by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXIV
LIEUTENANT PASSFORD ON A MISSION
The officers on board of the Teaser could not explain the occasion ofthe firing on the island, though it sounded as though an engagement ofsome sort was in progress. It had been foggy during the preceding day,and if any movement on the part of the enemy had been indicated it couldnot have been seen on board of the ships off the entrance to the bay.
"I hope this business we are to do this morning will not take us long,"said Mr. Blowitt. "We may be wanted on board, and I should not like tobe absent from the Bellevite if she is to take part in an engagement ofany kind."
"And I am sure I should not," added Christy. "I should not be surprisedif the enemy made an attempt to capture Pickens; but even if they stormit in the darkness, I do not see that the ships can do anything untilthey are able to see what they are to do."
"But this affair may keep us away from the ship for a day or two,"suggested the second lieutenant.
"I don't think so, sir; I believe you will be on board again beforeseven bells in the morning watch," replied Christy. "The ship's companyof the Teaser were to be somewhere on the shores of the sound where theycould be taken on board."
"But the men you landed at the point believed that the Teaser was toget out through the sound," replied Mr. Blowitt. "They took you for thepilot Gilder, and you did not tell them that you intended to run theblockade."
"Of course I did not; if I had, they would have remained on board. Butthe guard-boat attempted to stop us, and the artillery on the islandfired into it, though it is probable that they did not hit it in thedense fog," Christy explained. "Our men may have learned from theguard-boat that we took the steamer out through the main channel."
"If they did they probably learned that the Teaser went out with theassistance of the garrison at the fort," suggested Mr. Blowitt.
"I am confident that the officer of the guard-boat would have no meansof knowing that fact," argued Christy. "Of course, he heard the firingin the neighborhood of the fort, and he would naturally conclude thatthey were firing upon the steamer to prevent her from running out."
"That may be; but, to tell you the truth, Mr. Passford, I am afraid weshall not find these men," added the second lieutenant. "From the firingwe hear, I should judge that a movement of some kind is in progress, andour men may be better informed than you expect."
"Of course, they may be; but I expect to find these men at some pointalong the shore," replied Christy, who thought the second lieutenant wasjust a little obstinate in not accepting his theory in full.
The steamer continued on her course to the eastward, and nothing morepassed between the two principal officers in regard to the crew fromPensacola. But Flint was quite as confident as the third lieutenant thatthe forty men, more or less, would be captured. The noise of the firingcould no longer be heard, and then Christy suggested that the whistle besounded as a signal to the men if they were in the vicinity.
The depth of water was three or four fathoms close up to this partof the island. The soundings indicated that the steamer was as nearas it was prudent to go in the dense fog. Christy was sure that theprivateer's crew could not have gone any farther to the eastward by thistime, and the screw was stopped, while all hands made an anxious use oftheir ears to detect any sounds that came from the shore. But nothingcould be heard at first, and Mr. Blowitt again intimated that they wereengaged in a "wild-goose chase." But he had hardly uttered this coolingreflection before Beeks came aft to report that a number of pistolshots, as he thought they were, had been heard in the distance.
"Nobody can tell what they mean," said the sceptical Mr. Blowitt. "Theymay be a part of the affair we heard going on soon after we left theship."
"In what direction were the shots, Beeks?" asked Christy.
"They sounded as though they were about half a mile or less to thewestward of us," replied the quartermaster.
"Blow the whistle in short blasts, Beeks," added Mr. Blowitt, who seemedto have gathered a little faith from the report of the quartermaster.
The order was obeyed, and Beeks again reported that pistol shots hadbeen heard from the westward. The third lieutenant was in a hurry tohave the business finished, for he felt confident that the Bellevitewould soon be engaged in an affair of more importance than picking upa couple of score of prisoners. He ordered the steamer to come about,and move to the westward; but after she had been under way about fiveminutes, he rang to stop her, and then sounded the whistles again.Several pistol shots responded to this signal. Again he started thescrew, and pointed the bow of the Teaser squarely to the north.
The steamer moved very slowly, and two men sounded all the time tillthey reported "by the mark two," when there could not have been morethan three feet of water under the keel of the vessel. The screw wasstopped and backed so that she might not run upon any shoal place aheadof her, and the officers waited with interest and anxiety for furtheraction on the part of the party on shore. By this time no one doubtedthat there were men on this part of the island; but whether they werethe crew of the privateer or not was yet to be proved.
"Steamer, ahoy!" shouted some one on the shore.
"On the island!" replied Christy, as he was instructed to do by hissuperior.
"What steamer is that?" demanded the speaker on the island.
Whoever he was, he could not help knowing that a steamer was there, forthe engineer had begun to blow off steam as soon as the screw stopped,though neither party could see the other in the fog and darkness.
"The Teaser," replied Christy. "Who are you?"
"We are the ship's company of the Teaser, and we want to get on board,"replied the speaker. "Is Captain Folkner on board?"
"He is on board--of the Bellevite," the third lieutenant would havefinished the sentence if he had told the whole truth, for he utteredonly the first part of the sentence.
"All right. The first and second lieutenants are with us. Is Gilder onboard?"
"He is; and he wants to get back to the other side of the inland,"answered Christy, who considered it his duty to make his replies assuitable to the occasion as possible. "Who is speaking?"
"Lieutenant Lonley," replied the man; and Christy knew him, though hedid not know his rank before. "He wants to see Gilder before he goes onboard. Tell him to come on shore in his canoe."
"What is that for?" demanded Christy, rather surprised at the unexpectedrequest.
"I want to see him on particular business; I have a message for him,which I cannot deliver in presence of any other person," replied Lonley.
"All right; you shall see him soon," answered Christy.
"Get out the boats to take us on board," continued Lonley. "Send themabout a mile to the eastward, where we have left our bags."
"All right," repeated Christy.
But he said what he did not believe, for everything did not look rightto him. He could not understand why the bags of the men should be a mileto the eastward. He could not imagine what business Lonley could havewith Gilder or his representative; and if he had any, why it should benecessary to meet him on the island.
"Of course you don't expect me to carry on the programme that fellow hasmarked out," said Mr. Blowitt. "I don't quite like the looks of thethings that we can't see, Mr. Passford."
"Neither do I, Mr. Blowitt," replied the third lieutenant frankly.
"I shall not send a boat from the steamer till I understand this mattera great deal better than I do now, and especially I shall not send theboats a mile to the eastward," added the second lieutenant.
"Of course it is possible that my plan has miscarried already," addedChristy.
"I shall do everything I can to carry out your plan, as I am instructedto do by the captain; but I have the feeling, in spite of myself, thatwe are crawling into a hornet's nest," added Mr. Blowitt, with someanxiety in his tones. "You will call all hands quietly, and be ready torepel boarders. It is well to be prepared for whatever may come. Thefiring at the west end of the island indicated
that something was goingon, and perhaps these men on the shore know about it."
Christy obeyed the order promptly, and the next minute, every seaman onboard was ready with his cutlass and revolver to meet an attack. But nosound came from the shore just then, and the officers were in a state ofuncertainty in regard to the situation which allowed them to do nothing.They waited for half an hour, when the leadsman reported that the waterwas shoaling, which indicated that the Teaser was drifting towards theisland.
"On board the Teaser!" shouted Lonley, so distinctly that he couldhardly have been more than three hundred feet from the steamer.
"On shore," replied Christy, prompted by Mr. Blowitt.
"I am waiting for Gilder! Why don't he come on shore?" shouted Lonley,his impatience apparent in his tones.
"Where are all the men?" demanded Christy, as requested by the secondlieutenant.
"They have gone a mile to the eastward where they left their bags."
"We will run down in the steamer for them," added Mr. Blowitt, talkingthrough Christy.
"Don't do that!" protested the speaker on shore. "There is a Yankeesteamer off in that direction. We heard her steam an hour ago."
"All right!" replied Christy.
"That settles the matter in my mind," said Mr. Blowitt. "They are tryingto play what they call a Yankee trick upon us. When we send our boats tothe eastward, we shall send them into a trap. If the boats are to bringoff forty men, they will expect them to go with only men enough to pullthe oars; and when they get possession of them, they expect to retakethe Teaser."
"I think you are right, Mr. Blowitt," replied Christy, who began tobelieve that his scheme was rapidly approaching a failure, though he didnot give it up just yet.
"This Lonley is still on the shore near us," said Mr. Blowitt. "I shouldvery much like to know what has been going on to-night on the island,and it may be that he knows all about it. As you are the representativeof Gilder, Mr. Passford, you may take the canoe that is astern, and havea talk with Lonley at close quarters, if you don't object."
"I should have proposed it myself if I had not feared that the ideawould be charged to my audacity," replied Christy. "I will take onlyFlint with me, as he was with me before."
The canoe was brought up to the gangway, and Flint took his place at theoars. Mr. Blowitt charged the young officer in the most serious mannernot to run any risks, and the boat was shoved off. It required but a fewstrokes of the oars to bring it into shoal water by the beach. Only asingle man could be seen on the shore, and this one must be Lonley.There seemed to be no risk, and Christy landed.