Taken by the Enemy, the Enemy by Oliver Optic [the beach read TXT] 📗

don't have it now. I wonder what he is up to," added Percy, restraining his impatience.

"We can only wait till his plans come out," added Christy. "But I will go to the side of the hurricane deck, and tell him that the engine does not respond to the bells."

260 "I should think he might see that for himself," said Percy.

"Don't you say a word, and don't you show yourself to any one. Sit down on that stool, and keep quiet."

"I will do just what you tell me, Christy, for I believe you will be able to get me out of this scrape," replied Percy, as he seated himself, and began to read over the instructions relating to the bells.

In fact, he was so interested in the new occupation he had taken up, that he soon forgot all about his brother, and the trouble that lay in his path. He read the paper, and applied his fingers to the pulls in a great many different ways, supposing all the various situations of the boat which Christy had suggested.

Christy went to the side of the upper deck, and saw that the soldiers had hauled in the boat that had been used by the lieutenant and his two men. It was a large and clumsy affair, big enough to hold a dozen men, and provided with four oars. But the Leopard was in the trough of the sea, and it was not an easy matter for the soldiers to handle it; and just then the major 261 declared that the boat would be smashed against the side of the tug.

"Major Pierson, this steamer has stopped without any bell from the pilot-house, and I have been unable to start her again," said Christy, hailing the commander of the fort.

"All right, Mr. Passford: I told the engineer to stop her," replied the major, who appeared to be in a hurry, though he could not make the long-boat work as he desired. "Oblige me by remaining in the pilot-house for the present, and keep a sharp lookout for the Bellevite."

"Certainly, Major Pierson, if you desire it; but permit me to suggest that you will not be able to do any thing with that boat while the tug remains in the trough of the sea," replied Christy, who was more afraid that the major would not carry out his plan than that he would do so.

"I don't see that it can be helped, though I am no sailor," replied the commandant, looking up with interest to the acting captain. "For reasons of my own, which I cannot stop to explain, I don't wish to take this tug any nearer to the Bellevite; and I am going off in the boat after Dr. Linscott. But it looks now as though the boat would be smashed in pieces."

262 "I should say that it would be," added Christy. "If you will start the engine again, I think I can help you out of this difficulty."

"How do you expect to do it?" asked the major, who seemed to be incredulous on the point.

"If you will let me get the tug out of the trough of the sea, you can easily haul the boat up on the lee side of her," Christy explained. "The steamer will shelter the water on that side of her."

"Spikeley!" called the major, in a loud voice; and the engineer came out of his den. "Start her up now."

"Run her at about half speed, major," and the commandant repeated his direction to the engineer.

Christy retreated to the pilot-house, and threw over the wheel of the boat; so that, when the screw began to turn, the bow of the tug soon headed to the southward, which gave her the wind ahead. Then he brought her so that the water was comparatively smooth on her port quarter, where the long-boat was.

Without the loss of a moment, the major drove all his men into the boat, and they shoved off. The men were soldiers, and they had had but little 263 practice in rowing, having taken it up at the fort. They made rather bad work of it; but, more by luck than skill, the boat cleared the tug without being stove.

"Spikeley!" shouted the major.

"Here, sir," replied the engineer, hobbling out of his room.

"Stop the engine, and remember what I told you," added the commandant.

"All right, sir: I will do just as you ordered me."

"What does he want to stop the engine for?" asked Percy. "She don't roll so badly when the engine is going."

"That is very true; but your brother knows what he is about," replied Christy, his eyes beginning to light up with an unwonted fire.

"Well, what is he about?"

"He is going to capture the Bellevite."

"He will have a nice time of it!" exclaimed Percy. "That steamer can blow him out of the water a dozen times before he gets near her."

"I don't believe your brother has any idea that the Bellevite is heavily armed," added Christy.

"But he has been on board of her."

264 "That is very true; but the two heavy guns were covered up, and the others were sent down into the hold. All the soldiers in the boat with your brother have their muskets; and he would not have taken the lieutenant and six men with him if he were simply going for the doctor for Captain Pecklar, as he told me he was."

"I believe Lindley is a fool to think of such a thing as capturing the Bellevite with eight men," added Percy.

"I don't know what else he can intend to do, but I do know why he don't take the tug any nearer to the steamer. He don't want my father to know what has become of me."

"Can't you make some sort of a signal to him, Christy?"

"I can do something better than that."

"What's that?"

"I can show myself to him. But, before I do that, I must know how you stand, Percy."

"How I stand? You know as much about me as I know about myself. I want to get on board of the Bellevite, and I am not a bit anxious to fight my brother's battle for him. I know what he is after, now I think of it."

265 "Well, what is he after?"

"He is after the Bellevite; and if he can take her, he is sure of a colonel's commission."

"I should say that he could not do any thing better for the Confederacy than to present it with the finest steamer in the world. But you are not with him, you say, Percy."

"I am not. I belong to the Confederacy the same as he does; but I want to get aboard of the Bellevite, and then I shall have a good chance to reach Nassau," replied Percy.

Christy had a good deal better opinion of Major Pierson than he had of his brother in the pilot-house with him; but just then the latter was able to be more useful to him than the commandant of the fort.

"I can now almost promise that you shall be put on board of the Bellevite, if I succeed in reaching her myself," said Christy.

"That is all I can expect of you; and I will do whatever you tell me, if it be to sink the Leopard. But we can't do a thing. The engineer will not start the engine for us; and I don't see but what we must stay here till my 266 brother comes back from his errand, whatever it may be."

"I don't feel quite so helpless as that," added Christy, as he took a revolver from his hip-pocket, where he had carried it all the time since the steamer left Nassau, and while she was there.

"What are you going to do with that, Christy?" asked Percy, impressed with the sight of the weapon.

"I am going to start this tug with it, if necessary. Now hear me."

Percy was all attention.

267 CHAPTER XXIV THE ENGINEER GOES INTO THE FORECASTLE

The wind from the southward seemed to be increasing in force, though it was not yet what old salts would call any thing more than half a gale, and hardly that; but the long-boat from the Leopard made bad weather of it, and rolled wildly in the trough of the sea. The soldiers pulled badly, for they had had no training in the use of the oars, and very little experience.

The boat had made very little progress towards the Bellevite, and Christy was in no hurry to put his plan in operation. He showed his revolver to Percy, and then restored it to his hip-pocket. But he watched the expression of his companion in the pilot-house very closely; for, as the case then stood, one of them belonged to the blue, while the other was of the gray. But Percy's patriotism was hardly skin deep, 268 and he had already spoken freely enough to make himself understood.

"I don't see how you are going to start the tug with that pistol if the fellow at the engine don't look at it in that light," said Percy, as his companion restored the weapon to his pocket.

"I don't intend to use it if it can be avoided," replied Christy. "I shall not ask Spikeley to start the engine, and if he don't interfere with me, I shall not harm him; for he seems to be a cripple, and it would hurt my feelings to have to lay hands on him, or even to point a revolver at his head."

"If Spikeley don't start the engine, I reckon it will not start itself," suggested Percy.

"I don't believe it will."

"What are you going to do, then?"

"I am going to start it myself."

"Start it yourself! You will blow the whole thing up!" exclaimed Percy, who did not see how the same young fellow of sixteen could know how to steer, and run the engine.

"I have been on board the Bellevite a great deal of the time for the last three years, and my mother says I was born a sailor, as my father 269 was before me. I always took a deep interest in every thing connected with the steamer."

"I should think you might, on board of such a fine vessel as the Bellevite."

"I have stood my trick at the wheel for weeks together; and the quartermasters taught me all they knew about steering, the compass, the log, the lead, and the signals."

"Those things have nothing to do with the engine," suggested Percy.

"That is very true; but, when I had learned enough in the pilot-house, I went down into the engine and fire rooms. Mr. Vapoor, the chief engineer, and I were in the same school together; and, though he is six years older than I am, we have been cronies for four years."

"And he told you about the engine?"

"I made a regular study of the engine, in connection with physics, and Paul"—

"Paul? That's another fellow?"

"No: it's the same fellow,—Paul Vapoor. Everybody that knows him says he is a genius. He was my teacher. But he told me that all the theory in the world would not make me an engineer: I must have the experience; and for 270 weeks together I took the place of one of the assistant engineers. That's how I happen to know something about an engine; and I have been on board of all sorts of steamers with Paul, for the purpose of studying the engines, from a launch up to the biggest ocean-steamers."

"Did you take any lessons of the cook on board of the Bellevite, Christy?" asked Percy, laughing.

"I used to ask questions of him; but I have served as cook on board of a small yacht, and I know how to get up a chowder or bake a pot of beans."

"All right; then I will take it for granted that you can start the engine of the Leopard," continued Percy, coming back to the topic which interested him most. "What are you going to do after you have started the engine?"

"I am going to get on board of the Bellevite, and get you on board of her."

"That will suit me first rate," replied Percy. "But I don't want you to think I am a Yankee, for I am not."

"But I want you to think I am a Yankee, as you call it; and I am one," added Christy.

271 "After we get on board of the Bellevite, what do you suppose she will do?"

"That is more than I can tell you; but I have no doubt my father will try to get out of the bay, and then he will go to New York. It is about time to make a beginning, for the boat will not trouble us now," replied Christy, as he