"BLOOD'S THICKER THAN WATER!"
"Ay!" replied Mr Gilham, who was equally impatient to go to the rescue
of our poor comrades, and, if not able to help them, to fall beside
them, the lieutenant speaking in a hoarse tone, with his face of that
pattern which shows a desperate purpose, and biting his lip so that the
blood came, to keep in his repressed feeling. "But, not before the
word's given for us to go forward. I wish to God this would come!"
It was terrible work for us, lying sheltered there under the lee of the
junk to which we were moored, looking on inactive, listening to the
whistle of the round shot hurtling in the air and hearing the heavy thud
of the missiles as they crashed through the sides of the gunboats; for
we pictured the devastation these missiles wrought inboard, with the
shrieks of the wounded, the groans of the dying, and the hapless bodies
of the dead strewing the decks.
It was more terrible far to us than for those participating in the grim
tragedy with all its attendant horrors.
They were fighting and oblivious of everything save a mad longing to
kill and slay; while we were doing--nothing!
Every one of us in the launch of the _Candahar_ felt that; and yet, what
could we do?
A limit, however, came at length to our endurance.
The _Plover_ and _Opossum_, which had dropped out of the first line,
drifted down nearer to us; and then, the captain in command of the
reserve called for volunteers to re-man those staunch little vessels
that had borne all the burden and heat of the battle so far, but were
staunch, practically speaking, no longer, being almost floating wrecks,
and their crews either wounded or dead.
No second call was needed, the men being all alert in an instant, the
boats' crews vieing with each other as to which should supply the fresh
hands required for the gunboats; although these would be going, as they
well knew, into the very jaws of death.
Fortunately the launch was the nearest.
"Give way, men!" cried Mr Gilham, waving his sword over his head in a
perfect delirium of joy at being at last no longer a mere spectator of
the exciting scene. "Now, we have a chance, lads; pull like devils lest
it be taken from us!"
But, the lieutenant might have spared his breath, for the men's blood
was up; and, with a bound, the heavily-laden launch dashed forwards as
if she were a racing galley, distancing all her competitors, and being
alongside the leading gunboat before the rest had got half=way up, our
start giving us an advantage, which even their lesser weight could not
lessen.
In less than a minute, the lot of us scrambled on board the _Opossum_,
bluejackets, marines, gunners and all.
We found the engineer and one solitary uninjured stoker below, the
others having all been killed by a bursting shell.
These men, however, were still sticking manfully to their posts in the
engine-room, notwithstanding that they must have been longing all the
while to scuttle up on deck and "have a shy" at the treacherous beggars
who had caught us in such a villainous trap; and at once piling on
steam, the gunboat in which we were in, followed by the _Plover_,
hurried up to the front again to relieve the _Lee_ and _Haughty_ which
were now standing the brunt of the fire from the enemy's batteries, and
looked decidedly as if they were getting the worst of it.
The _Lee_, indeed, had a hole knocked in her bows which a wheelbarrow
could have been trundled into; while her consort had been hulled
repeatedly below the water, and, being close in under the guns, these,
as the tide fell, plunged their shot right through her bottom planking.
"Hot work, ain't it, youngster?" observed Mr Stormcock to me,
presently, when we came under fire and I had the pleasant sensation of a
jinghal ball passing close to my ear, cutting a bit out the collar of my
jacket and making me wince, though I can honestly say I was not
frightened at this, my first experience of being really in action.
"Keep moving about and there'll be less chance of your being picked off.
A lively man who does his work without thinking of the shot, seldom
gets touched. So I found it two years ago, at all events, when I was in
the thick of it at Canton!"
"That's thrue, sor," put in Corporal Macan, who had lately regained his
stripes after a long spell of good behaviour that atoned for his debauch
at the Cape which lost him his rank; the Irishman now being engaged in
serving the bow gun of the gunboat with the utmost deliberation, taking
steady aim with each shot which he pitched into the cavalier of the
nearest battery and knocking the gun into "smithereens" at his third
attempt, though, for every weapon of the enemy which we silenced they
seemed to bring a hundred others to bear on us. "Jist kape hopping
about an' faith ye'll niver be hit, sure. Och, murther, what's that
now?"
As he jerked out the sudden exclamation, he certainly acted up to his
advice; for, he gave a hop that took him some ten feet in the air ere he
fell down on the deck, all covered with blood.
"Poor Macan!" said Mr Stormcock, bending over his prostrate form, and
trying to lift him in vain. "Well, he's done for at last, I'm afraid.
We could have better spared a better man, perhaps!"
"He's dead, sir, sure enough," corroborated one of the marines who had
been assisting to work the big bow gun, the carriage of which had been
smashed, on one side by a heavy chain shot, which must, we all thought,
have settled the corporal at the same time. "He'll never eat plum duff
again, poor chap. He was a good one over his vittles, too, was the
corporal, and likewise at his drink!"
"Faix, ye lie, ye divil," cried the seemingly lifeless man, reviving at
this moment and struggling to his feet. "I'm not d'id at all, at all!
D'ye think now I'm going to be kilt--by a Haythin Chaynee? Begorrah,
whin I am kilt, may the saints in h'iven presairve me from it yit!--I
hopes as how it'll be by a Roosian, or a Proosian, or a dacint Christian
man of some sort or t'other, an' not, faix, by one of thim yaller-faced
Johnnies over yander!"
We all laughed at this, it being quite a relief to find our old friend
the corporal had not yet lost "the number of his mess," as he was the
life and soul of the ship on the lower deck, drunk or sober!
He had, however, a narrow squeak of it; for a splinter had jogged his
leg from the ankle to the knee, while the bollard on which he had been
standing had been shot away under his feet.
This caused that wonderful jump of his which had surprised me so much,
himself all the more, too, the heavy fall he had on the deck afterwards
having knocked him senseless for the time and, indeed, bruised him very
considerably.
Macan, though, had all an Irishman's pluck, and would not give in.
"Sure, sor, it's ownly a thrifle," he urged, when told by Mr Stormcock
to go below to Mr McGilpin, who was busy in the after-cabin, attending
to those of the wounded that the Chinese gunners, who aimed remarkably
well, had not put altogether beyond the reach of surgical aid. "I
wudn't throuble the docthor wid it; an' faix, I want to pay thim Chaynee
images fur smashin' me crockery! Bedad, an' I will, too, for I've got
my hands left all right an' a straight oye, an', I'll have a slap at 'em
ag'in, sure, by your leve, sor!"
"Carry on!" cried Mr Stormcock, who had been assisting to wedge up the
gun so that it could be still fired, only the carriage having been
injured by the shot. "Make as good practice as you did before, Macan;
and, then you'll soon be revenged on some of those beggars!"
"I will that, sor," replied the corporal, bending down to the rear right
of the sixty-four pounder, which had been slewed round in the direction
of the battery abreast us, and taking careful aim. "A ha'porth more
illivation, Number 2. Well--muzzle left! Well--fire!"
Bang it went off, making the dirt fly from the embrasure opposite, while
a cloud of smoke rose up, as if a magazine had been exploded; and so we
continued, hammer and tongs, the atmosphere all sulphur and gunpowder,
the deck slippery with gore, our ears deafened with the ceaseless
discharges of the guns, till it really seemed "as if Hell had broken
loose!" as Mr Stormcock said.
It was the last sentence the master's mate ever uttered; for a bullet
penetrated his brain the next instant, and he dropped down beside me
stone dead, almost as soon as the words escaped his lips.
I hardly knew what occurred after that, I was so saddened by the loss of
Mr Stormcock, whom I had always found a very good friend to me, for he
had taught me a good deal; and, notwithstanding that I had not taken to
him at first, I had since learnt to have a most sincere regard for him,
while he on his part, though so much older than myself, liked me, I
believe, for he appeared fond of being in my company.
His death, however, only added one more to the long list of those who
had already fallen; while every moment some fresh casualty occurred.
The enemy's fire got hotter as the afternoon wore on and the fight
proceeded, until everyone felt the task the admiral had attempted, with
his comparatively weak force, in attacking such formidable defences, was
doomed to failure; although not a single man thought of abandoning the
struggle or confessing, as was the case, that we were "licked!"
But, it could not be much further prolonged; for, at six o'clock, the
_Kestrel_ had been sunk, fighting her guns to the last, the _Lee_
obliged to run on the mud to prevent her meeting a like fate; while the
_Plover_ and _Opossum_, which were still in the van, had been pretty
well knocked out of shape.
The _Cormorant_ was ahead of us all, with the sorely wounded admiral
lying bleeding in his cot on her deck, our gallant chief persisting in
watching the battle to its bitter end, in spite of being compelled from
absolute exhaustion to give up the immediate command of the squadron to
his senior officer, Captain Shadwell; though it was as much as the
gunboat could do to keep her prominent position, in face of the terrible
fire on her front and flanks.
To retreat, however, was impossible then, as there was not water enough
in the river for the vessels that still floated to recross the bar
before midnight; besides which, if they attempted to move off while
daylight lasted, they would be exposed to the risk of greater loss from
the terrible fire from the batteries which was certain to be hailed on
them.
Under the desperate circumstances of the case, therefore, it was
determined by the senior officer, who acted in concert with the other
captains present, that a bold stroke should be attempted to save the
honour of the day, which was to try and carry the forts by assault--a
"forlorn hope" in every sense of the word!
No sooner was this desperate expedient resolved on than it was gallantly
set about, the boats filled with the marines and small-arms men, who yet
remained below the barrier at the river mouth being brought to the
front--an operation in which we were generously aided by Commodore
Tatnall, of the United States steam frigate the _Toeywan_, which had
been lying off the Peiho for some time, out of the line of fire.
"Great Scott!" cried this noble-hearted American to his officers as he
saw our poor fellows pulling up the heavily-laden launches and cutters
against stream, under the withering fire of the batteries, with a sort
of dogged resolution, determined to do or die, giving the boats a
friendly tow to the nearest point of land and approaching as close as he
could to the low, muddy shore on which the rising tide was beginning now
to flow again, regardless of any ill consequences to himself or his
ship; albeit he was supposed to be a neutral, the Government of the
United States not having taken sides with us in the war. "Blood's
thicker than water, boys! Let us lend them a hand. Thunder, they are
brother sailors and white men like ourselves!"