
failure of his plot, was running over with evil thoughts and malicious
purposes. Somers opened the letter and read as follows:--
OLD POINT COMFORT, July 14.
SOMERS: You have been promoted. You remind me of the fable. The goat
went down into the well. The fox sprang upon his horns and leaped out.
You are the fox; you jumped over my head; you went up; you are a master
now. I congratulate you. You are the only man in the world I hate.
The Tallahassee is doing a good business for the South. She has captured
fifty vessels. The Ben Nevis was her sister. You have her. There are
more of the same family. You believe I am used up. No. I write this
letter to inform you that I am not even singed yet, say nothing of being
burned out. I shall be afloat soon. The Ben Lomond, twin sister of the
Ben Nevis and the Tallahassee, will be at work in a fortnight. She will
then be called the Tallapoosa. Look out for her.
The Ben Nevis was captured; my agents bought her again. The Ben Lomond
is now at--you wish you knew where! I shall command her. I could not
resist the temptation to inform you of my plan. I know you will enjoy my
prospects!
You would like to make a little arrangement for the capture of the Ben
Lomond. I wish you might. You will hear of her on the broad ocean in a
few weeks,--capturing, burning, bonding Yankee ships. It will please you
to read the papers then! I shall strike for a California steamer. Her
treasure will make good my losses.
I am so anxious to meet you again that I am tempted to tell you where my
ship is. I would like to meet you on her quarter deck. You are a
remarkably enterprising fellow; perhaps we shall meet. If we do, I
should feel justified in hanging you at the yard-arm. You belong to the
South. You accepted a commission in her navy. You betrayed your trust. I
shall _endeavor_ to see you again.
Give my regards to the officers of the Chatauqua. Inform them of my
present brilliant prospects. Remember me kindly to Kate Portington.
Possibly she may be a little _chilly_ when you see her again.
If you capture the Ben Lomond, otherwise the Tallapoosa, it would make
you a lieutenant. Do it by all means.
PILLGRIM.
Somers read this singular letter three times before he could form an
opinion whether or not its statements were mere idle boasts, and whether
or not they had a foundation of truth. Was there any such vessel in
existence as the Ben Lomond? This was the interesting and important
question to him. At this time the Tallahassee was making fearful ravages
among the shipping on the coast, and the success and impunity with which
she carried on her depredations offered plenty of encouragement for the
rebels to send forth similar vessels, if they could obtain them.
The Ben Nevis had been named after a mountain in Scotland; Ben Lomond
was the name of another. The former was a Clyde-built vessel, and it
would have been natural to give these twin names to twin steamers.
Pillgrim, in the character of "Coles," had given him a certain amount
of correct information in respect to the Ben Nevis, though he had
deceived him in regard to her destination. He had obtained this
knowledge by accident, and the Ben Nevis had been captured.
To Somers there appeared to be a strong probability that the statements
contained in the letter were wholly or partially true. There were only
two rebel ports into which it was possible for the Ben Lomond to have
run--Mobile and Wilmington. The conspirators had told him that the Ben
Nevis was bound to Mobile when she was actually going to Wilmington.
Pillgrim, in his letter, declared that he was to command the Tallapoosa.
If there was any plan at all, of course it had been laid before the
Chatauqua sailed from Philadelphia.
Why did Pillgrim start for Mobile in the Chatauqua? Was it not possible
that he intended, as second lieutenant of a national ship, to obtain the
means of getting the Ben Lomond, or Tallapoosa, through the blockading
fleet? Did he not endeavor to involve the fourth lieutenant in the
meshes of the conspiracy for the purpose of obtaining his assistance in
this work? It was plausible. Perhaps the recreant wretch had left some
papers in his state-room on board the Chatauqua, which would be
intelligible in the light which he could bring to bear upon them.
Bewildered and astonished by the prospect before him, as he read the
letter again and again, and considered its remarkable statements in
connection with his previous knowledge, Somers spent the whole afternoon
in his state-room, and was only aroused from his meditations by the
supper bell. In the evening he resumed his study of the case, and tried
to reconcile the theory he had framed with reason and common sense.
There was nothing to conflict with this theory but the fact that
Pillgrim himself had given him the information upon which it was based.
The traitor would not intentionally betray himself. Perhaps he did not
expect his statements would be credited; or if he did, he had twice
before been equally reckless.
Then Somers attempted to analyze the mental constitution of Pillgrim.
The conspirator seemed to be able to endure all misfortunes. The loss of
the Ben Nevis had not affected him, and he had endangered, defeated his
plan to recapture her by indulging in idle threats before the match was
applied. He had been more desirous of mortifying, humiliating, and
overwhelming Somers, than of recovering his lost steamer. With great
talents for scheming and plotting, he had displayed the most amazing
stupidity.
At this point the remark to the letter that Kate Portington would be
_chilly_ when he saw her again, came up for consideration. Pillgrim
certainly had some purpose in view which was equal to, or greater than,
his desire to serve the South, or even himself, in a pecuniary point of
view. He was the friend of the commodore--had known the family before
the war. Somers could not help believing that, in spite of his
thirty-five years, he was an aspirant for the hand of Kate, and that the
bond he had signed was for her use rather than his own.
Miss Portington might well be _chilly_, if she discovered that Somers
had pledged a part of her fortune at the present stage of proceedings!
Somers was nervous and uneasy until he had reasoned and coaxed himself
into a full belief in the theory which he had suggested. He could not
wait for evidence, if, indeed, any could be obtained. For the present he
was satisfied, and determined to proceed upon his hypothesis, just as
though every point in the argument had been fully substantiated.
Our young officer was never idle when it was possible to work. If any of
our readers believe that Somers was very "smart," very skilful, and very
fortunate in his previous career, we beg to remind them, and to impress
it upon their minds in the most forcible manner, that he owed more to
his industry and perseverance than to the accidents of natural ability
and favorable circumstances combined. For example, when he captured the
Ben Nevis, instead of gaping idly about the deck, and thinking what a
great man he was, he went into the hold, and made a careful examination
of the steamer's cargo. The knowledge thus gained had prevented him from
abandoning the vessel when she was believed to be on fire, and thus
saved the prize and confounded the conspirators.
Somers was not idle now. He procured "Blunt's Coast Pilot," and "A Chart
of the North Coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from St. Mark's to Galveston,"
of the captain of the steamer, and diligently studied up, and even
committed to memory, the bearings, distances, and depths of water in
Mobile Bay and vicinity. He carefully trained his mind on these matters
so important to a seaman; and being blessed with a retentive memory, he
hoped and expected to have this knowledge at command when it should be
serviceable. It was hard study--the hardest and dryest kind of study;
but he stuck to it as though it had been a bewitching novel.
To assist his design he drew maps and charts of the coast from memory,
and was not satisfied till he could make a perfect diagram of the coast,
shoals, islands, and bars, mark the prominent objects to be sighted from
a vessel, and lay down the depth of water. He had nothing else to do on
the passage; and as the steamer glided swiftly over the summer sea, he
found it a more agreeable occupation than smoking, playing cards, and
"spinning yarns," which were the employments of his fellow-passengers.
On the eighth day from Fortress Monroe the supply steamer reached the
blockading fleet off Mobile Bay, and Somers was warmly welcomed by his
brother officers. Of course he had a long story to tell, which was
listened to with interest. The escape of the late second lieutenant was
received with becoming indignation. Somers was now the third lieutenant
of the Chatauqua, and he moved into the state-room formerly occupied by
Mr. Garboard, who had also advanced one grade in his relative rank.
"Somers, you are just in time for a big thing," said Mr. Hackleford.
"Our Brave Old Salt is going to take us up Mobile Bay in a few days."
"Indeed?"
"Yes, the Old Salamander has issued his orders."
"God bless him!" ejaculated Somers, fervently, in much the same spirit
that a loyal subject speaks of a popular monarch.
"Ay, God bless him!" replied the first lieutenant. "He is the ablest
naval commander the world has yet produced. In my opinion he is the
superior of Nelson, Collingwood, Decatur, Porter, Preble, and Hull. By
the way, Mr. Somers, you were with him on the Mississippi?"
"Yes, sir; I was in the Harrisburg when the fleet passed Forts Jackson
and St. Philip. But I am rather sorry the attack is to take place so
soon."
"Why so?"
Then Somers showed him Pillgrim's letter; but as we intend to tell only
what was done, not what was said, we will not record the conversation.