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

by Harry Castlemon

  CHAPTER XVII.

  ZEKE'S EXHIBITION OF STRENGTH.

  "Say, hold on, friend," said Zeke, reaching out his hand and laying agrip on the storekeeper's collar. "We don't want any men like you aboardhere. That's the way ashore."

  "Who made you master of this vessel?" answered the man, thrusting Zeke'sarm aside. "The captain says the wounded men are on board this ship andI want to see who they are. Just keep your hands to yourself."

  Zeke's whole appearance changed as if by magic. The good-natured smilegave place to a frown, and the hand which the storekeeper had thrownaside speedily caught its grip again, and this time it was there tostay. With the other hand he caught the man below the waist-band, and amoment afterward he gave a puff like a tired locomotive and thestorekeeper was swung clear of the deck. Lifting his victim until hewas at arm's length above his head he walked across the deck to theother side, and sent him headlong into the water. It was an exhibitionof strength on Zeke's part that no one had ever seen before. He leanedover the rail until the man's face appeared at the surface and thenshook his fist at him.

  "Now don't you wish you had gone back my way?" said he. "Swim around thesloop and get somebody to help you out. You can't come aboard here."

  "There," said Enoch. "Ledyard is a Tory sure enough. Zeke knew it allthe time and took this way to wash some of his meanness out of him. Iwill have to go to his store to get some more powder," he added, holdingup his horn so that he could see the inside of it. "I shot most of whatI had away at the Britishers who manned this schooner. Come on, Caleb. Ithink we can get ashore now."

  The boys made another attempt this time and were successful. Every onethey saw on the wharf was a provincial and wanted to shake hands withthem. Of course, too, everybody wanted to know what sort of treatmentCaleb had met with at the hands of the Britishers, but the boysanswered in as few words as possible and as soon as they were out of thecrowd they broke into a run, headed for home.

  "Come in and let mother thank you for rescuing me," said Caleb, as theystopped at his gate. "She can do it better than I can."

  "I did not have more to do with your rescue than a dozen other men whowere with me," replied Enoch. "Let me go home first and then I will comeback."

  Caleb reluctantly let his friend go, and Enoch kept on his way towardhome. He was thinking over the incidents that had happened during thefight and which he wanted to tell for his mother's satisfaction, when hecame opposite the house in which James Howard lived. He kept on withoutgiving a thought to James except to wonder how he would feel to knowthat the schooner, in which he had so much confidence, had been beatenby an unarmed sloop, when he saw the boy at the gate waiting for him.His face was very pale, but it gave place to a flush of anger when henoticed the smile with which Enoch greeted him. He backed away from thegate as our hero approached, and this showed that he did not mean to lethimself get within reach of a provincial's arm.

  "You think you are smart, don't you?" was the way in which he opened theconversation.

  "Well--yes; almost anybody would think himself smart under thecircumstances," said Enoch. "We whipped them in a fair fight."

  "I do not believe it," returned James hotly.

  "I do not ask you to take my word for it, but the wharf is not but alittle way off, and you can go down and see for yourself," said Enoch.

  "We heard the firing, and we came to the conclusion that your sloop hadgot sunk out of sight," said James. "But I see that the schooner broughther back with her."

  Enoch made no reply. He wanted to see how much James knew about thefight.

  "How many of the men were killed and wounded on your side?" continuedJames, after a moment's pause.

  "About half."

  "I tell you the regulars fought, did they not? How many of them were hiton their side?"

  "About half."

  "Do you mean to say that you killed as many of them as they did of you?"asked James, who was plainly astonished to hear it.

  "That is what I mean to say. We boarded their vessel and pulled down herflag----"

  "I tell you I don't believe any such stuff," shouted James, who was moresurprised the longer the story went on. "You will never get your handson that flag."

  "Go down and see. That is all you have got to do."

  "I will wager that Captain Moore laid some of you fellows out. Was thathe standing on the rail waving his hat to us?"

  "No, it could not have been Captain Moore. He is dead."

  "What!" James almost stammered. "Did one of you men dare to draw aweapon on him?"

  "Yes, they did. He had weapons in his own hand----"

  "Of course he did. He was defending his vessel."

  "And we wanted to take it and we were stronger than he was."

  "If some of you don't get your necks stretched before long I shall missmy guess," said James, walking up and down the path like a boy who hadbeen bereft of his senses. "You have committed piracy, every one ofyou."

  "And you would be the first to grab a rope and haul us up, I suppose?Look here, James, Caleb has got back now----"

  "Oh! Did you find him and turn him loose? Then he will not have to go toNew York to pay his fine?"

  "Not by a long shot. I found him locked in the brig and let him out."

  This news was more than James could stand. He pulled off his hat, dughis fingers into his head and acted altogether like a boy who was almostready to go insane.

  "And if you are wise you and Emerson Miller will stay close about thehouse," said Enoch, shifting his rifle to his other shoulder. "The firsttime he catches you on the street he will have his pay for that. So youwant to watch out."

  Enoch walked on toward his home and James went into the house sobewildered that he hardly knew which end he stood on. He found hisfather in the dining-room, pacing up and down the floor with his handsbehind his back, but that terrible scowl that had come to his face whenhe first heard that James had been whipped by a rebel, was not there.His face was pale and his hands trembled.

  "Father," whispered James, as though he hardly knew how to communicateto him the news he had just heard, "the dog is dead. Captain Moore hasbeen killed and the rebels have taken the schooner."

  His father fairly gasped for breath. He raised his hands above his headas if to say that he did not want to hear any more, and then groped hisway to a lounge and sank down upon it.

  "I have just seen Enoch out there and he told me all about it,"continued James. "The firing that we heard did not hurt the sloop atall. And the worst of it is, Caleb has been turned loose and now I havegot to stay about the house."

  "Oh Lord! Oh Lord!" groaned Mr. Howard.

  "Now have I got to stand that?" said James in a resolute tone. He wasalways brave enough when he was in his own house and a perfect cowardwhen he got out of it. Perhaps his father could think of some other wayto get rid of Caleb and of Enoch, too.

  "Am I, a good, loyal friend of the King, and ready to go into a fightfor him this minute, to be shut up in the house just because I say thatthose men, every one of them, had ought to have their necks stretched topay them for what they have done?" continued James. "There must be someway in which we can get the start of those rebels."

  "I don't really see what you can do," said Mr. Howard. "The rebels arestronger than we are, and I guess both of us will have to stay in thehouse from this time on. Such a thing was never heard of before.Thirteen little colonies getting up a rebellion in the face of theKing!"

  "But there must be some way out of it?"

  "Of course there is. Let the King send over an army to whip the rebelsinto submission. But before that thing can happen they may work theirsweet will of us. I don't know any better way that we can do but to packup and go to New York."

  "And leave this beautiful place to the rebels?" exclaimed James. "I tellyou I should hate to do that."

  "I don't know what else we can do. We shall be among friends there, andcan say what we think without some paltry little rebel telling us thatwe had better keep our mouth
s shut. But go away and leave me alone for awhile, James. The news you have brought to me almost drives me crazy. Doyou _know_ that Captain Moore has been killed?"

  "All I know about it is what Enoch told me. He said that the captain hadweapons in his hand, but that the attacking party was too strong forhim. He was the best man that ever lived, too, and I tell you it wouldgive me joy to have hold of one end of a rope while the other was fastaround the necks of those people."

  "Be careful that you don't say that where anybody can hear it," said hisfather. "The rebels are in high feather now that they have got avictory, and they would be right on hand for something desperate."

  Mr. Howard settled himself into a comfortable position on the lounge andJames, taking this as a hint that his presence was no longer desirable,picked up his cap and walked out on the porch.

  "I wish I dared go down to the wharf," said he. "But if I do that CalebYoung will be out, and there's no telling what he will do to me. I wishsomebody would come along and give me some news of that fight."

  But James waited a long time before he got it. Enoch and Caleb were athome and holding their mothers spellbound with the various incidentsthat transpired before their sight, while James walked up and down theporch feeling as though he did not have a friend in the world. He lookedin vain for Emerson Miller, but that worthy, who probably knew orsuspected that Caleb Young had been found and released by this time, wasnot at all anxious to be seen in James's company and wisely kept hisdistance.

  "Well, mother, I have got back and there is not a mark on me," shoutedEnoch, as he burst open the kitchen door and sprang into the presence ofher who told him that she did not want him to get his gun into any badhabits. "I shot away all my powder and lead, and I guess that some ofthe Tories that I aimed at have something to remember me by. Why don'tyou say that you are glad to see me?"

  "How about Caleb?" said his mother. "Is he all right?"

  "I did not ask him, but I don't think he heard a bullet while he was inthe brig."

  His mother had been knitting when he came in, and the Book lay in frontof her, open, on her knee. She put the Book and her knitting away andgot up, and folded Enoch to her breast. She made no remark, but the boywas satisfied from the strength of her embrace that she was glad towelcome him home. Enoch then sat down and told her everything connectedwith the fight, not forgetting how Zeke had ducked the storekeeper inthe harbor.

  "I never saw such an exhibition of strength in my life," said he, withenthusiasm. "He took the man this way"--here he got up and elevated hisarms straight above his head--"walked across the boat with him andchucked him into the water. He would not let him come back aboard thesloop either, but told him to swim around and get somebody to help himout. I wish all the men we have were like Zeke."

  Of course there were many questions to be asked and answered on bothsides--Mrs. Crosby was anxious to learn how the different men with whomshe was acquainted had behaved during the fight, and Enoch was equallydesirous to know how the Tories they had left behind them conductedthemselves while they were at sea--and it was almost dark before theyhad got through talking.

  "I was particularly anxious to know what the Tories would do when theyheard that firing," said Enoch. "I was afraid they would be excited anddo something that we would have to settle with them for."

  "Well, they did not," said Mrs. Crosby. "James and Emerson walked up anddown in front of our house when they heard the shooting going on, andasked us to listen to it. 'Aha!' they said. 'The rebels are gettingtheir fill now. After Captain Moore sinks that sloop he will have all hecan do to pick up the dead and wounded ones.' It seems to me that theymust be utterly confounded by the victory of the sloop over an armedvessel."

  "Not only that, but they utterly refused to believe it," said Enoch.