CHAPTER VI.

[Continued from page 138.]

We left our party of adventurers at a moment of deep interest. Young Joinly and the greater portion of his companions were posted near the house in which the captain of the Tiger, with some of his officers, was then stationed. Bushnell and his associate had just returned from the ship, to which they had attached their little magazine of powder, with the mechanism intended to explode it in half an hour.

Guided by one of their party, who had waited for them, they now joined the little band we have just mentioned. The position of the party commanded a view of the ship, and, amid the intense darkness, her position was known by the light at her bow. When Bushnell arrived, and communicated to Joinly and his friends the success of the enterprise, thus far, and assured them that the vessel would be torn in pieces in the space of a few minutes, it may be well imagined that their anxiety was intense.

Keeping their eyes fixed in the direction of the ship, they gazed earnestly, and, more than once, the false and flickering light of the strained vision was taken to be the scintillations of the kindling explosion. In this state of suspense, seconds were lengthened to minutes, and, ere the half hour had elapsed, the whole party felt that the time had gone by, and began to fear that the mechanism had failed and the scheme miscarried. Young Joinly, in particular, from the impetuosity of his temper and the excited state of his feelings, experienced an impatience he could scarcely repress.

Nothing is so hard to endure, particularly to an ardent mind, as inaction in a protracted state of doubt and fear.

“It is all over,” said Joinly; “the engine has failed; let us attack the house!”

“Hush, hush!” said Bushnell, whose nerves were more steady; “the time has not arrived; the engine will yet do its work: you will hear from it within five minutes.”

A perfect silence among the party now ensued, and nothing was heard, save the raging of the tempest. A few minutes passed, and a small flash was seen near the water’s edge and beneath the stern of the vessel. “There you have it,” said Bushnell; and, a moment after, a terrific light streamed up from the water, seeming to envelope the mighty hulk of the vessel, while a ruddy reflection tinged every rope and spar, as well as the surface of the sea and the little huts of the adjacent village. A heavy sound followed, and a rushing impulse of the air. Darkness again settled upon the scene, and the hoarse moan of the tempest seemed once more to drown every other sound.

The eyes of the adventurers were now turned upon the house where the captain resided. But a few moments passed, when there was a bustle within, and it was evident that the phenomenon had been observed. By this time, the conspirators had surrounded the house, and Joinly was on the point of entering the door, when it was opened by the captain himself, and, in the light, he saw Joinly and his little band standing with their muskets ready for action. “I command you to surrender!” said Joinly, stepping forward in the full blaze of the lamp. “Your vessel is blown to atoms, and, if you make the slightest resistance, both you and all in this house shall be instantly shot down!”

“Who are you? what are you?” said the captain, in a state of profound astonishment.

“It is enough that we are Americans!” said the youth. “There is no time for parley. Do you surrender?”

“Not so easily!” said the officer, who was now joined by two or three other persons, slamming the door in the face of the young commander.

“Now for it!” said Joinly; and, with a thundering crash, several of the men rushed against the door, which gave way, and Joinly was pushed into the room. Two or three of his men entered immediately at his heels. The captain of the Tiger fired his pistol, and the ball passed between the left arm and the breast of young Joinly.

A scuffle immediately followed, and several random shots were exchanged. In a very short space, the Americans were victorious, having secured the five British officers. Young Joinly had thrown the captain upon the floor, where he held him fast till the rest were mastered. Finding it idle to resist, the British officers submitted to their fate, and were permitted to rise. The captain was then commanded to prepare immediately to depart, and the rest were tied, hand and foot, and left separate from each other in the different rooms of the house.

Having secured the chief object of their expedition, Joinly and his party made a hasty retreat, knowing that the alarm would soon be communicated to the troops stationed in the vicinity. Taking a course which led around the head of the bay, they made their way to the sheltered spot where their little sloop was anchored. The gale was still raging; but, seeming not to heed it, they released her from her moorings and put her before the wind.

Keeping in to the land, they were somewhat sheltered from the gale; but still the little vessel seemed to dance like a feather upon the wave. The morning had now dawned, but the thick haze rendered it impossible to see at any great distance. As they were proceeding in their course, they saw a large vessel, scudding, like themselves, before the wind. It was not long before they also discovered that it was the Tiger, which they had supposed blown to atoms, and apparently in pursuit of them.

As soon as this idea entered the mind of young Joinly, he stretched a little more out from the land and hoisted an additional sail. “We will give him a chase,” said he, “and we will see which shall have the best of it. Hurl-gate is five miles ahead, and we will try which shall get through it first.”

The men on board the boat had now become so accustomed to the authority of young Joinly, that they offered no opposition to this wild and perilous suggestion; but, taking their several stations, each man well performed his part, and the sloop, shivering in every plank and seeming to partake of the excitement, skimmed like a sea-gull over the water. The two vessels proceeded steadily for some time, but it was at last obvious that the Tiger was gaining upon the sloop.

The captain, who had watched the whole of the proceeding with intense interest, now spoke and said to Joinly, “Young man, you had better give it up; you’ll soon be riddled with her shot.”

“Look yonder,” said Joinly, in reply, pointing forward; “do you see the water boiling in yonder whirlpool like a pot?”

“I do, I do!” said the captain, his countenance assuming a look of the utmost anxiety.

“That is Hurl-gate!” said the youth. “_We_ shall pass it in safety; but, if the Tiger proceed five hundred fathoms more, her escape is impossible, and her doom certain.”

A general silence now prevailed, during which the sloop passed safely through the tumbling eddies of the whirlpool. The frigate continued on her track, and in a few moments she struck upon the rocks. This circumstance was immediately noticed on board the sloop, and a general shout of triumph rang through the air.

We must leave the frigate to her fate, only remarking that, although she escaped, with little damage, from the explosion of the gunpowder, yet it was but to find her doom in Hurl-gate. There was only sufficient time for the men on board to escape, when she went to pieces.