JACK ON THE LOOKOUT.
The armament of the rebel steamer consisted of two guns, placed on the
main-deck, forward of the boilers. The hull set so low in the water,
that, while the island lay between the steamer and the boats of the
expedition, she was powerless to do them any injury. Those in the first
cutter could see the smoke-stack of the Wizard--which was the name of
the steamer--over the island, while the crew of the latter could not
even determine the position of the boats.
The battle--if the affair could be dignified by such a title--promised
to be nothing but a game of hide-and-seek; for, when the Wizard moved,
the boats dodged round the island, so as to escape her fire. It was
“pull,” and “lie on your oars,” for half an hour. The rebel battery on
shore could not interfere with the game, lest the steamer should suffer
from its fire.
Tom Longstone sat upon the thwart, occasionally indulging in his inward
chuckle, and apparently enjoying the sport as keenly as a live boy
relishes a game of “ball” or “high-spy.” Old Grummet was not at all
satisfied with the position of affairs. He was a brave man, and ready
to fight his gun while there was a plank to stand on; but he was an
inveterate croaker. He was always afraid that the officers had made
some mistake, or that they did not see the whole of the ground. Once
in a while, he was kind enough to suggest the manner in which all
three boats were to be blown up, sunk, or captured. He could see a
hundred ways to get into a bad scrape; but he never troubled himself to
consider how to get out of them.
“S’posin’ another rebel steamer should come down upon us,” growled
Grummet: “where should we be then?”
“I reckon we should be just where we are now,” replied Tom, who was the
only man that ventured to confront the grim sheet-anchor man, as he
doled out his dismal notes of foreboding.
“S’posin’ a company of rebel infantry should show themselves on the
main shore there, not twenty fathoms from where we were just now?”
“We’d have to give ’em a few charges of grape from that ’ere howitzer.”
“There wouldn’t be a man left of us if that should happen, Tom
Longstone; and you knows it.”
“I should like to p’int that ’ere howitzer in among ’em, Grummet.”
“Silence, forward!” said Mr. Granger in a low, stern tone.
Tom’s body shook with his inward chuckle as he thought what an awful
deprivation it would be for Grummet if he had to refrain from grumbling.
“Forward, there!” said the lieutenant. “I want a man who is light and
smart.”
“I sir!” exclaimed Jack, springing up from his position under the lee
of the old quartermaster, and touching his cap.
Half a dozen others, answering to the description, sprang up at the
same time, eager to perform any service which might be required of them.
“Somers, you’ll do,” replied Mr. Granger. “Come aft.”
Jack passed along between the rowers to the stern-sheets, and again
touched his cap to the commander of the expedition.
“Do you see the steamer?” asked Mr. Granger.
“Yes, sir,” replied Jack, glancing at the Wizard’s smoke-stack, which
could still be seen over the little island.
“I will land you on the island; and you must creep on your face up to
the highest part of the ground, and see if you can make out how many
men there are on the steamer. Do you understand me, Somers?”
“I do, sir.”
“Now mind your eye, and don’t let them see you.”
“Ay, ay, sir: I will be very careful.”
“Now go forward, and be ready to jump ashore when the boat touches.”
Jack saluted the lieutenant, and sprang forward to the bow of the
cutter, proud and happy to be selected even for the humble duty to
which he had been ordered.
“Good boy, Jack!” said Tom Longstone, as our sailor-boy passed him on
his way to the bow.
“What may that ’ere mean?” queried Grummet.
“Fight!” replied Tom.
“He’s goin’ to board that steamer, as sure as I’m a Yankee,” added
Grummet, pulling out his cutlass from under the thwart, and passing his
thumb along the edge.
“That’s it: there’s a hole in that millstone, leastwise,” chuckled Tom.
“I s’pose he’d board a frigate if he fell foul of one.”
“No doubt on’t,” laughed Tom.
“Give way,--easy!” said Mr. Granger; and the boat swung in so that Jack
Somers could jump ashore.
“Did you say good-by to the lad afore he went ashore?” continued
Grummet: “’cause that’s the last you’ll see of him.”
Tom Longstone sprang to his feet at these words, and gazed earnestly at
Jack and at all the surroundings on the island.
“Grummet, you’re an old fool!” exclaimed Tom angrily. “You frighten me
more’n a whole frigate’s broadside would. I thought the lad was killed
for sartin.”
“He will be, soon.”
“Avast there! If you don’t stop growling, I’ll heave you overboard.”
“Silence forward!” said Mr. Granger.
The command was obeyed, and the sheet-anchor man’s savage reply was
nipped in the bud. Tom was too much interested in the movements of his
young friend on the island to give any further attention to his unhappy
shipmate in the boat. Jack, as directed, crept on his stomach up the
ascent of the island till his head had reached the highest point, from
which he could look down on the low deck of the Wizard.
Our sailor-boy was a very good scholar for one who had enjoyed only
the privileges of a district school; but it did not require a very
profound knowledge of arithmetic to solve the problem which had been
imposed upon him. The men in the rebel steamer were all gathered upon
the forward-deck; and, according to our mathematician’s estimate, they
numbered about thirty. They would not stand still long enough to be
counted with entire accuracy; but Jack satisfied himself that this was
very nearly her force.
He was about to retire from his position, and report the result of
the examination, when certain movements on board the Wizard decided
him to remain a few moments longer. The steamer had run up close to
the island; and her deck-hands were now in the act of passing the
gang-planks to the shore, evidently with the intention of landing
her men. Jack did not want to see any more; but, retreating from his
position with all haste, he leaped into the boat.
“Well, Somers?” demanded Mr. Granger in sharp, quick tones; for the
speed which the scout had used in his return conveyed the impression
that the whole expedition was in imminent danger.
“They have run the gang-planks ashore, sir; and I suppose they are
going to land.”
“How many men have they?”
“About thirty, sir.”
“Did you count them?”
“As well as I could, sir.”
“Are there a hundred of them?” asked Mr. Granger sharply.
“No, sir: the number won’t vary half a dozen from what I said.”
“Very well, Somers. Are you willing to go up again?”
“I am, sir,” promptly replied Jack.
“Go, then. Are your pistols loaded?”
“Yes, sir.”
“If the boats are in immediate danger, fire your pistol, and make your
way back as fast as you can.”
Jack touched his cap, adjusted his pistol in his belt and sprang
forward to perform the important service intrusted to him.
“Keep your weather-eye wide open, Jack, my darling,” said Tom Longstone
as he passed the old seaman.
“Ay, ay, Tom!” replied the sailor-boy as he sprang to the stem of the
cutter, and leaped ashore again.
He had not been absent more than five minutes from the crest of the
island: but the rebels had been industrious during that short period;
and one of the Wizard’s guns, which was an ordinary field-piece, was
on the gang-planks, ready to be rolled on shore.
Jack Somers was not a brigadier-general, nor was he a proficient
in naval or military tactics; but the plan of the rebels was as
transparent to him as though he had been a graduate of Annapolis or
West Point. The information he had obtained was very important; and
without waiting to make any further observations, he hastened back to
the boat, and reported the operations of the enemy.
He tried to keep cool, and not appear to be excited by the revelation
he made. He thought he had something astounding to tell; and so he had,
perhaps: but, to his intense astonishment, Mr. Granger did not appear
to be alarmed. He did not rattle off any hasty orders such as he had
read in naval romances.
In Jack’s opinion, it was time something was done, but Mr. Granger
seemed to be provokingly indifferent to the importance of the
announcement he had just made to him.
“You have done well, Somers,” said the commander of the expedition;
whereat Jack touched his cap, and would have blushed if he had not
fully expected to see the rebels pitch into them the next minute. “Are
you willing to go again?”
“I am, sir!” replied Jack as readily as before though he was utterly
confounded at the question.
“Go up once more, and see whether they are landing the other gun,
Somers.”
Our hero touched his cap again; for, in spite of the excitement of
the moment, he did not forget his manners, and sprang ashore for the
third time. Cautiously ascending the slope of the little hill, he again
reached his position at its summit. The other gun had not been landed;
the gang-planks had been hauled on board; and a squad of men had been
sent on shore to work the field-piece already on the island. Jack
wanted to know what the Wizard was going to do before he reported this
time; and he determined to wait a moment longer, when this question
would be decided.
The gunners on the island were only a few yards distant from him,
crouching upon the ground; and none of them spoke above a whisper,
lest their movements would be betrayed to the boats on the other side
of the island. Jack thought he was in a very ticklish situation; and,
for his greater personal security, he drew back a few feet, so that no
inquisitive rebel should get the range of his blue cap. As he did so,
he glanced at the navy revolver which he carried in his right hand to
assure himself that it was in readiness to give the required signal if
the occasion demanded it.
The pistol was all right; and, after waiting a moment he heard the
splash of the Wizard’s paddle. Advancing again to the crest of the
hillock, he raised his head to obtain his final glance at the scene of
operations. The steamer was certainly moving off; but a more prominent
object, nearer to him, claimed all his attention at this moment.
Directly in front of him, and not three feet distant, was a pair of
rebel eyes, each of which seemed to be as big as the rebel steamer.
The enemy, knowing and appreciating the value of correct and seasonable
information, had sent a man to the crest of the hill to perform a
service identical with that which had devolved upon our hero. It would
not be of any use to stop and consider which of these scouts was the
most astonished as he gazed into the eager orbs of the other; for the
question presents too many difficulties for a just settlement. Both
of them were astonished, but, fortunately for Jack, he was in a better
state of preparation for the unexpected event than his adversary.
The rebels below were rolling up the field-piece where it could be
brought to bear upon the boats, and Jack considered himself fully
justified in giving the signal for imminent danger; and his pistol
being loaded with patent metallic cartridges, each of which contained
its adjusted allowance of cold lead, he concluded to fire a shotted
salute, as Lieutenant-General Grant has since done on several eminently
proper occasions.
Jack was prompt and decided,--traits of character which he and his
brother Tom inherited in common from three generations of shipmasters.
He saw the pair of rebel eyes glaring upon him the first instant; and
he raised his revolver, and fired the second. The cold lead, before
mentioned, passed between the glowing orbs in front of him, crushing
through the brain of their owner.
The sailor-boy felt a cold tremor creep through his veins as the rebel
gunner convulsively sprang upward, and then dropped dead upon the
ground. His self-possession did not forsake him; and, without stopping
for further developments, he rushed down to the boat with all the speed
he could command.
His face was almost as pale as that of the dead rebel on the hill when
he leaped into the boat. His lip trembled; but it was with an emotion
other than fear. He had slain a human being. He had seen his bullet
enter the brain of a fellow-creature. His first experience of the awful
solemnity of war was too minute in detail to be pleasant, or even
exhilarating.
“Report, Somers, at once!” said Mr. Granger earnestly.
“The steamer is moving off, sir. There are twelve men and one gun on
the island. They are moving up the gun to the top of the hill. I killed
one of the men.”
“Give way!” said Mr. Granger; and the boats moved out from the island.