Within The Enemy's Lines by Oliver Optic (beach books txt) 📖

as happy as possible, Captain Folkner."

The lieutenant directed Flint to have the prisoner conveyed to his stateroom, and to have a man stationed at the door to see that he did not escape, 236 or do any mischief. The sentinel was to keep his eye on him all the time, and not allow the room to be closed for a moment. The most reliable man of the party was selected for this duty, for the captain, in a fit of desperation over the loss of his vessel, which was his fortune, might attempt some reckless act.

Accompanied by six men, Christy visited the engine-room, where nearly all the hands remaining on board were employed. If there was to be any trouble at all in completing the capture, it would be in this department. Everything was in working order, and an engineer was on duty, for the engine had been used in dragging the casks under the bottom of the vessel.

Beeks was directed to arrest the men on duty, and the engine was handed over to Sampson, who had been brought for such a position if the expedition needed him in that capacity. But there was only an assistant engineer and several firemen on duty, and these were disposed of without any delay. They were all conducted to the wardroom, where they were disarmed and a guard placed over them. A couple of sailors were detailed to serve as firemen, and the work of taking possession was completed.

237 For the first time the lieutenant had an opportunity to examine the prize, as she would be if he succeeded in getting her out of the bay. She was certainly a fine little steamer, and, with the heavy gun mounted on a pivot, she would have been capable of doing a great deal of mischief among the unprotected merchant ships of the nation.

When he visited the cabin, he found two colored men there, one of whom appeared to be a very intelligent fellow. He was very polite to the lieutenant, and it was evident that he had no personal interest in the success of the Teaser in the business for which she had been fitted out. He was the cabin steward, and he had heard everything that had been said in regard to the vessel since he came on board of her.

"What is your name, my man?" asked Christy, addressing the steward.

"My name is Davis Talbot; but no one ever calls me anything but Dave," replied the man, with a cheerful smile, as though he was not at all disconcerted by the change which had come about in the ownership of the Teaser.

"How long have you been on board of this 238 steamer, Dave?" asked the officer, much pleased with the intelligent face of the steward.

"About two months, sir."

"Where did this steamer come from?"

"Captain Folkner bought her somewhere in the West Indies, and brought her here before the blockade was fairly established."

"Then she is an English-built steamer?"

"I suppose she is, sir; but I don't know anything about it."

"Then she has been here a long while. What has Captain Folkner been doing all this time?" asked Christy curiously.

"Inventing, sir," replied Dave, chuckling.

"I see; he has that on the brain."

"The government threatened to take his vessel if he did not fit her out and take her to sea. Then he hurried up, and got a crew ready; but they had a quarrel last night, and most of the men would not come on board."

"Yes; I know all about that," added Christy, as he looked at his watch by the light of the shaded lamp in the cabin. "I suppose you insist upon serving the Confederacy, Dave?"

"I don't insist on anything, sir; I go where 239 the ship takes me, and I don't mean to quarrel with anybody."

"In other words, will it be necessary to put you under guard?" asked Christy.

"I don't think it would do me any good, sir," replied Dave, laughing.

"Which side do you belong on?" demanded the officer, rather impatiently.

"I belong on Dave's side, sir."

"Which is Dave's side?"

"The side of freedom," replied the steward, with some embarrassment. "I don't know you, sir; you don't wear the uniform of a Yankee or a rebel, and the darkey gets crushed between the upper and the nether millstone."

"Then to make the matter plainer to you, I am the third lieutenant of the United States steamer Bellevite, and I have captured this vessel as an officer of the United States Navy," replied Christy.

"That's all I want to know: the darkey knows where to go, when it is safe to go there," replied Dave.

"Then if it is safe for you to go to the pilot-house, you may come with me," added the lieutenant, as he led the way to the deck.

240 Beeks, with the men who had not been assigned to other duty, was cutting away the ropes that held the casks in place, and had already turned adrift all the raft of them alongside. All the rubbish the nautical inventor had collected to carry out his famous scheme of floating the vessel through the sound was cleared from the deck, and cut loose from the side.

"I think everything is clear, sir," reported Beeks, as Christy appeared on deck with Dave.

"Stand by to get up the anchor, then," added the lieutenant.

"No anchor down, sir," interposed Dave. "She is made fast to the buoy."

"So much the better. I suppose Captain Folkner did not trouble himself about the forts, Dave, did he?" Christy inquired.

"Yes, sir, he did; Captain Folkner never slept a wink when he did not have Fort Pickens on his stomach for a nightmare," replied Dave, with a chuckle.

"But Fort Pickens is all of four miles from the entrance to the channel of the sound."

"He was in mortal terror of the guns, all the same."

241 "How was it in regard to Fort Barrancas and Fort McRae?"

"Of course they would not fire on his vessel; if he went out in a fog or dark night, he was to burn a blue light; and I reckon you can do the same thing, though I don't believe it could be seen to-night from the forts," replied Dave, who appeared to be willing to make a good use of his knowledge.

"Then I don't think we shall have much trouble in getting out of the bay," added Christy, as he went to the pilot-house, attended by Dave.

Since the lieutenant had declared as unequivocally as he desired who and what he was, the steward did all he could to assist his new master. He had served Captain Folkner for two months, for he said the commander had lived on board all this time, and he had heard everything that passed between him and his officers and others with whom he had relations. He was about as well informed as though he had been an officer of the vessel in whom the captain confided all his affairs. He did not wait to have his knowledge dragged out of him, but he volunteered such information as he saw that the occasion required.

242 He was a mulatto, and had plenty of good blood in his veins, though it was corrupted with that of the hated race. He appeared to be about forty years of age, and his knowledge of the affairs of the locality could hardly have been better if he had been a white man, with a quick perception, a reasoning intellect, and a retentive memory. It was the rule with Union officers, soldiers, and sailors to trust the negroes, making proper allowance for their general ignorance and stupidity, and for particular circumstances. But some of them, even many of them, were brighter than might be expected from their situation and antecedents.

The binnacle from the whaleboat had been brought into the pilot-house, and Christy compared it with the compass in the Teaser's apparatus, after Dave had lighted it. There was no disagreement, and as the tide was still coming in, the head of the steamer was pointed to the westward, which would be her first course down the bay.

The lieutenant felt that everything depended upon the working of the steamer, and he was a total stranger to her peculiarities, if she had any, as most vessels have. Taking Beeks with him, he began at the stem and followed the rail entirely 243 around the steamer, feeling with a boat-hook along the sides. Sundry ropes, fenders, and pieces of lumber were dislodged, and everything put in order about the main deck. Then he visited the engine-room, and learned from Sampson that he had a full head of steam. This careful inspection completed, he ordered the quartermaster to cast off the fast at the buoy.

Taking his place in the pilot-house with Beeks, he rang the bell to go ahead. The Teaser started on quite a different voyage from what she had been intended for. Christy had studied up his courses and distances, and had imprinted the chart of the lower part of the bay on his brain. For the first part of the run, there was no obstacle, and no difficulty in regard to the course.

The fog and the darkness were so dense that not a thing could be seen in any direction; but he rang for full speed as soon as the Teaser was under way. A leadsman had been stationed on each side of the forecastle, though there was no present occasion for their services. Christy thought everything was going extremely well, and he was reasonably confident that he should succeed in his plan.

244 "Steamer, ahoy!" shouted a voice, coming out of the dense fog.

"That must be the patrol boat," said Dave, in a low tone.

Christy could not make any reply that would be satisfactory to the patrol, and he decided not to answer the hail. He had rather expected to be challenged in this way.

245 CHAPTER XXII A VARIETY OF NIGHT SIGNALS

The dip of the oars of the guard-boat could be distinctly heard in the pilot-house, and it was probable that the men in it could see the Teaser. But Christy was not much concerned about the situation, and he was not much disposed to give any attention to the boat.

"Stop her, or we will fire into you!" yelled the officer in charge of the guard-boat.

Even this menace did not induce the lieutenant to ring his bell to stop the engine. The boat was doubtless full of men, and as he could not give straight answers to all the questions that might be put to him, it might provoke a fight to attempt to do so, and he decided not to incur the risk. His prisoners might make trouble if he reduced the guard in charge of them, as he would be obliged to do to beat off the attack of the boat.

"What is this boat here for, Dave?" asked 246 Christy, as he peered through the gloom to obtain a glance at the craft.

"To keep the people at Fort Pickens from sending out any armed force," replied the intelligent contraband.

"Do they think a boat full of men could do that?"

"No, sir; but they could give the forts on the other side warning."

The sounds from the boat had come from the starboard bow of the steamer, and it looked as though the guard-boat had intercepted her by accident, since it was impossible that they could have seen the Teaser in the fog and gloom. As the steamer dashed ahead at full speed, the sound of the oars came from a point on the beam. But the boat seemed to be wasting her time, for nothing had been done since the threat to fire into the steamer.

"If a vessel is going to run out she has to satisfy this boat that she is all right," said Dave.

But he had hardly spoken before a volley of musket-balls passed over the Teaser; and perhaps the officer in the boat intended that they should pass over her. At any rate no harm was done by 247 them. Then a rocket darted from the boat up into the air, which could be dimly seen from the pilot-house.

"What steamer is that?" shouted a hoarse voice out of the gloom.

"The Teaser!" yelled Christy, with all the voice he could command.

The boat did not fire again; and if it had done so the steamer was out of its reach. But a minute later the boom of a great gun came across the bay. Fort Barrancas had evidently opened fire in response to the rocket, which had no doubt been sent up as a signal to notify the garrison that a vessel was going out or coming in, and that her movements were not regular. The first shot