by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XII
THE BATTLE FOUGHT, THE VICTORY WON
Whatever doubts Louis had in the first instance about Captain Scott'smanagement of the defence of the Maud, he now believed that he honestlyand sincerely desired to escape from the difficult and trying situationwithout an encounter with the pirate. He had feared the temptation tomake a hero of himself would lead him into a conflict with the enemywhen it might be avoided.
Without "showing the white feather," he had conducted himself with quiteas much prudence as resolution. He had done his best to escape from thebay without any fighting. Before his reformation he was generally"spoiling for a fight" when there was any dispute or difficulty; but onthe present occasion he had done his best to avoid one.
He had tried to do just as he believed Louis, his model in morals andconduct, would have done if he had been in command of the Maud. Thehearty approval which his mentor had expressed of all he had done so farafforded him intense satisfaction, and he was sure that Captain Ringgoldcould find no fault with his management up to this moment.
"Here we are, Louis; and, so far as my plan is concerned, we areeuchred. It is a failure," said Captain Scott, as he took a survey ofthe surroundings, which remained precisely the same as they had beenfrom the beginning.
"Through no fault of the plan or yourself, Captain. If there was nochannel here to deep water, of course you could not pass through it,"replied Louis. "You have done everything you could."
"I have been asking myself if I was to blame for getting into the trap;for we certainly are in a trap," continued Scott. "I followed theinstructions of Captain Ringgold to the letter; and when I brought theMaud to her anchorage by the ledge, the pirate was not in sight, and Iknew no more of what had become of him than I did in regard to theGuardian-Mother."
"You have no occasion to censure yourself for anything," replied Louis."You have obeyed your orders, and our present difficult situation is theresult of the non-appearance of the ship. Don't blame yourself, CaptainScott, for not a shadow of an imputation can rest upon your conduct."
"Thank you, my dear fellow. I hope I shall get out of this bay withoutforfeiting your generous approval," added Scott.
"Here we are, Captain, as you say, and it looks as though we were in abad scrape. All we have to do is to turn our attention to the manner ofgetting out of it. If there were any reason to reproach yourself oranybody else, we have no time to attend to that matter. What can bedone next?" demanded Louis, rousing his energies to face the difficulty.
"What we do next depends mainly upon what the Fatime does; and she isn'tdoing anything," replied Captain Scott, apparently roused to newexertion by the burst of energy on the part of his companion in thepilot-house. "I have no doubt Mazagan intends to make an effort to getpossession of our millionaire as soon as he has the opportunity; but hewill never succeed unless he knocks the Maud all to pieces with histwelve-pounders, which I don't believe he can do, Louis. You havecomforted me so effectually, my dear fellow, that I begin to think it istime for me to do something of the same sort for you."
"I don't feel the need of comfort and consolation yet," said Louis quitemerrily. "I am not at all alarmed; and what I say is not braggadocio."
"If the Maud is wrecked by the guns and sent to the bottom, we stillhave the whole island of Cyprus open to us," added the captain.
"To come down to the hard pan of business, allow me to ask a foolishquestion or two, and you may laugh at them if you please. What is theFatime waiting for? Why doesn't Mazagan proceed to carry out his threatto capture me?" asked Louis.
"For the simple reason that he cannot; and the question calls for areview of the situation," replied the captain, as he took from hispocket a paper on which he had drawn a diagram of the position of bothvessels, with the shape of the bay, the ledge, and the soundings so faras they were known. "Here is the Maud," he continued, making a smallcross on the paper at the point in the inside channel where she had cometo the shoal water. "There is no way to get out of this place exceptthat by which we came in."
"I understand all that; for we have the shore on one side of us and theledge on the other, and the channel is not deep enough to permit us togo ahead," added Louis.
"That is our position. The Fatime lies in deep water at least a milefrom us. She is a steamer of four hundred tons, and she must draw atleast fifteen feet of water; for both of these steamers were built wherethey put them down deeper in the water than they do in our country. Thepirate would take the ground anywhere near the ledge, and she could notcome into the channel by which we reached this point. Therefore, she cando nothing; and her guns would not hit us a mile distant, if they wouldcarry a ball as far as that. You can see why she can do nothing yet awhile."
"But the tide is rising, and we now have an hour of the flood,"suggested Louis.
"But the tide is rising for the Fatime as well as for the Maud."
"There was nine feet of water on the ledge at low tide, and there willbe twelve feet at high tide."
"That will not be till nine o'clock this evening. But even if it werenow I should not dare to undertake the task of piloting the Maud overthe ledge; for I know nothing about the soundings on it except on thesouth edge. That would not do. We must get to deep water by the way wecame in here," said the captain very decidedly.
"A shot from the pirate!" shouted Felix at this moment, as he noted theflash.
A moment later the report came to the ears of all on board, and thegun-made noise enough to startle a timid person. All watched for theball, and saw it strike the water about half way between the twovessels.
"Bully for you, Mazagan!" exclaimed Felix. "You fired at the water, andyou hit it."
"He is only trying his gun, and he will do better than that after hegets his hand in," said the captain. "The piece was depressed too muchto prove what it would do if properly aimed."
"They are getting up the anchor!" shouted Felix a couple of minuteslater, after he had brought his spy-glass to bear upon the pirate.
"She is evidently going to do something," said the captain, who hadtaken his usual place at the wheel, while Louis was on the other side ofit, where both had remained after the steamer stopped.
"What do you suppose Mazagan intends to do now?" asked Louis.
"I have not the remotest idea, except that, in a general way, he willtry to keep us shut up in this channel. For that reason I do notpropose to remain here any longer;" and he rang the gong to go ahead.
The tide must have risen six or eight inches by this time, increasingthe depth in the channel to that extent. Scott had taken the bearingsvery carefully when he came in, and he soon rang the speed bell. TheMaud proceeded at full speed till she came to the turn in the passage,where the captain rang to stop her, in order to take an observation.
The Fatime had not yet got under way, and she appeared to be having somedifficulty with her cable or anchor. As soon as the Maud had lost herheadway the port gun belched out another flash and cloud of smoke. TheMaud was at about the same distance from the pirate as when the latterfired before, and Scott watched with interest for the result of thedischarge. The solid shot plumped into the water half a mile from themark, just as though it had been dropped from some point overhead.
"I don't know much of anything about gunnery, except with four-pounderson a yacht; but that last gun was elevated so that we know about therange of her pieces," said the captain. "It is less than half a mile,and her shots would not do much damage at more than half that distance."
"She has weighed her anchor, and started her screw," reported Felix, whowas still watching the enemy with the glass.
Scott rang the gong, and the Maud went ahead again. At the same time hedirected Felipe to be ready to give the steamer her best speed.
"Another shot!" shouted Felix.
This one was discharged from her starboard gun, as she came about; butits range fell considerably short of that of the other piece. The Maudwas still in the channel, and the ledge could be seen through the clear
water on the port hand; what the soundings were on the starboard handhad not yet been demonstrated. The steamer was moving at her ordinaryspeed. The Fatime had turned her head to the south; and, though she wasstill nearly a mile distant, her engine gong could be heard when it rangfor the vessel to go ahead.
The pirate soon changed her course, with the apparent intention of"cutting across lots," in order to reach the Maud. A hand was heavingthe lead, indicating that Mazagan was not sure of his soundings. Shewent ahead on the new course not more than the eighth of a mile beforeshe came about, showing that the depth of water was not satisfactory toher commander.
"If the tide were not rising, I should know better what to do; for wemight go back to the angle in the channel, out of the reach of the guns,and remain there till the morning tide, and then work out into deepwater," said Captain Scott, after he had observed the movements of theenemy for a couple of minutes. "But with two feet more water, the Fatimecan go at least up to the verge of the ledge, and that plan would notwork anyhow."
"Another gun!" cried Felix, as he caught the flash.
The enemy was a little nearer than before, but the shot fell hardly lessthan half a mile from the Maud. Mazagan had "swung to" in order to firethis shot, but resumed his course at once. Scott desired to gain sometime by leaving the channel, and heading to the south-east. Morris wassounding with his boathook, and reported only thirteen feet when theMaud began to move in that direction.
"Twelve feet and a half!" shouted the first officer a little later.
"This won't do," said Scott, shaking his head. "The water shoals to thesouthward, and all we can do is to face the music."
"What do you mean by that, Captain?" asked Louis.
Scott made a couple of crosses on his diagram, and passed it to hiscompanion.
"The cross on your left is our present position near the outlet of thechannel," the captain explained. "On the port we have the ledge, and wecan't run over that. On the starboard the water is too shoal for us. Wecan go neither to the right nor the left."
"Therefore you must run dead ahead."
"Precisely so, or right into the guns of the enemy."
"Couldn't you retreat up the channel again?" asked Louis; and it beganto look to him as though "the end of all things had come;" and it evenappeared possible that he might be captured, after all.
"Heave the lead, Flix!" called the captain, without answering thequestion.
"And a half two!" reported the Milesian.
"That means fifteen feet," said the captain. "The Fatime could come intothis position now, or at least within an hour. After we had run as faras we could go up the channel, we should hardly be more than fourhundred and fifty feet from her, and she could batter the Maud to piecesat her leisure. We must face the music. That is our only safety, ifthere is any safety anywhere."
"I am with you, Captain Scott. But we are taking all the shot, andgiving none. I am not a nonresistant in such a situation as this," saidLouis. "We can't run away, and we must fight!"
"I am glad the suggestion comes from you, Louis," replied Scott."Morris, bring out your company of riflemen! You will act assharpshooters, and pay particular attention to the bridge andpilot-house of the enemy."
"Ay, ay, Captain!" returned Woolridge.
Louis left the pilot-house to join the ranks. Don came up from thefire-room, and Morris led his force to the hurricane deck, whichcommanded the best view of the enemy. By this time the Fatime was withinthe eighth of a mile of the Maud. Her engineer was forcing her to herbest speed; but she was coming head on, and could not use her broadsideguns without swinging to, which Mazagan seemed to be unwilling to do, asit caused considerable delay every time it was done.
She was coming in ahead of the Maud, and her starboard gun would soon beavailable at a distance of not more than twenty yards. The work of theriflemen on the upper deck was evidently having its effect, and one manhad been seen to fall on the bridge of the pirate.
Suddenly the helm of the Fatime was put to starboard, and the steamerpresented her broadside to the Maud. The gun was discharged then, andthe shot struck the house on deck of the little steamer, tearing its waythrough the galley. Scott, perhaps maddened by the crashing boardsbehind him, put the helm to port. Felipe was driving the engine to itsfull power, and the bow of the Maud struck the broadside of the Fatime,crushing in about six feet of her plates. Then he rang to back her, andthe little steamer went clear of the disabled pirate.