CHAPTER XIV.
JACK ON THE LOOKOUT.
The armament of the rebel steamer consisted of two guns, placed on the main-deck, forward of the boilers. The hull set so low in the water, that, while the island lay between the steamer and the boats of the expedition, she was powerless to do them any injury. Those in the first cutter could see the smoke-stack of the Wizard--which was the name of the steamer--over the island, while the crew of the latter could not even determine the position of the boats.
The battle--if the affair could be dignified by such a title--promised to be nothing but a game of hide-and-seek; for, when the Wizard moved, the boats dodged round the island, so as to escape her fire. It was “pull,” and “lie on your oars,” for half an hour. The rebel battery on shore could not interfere with the game, lest the steamer should suffer from its fire.
Tom Longstone sat upon the thwart, occasionally indulging in his inward chuckle, and apparently enjoying the sport as keenly as a live boy relishes a game of “ball” or “high-spy.” Old Grummet was not at all satisfied with the position of affairs. He was a brave man, and ready to fight his gun while there was a plank to stand on; but he was an inveterate croaker. He was always afraid that the officers had made some mistake, or that they did not see the whole of the ground. Once in a while, he was kind enough to suggest the manner in which all three boats were to be blown up, sunk, or captured. He could see a hundred ways to get into a bad scrape; but he never troubled himself to consider how to get out of them.
“S’posin’ another rebel steamer should come down upon us,” growled Grummet: “where should we be then?”
“I reckon we should be just where we are now,” replied Tom, who was the only man that ventured to confront the grim sheet-anchor man, as he doled out his dismal notes of foreboding.
“S’posin’ a company of rebel infantry should show themselves on the main shore there, not twenty fathoms from where we were just now?”
“We’d have to give ’em a few charges of grape from that ’ere howitzer.”
“There wouldn’t be a man left of us if that should happen, Tom Longstone; and you knows it.”
“I should like to p’int that ’ere howitzer in among ’em, Grummet.”
“Silence, forward!” said Mr. Granger in a low, stern tone.
Tom’s body shook with his inward chuckle as he thought what an awful deprivation it would be for Grummet if he had to refrain from grumbling.
“Forward, there!” said the lieutenant. “I want a man who is light and smart.”
“I sir!” exclaimed Jack, springing up from his position under the lee of the old quartermaster, and touching his cap.
Half a dozen others, answering to the description, sprang up at the same time, eager to perform any service which might be required of them.
“Somers, you’ll do,” replied Mr. Granger. “Come aft.”
Jack passed along between the rowers to the stern-sheets, and again touched his cap to the commander of the expedition.
“Do you see the steamer?” asked Mr. Granger.
“Yes, sir,” replied Jack, glancing at the Wizard’s smoke-stack, which could still be seen over the little island.
“I will land you on the island; and you must creep on your face up to the highest part of the ground, and see if you can make out how many men there are on the steamer. Do you understand me, Somers?”
“I do, sir.”
“Now mind your eye, and don’t let them see you.”
“Ay, ay, sir: I will be very careful.”
“Now go forward, and be ready to jump ashore when the boat touches.”
Jack saluted the lieutenant, and sprang forward to the bow of the cutter, proud and happy to be selected even for the humble duty to which he had been ordered.
“Good boy, Jack!” said Tom Longstone, as our sailor-boy passed him on his way to the bow.
“What may that ’ere mean?” queried Grummet.
“Fight!” replied Tom.
“He’s goin’ to board that steamer, as sure as I’m a Yankee,” added Grummet, pulling out his cutlass from under the thwart, and passing his thumb along the edge.
“That’s it: there’s a hole in that millstone, leastwise,” chuckled Tom.
“I s’pose he’d board a frigate if he fell foul of one.”
“No doubt on’t,” laughed Tom.
“Give way,--easy!” said Mr. Granger; and the boat swung in so that Jack Somers could jump ashore.
“Did you say good-by to the lad afore he went ashore?” continued Grummet: “’cause that’s the last you’ll see of him.”
Tom Longstone sprang to his feet at these words, and gazed earnestly at Jack and at all the surroundings on the island.
“Grummet, you’re an old fool!” exclaimed Tom angrily. “You frighten me more’n a whole frigate’s broadside would. I thought the lad was killed for sartin.”
“He will be, soon.”
“Avast there! If you don’t stop growling, I’ll heave you overboard.”
“Silence forward!” said Mr. Granger.
The command was obeyed, and the sheet-anchor man’s savage reply was nipped in the bud. Tom was too much interested in the movements of his young friend on the island to give any further attention to his unhappy shipmate in the boat. Jack, as directed, crept on his stomach up the ascent of the island till his head had reached the highest point, from which he could look down on the low deck of the Wizard.
Our sailor-boy was a very good scholar for one who had enjoyed only the privileges of a district school; but it did not require a very profound knowledge of arithmetic to solve the problem which had been imposed upon him. The men in the rebel steamer were all gathered upon the forward-deck; and, according to our mathematician’s estimate, they numbered about thirty. They would not stand still long enough to be counted with entire accuracy; but Jack satisfied himself that this was very nearly her force.
He was about to retire from his position, and report the result of the examination, when certain movements on board the Wizard decided him to remain a few moments longer. The steamer had run up close to the island; and her deck-hands were now in the act of passing the gang-planks to the shore, evidently with the intention of landing her men. Jack did not want to see any more; but, retreating from his position with all haste, he leaped into the boat.
“Well, Somers?” demanded Mr. Granger in sharp, quick tones; for the speed which the scout had used in his return conveyed the impression that the whole expedition was in imminent danger.
“They have run the gang-planks ashore, sir; and I suppose they are going to land.”
“How many men have they?”
“About thirty, sir.”
“Did you count them?”
“As well as I could, sir.”
“Are there a hundred of them?” asked Mr. Granger sharply.
“No, sir: the number won’t vary half a dozen from what I said.”
“Very well, Somers. Are you willing to go up again?”
“I am, sir,” promptly replied Jack.
“Go, then. Are your pistols loaded?”
“Yes, sir.”
“If the boats are in immediate danger, fire your pistol, and make your way back as fast as you can.”
Jack touched his cap, adjusted his pistol in his belt and sprang forward to perform the important service intrusted to him.
“Keep your weather-eye wide open, Jack, my darling,” said Tom Longstone as he passed the old seaman.
“Ay, ay, Tom!” replied the sailor-boy as he sprang to the stem of the cutter, and leaped ashore again.
He had not been absent more than five minutes from the crest of the island: but the rebels had been industrious during that short period; and one of the Wizard’s guns, which was an ordinary field-piece, was on the gang-planks, ready to be rolled on shore.
Jack Somers was not a brigadier-general, nor was he a proficient in naval or military tactics; but the plan of the rebels was as transparent to him as though he had been a graduate of Annapolis or West Point. The information he had obtained was very important; and without waiting to make any further observations, he hastened back to the boat, and reported the operations of the enemy.
He tried to keep cool, and not appear to be excited by the revelation he made. He thought he had something astounding to tell; and so he had, perhaps: but, to his intense astonishment, Mr. Granger did not appear to be alarmed. He did not rattle off any hasty orders such as he had read in naval romances.
In Jack’s opinion, it was time something was done, but Mr. Granger seemed to be provokingly indifferent to the importance of the announcement he had just made to him.
“You have done well, Somers,” said the commander of the expedition; whereat Jack touched his cap, and would have blushed if he had not fully expected to see the rebels pitch into them the next minute. “Are you willing to go again?”
“I am, sir!” replied Jack as readily as before though he was utterly confounded at the question.
“Go up once more, and see whether they are landing the other gun, Somers.”
Our hero touched his cap again; for, in spite of the excitement of the moment, he did not forget his manners, and sprang ashore for the third time. Cautiously ascending the slope of the little hill, he again reached his position at its summit. The other gun had not been landed; the gang-planks had been hauled on board; and a squad of men had been sent on shore to work the field-piece already on the island. Jack wanted to know what the Wizard was going to do before he reported this time; and he determined to wait a moment longer, when this question would be decided.
The gunners on the island were only a few yards distant from him, crouching upon the ground; and none of them spoke above a whisper, lest their movements would be betrayed to the boats on the other side of the island. Jack thought he was in a very ticklish situation; and, for his greater personal security, he drew back a few feet, so that no inquisitive rebel should get the range of his blue cap. As he did so, he glanced at the navy revolver which he carried in his right hand to assure himself that it was in readiness to give the required signal if the occasion demanded it.
The pistol was all right; and, after waiting a moment he heard the splash of the Wizard’s paddle. Advancing again to the crest of the hillock, he raised his head to obtain his final glance at the scene of operations. The steamer was certainly moving off; but a more prominent object, nearer to him, claimed all his attention at this moment. Directly in front of him, and not three feet distant, was a pair of rebel eyes, each of which seemed to be as big as the rebel steamer.
The enemy, knowing and appreciating the value of correct and seasonable information, had sent a man to the crest of the hill to perform a service identical with that which had devolved upon our hero. It would not be of any use to stop and consider which of these scouts was the most astonished as he gazed into the eager orbs of the other; for the question presents too many difficulties for a just settlement. Both of them were astonished, but, fortunately for Jack, he was in a better state of preparation for the unexpected event than his adversary.
The rebels below were rolling up the field-piece where it could be brought to bear upon the boats, and Jack considered himself fully justified in giving the signal for imminent danger; and his pistol being loaded with patent metallic cartridges, each of which contained its adjusted allowance of cold lead, he concluded to fire a shotted salute, as Lieutenant-General Grant has since done on several eminently proper occasions.
Jack was prompt and decided,--traits of character which he and his brother Tom inherited in common from three generations of shipmasters. He saw the pair of rebel eyes glaring upon him the first instant; and he raised his revolver, and fired the second. The cold lead, before mentioned, passed between the glowing orbs in front of him, crushing through the brain of their owner.
The sailor-boy felt a cold tremor creep through his veins as the rebel gunner convulsively sprang upward, and then dropped dead upon the ground. His self-possession did not forsake him; and, without stopping for further developments, he rushed down to the boat with all the speed he could command.
His face was almost as pale as that of the dead rebel on the hill when he leaped into the boat. His lip trembled; but it was with an emotion other than fear. He had slain a human being. He had seen his bullet enter the brain of a fellow-creature. His first experience of the awful solemnity of war was too minute in detail to be pleasant, or even exhilarating.
“Report, Somers, at once!” said Mr. Granger earnestly.
“The steamer is moving off, sir. There are twelve men and one gun on the island. They are moving up the gun to the top of the hill. I killed one of the men.”
“Give way!” said Mr. Granger; and the boats moved out from the island.