CHAPTER XXXV.THE CHASE.
With the first tide the next morning the ship sailed.
The weather kept its promise and was very fine.
The ship steered northeast, flying before a fresh wind at the rate of ten or eleven knots an hour.
And all day long our passengers lounged upon the deck, reading, promenading or chatting; and all the evening they played whist in the captain’s cabin.
And day and night the captain kept a man at the masthead on the lookout, and relieved him every two hours, that his vigilance might not slacken.
But days and nights went by and there was no sign of theSea Scourge, or any other ship, on all the lonely sea.
At length one evening when the tropical full moon and great stars made all the sky and sea almost as bright as day, and the officers off duty were lounging on the deck, and the captain and his party were playing whist in the cabin, there came a cry from the man at the masthead:
“Sail ho!”
It roused the officers on deck like the blast of a trumpet does the war horse. They “snuffed the battle afar off.”
It startled all the whist players in the cabin, except the phlegmatic captain, who went on counting his points:
“Two by tricks and two by honors; and five before! We’re nine to their nine, Miss Conyers. And now all depends upon the odd trick. So we must look sharp!—I knew we should overhaul her at last! Parson, it’s my deal.”
But no one listened to the captain. Every one was straining their ears to catch the voices from the deck.
“Sail ho!”
The cry rung through the night air like an alarm.
“Where away?” called the officer of the forward watch.
“About three points off our weather bows.”
“What do you make of her?”
“Can’t make her out yet!”
While this bawling was going on aloft, the captain of the ship sat quietly over his rubber of whist.
Presently Lieutenant Ethel came below, touched his cap, and said:
“If you please, sir, we have made a strange sail.”
“What do you make of her?” inquired the captain, without ceasing to deal his cards.
“We can make nothing of her as yet, except that she appears to have seen us and is running away.”
“That proves her to be theSea Scourge, or some other pirate! Clap on all the sail we can carry, and chase!—— Diamonds! Parson, it is your lead, and we are waiting for you. Miss Conyers, look sharp! We are playing for the odd trick,” said the captain, as he turned up the trump and sorted his cards.
The young lieutenant went on deck with his orders. And soon the ship flew under the pressure of her sails.
The captain went on with his game, and played well; and as none of his excited companions could give sufficient attention to the business in hand fairly to compete with him, he won the odd trick.
“We’ve beat them in the rub, Miss Conyers. Shall we try to beat them in another one?” inquired the captain, as he gathered up the cards.
“Oh, no! pray don’t! let us go up on deck and look after the chase!” eagerly urged Britomarte.
“You!” exclaimed the captain, in laughing astonishment.
“Yes, I!” answered Britomarte, as her eyes widened and brightened.
“Lord bless my soul alive, here is a young lady as eager for the fray as any of us?” laughed the captain. “I’ll warrant you, when you get back to your native country, if the war is not over, to take an active part in it!”
“That I shall!” answered Britomarte, emphatically. And all the while she looked her eager impatience to get upon the deck.
“There is no necessity for haste, my dear young lady! We shall see nothing when we get there—except what we have seen for so many days and nights—an expanse of sea and sky!” laughed the captain.
“But the strange sail?” eagerly questioned our amazon.
“Ay, the strange sail! You’ll not see her, at all events! The men have made her out only through their glasses! She is miles away! and we shall not overhaul her before morning,” said the captain.
And he set the watch and went below, and turned in for a short nap, leaving Lieutenant Ethel to manage the ship.
Justin stayed on deck a little while longer, and then followed the captain’s example.
But none of them, except the phlegmatic captain, rested very well that night. The thought that they were chasing a privateer, whom they would probably engage in battle next morning, was not likely to rock them to sleep.
Britomarte certainly never closed her eyes; she was awake no less by her own excitement than by the “tireless tongue” of Judith, who talked of nothing but the coming fight and the share she would like to take in it.
“Sure, meself hopes they’ll find something for me to do in it! Troth, if they’d put me to one iv the big guns, I could fire it off wid the best iv them. And if they’d not trust me to do that same, I could hand patridges as well as the powdy monkeys thimselves!”
“Cartridges, Judith,” said Miss Conyers.
“Sure, that’s what I’m maning! And, troth, I’ll find something to do in it, or me name’s not Judy Riordan!”
“I am glad and proud to see so much spirit in a sister woman, Judith, whether you find an opportunity to exercising it or not,” said Miss Conyers.
At which Judith was so delighted that she went off into another fit of boasting more extravagant than the first.
To have heard Judith talk then, you would have imagined her to be Boadicea, Joan of Arc and Moll Pitcher rolled into one.
So passed the night in the cabin.
Just before the dawn of day, Lieutenant Ethel came below to the captain and reported the chase within range of their lee-bow gun.
“Fire a blank cartridge into her,” said the captain, immediately turning out.
Britomarte and Judith overheard every word of this short interview; and Judith clapped her hands for joy, exclaiming:
“Now they’re going to begin. Sure meself is happy as Paddy at Dunnybrook Fair. And, oh! that I was up on deck wid the seamen! Wouldn’t I——”
“Boom-m-me!” thundered the cannon over the sea, with a report that shook the ship.
With a violent bound, Judith leaped up, clapped her hands to her ears, and, shaking and screaming with the extremity of terror, hid her head in Britomarte’s lap.
“Why, what’s the matter, Judith?” inquired Miss Conyers, as the sound rolled away. “Is this your heroism?”
“S’int Pater and all the Holy Apostles! Mother Mary and all the blissid virgins!” gasped the panic-stricken girl.
“Boom-m-me!” roared an answering gun from the chase.
“Ow-oo!” screeched Judith, burying her head in Britmarte’s lap; “kiver me up! kiver me up! I’m kilt entirely!”
But Miss Conyers started up, threw the girl off her knees, hurried on her clothes and hastened out into the cabin, where she met Justin leaving his stateroom.
“The action has commenced!” exclaimed Britomarte.
“Yes, dearest one. Stay where you are, I beseech you. You can do no good on deck,” urged Justin.
“If I can do no good, I can at least risk my life with the others,” persisted Britomarte.
“But to what end? Britomarte, you will not only do no good by going on deck, but you will do much harm by being in everybody’s way,” said Justin, bluntly.
She looked intently in his face to see if he spoke in earnest, before she answered.
“If that is so, I will stay here. But oh, how unwillingly.”
And she sat down, only half resigned to her inactivity, and mediated how she could change it into good service.
While they spoke, another shot was exchanged between the ships.
Justin hurried up on deck.
Everything there was in admirable order. None of the confusion that too often precedes an engagement appeared.
The deck was cleared for action.
The men were all at their quarters, the officers at their posts.
The captain was standing on the quarter-deck, leveling his glass at the chase, which was, moreover, in full sight about two miles ahead.
The firing ceased for the time being.
“What is the meaning of this lull, captain?” respectfully inquired Justin Rosenthal, coming to the side of Captain Yetsom.
Sailors will swear, more is the pity, and Captain Yetsom, dropping the telescope to his side, blew off a tremendous oath, under the impression that he had a sufficient provocation to do so, and then he added:
“We are on a false scent, sir; we have been chasing an English ship.”
“Are you certain?” doubtingly inquired Justin.
“Humph! these infernal pirates sometimes show false colors. This is what has happened, Mr. Rosenthal. When I came up on deck I found her within good range of our lee-bow chaser. I ran up the Stars and Stripes and sent a blank cartridge into her by way of a visiting card. She returned the compliment by firing a salute from her stern-chaser; but did not show her colors, and did not cease to run.”
“And then?”
“I sent a more urgent message to her in the form of a round shot from our lee-bow chaser. She returned the fire in kind and hoisted the English Union Jack.”
“But didn’t heave to?”
“No, nor cease to run away from us. Whatever she does, she does not cease to run.”
“But an English ship, or an honest ship, scarcely would do that.”
“Scarcely. And that is what makes the affair doubtful and awkward. If she is an English ship we have no business to pursue her; but if she is a rebel privateer sailing under English colors we must take her.”
While the captain spoke, Mr. Rosenthal had been attentively regarding the chase. Now he said:
“The longer I look at that ship, the more familiar she seems to me. Will you lend me your telescope, captain?”
Captain Yetsom handed the glass and waited the result of Justin’s inspection.
Justin pointed the instrument and took deliberate sight at the chase. He viewed it attentively for a minute and then returned the telescope to the owner, saying quietly:
“You are not on a false scent, captain.”
“Eh? What do you make of her?”
“TheSea Scourge.”
“Are you quite certain?”
“Quite. I cannot be mistaken. Indeed, I recognized her by naked eye from her general appearance. And when I brought the glass to bear upon her, I knew her also by individual marks.”
The captain of theXyphiaswaited to hear no more. He laid down his telescope, sprang upon the poop deck, and drew out his speaking trumpet.
As the men had scarcely taken their eyes off their captain during the fifteen minutes of suspense in which they stood idly at their quarters, there was no need to call their attention.
The captain put the speaking trumpet to his lips, and thundered forth the words:
“My lads! the prize that we have been seeking, theSea Scourge, is before us. And please Heaven she shall be ours before night!”
Tremendous cheers from the seamen responded to the captain’s pithy speech, and proved their good will to the work before them, and their confidence of victory.