THE BATTLE ALONGSIDE THE BELLEVITE
The signal lights at the bend of the river had burned out, and nothing
could be seen in that direction. The turn of the tide had carried the
wreck of the Vampire, if she was a wreck, down the stream, and beyond
what the steward had reported, nothing was known in regard to her. Mr.
Watts possessed himself of the single fact that her walking-beam had
been carried away by the shot, and he had not waited to ascertain
anything more. She was disabled, and he had been instructed to hasten up
the river as soon as he had assured himself of this fact, and made the
signal.
As the extent of the calamity to the enemy was unknown, the young
commander began to have some painful doubts in regard to the immediate
future. He had given the order to slip the cable, and he could hear the
rattle of the chain as it passed out through the hawse-hole. It was
evident enough to him that he had to run the gantlet of the party on
board of the Vampire in descending the river. As the shot had hit the
walking-beam of the steamer, it was not probable that she was seriously
injured in her hull, if at all.
Some of the enemy had doubtless been hurt by the fall of the pieces of
machinery, but Christy could not believe that the conspirators were
disabled, as the vessel was. The enemy might make an attempt to board
the Bellevite as she passed down the river, for the accident must have
rendered the party more desperate than before. In the face of a failure
to capture the Bellevite at her anchorage, which had seemed so easy a
matter to the leaders of the expedition, they would be ready to take any
chances of success that came in their way.
"Cable all out, sir," reported Boxie.
Not without some heavy doubts, Christy rang the bell to go ahead. He
had no one in the pilot-house with whom he could consult except the two
quartermasters, for Paul was in charge of the engine, and he could no
more leave it than the midshipman could leave the wheel. The propeller
began to turn, and the ship gathered headway. To add to the
responsibility of the young commander, his mother and sister had just
come on board, and were now seated on the sofa in the engine-room.
The Bellevite was moving down the river, and the only thing Christy
could do was to brace himself up to meet whatever might happen on the
trip. He did this at once, and a moment later he rang to go ahead at
full speed. He was approaching the bend of the river, and in a minute
or two more he would be able to see the Vampire. But Captain Carboneer
could no more see through the headland at the bend than he could, and
he hoped that the leader of the enemy had not yet discovered that the
Bellevite was under way.
The steamer increased her speed on the instant in response to the
signal, and she rushed forward at a velocity that would be fatal to the
Vampire if she happened to be in her path. But Christy was not disposed
to make an issue with the enemy when they met; he intended to defend the
Bellevite, if she was attacked, to the extent of his ability and small
force.
"There she is!" exclaimed Beeks, as the Bellevite began to change her
course to go around the bend.
Christy saw the Vampire as soon as the quartermaster, and he was glad
to find that she had drifted to the left bank of the river as far as
the depth of water would permit. As her engine was disabled, she had
no means of propulsion with which she could help herself. It was not
improbable that she was aground. She was not armed with a single heavy
gun, or with any gun, and she was entirely harmless.
Christy breathed more freely when he realized the situation of the
Vampire. Probably she was provided with one or more boats, and it was
possible that Captain Carboneer might attempt to board the Bellevite as
soon as he discovered her. The deck of the steam-yacht was not very far
above the water, and if a boat full of desperate men could get alongside
of the ship, it would not be a very difficult matter for them to mount
the side.
"Port a little," said Christy to the quartermasters at the wheel. "Keep
her well over to the west shore. Steady."
A moment later the steamer had her course for passing the Vampire, and
Christy left the pilot-house to obtain a better view of the situation
and movements of the enemy. It was not so dark as to prevent him from
seeing all that was going on upon her deck, for the Bellevite had to
pass within pistol-shot of her to avoid getting aground on the edge of
the channel.
Sampson and the rest of the old ship's company gathered near him, where
they could see over the rail. The oiler, as Paul Vapoor had instructed
him to do, had armed all these men with a cutlass and a revolver, and
very likely some or all of them would have been glad to make use of
them.
"They are loading into a boat on the port side of the Vampire, sir, and
it looks as though they intended to do something without delay," said
Sampson; and, as the steamer had come about since she was disabled, this
was the side nearest to the shore.
"I see that they are hurrying some movement with all their might,"
replied the midshipman, watching with the most intense interest the
operations of the enemy. "Sampson, get out half a dozen sixty-pound,
solid shot, and put them on the plankshear, twenty feet apart. Take all
hands with you, and hurry up."
The oiler asked no questions, though he might have been excused for
wondering what the young commander intended to do with shot without
powder. In a few minutes the shot were in place, as Christy had
directed. The midshipman was watching with all his eyes the movement of
the enemy, and, as the Bellevite approached the position of the wreck,
the boat darted out from the other side of her. It began to be exciting
for the middy, loaded with the responsibility of the safety of the
steamer, though he seemed to be as cool as Boxie himself, who had seen
some sea fights in his day.
Christy leaped on the rail of the ship, where he could obtain a full
view of the situation. The boat was approaching with all the speed the
oarsmen could command, and they seemed to be experienced hands. There
could be no doubt of the intentions of the enemy, and the midshipman
drew his heavy naval revolver from his pocket.
"Stand by to repel boarders!" he called to the seamen. "Pass up one of
those shot, Sampson. Have a hand mount the rail, each with a shot, at
the points where you have placed them."
"The ladies wish to know what is going on, Christy," said Paul, coming
from the engine-room.
"I have no time to talk now," replied Christy impatiently, as he saw the
approaching boat within ten feet of the side of the steamer. "Tell them
to stay where they are, and not come on deck!"
The boat was not a large one, and it did not contain more than a dozen
men; but the fine form of Captain Carboneer could be seen, as he stood
up in the stern sheets. Those who were not pulling the oars began to
discharge revolvers at the men now mounted on the rail; but the motion
of the boat and the ship seemed to defeat their aim, and no one was hit
so far as was known.
"When the boat comes alongside, let the man who is in the right place
for it drop his shot into it. Be careful of it, and don't waste the
iron," shouted Christy, when the decisive moment came.
"All ready, sir," responded the men along the rail.
"You are the man, Boxie! You are in the right place for the first shot,"
added the midshipman.
Boxie was next to him, and it would be Christy's turn next if the old
man failed to do good work with his shot. The boat came alongside, and
a bowman fastened his boathook at the side of the ship, and held it in
place. At the same moment Boxie let drive his sixty-pound shot; but he
ought to have waited an instant longer, for the missile dropped
harmlessly into the river.
The bowman had not obtained a good hold, and he lost it, so that the
boat began to drift astern. Captain Carboneer shouted his orders, and
the man got a new hold, and this time it was at the painter of the boat
in which Sampson had brought off Mr. Watts and the ladies. It had been
forgotten in the excitement of the moment, but the rope afforded a good
hold to several men who had grasped it.
At this thrilling moment, a man wearing a frock-coat discharged a
revolver at Christy, who was standing on the rail above him, and then,
seizing the painter in the hands of the men, he climbed briskly to the
accommodation steps, which had been hoisted up, but not taken on board.
Christy was in the most dangerous position on board, for he seemed to
be the target for all who could use their revolvers. But the young
commander was not asleep, though he had given no order for the last
minute or two. The boat was directly under him, and he had put his
pistol in his hip-pocket, in order to take up the solid shot at his
feet. It was heavy, but he lifted it over his head without any
difficulty, and launched it into the boat with all the force he could
give to it.
"On deck, there! Let go that painter!" shouted Christy, as he pitched
his missile from his hands.
He was in a position so favorable for the operation that he could not
well miss his aim, and the shot crashed through the bottom of the boat,
carrying down one of the enemy with it. It did not make a round hole in
the bottom of the boat, it was afterwards ascertained, as it might if
it had been fired from one of the broadside guns, but it tore off the
planking, and made a hole as big as the head of a flour-barrel.
"Lay hold of that man on the accommodation ladder!" shouted Christy,
without waiting to observe the effect of his shot, for the man who had
succeeded in mounting the side was armed with a dangerous weapon, which
he was likely to use as soon as he found the opportunity.
The men forward of the point where the boat had come alongside had been
ordered aft, and a couple of them dragged the venturesome officer, as
his frock-coat indicated that he was, to the deck. Christy was almost
sure this man was Haslett, who had certainly set a bold example to his
companions in the boat. He was quickly secured, and by no gentle hands.
His hands were tied behind him, and he was made fast to the rail, where
he was likely to be harmless during the rest of the trip.
It was no easy matter for a boat to make fast to a steamer going ten
knots an hour at least, and if the painter of the boat had not been
carelessly left where it could be of service to the assailants, the
affair would have ended with Boxie's unsuccessful cast of the shot. But
as soon as the painter was let go, an order which Sampson hastened to
execute, the enemy's hold upon the ship was lost, though they were using
boathooks and other implements to make sure of their grasp. The boat was
left behind by the ship, though not till the hole had been stove in her
bottom.
"Beg pardon, Mr. Passford, for missing my heave with the shot," said
Boxie, on the deck; and the veteran's heart seemed to be almost broken
by his failure.
"You are very excusable, Boxie; one can't expect to hit every time,
and you did very well," replied Christy, who had suddenly passed from
painful doubt and uncertainty to exultation and exaltation at the
victory achieved. "We are all right now."
"But the enemy are not," added Sampson, who had mounted the rail after
he had secured the prisoner. "They are all afloat."
"They will get ashore in some way, or back to the Vampire," replied
Christy, and he descended to the deck, and hastened to the engine-room.