"But what good would that do?" exclaimed Beardsley. "Where are my dockyments to prove that I am an honest trader? And even if I had some, and the cargo was safe out of the hold and sunk to the bottom, I couldn"t say that I am in ballast, because I ain"t got a pound of any sort of ballast to show. Oh, I tell you we"re gone c.o.o.ns, Morgan. Do the Yankees put striped clothes on their prisoners when they shove "em into jail, I wonder?"
The mate, who had come to the wise conclusion that the only thing he could do was to make the best of the situation, did not answer the captain"s last question. All he said was:
"If you dump the cargo overboard the Yankees won"t get it!"
"But they"ll get my schooner, won"t they?" Beardsley almost shouted.
"And do you reckon that I"m going to give them Newbern fellows the satisfaction of knowing that I saved their goods by sending them to the bottom? Not by a great sight. If that cruiser gets my property she"ll get their"n, too. I don"t reckon we"d have time to clear the hold anyway."
Marcy Gray had thought so all along. The lights were coming up at a hand gallop, and already they were much nearer than they seemed to be, for the shape of the steamer could be made out by the unaided eye. When Beardsley ceased speaking, the sound of a gong was clearly heard, and a minute later the steamer blew her whistle.
"What did I tell you, Morgan?" whined the captain. "She"s slowing up, and that whistle means for us to show lights. The next thing we shall see will be a small boat coming off. I hope the swell"ll turn it upside down and drown every mother"s son of her crew that--On deck, there," he shouted, in great consternation. "Get out lights, and be quick about it.
She"ll be on top of us directly."
"She can see us as well without lights as she can with "em," growled the mate, as he backed down slowly from the crosstrees. "I don"t care if she cuts us down. I"d about as soon go to the bottom as to be shut up in a Yankee prison."
Marcy Gray was almost as badly frightened as Beardsley seemed to be. The steamer was dangerously near, and her behavior and the schooner"s proved the truth of what he had read somewhere, that "two vessels on the ocean seemed to exercise a magnetic influence upon each other, so often do collisions occur when it looks as though there might be room for all the navies of the world to pa.s.s in review." So it was now. The two vessels drifted toward each other, broadside on, and the breeze was so light that the _Hattie_ was almost helpless; but the stranger was well handled; her huge paddle wheels, which up to this moment had hung motionless in the water, began to turn backward, and presently Marcy let go his desperate clutch upon the stay to which he was clinging, and drew a long breath of relief. Whatever else the cruiser might do to the _Hattie_ she did not mean to send her to the bottom.
"Schooner ahoy!" came the hail.
"On board the steamer," answered Captain Beardsley, who had been allowed a little leisure in which to recover his wits and courage.
"What schooner is that?"
"The _Hattie_ of New York," shouted Beardsley. "Homeward bound from Havana with a cargo of sugar. Who are you?"
"The United States supply steamer _Adelaide._ What are you doing a hundred miles eastward of your course, and showing no lights?" asked the voice; and Marcy fully expected that the next words would be, "I"ll send a boat aboard of you."
"I"m afraid of privateers," was Beardsley"s response. "I heered there was some afloat, and I can"t afford to fall in with any of "em, kase everything I"ve got on "arth is this schooner. If I lose her I"m teetotally ruined."
"Well, then, why don"t you hold in toward Hatteras, where you will be safe? There"s a big fleet in there, and in a few days there"ll be more."
"You don"t tell me! Much obleeged for the information! I will put that way as fast as this breeze will take me. Seen anything suspicious? No?
Then good-by and farewell."
Beardsley shouted out some orders, the schooner filled away so as to pa.s.s under the steamer"s stern, and to Marcy"s unbounded astonishment she was permitted to go in peace. The stranger"s gong sounded again, and she also went on her way. There was scarcely a word spoken above a whisper until her lights had disappeared; then the schooner"s own lanterns were hauled down, her head was turned to the point of the compa.s.s toward which it had been directed when the steamer was first discovered, and Captain Beardsley was himself again.
"By gum!" said he, striding up and down the deck, pausing now and then to go through the undignified performance of shipping his mates on the back. "_By_ gum, I done it, didn"t I! What sort of a Yankee do you reckon I"d make, Marcy? I talked just like one--through the nose, you know. Pretty good acting; don"t you think so?"
"It was good enough to save the schooner," replied Marcy.
"And that was what I meant to do if I could. I wouldn"t have give a dollar for my chances of getting shet of that steamer till she began to back away to keep from running us down, and then something told me that I"d be all right if I put a bold face on the matter. And that"s what I done. Oh, I"m a sharp one, and it takes a better man than a Yankee to get ahead of me. I was really much obliged to him for telling me of that blockading fleet at Hatteras, for now I"ll know better than to go nigh that place. Hold the old course, Morgan, and that will take us out of the way of coasters and cruisers, both. I"ll go below and turn in for a short nap."
"If I should follow this business until I am gray-headed I don"t think I should ever again have so narrow an escape," said Marcy to himself, as he too went below to take a little needed rest. "Why, it seems like a dream; and somehow I can hardly bring myself to believe it really happened. If the Yankees talk the way Captain Beardsley did, all I can say for them is that they are queer folks."
It seemed as though the schooner"s crew could never get through talking about their short interview with the supply steamer, for every one of them had given up all hope of escape, and looked for nothing else but to see an armed boat put off to test the truth of Captain Beardsley"s statements regarding the _Hattie_ and her cargo. The mate, Morgan, was completely bewildered. He could not understand how a man who had showed a disposition to cry when he saw his vessel in danger, could be so cool and even impudent when the critical moment came.
In due time all thoughts of the enemy they had left astern gave way to speculations concerning those they might find before them. The lat.i.tude of Hatteras Inlet was thought to be particularly dangerous; but that was pa.s.sed in the night and Marcy breathed easily again, until Beardsley began to take a slant in toward the sh.o.r.e, and then there was another season of suspense. But the day drew to a close without bringing any suspicious smoke or sail to add to their fears, and when darkness came Crooked Inlet was not more than thirty miles away. If the strong and favoring wind that then filled the schooner"s sails held out, her keel would be plowing the waters of the Sound by midnight or a little later, and Captain Beardsley"s commission would be safe. At least that was what the latter told Marcy; and, while he talked, he jingled some keys in his pocket with as much apparent satisfaction as though they were the dollars he hoped to put there in a few days more. But the old saying that there is many a slip came very near holding true in Beardsley"s case. The latter was so certain that he had left all danger behind him, and that he had nothing more to do but sail in at his leisure and land his cargo when he got ready, that he did not think it worth while to man the crosstrees after nightfall; consequently there was no watchful lookout to warn him of the suspicious looking object that moved slowly out of the darkness a mile or so ahead, and waited for him to come up.
About eleven o"clock Marcy Gray strolled forward and climbed out upon the bowsprit to see if he could discover any signs of the land, which, according to his calculations, ought not to be far distant.
"I might as well be out here as anywhere else," he thought, pulling out the night-gla.s.s, which he had taken the precaution to bring with him.
"Of course the skipper will run her through without any aid from me, as he did before, and so--what in the world is that? Looks like a smooth round rock; but I know it isn"t, for there"s nothing of that sort about this Inlet."
Marcy took another look through the gla.s.s, then backed quickly but noiselessly down from his perch and ran aft to the quarter-deck. The captain was standing there joking with his mates, and congratulating them and himself on the safe and profitable run the _Hattie_ had made; and as Marcy came up he threw back his head and gave utterance to a hoa.r.s.e laugh, which, in the stillness of the night, could have been heard half a mile away.
"Captain! Captain!" exclaimed Marcy, in great excitement, "for goodness"
sake don"t do that again! Keep still! There"s a ship"s long boat filled with men right ahead of us."
It seemed to Marcy that Beardsley wilted visibly when this astounding piece of news was imparted to him. His hearty laugh was broken short off in the middle, so to speak, and when turned so that the light from the binnacle shone upon his face, Marcy saw that it was as white as a sheet.
"No!" he managed to gasp.
"Why, boy, you"re scared to death," said one of the mates, rather contemptuously. "Where"s the ship for the long boat to come from?"
"I don"t know anything about that," answered Marcy hurriedly. "I only tell you what I saw with my own eyes. Here"s the gla.s.s. Captain. Go for"ard and take a look for yourself."
The captain s.n.a.t.c.hed the gla.s.s with almost frantic haste and ran toward the bow, followed by the mates and all the rest of the crew, with the exception of the man at the wheel. With trembling hands Beardsley raised the binoculars, but almost immediately took them down again to say, in frightened tones:
"For the first time in my life I have missed my reckoning. We"re lost, and the Yankee fleet may be within less than a mile of us. Take a look, Morgan. I never saw that rock before."
"But I tell you it isn"t a rock," protested Marcy. "It is a boat, and she"s lying head on so that she won"t show as plainly as she would if she lay broadside to us. Do you see those long black streaks on each side? Those are oars, and they were in motion when I first saw them."
The mate was so long in making his observations that Marcy grew impatient, and wondered at his stupidity. He could see without the aid of a gla.s.s that it was a boat and nothing else; and more than that, the schooner had by this time drawn so near her that he could make out two suspicious objects in her bow--one he was sure was a howitzer, and the other looked very like the upright, motionless figure of a blue-jacket, awaiting the order from the officer in command to pull the lock-string.
An instant later a second figure arose, as if from the stern-sheets, and the command came clear and distinct:
"Heave to, or we"ll blow you out of the water!"
"Now I hope you are satisfied!" exclaimed Marcy.
He expected to see Beardsley wilt again; but he did nothing of the sort.
It required an emergency to bring out what there was in him, and when he saw that he must act, he did it without an instant"s hesitation.
"Lay aft, all hands!" was the order he gave. "Marcy, stand by to watch the buoys in the Inlet. Morgan, go to the wheel and hold her just as she is. Don"t luff so much as a hair"s breadth. We"ll run them Yankees down.
It"s our only chance."
"And a very slim one it is," thought Marcy, as he took the gla.s.s from the mate"s hand and directed it toward the point where he thought the entrance of the Inlet ought to be. "The cruiser to which this boat belongs can"t be far away, and she will come up the minute she hears the roar of the howitzer."
"Heave to, or we"ll sink you!" came the order, in louder and more emphatic tones.
"Starboard a spoke or two. Steady at that," said Beardsley, turning about and addressing the man who had been stationed in the waist to pa.s.s his commands. "Ten to one they"ll miss us, but all the same I wish I knew how heavy them guns of their"n is."
"They have but one," replied Marcy, wondering at the captain"s coolness.
"Can"t you see it there in the bow?"
"Well, if it"s a twenty-four pounder, like them old ones of our"n, and they hit us at the water-line, they"ll tear a hole in us as big as a barn door."
All this while the schooner had been bearing swiftly down upon the launch, and when the officer in command of her began to see through Beardsley"s little plan, he at once proceeded to set in motion one of his own that was calculated to defeat it. His howitzer was loaded with a five-second shrapnel, and this he fired at the schooner at a point-blank range of less than a hundred yards. He couldn"t miss entirely at that short distance, but the missile flew too high to hull the blockade-runner. It struck the flying jib-boom, breaking it short off and rendering that sail useless, glanced and splintered the rail close by the spot where the captain and his pilot were standing, went shrieking off over the water, and finally exploding an eighth of a mile astern. The skipper and Marcy were both prostrated by a splinter six feet long and four inches thick that was torn from the rail; but they scrambled to their feet again almost as soon as they touched the deck, and when they looked ahead, fully expecting to find the launch under the schooner"s fore-foot and on the point of being run down, they saw an astonishing as well as a most discouraging sight. The boat was farther away than she was before, and her whole length could be seen now, for not only was she broadside on, but the darkness above and around her, which had hitherto rendered her shape and size somewhat indistinct, was lighted up by a bright glare that shot up from somewhere amidships, and the sound of escaping steam could be plainly heard.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTAIN BEARDSLEY SURPRISED.]