by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXIX
THE FIRST PRIZE OF THE ST. REGIS
The shot from the Parrot passed between the funnel and the mainmast ofthe chase, as judged by the splash of the ball in the water just beyondher. It had come near enough to the mark to wake up the captain of thehighflyer. He appeared to believe that the pursuer from the northwardhad simply cut him off by approaching on the shorter side of thetriangle, and that all he had to do was to escape to the southward,evidently satisfied that no steamer in the Federal navy could overhaulhim in a fair and square race.
"Now comes the tug of war," said Mr. Baskirk, when the St. Regis hadbeen headed for the chase.
"The game will not last all day," added Christy. "If I owned thathighflyer, I should not employ her present captain to sail her for me.He is overloaded with a blind confidence, and he has made a very bad useof his opportunities. If I had been in command of that steamer I shouldhave made her course so as to run away from all three of my pursuers assoon as I made them out. It is six o'clock now, and I should have gotfar enough into the darkness to give them all the slip, and gone intoWilmington on a new track."
"Her captain appears to trust entirely to his heels, and to lookwith contempt upon anything like manoeuvring," replied the firstlieutenant.
"But we must finish him up before the darkness enables him to give usthe slip. I have no doubt we could knock her all to pieces with themidship gun in the next fifteen minutes; but if she can make eighteenknots an hour, which we seem to be all agreed that she can do, she willnot be a useless addition to the United States Navy, and it would be apity to smash her up, for she is a good-looking craft. We are gainingtwo knots an hour on her, and Mr. Vapoor is keeping things warm in theengine and fire rooms."
"That is taking an economical view of the subject," added Mr. Baskirk,laughing at the commander's utilitarian views.
"If we continue to fire into her, we must swing to every shot we send,and that would take so much from our speed," argued Christy. "We are assure of her as though we already had her in our clutches. There areplenty of officers in the navy who would like to command her when she isaltered over into a cruiser."
"You are quite right, Captain Passford; and there are some of them onthe deck of the St. Regis at this moment," said the first lieutenant,laughing.
"Heave the log, Mr. Baskirk," said the captain.
The report from the master, who attended to this duty, was soon reportedto the executive officer, who transmitted it to the commander.
"Rising twenty knots, sir," said he.
"That will do," replied Christy. "That is enough to enable us tooverhaul the chase within half an hour."
Within fifteen minutes it could be seen that the St. Regis was rapidlygaining on the Raven, for the latter was near enough now to enable thepursuers to read the name on her stern, and the captain of the highflyercould not help realizing that he had not the slightest chance to escape.The chaser was within the eighth of a mile of her, and the result wasonly a matter of minutes.
"She has stopped her screw, sir!" reported the third lieutenant in thewaist, passing the word from the second lieutenant on the forecastle.
"She has stopped her screw, Captain," repeated Mr. Baskirk.
"That means mischief," replied Christy, as he directed his gaze to theRaven.
"She is getting out two boats on her port side!" shouted Mr. Makepeacefrom the top-gallant forecastle; and the report was repeated till itreached the commander, though he had heard it before it was officiallycommunicated to him. "That means more mischief."
"Ready to stop and back her!" he cried through the speaking-tube to thechief engineer.
"All ready, sir," replied Paul.
"Some of these blockade-runners are desperate characters, and thatcaptain intends either to burn or sink his ship," continued Christy,with a trifle of excitement in his manner, though he looked as dignifiedas a college professor in the presence of his class.
The St. Regis was still rushing with unabated speed towards her prey,and a minute or two more would decide whether or not she was to be aprize or a blazing hulk on the broad ocean.
"Lay him aboard on the port side, Mr. Baskirk!"
"The two boats are there, Captain, as you can see," replied theexecutive officer.
"Board on the port side, Mr. Baskirk!" repeated the commander verydecidedly, and somewhat sharply; and at the same time he rang one bellon the gong to slow down the engine. "Board on the port side, Mr.Baskirk!" he repeated again. "Mr. Drake, have the steam pump and longhose ready to extinguish fire!"
Whether the captain of the Raven had ordered his men to scuttle thesteamer, or to fire her in several places, Christy could not know; andhe did not much care, for he was ready to meet either emergency. The St.Regis was bearing down on her victim with a reduced speed. The menforward and in the waist were all ready with the grappling irons tofasten to her, and the boarders were all prepared to leap upon her deck,though no fighting was expected.
The bow of the St. Regis was near the stem of the Raven, and Christyrang one bell to stop her, and then two to back her. Then he sprang uponthe starboard rail of the ship where he could observe his men as theyboarded the other steamer.
"What are you about, sir?" yelled a man on the quarter-deck of theRaven, who appeared to be the captain of the vessel, in a rude voice."Don't you see that you are crushing my two boats and the men in them?"
"I did not order the boats or the men there," replied Christy calmly,and in a gentle tone, for the captain of the blockade-runner was not tenfeet from him.
"I did," added the captain of the prize, for such she really was by thistime.
"Then you are responsible for them," said the commander of the St.Regis.
"Do you mean to murder them?" gasped the other captain furiously.
"If they are killed you have sent them to their death!"
But the commander had no time to argue the matter with the iratecaptain. He had rung three bells, and the ship was backing at fullspeed. The momentum had not been sufficiently checked to stop her, andthe two boats were crushed to splinters. The seamen who were in them sawwhat was coming, and they seized the ropes which had been dropped tothem by the boarders on the rail at the command of the captain, who didnot wish them to be sacrificed to the madness of their commander, andthey climbed to the chains of the Federal ship with the aid of theboarders.
"Lay her aboard!" shouted Christy as soon as the headway of the ship hadbeen checked, and the grappling irons had been made fast.
The willing and active seamen poured from the rails to the deck of theprize, their officers leading the way. The main hatch had been removedand a light smoke was coming up through the opening. The hose from thesteam pump of the ship had been drawn on board, and the master was incharge of it. At the command of the officers the men leaped below at allthe openings in the deck, and it was found that she had been fired inhalf a dozen places.
In most of them the combustibles had only been lighted a few momentsbefore, and they had not become well-kindled. Except at the main hatch,the men extinguished the flames with their hands and feet, and a streamfrom the hose put out the one amidships. The hoseman shut off the water,and the ship's company of the St. Regis were in full possession of theprize.
"Anything more to be done, Captain Bristler?" asked the mate, as heapproached the commander.
"Nothing more can be done, Mr. Victor," replied the captain, whoappeared to be overwhelmed with wrath at the unexpected termination ofhis voyage. "It is too late to scuttle her, and that vampire of a Yankeehas smashed both of our boats into kindling wood. We did not begin theend soon enough."
But the beginning had evidently ended sooner than had been expected, andthe Raven was the prize of the St. Regis. Christy still stood on therail, and saw that all his orders had been executed to the letter. Mr.Makepeace had sent the carpenter and his gang into the hold, or as faras they could get, to ascertain if the steamer had been scuttled. Itcould not have been done without breaking out a portion of
the cargo,and this would have been a work of no little time. The carpenterreported that everything was all right below the deck of the Raven,and the commander on the rail was so informed.
"The stream struck the commander with force." Page 331.]
"This is a heathenish outrage, Captain, if a young cub like you can bethe commander of a ship like that!" exclaimed Captain Bristler, foamingwith rage over the result of the affair; and he interlarded his speechwith all the oaths in the vocabulary of a pirate.
"Captain Bristler, when you address me as one gentleman should another,I will talk with you; but not till then," replied Christy with dignity.
"A gentleman!" gasped the other captain. "You tried to murder half adozen of my men! You are a Yankee pirate! That's what you are!"
We cannot soil this page with even a description of the oaths and curseswith which he mixed his language. Christy was disgusted with him; andwhile he still continued his impious ravings, he sent a midshipman withan order to Mr. Makepeace who was in charge of the hose pipe on board ofthe Raven. While Captain Bristler was pouring forth anathemas that madethe blood of the loyal officers run cold in their veins, the man whoheld the hose pipe directed it to him, and the water was turned on.
The stream struck the commander with force enough to knock him down.But the bath was not suspended on that account, and it was continuedtill it had extinguished the fire of profanity. Christy made a sign,and the steam-pump ceased to work. The mate rushed to the assistance ofthe captain, put him on his feet, and was conducting him towards thecompanion, seeking a retreat in his cabin; but he was silent, perhapsfrom his inability to speak.
"Stop, Mr. Victor!" called Christy to the mate. "I cannot trust that manto remain on board of the Raven"; and at the same time he directed Mr.Baskirk to have him arrested and put in irons, if he was violent.
"But this gentleman is the commander of the steamer," interposed themate.
"I don't care what he is; if he were a gentleman, as you call him,I would treat him like one; but he is a brute, and I shall treat him assuch," replied Christy, as two of his men, attended by two more, laidhands on the dripping captain. "You may send his clothes on board ofthis ship, Mr. Victor. Have him committed to the brig, Master-at-Arms."
There was no appeal from the decision of Commander Passford, for hisauthority was supreme. The refractory commander was committed to thebrig of the St. Regis, and his own steward was sent to him with hisclothes, with order to exchange his wet garments for dry ones.
"Sail, ho!" shouted the man on the cross trees, who had remained thereduring the scene which had just transpired, while the commander wasdescending from the rail.
Possibly the lookout man had been more attentive to the proceedings onthe deck of the Raven than to his duty, for the sail must have been insight some little time before he reported it. The two steamers, whichhad been vainly chasing the prize, were now within half a mile of theSt. Regis.