A bird-like whistle stirred the decks of the _Chancellorville_. It was
followed by the hoarse bellowing of the boatswain's mate. As the cruiser
turned her bow toward the shore, she happened to steam near the _Adolphus_.
The usual calm voice hailed the despatch boat. "Keep--that--gauze
under-shirt of yours--well--out of the--line of fire."
"Ay, ay, sir!"
The cruiser then moved slowly toward the shore, watched by every eye in
the smaller American vessels. She was deliberate and steady, and this
was reasonable even to the impatience of the other craft because the
wooded shore was likely to suddenly develop new factors. Slowly she
swung to starboard; smoke belched over her and the roar of a gun came
along the water.
The battery was indicated by a long thin streak of yellow earth. The
first shot went high, ploughing the chaparral on the hillside. The
_Chancellorville_ wore an air for a moment of being deep in meditation.
She flung another shell, which landed squarely on the earth-work,
making a great dun cloud. Before the smoke had settled, there was a
crimson flash from the battery. To the watchers at sea, it was smaller
than a needle. The shot made a geyser of crystal water, four hundred
yards from the _Chancellorville_.
The cruiser, having made up her mind, suddenly went at the battery,
hammer and tongs. She moved to and fro casually, but the thunder of her
guns was gruff and angry. Sometimes she was quite hidden in her own
smoke, but with exceeding regularity the earth of the battery spurted
into the air. The Spanish shells, for the most part, went high and wide
of the cruiser, jetting the water far away.
Once a Spanish gunner took a festive side-show chance at the waiting
group of the three nondescripts. It went like a flash over the
_Adolphus_, singing a wistful metallic note. Whereupon the _Adolphus_
broke hurriedly for the open sea, and men on the _Holy Moses_ and the
_Chicken_ laughed hoarsely and cruelly. The correspondents had been
standing excitedly on top of the pilot-house, but at the passing of the
shell, they promptly eliminated themselves by dropping with a thud to
the deck below. The cook again was giving tongue. "Oh, say, this won't
do! I'm damned if it will! We ain't no armoured cruiser, you know. If
one of them shells hits us--well, we finish right there. 'Tain't like
as if it was our _business_, foolin' 'round within the range of them
guns. There's no sense in it. Them other fellows don't seem to mind it,
but it's their _business_. If it's your _business_, you go ahead and do
it, but if it ain't, you--look at that, would you!"
The _Chancellorville_ had sent up a spread of flags, and the _Holy
Moses_ and the _Chicken_ were steaming in.
V
They, on the _Chancellorville_, sometimes could see into the bay,
and they perceived the enemy's gunboats moving out as if to give
battle. Surrey feared that this impulse would not endure or that
it was some mere pretence for the edification of the town's people
and the garrison, so he hastily signalled the _Holy Moses_ and the
_Chicken_ to go in. Thankful for small favours, they came on like
charging bantams. The battery had ceased firing. As the two auxiliaries
passed under the stern of the cruiser, the megaphone hailed them.
"You--will--see--the--en--em--y--soon--as--you--round--the--point.
A--fine--chance. Good--luck."
As a matter of fact, the Spanish gunboats had not been informed of the
presence of the _Holy Moses_ and the _Chicken_ off the bar, and they
were just blustering down the bay over the protective shoals to make it
appear that they scorned the _Chancellorville_. But suddenly, from
around the point, there burst into view a steam yacht, closely followed
by a harbour tug. The gunboats took one swift look at this horrible
sight and fled screaming.
Lieutenant Reigate, commanding the _Holy Moses_, had under his feet a
craft that was capable of some speed, although before a solemn
tribunal, one would have to admit that she conscientiously belied
almost everything that the contractors had said of her, originally.
Boatswain Pent, commanding the _Chicken_, was in possession of an
utterly different kind. The _Holy Moses_ was an antelope; the _Chicken_
was a man who could carry a piano on his back. In this race Pent had
the mortification of seeing his vessel outstripped badly.
The entrance of the two American craft had had a curious effect upon
the shores of the bay. Apparently everyone had slept in the assurance
that the _Chancellorville_ could not cross the bar, and that the
_Chancellorville_ was the only hostile ship. Consequently, the
appearance of the _Holy Moses_ and the _Chicken_, created a curious and
complete emotion. Reigate, on the bridge of the _Holy Moses_, laughed
when he heard the bugles shrilling and saw through his glasses the wee
figures of men running hither and thither on the shore. It was the
panic of the china when the bull entered the shop. The whole bay was
bright with sun. Every detail of the shore was plain. From a brown hut
abeam of the _Holy Moses_, some little men ran out waving their arms
and turning their tiny faces to look at the enemy. Directly ahead, some
four miles, appeared the scattered white houses of a town with a wharf,
and some schooners in front of it. The gunboats were making for the
town. There was a stone fort on the hill overshadowing, but Reigate
conjectured that there was no artillery in it.
There was a sense of something intimate and impudent in the minds of
the Americans. It was like climbing over a wall and fighting a man in
his own garden. It was not that they could be in any wise shaken in
their resolve; it was simply that the overwhelmingly Spanish aspect of
things made them feel like gruff intruders. Like many of the emotions
of war-time, this emotion had nothing at all to do with war.
Reigate's only commissioned subordinate called up from the bow gun.
"May I open fire, sir? I think I can fetch that last one."
"Yes." Immediately the six-pounder crashed, and in the air was the
spinning-wire noise of the flying shot. It struck so close to the last
gunboat that it appeared that the spray went aboard. The swift-handed
men at the gun spoke of it. "Gave 'm a bath that time anyhow. First one
they've ever had. Dry 'em off this time, Jim." The young ensign said:
"Steady." And so the _Holy Moses_ raced in, firing, until the whole
town, fort, waterfront, and shipping were as plain as if they had been
done on paper by a mechanical draftsman. The gunboats were trying to
hide in the bosom of the town. One was frantically tying up to the
wharf and the other was anchoring within a hundred yards of the shore.
The Spanish infantry, of course, had dug trenches along the beach, and
suddenly the air over the _Holy Moses_ sung with bullets. The
shore-line thrummed with musketry. Also some antique shells screamed.