"Ed!" said the captain.
"Yessir!"
"Tell the chief there is no hurry."
Shackles suddenly bethought him of his companions. He dashed to them
and was full of quick scorn of their gloomy faces. "Hi, brace up there!
Are you blind? Can't you see her?"
"See what?"
"Why, the _Chancellorville_, you blind mice!" roared Shackles. "See
'er? See 'er? See 'er?"
The others sprang, saw, and collapsed. Shackles was a madman for the
purpose of distributing the news. "Cook!" he shrieked. "Don't you see
'er, cook? Good Gawd, man, don't you see 'er?" He ran to the lower deck
and howled his information everywhere. Suddenly the whole ship smiled.
Men clapped each other on the shoulder and joyously shouted. The
captain thrust his head from the pilot-house to look back at the
Spanish ships. Then he looked at the American cruiser. "Now, we'll
see," he said grimly and vindictively to the mate. "Guess somebody else
will do some running," the mate chuckled.
The two gunboats were still headed hard for the _Adolphus_ and she
kept on her way. The American cruiser was coming swiftly. "It's the
_Chancellorville_!" cried Shackles. "I know her! We'll see a fight
at sea, my boys! A fight at sea!" The enthusiastic correspondents
pranced in Indian revels.
The _Chancellorville_--2000 tons--18.6 knots--10 five-inch guns--came
on tempestuously, sheering the water high with her sharp bow. From her
funnels the smoke raced away in driven sheets. She loomed with
extraordinary rapidity like a ship bulging and growing out of the sea.
She swept by the _Adolphus_ so close that one could have thrown a
walnut on board. She was a glistening grey apparition with a blood-red
water-line, with brown gun-muzzles and white-clothed motionless
jack-tars; and in her rush she was silent, deadly silent. Probably
there entered the mind of every man on board the _Adolphus_ a feeling
of almost idolatry for this living thing, stern but, to their thought,
incomparably beautiful. They would have cheered but that each man
seemed to feel that a cheer would be too puny a tribute.
It was at first as if she did not see the _Adolphus_. She was going to
pass without heeding this little vagabond of the high-seas. But
suddenly a megaphone gaped over the rail of her bridge and a voice was
heard measuredly, calmly intoning. "Hello--there! Keep--well--to--
the--north'ard--and--out of my--way--and I'll--go--in--and--see--
what--those--people--want----" Then nothing was heard but the swirl of
water. In a moment the _Adolphus_ was looking at a high grey stern. On
the quarter-deck, sailors were poised about the breach of the
after-pivot-gun.
The correspondents were revelling. "Captain," yelled Shackles, "we
can't miss this! We must see it!" But the skipper had already flung
over the wheel. "Sure," he answered almost at once. "We can't miss it."
The cook was arrogantly, grossly triumphant. His voice rang along the
deck. "There, now! How will the Spinachers like that? Now, it's our
turn! We've been doin' the runnin' away but now we'll do the chasin'!"
Apparently feeling some twinge of nerves from the former strain, he
suddenly demanded: "Say, who's got any whisky? I'm near dead for a
drink."
When the _Adolphus_ came about, she laid her course for a position to
the northward of a coming battle, but the situation suddenly became
complicated. When the Spanish ships discovered the identity of the ship
that was steaming toward them, they did not hesitate over their plan of
action. With one accord they turned and ran for port. Laughter arose
from the _Adolphus_. The captain broke his orders, and, instead of
keeping to the northward, he headed in the wake of the impetuous
_Chancellorville_. The correspondents crowded on the bow.
The Spaniards when their broadsides became visible were seen to be
ships of no importance, mere little gunboats for work in the shallows
back of the reefs, and it was certainly discreet to refuse encounter
with the five-inch guns of the _Chancellorville_. But the joyful
_Adolphus_ took no account of this discretion. The pursuit of the
Spaniards had been so ferocious that the quick change to heels-overhead
flight filled that corner of the mind which is devoted to the spirit of
revenge. It was this that moved Shackles to yell taunts futilely at the
far-away ships. "Well, how do you like it, eh? How do you like it?" The
_Adolphus_ was drinking compensation for her previous agony.
The mountains of the shore now shadowed high into the sky and the
square white houses of a town could be seen near a vague cleft which
seemed to mark the entrance to a port. The gunboats were now near to
it.
Suddenly white smoke streamed from the bow of the _Chancellorville_ and
developed swiftly into a great bulb which drifted in fragments down the
wind. Presently the deep-throated boom of the gun came to the ears on
board the _Adolphus_. The shot kicked up a high jet of water into the
air astern of the last gunboat. The black smoke from the funnels of the
cruiser made her look like a collier on fire, and in her desperation
she tried many more long shots, but presently the _Adolphus_, murmuring
disappointment, saw the _Chancellorville_ sheer from the chase.
In time they came up with her and she was an indignant ship. Gloom
and wrath was on the forecastle and wrath and gloom was on the
quarter-deck. A sad voice from the bridge said: "Just missed 'em."
Shackles gained permission to board the cruiser, and in the cabin, he
talked to Lieutenant-Commander Surrey, tall, bald-headed and angry.
"Shoals," said the captain of the _Chancellorville_. "I can't go any
nearer and those gunboats could steam along a stone sidewalk if only it
was wet." Then his bright eyes became brighter. "I tell you what! The
_Chicken_, the _Holy Moses_ and the _Mongolian_ are on station off
Nuevitas. If you will do me a favour--why, to-morrow I will give those
people a game!"