THE ACTION ON THE DECK OF THE TEASER
As the Teaser was but a short distance from the shore, Christy had no
doubt that the attempt to board her had been made by this time. Mr.
Blowitt had quite as many men on board of the steamer as could have been
contained in the two boats, and he was not much concerned about the
result of the attack, especially as he knew that the second lieutenant
was fully prepared and on the lookout for it. The only thing that
Christy regretted was that he was not on board of the Teaser to take
part in the affair of repelling boarders.
"There seems to be some music in the air," said Lonley, after he had
listened for a few moments to the sounds that came from the direction of
the steamer.
"To return to the subject of the morality of telling stories, your men
do not seem to be a mile to the eastward, where their bags were left,"
added Christy good-naturedly.
"You had a glance at them in the boats, though the darkness and fog were
rather too thick for you to count them," replied Lonley, chuckling over
the deception he had practised upon the lieutenant of the Bellevite.
"Yes, I saw them, and I concluded that they could not be where their
bags were."
"All is fair in war."
"That seems to be the generally received maxim, and he is the smartest
man who the most thoroughly deceives the enemy," added Christy, who
found himself tolerably well satisfied with the situation, though he was
a prisoner.
"That is so, and of course I can find no fault with you for deceiving
me," returned Lonley, chuckling as though he was even better satisfied
with the situation than his companion.
"Thank you, Mr. Lonley; you are magnanimous, and with equal sincerity
I can say that I have no fault to find with you," replied the Union
officer. "But I have my doubts whether, after this, either of us will be
likely to believe what the other says. But, for my part, I wish to say
that I don't believe in telling anything but necessary and patriotic
lies."
"That is my view of the matter exactly; and if there is any man that
despises a liar, I am that man," said Lonley warmly. "But it seems to
me they are making a good deal of a racket off there," he added, as the
noise of pistol shots and the clash of cutlasses came over the smooth
waters of the gulf.
"They seem to be at it quite earnestly," replied Christy.
"By the way, how many men did you leave on board of the Teaser?" asked
the privateersman, whose manner seemed to have suddenly become
considerably changed.
"How many men?" repeated the lieutenant of the Bellevite.
"That is the question I asked," replied the lieutenant of the Teaser.
"I suppose you would not believe me if I should tell you," answered
Christy.
"I judge that you can speak the truth if you try," added Lonley, with
more asperity than the occasion seemed to require.
"I know that I could," said Christy, very decidedly; "and I may add that
I was in the habit of doing so on all occasions before this cruel war
began."
"Then suppose you try to do so just now, and tell me how many men your
people had on board of the Teaser."
"You must excuse me for the present, for I do not like to make
statements to one who will not believe what I say," answered Christy,
rather facetiously.
"You are a prisoner now."
"I am painfully aware of the fact, but I doubt if the government service
will suffer very much in my absence from duty."
"You are too modest by half, Mr.--but I have not even the pleasure of
knowing your name, and conversation is annoying under such
circumstances."
"I am simply Midshipman Passford, at your service."
"Only a midshipman!" exclaimed Lonley. "Upon my word, you ought to be a
commodore. Passford? Possibly you are a cousin of Colonel Passford of
Glenfield."
"Colonel Passford is my uncle. Do you know him?" asked Christy.
"I do know him; and there is not a finer man or a truer patriot in the
South than Colonel Passford. He is loading a schooner with cotton, and
he offered me the command of it. Then you are his nephew, I have heard
of you."
"I hope my uncle is quite well, for I have not heard from him for
several weeks, or since I left New York."
"I saw him ten days ago, and he was very well then. I am very happy
to have made a prisoner of his enterprising nephew, who appears to be
capable of doing our cause a great deal of mischief," replied Lonley,
looking earnestly in the direction of the Teaser.
"Thank you, Mr. Lonley; I certainly intend to do it all the mischief I
can in a legitimate way. I am speaking the truth now," said Christy.
"But you have not answered my question in regard to the number of men on
board of the Teaser when you left her."
"And you will excuse me for the present if I do not answer it," added
the Union lieutenant.
"Very well, Mr. Passford; I cannot compel you to answer it, though doing
so would do no harm to your cause, for I should judge that the question
of the hour is settled."
"What is the question of the hour, Mr. Lonley?"
"The question is which side is in possession of the Teaser, yours or
mine," replied the privateersman, still gazing out into the gloom.
"Is that question settled?" asked Christy, with interest.
"Of course I don't know, but I should think that it was. We hear no
more pistol shots and no more clashing of cutlasses," replied Lonley,
uneasily. "But I expected to hear the triumphal shout of our men when
they had carried the deck of the Teaser."
"I have not heard anything like a triumphal shout," added Christy, very
quietly. "It is barely possible that your men have not carried the deck
of the Teaser."
"Of course, it is possible they have not; but I don't believe they have
failed," replied Lonley.
The privateersman listened for a few minutes in silence. He appeared
to be entirely confident that the victory must be with his men. He
evidently believed that the captors of the Teaser had sent her two boats
off to a distance of a mile, and thus weakened whatever force she had on
board of her. He did not seem to have any idea that the party he had
met in Pensacola Bay had been increased in numbers, or that the officer
in command had reported to the ship to which they belonged. Christy
realized what Lonley was thinking about, and he clearly believed that
the Teaser had been left in charge of not more than a dozen or fifteen
men, reduced by at least six then on boat duty.
"Help! help!" shouted a man in the water at no great distance from the
shore.
"What does that mean?" said Lonley, springing to his feet.
"It is a call for help, and, as my hands are tied behind me, I cannot
respond to it, as I would gladly do, be the man who needs it friend or
enemy," replied Christy. "There is the canoe in which we came ashore,
Lieutenant Lonley, and you can use that."
The privateersman sprang into the boat, shoved it off, and pulled in
the direction from which the appeal came. He disappeared in the fog in a
moment; but a little later was seen again approaching the shore. He had
not taken the sufferer into the boat, but he had clung to it. As he got
upon his feet, Christy saw that there were two of them, for one helped
the other up the beach.
"What does this mean?" demanded Lonley, very much excited. "Have you run
away from the others?"
"No, sir; but we were beaten in the fight, our boats captured, and all
hands taken prisoners except us two," replied the uninjured of the two
men.
Lieutenant Lonley, whatever his views of the morality of lying to the
enemy, uttered an exclamation which grated very harshly on the ears of
Lieutenant Passford. The result, as stated by the man who had swum to
the shore, was as unwelcome as it was unexpected. He had not deemed a
defeat even possible. He learned from the guard-boat that the steamer
had been captured. He had spent the time after he was landed with his
companions at Town Point, and organized his force for the recapture of
the Teaser. The failure of the final attack was as severe upon him as
the loss of his vessel had been upon Captain Folkner.
"Who are you?" demanded Lonley, when he had in some measure recovered
from the shock which the failure gave him.
"I am Levick, the boatswain; and this is Lieutenant Folkner, who was
wounded in the shoulder in the first of it," replied the man. "He was
knocked from the rail into the water when we boarded, and he held on to
an oar. When the fight was over, and we had lost it, I slipped into the
water, and helped the lieutenant along on his oar, till I was about used
up, and then I called for help."
"Are you much hurt, Mr. Folkner?" asked Lonley of the injured officer.
"I don't know; my shoulder feels numb, and I can't use my arm," replied
Folkner. "But I can use my legs, and I think that is what we had better
be doing."
"I don't understand it," protested Lonley, very much dissatisfied with
the result of the action, as may well be supposed. "I was sure you would
carry her deck at once."
"I was as sure as you were, Lonley; but I believe they had fifty men
all ready for us. They let us leap on deck without much opposition, and
then they surrounded us, and took us by surprise, for I did not suppose,
after what you said, that they had a dozen men," replied the wounded
lieutenant.
"I did not suppose they had even a dozen men left on board," Lonley
explained, with humiliation in his tones.
"I staid in the boat till I had seen all my men on deck," continued Mr.
Folkner. "They surrounded our force, and tumbled them into the hold as
though they had been pigs, slashing them with their cutlasses if they
tried to get out. I saw the fat officer in command of the enemy; he was
very active, and I leaped on deck, determined to cross weapons with him.
But he hit me in the shoulder with his cutlass, and I lost my hold on
the rail."
"You ought to have led your men, not followed them," said Lonley
bitterly.
"That is easy enough for you to say; but I wanted to be where I could
see my men," retorted the first lieutenant, of whom the second had a
very mean opinion, perhaps because he got his position on account of
being the captain's brother.
"Whether I did right or not, I can tell you all one thing; and that is,
that we shall be prisoners if we stay here any longer. They have got our
men under the hatches, and they have ordered out a boat to look for an
officer they sent ashore."
"We can do nothing here, and we may as well put ourselves in safer
quarters, for we have two prisoners to lose," said Lonley. "Mr.
Passford, I shall have to trouble you to march to the other side of
the island."
"I am your prisoner, Mr. Lonley, and I must obey your orders, though
I am sorry to be away from my ship in the hour of victory," replied
Christy submissively.
But he felt that his plan had been fully carried out.