The First Capture; or, Hauling Down the Flag of England

by Harry Castlemon

  CHAPTER XV.

  HAULING DOWN THE FLAG OF ENGLAND.

  "Ah! you have come with an old flint-lock, have you?" said thesharpshooter as Enoch knelt beside him. "Do you think you can hit one ofthose Britishers working about that gun? Now look here: Sight your gunright there," he continued, making a mark with his thumb nail across thebarrel. "Of course if they were in any reasonable distance that wouldthrow the ball away over their heads; but we don't want to kill them somuch as we want to scare them. Now try it at that."

  Enoch drew up his flint-lock and one to have seen him would have thoughtthat he meant to shoot at the cross-trees. Just then a Britisher ranforward with a cartridge in his hand to insert in the gun, but Enoch waswaiting for him. The flint-lock roared, and the man stopped, dropped hiscartridge to the deck and hurried aft holding his right hand as if hewere very tender of it. The old sailor had made his sights just right.

  "That's the way to do it," he exclaimed, stopping in his progress ofdriving a ball home long enough to pat Enoch on the head. "Throw theballs about their ears. That will frighten them even if it does not hurtthem, and what we want is to keep them from firing that gun. Now let mesee if I will have as good luck as I did before."

  "That is to pay him for capturing Caleb," said Enoch. "I wish I knewwhere he is now. I don't want to send my bullets into the hull for fearthat I will hit him."

  The sailor tried it again and with just as good fortune as he had theprevious time. Another Britisher caught up the cartridge and was goingto put it into the gun, but he also dropped it and lay on the deck wherehe had stood. By this time all the sloop's men who had guns werecongregated in the bow, and before they had all fired one round the gunwas deserted.

  "I knew we would put a stop to that," said the man who had fired thefirst shot. "Hold her to it, Zeke. We are gaining on her."

  But Captain Moore was not yet whipped. He had three guns on a broadsidewhich had not yet come into play, and all of a sudden his sails were letout and the schooner veered around to bring them into action. Before hehad got fairly into position three flint-locks roared and two mendropped, one dead and the other seriously wounded. But the captain tookup the position he wanted all the same, and the order to fire camedistinctly to Enoch's ears. He thought he had never heard such a roarbefore as those little guns made when they were turned loose on thesloop. He thought his time had come, and held his breath expecting everyinstant to be his last. But the shells all flew wild. Not one of themcame near the sloop. The provincials straightened up and fired threemore bullets at the men who worked the guns, but the schooner was soobscured by the smoke of her cannons that they could not see what havocthey had made.

  During this maneuver on the part of the pursued, the sloop had gainedamazingly, and now they were within earshot of the Britishers. Thinkingto avoid the further effusion of blood by prolonging the fightingCaptain O'Brien called out--

  "Do you surrender?"

  "No!" returned Captain Moore's voice. "We will surrender when the lastplank goes down."

  And Captain Moore showed that he was in earnest. Almost with the wordshe lighted a hand-grenade which he carried in his arms, and threw ittoward O'Brien. It did not come half way to the sloop but it explodedwith stunning force and gave the provincials some idea of what was instore for them.

  "Bring us alongside, Zeke," exclaimed Captain O'Brien, so impatient thathe could not stand still. "If you can not manage her let somebody elsego to the wheel."

  "Bussin' on it, captain, I am doing the best I can," replied Zeke,working the wheel back and forth as if he hoped in that way to get somemore speed out of her. "She will be alongside in five minutes."

  But those five minutes were a long time to wait. The flint-locks were inclose range now, and every time one of them spoke some body on theBritisher's side went down. It did not seem as though they had menenough to stand such a fusilade. Captain O'Brien was standing there witha rope in his hand, and when he had got it all coiled up he stepped overand took his place among the men who had flint-locks in their hands.

  "Now, boys, protect me," said he. "Whenever our boat comes near enough Iam going to catch the schooner and lash them fast. Enoch, go back andpick off the man at the wheel."

  The boy started at once and without making any reply. He kept alongclose under the rail to be out of range of any one who was watching himfrom the schooner's deck, and when he came within sight of Zeke he washorrified to find him with his face all covered with blood.

  "Oh Zeke, they have hit you," exclaimed Enoch.

  "Don't I know that?" replied the wheelman, who stuck to his work asthough there was nothing the matter with him. "But as long as they donot get me down I am going to stand up. Do you see that man alongsidethe schooner's wheel? Well he is the one that shot me."

  Enoch took just one glance at the schooner and saw that the man referredto had just loaded his pistol and was now engaged in priming it. He castfrequent glances toward Zeke and grinned at him the while as if to tellhim that his second shot would go to the mark; but he did not takenotice of Enoch who, kneeling down behind the rail, brought his gun tobear on him. It spoke almost immediately, and the man dropped hispistol, turned part way around and sank down lifeless where he stood.

  "There!" exclaimed Zeke. "That was a good shot. Now see if you can getthat man at the wheel. That will leave her without any guiding hand, andbefore she can bring another man to helm I may be able to come up withher."

  "I was sent here for that purpose," said Enoch, rolling over on his backand reaching for his powder-horn. "I am going to pick off every man theysend there."

  In a few minutes the gun was ready, after trying in vain to retain hishold of the spokes, the steersman went down in a heap. Of course theschooner came into the wind, and Zeke uttered a yell as she veered roundbroadside to the sloop; and in a moment more there was a rush of menfrom the deck and Enoch and Zeke were standing alone.

  "Boarders away!" shouted Captain O'Brien, as he made the two vesselsfast together. "Now, boys, show what you're are made of."

  Zeke released his hold of the wheel, and caught up his club which stoodbeside him where he could get his hands upon it at a moment's warning;he cleared the rails of the vessels without using his hands, and Enochlost sight of him in the fracas. Somehow, Enoch could not have told howit happened, he was close at his heels when he reached the schooner'sdeck, and between using his gun as a club to fell a man to the deck andmaking use of it as a parry to ward off a blow that somebody aimed athis head, he did not know anything more until he heard a voice exclaimin piteous accents:

  "I surrender! I surrender!"

  "Who is that?" shouted Captain O'Brien. "Do you all surrender? If youdo, throw down your weapons."

  The Capture of the Schooner.]

  There was a sound of dropping hand-spikes and cutlasses, and in aninstant there was silence on the deck. The smoke of the hand-grenadeswith which the boarders had been greeted floated away after a while, andthen the provincials were able to see what they had done and how greatwas the number of men that they had to mourn. Enoch was astounded. Itdid not seem possible for him to step in any direction without treadingupon the body of friend or foe. The two bodies of men opposed to eachother were about thirty on a side, and at least half that number werelying on the deck dead, or wounded so badly that they could not get up.He looked everywhere for Captain Moore, and finally found him with asaber-cut in his side. His first action had proved his death.

  "Now the next thing is Caleb," said Enoch, starting toward the gangwayto go below. "I hope that nothing has happened to him."

  Enoch did not want to go on talking to himself in this way, forsomething told him that he might find his friend Caleb cold in death.He knew where the brig was and hurried down to it, and on the way hefound half a dozen men who were wounded and the doctor and his assistantattending to their wants. It was a horrible sight, and Enoch turned awayhis head that he might not see it. A few steps brought him to the brig,and there was a hand stuck out to grasp his o
wn. It was Caleb sureenough, and no signs of a wound on him. He was as jolly and full of funas ever.

  "Enoch, old boy, I knew you would not rest easy until you had got me,"said Caleb. "Put it there."

  "Are you not hurt a bit?" asked Enoch. He almost dreaded to ask thequestion for some how he seemed to think that no living boy could comeout of that fight without being desperately wounded. Enoch did not stopto think of himself. He appeared to know that he was going to come outall right.

  "Open the door and let me out," repeated Caleb, taking hold of thegrating in front of him and shaking it with all his strength. "I havebeen in here long enough."

  "Who has got the key?" asked Enoch. "If I can't find the key I shallhave to chop the grating down."

  "Do you know the boatswain?"

  Enoch shook his head.

  "Well, he is the one that has the key, and you will have to find him inorder to get it. Say!" said Caleb, seizing his friend by the arm andpulling him up close to him. "I ought to 'start' that fellow. He wasgoing to be awful mean to me if we had started for New York. Why don'tyou go and get the key?"

  Enoch went but he did not know where he was going to find the boatswain.At the head of the gangway he met a Britisher coming down with his armin a sling, and he asked him if he could show the man to him.

  "Yes, I can," said the sailor. "He has gone to Davy's locker sure. I'llbet he won't start me any more. Come on and I will show him to you."

  Enoch followed him to the deck and there, where the British had gatheredto meet the boarders from the sloop and but a little way from hiscaptain, lay the boatswain with an ugly thrust from a cutlass near hisheart. By feeling of his pockets on the outside Enoch soon discoveredhis bunch of keys, and he soon had possession of them.

  "You will not get a chance at that boatswain on this trip," said Enoch,as he proceeded to open the door. "He has gone where he can't hurt younor anybody else by 'starting' him. He is killed."

  He opened the door and Caleb fairly jumped into his arms. After they hadembraced each other for a minute or two Caleb asked after his mother.

  "Of course she felt very bad to know that you had been taken prisoner,but she did not cry," said Enoch. "I told her that when I came backto-night I should fetch you with me, and I am going to keep my promise."

  "Let us go on deck and see how things look up there," said Caleb. "Youhad a lively time taking this boat. I never heard such a roar as theseguns made."

  If Caleb, when he was down below, thought things were lively, what musthe have thought when he came out of the gangway and saw the number ofmen that had been killed and wounded during the fight! Almost the firstman he saw was Captain Moore.

  "How many men did you have on each side?" he asked in astonishment. "Didyou shoot that old flint-lock of yours?"

  "I did, but I shot to maim, not to kill. I couldn't do it. No doubt theywould have used me worse than we will them, but you see they did not getthe chance. There's Wheaton pulling down the flag. Let us go up and hearwhat he has to say."

  The flag was already down and Wheaton was folding it up tenderly tocarry it under his arm. Probably if it had been an American flag and thevictory had been the other way, there would not have been so muchattention shown it by the Britishers who pulled it down. Wheaton shookCaleb by the hand, asked him how he had fared as a prisoner in the powerof the enemies of his country and said as he gathered up the flag--

  "Captain O'Brien says that this is the first time this flag has everbeen hauled down by a foe to England. She has made everybody strike toher, but _she_ has struck to nobody. It would not have been pulled downnow if she had treated us right. She will find before she gets throughwith it that a little flock of Yankees, to which her troops came so nearto surrendering at Lexington, are as good as they make them. We have metthem, man for man, and whipped them all."