Within The Enemy's Lines, Oliver Optic [red scrolls of magic txt] 📗

floats that can outsail the Bellevite, I shall give her time to get well away from the port before the screw turns again," said the captain.

"Mr. Passford," called he a little later.

"On duty, sir," replied Christy, touching his cap to the commander.

"You will have the midship gun charged with a solid shot, and have it ready for use at once."

As the steamer in the distance still kept on her course, the screw of the Bellevite was started. The chief engineer was called upon deck, and the situation explained to him.

"We shall want all the speed we can get out of her, Mr. Vapoor," said the captain.

"We shall have no trouble in making twenty-two knots, sir, with the sea as it is now," replied the engineer.

"That steamer means to go into the Cape Fear River," said Mr. Blowitt, when the chase had laid her course. "If she was going in at Savannah, or round into the Gulf, she would go more to the south."

167 "I think you are right; but she has room enough to run away from us if she can," added the captain.

It was a busy time in the fireroom, but there was nothing to do on deck but watch the steamer. She had actually lighted the green light on the starboard, and evidently did not expect to be overhauled, even if her commander had noticed the presence of the Bellevite.

168 CHAPTER XV A CHASE OFF THE BERMUDAS

All the officers on board of the Bellevite who had never been in the navy had spent their long vacation in the study and practice of gunnery and naval tactics; and the men had been carefully drilled by a competent officer as soon as they reported for duty. But a considerable number of the latter had served for years on board of men-of-war, and a few were sheet-anchor men. The latter are sailors who have spent the greater part of their lives in the national sea-service, and they were competent to teach many of the junior officers.

Every day after the ship went into commission, both officers and seamen were drilled, and the captain declared that they had all made satisfactory proficiency. He was ready to meet an enemy with them; but then the ship's company of the steam-yacht were of the very best material. They were all intelligent men, and sailors to begin with, so 169 that the task of qualifying them for active duty was not very laborious.

Christy was even better fitted for his duties than many of the older officers, for he was not only full of enthusiasm, but he was skilful and scientific, as a rule. He neither asked nor expected any favors on account of former relations with the captain and other officers, and he was determined to make his way by merit rather than by favor. Besides, he had already been under fire, and he had an idea how it felt. Though he was as prudent and careful as circumstances might require, he had proved that he was as brave as a lion, and that shot and shell were not likely to drive him from the post of duty.

Every man was in his place at the midship gun, seventeen of them, including the powder-boy, and Christy gave the orders for loading the piece as though he had been in the navy all his life. The other guns, the broadsides, were loaded at the same time. But just now Paul Vapoor was the most important man on board, and he was rapidly making himself felt in the increasing speed of the Bellevite. Captain Breaker estimated that the steamer which had just come out of port was 170 all of five miles ahead. It was only seven o'clock in the early darkness of this latitude. Whether the chase was the Killbright or not, it was impossible to make out in the darkness.

If it was the Killbright, Captain Passford's correspondent wrote that she was capable of making twenty knots an hour, as she had been built more for speed than anything else, though she could hardly be a profitable commercial venture. But even accepting this speed as the difficulty to be overcome, the Bellevite would probably overhaul her in two or three hours. The engineer felt that his reputation and that of the ship were at stake, and could not think of such a thing as failure in the first actual encounter with the enemy.

"We are gaining on her without the ghost of a doubt, Mr. Passford," said Boxie, who was ready for duty at the gun.

"No doubt of that, Tom Boxie," replied the third lieutenant. "But she is taking it very coolly. She has not yet even put out her lights."

"I suppose you know why she hasn't, Mr. Passford," added the captain of the gun.

"I am sure I don't know," replied Christy. "If I was in command of that steamer, and wanted 171 to do just what she does, I should not proceed as she does. But I am nothing but a boy."

"But you have got a long head on your shoulders, Mr. Passford, and I should like to know, if you please, what you would do."

"I would put her lights out before I winked twice."

"Right, Mr. Passford!" exclaimed the sheet-anchor man. "I am glad to hear you say that. The trouble with most of the boys is, when they go to sea to fight the battles of their country, they are as reckless as young wildcats."

"I think it is possible to use proper caution without being a coward, Tom Boxie; and my father gave me a lesson on that subject not long ago."

"Eight bells, sir; and that steamer has had a good hour of running so far. I will wager my day's grub that we are two knots nearer to her than when she laid her course," added Boxie, delighted with the situation.

"I have no doubt of it. I think they are beginning to see it on board of her. There go her lights! She has not a ghost of a glow in sight; and I suppose there is going to be some monkeying 172 about it, if she has ascertained that she cannot run away from us."

"Most likely, sir; but this is not a good night to play tricks, for we have a bright night and a smooth sea."

"As that steamer has such a reputation for speed, I have no doubt they put a very valuable cargo on board of her; probably she has a good supply of arms in her hold."

"So much the better for us, Mr. Passford. We don't fight for prize-money, but when a man gets to be as old as I am, a good round sum of money don't come amiss to him. But I am sorry to see that it looks like a change of weather," continued the sheet-anchor man, as he hitched up his trousers, and took a survey of the heavens.

The wind began to come from the west after it had been almost a dead calm since noon. It looked as though a heavy shower was coming up, and clouds of mist and fog swept over the ocean. The usual lookouts had been doubled, but, in spite of all precautions, the Bellevite lost sight of the chase when she could not have been more than a mile from her. But this weather was to be expected in this changeable latitude. Captain 173 Breaker was as perplexed as any one, however skilful, must have been in the same situation. It was impossible to know what the chase would do, though it was plain enough, since she put out her lights, that she would change her course.

It was over six hundred miles to Cape Hatteras, and she had room enough to manœuvre in any manner she pleased. The change in the weather hardly amounted to a storm, and probably it would be all over in a few hours. But the chase might turn to any point of the compass, and the Bellevite was as likely to pursue in the wrong as the right direction. But the first thing the commander ordered the chief engineer to do was to save his coal; though he held to his course, and the ship continued at a moderate speed till daylight.

As the wise ones had predicted, the shower was of brief duration. As soon as it was light enough to see, and the fog banks had been swept away, a sharp lookout was kept for the chase. If she was ahead, she had outsailed her pursuer; but Captain Breaker was sure she had not done this, for she could not have had confidence enough in her heels to adopt such a course.

174 "Sail, ho!" yelled a man on the cross-trees, a few minutes later.

"Where away?" called the officer of the deck.

"On the port beam, sir."

Several officers mounted the rigging to obtain a sight of the reported sail. She was at least ten miles off, and no one could make out whether or not it was the chase of the night before. The captain ordered the ship to be headed to the southward, and, after she had gone on this course an hour, there was another hail from the cross-trees.

"Sail is a steamer, sir!" reported the lookout.

With the aid of the spyglasses, a long streak of black smoke could be made out of the dark clouds that were retreating in that direction. A little later it was demonstrated that she was headed for the coast of the United States. Whether it was the chase they sought or not, she needed looking after. The course was laid in a direction to intercept the steamer, for her inky smoke indicated that she was not American.

In another hour she could be very distinctly made out, though the chase had not been so clearly made out the night before as to enable the officers to identify her. Paul Vapoor was in his element 175 again, and the Bellevite was doing her best. The two vessels were approaching each other, and Boxie suggested that there would be "music" in less than an hour.

The people on board of the strange steamer must have been as much in the dark in regard to the caliber of the naval vessel as those on board of the Bellevite were in respect to their confident rival. The chase was a long craft, it could be seen now, with two masts and two smokestacks, all of which raked in the most dashing style. She was rather low in the water, and, if it had been in the days of the pirates, the stranger would have been a fair ideal of the freebooter's ship.

"She keeps on just as though she intended to mind her own business, and leave the Bellevite to do the same," said Boxie, as Christy took his place near the midship gun.

"I have no doubt the Bellevite knows her business in this case, and that she will attend to it in due time," added the lieutenant.

"Good!" exclaimed the sheet-anchor man, suddenly.

This exclamation was called forth by a flag, which was run up at the peak, and which proved 176 to be that of the Confederacy as soon as it was spread out to the breeze.

"She is plucky, anyhow," added Christy.

"There is no lack of pluck in the South. But I wonder what she means by setting that rag."

"Beeks, hoist the ensign at the peak," said the captain, and the brilliant banner was spread in the morning air.

"I reckon both sides understand the situation now. I don't know the captain of that craft, but he is an able fellow, and probably got his education in the old navy, and not in the new one, where he is serving now," continued Boxie.

"I think it is easy enough to see what he means," replied Christy. "He ascertained last night that, fast as his vessel is, he cannot outsail the Bellevite; and there is really only one thing he can do, and that is to fight."

The lieutenant had hardly spoken the words before there was a puff of smoke from one side of the chase, and a heavy report came across the water. But the two steamers were still a long distance apart, and the shot fell short, to the satisfaction of the captain. The chase had been obliged to come to in order to bring her gun to 177 bear, and she had lost a little time in doing so. It could be easily seen on board of both steamers that the Bellevite was gaining rapidly on the other.

"Mr. Passford, I am as sure of capturing that vessel as though I had her now, and I do not wish to injure her any more