"What!" exclaimed Westmore, turning a violent red.
"The man steering is Ferez Bey." Renoux handed the binoculars to Westmore with a shrug.
Barres, bending double, had gone out into the swale. A thicket of cat-tails screened him and he advanced very carefully, keeping his eyes on the green-jacketed men whose heads, shoulders and rifles were visible above the swampy growth beyond.
Suddenly Renoux, who was watching him in bitter silence, saw him turn and beckon violently.
"Quick!" he said in a low, eager voice. "He may have found a ditch to shelter us!"
Renoux was correct in his surmise: Barres stood with drawn pistol, awaiting them in a muddy ditch which ran through the reeds diagonally across the marsh. It was shin-deep in water.
"We could make a pretty good stand in a ditch like this, couldn"t we?"
he demanded excitedly.
"You bet we can!" replied Renoux, jumping down beside him, followed by Westmore, Alost and Souchez in turn.
Barres, leading, ran down the ditch as fast as he could, spattering himself and the others with mud and water at every step.
"Here!" panted Renoux, clambering nimbly out of the ditch and peering ahead through the reeds. Then he suddenly stood upright:
"Halt!" he shouted. "It"s all up with you, Skeel! Keep away from that boat, or I order my men to fire!"
There was a dead silence for a moment; then Skeel"s voice:
"Better not bother us, my good man. We know our business and you"d better learn yours."
"Skeel," retorted Renoux, "my business is other people"s business, sometimes. It"s yours just now. I warn you to keep away from that boat!" He turned and hailed the boat in the next breath: "Boat ahoy!
Keep off or we open fire!"
The metallic bang of a rifle cut him short and his straw hat was jerked from his head. Then came Skeel"s voice, calmly dangerous:
"I know you, Renoux! You have no standing here. Keep away or I"ll kill you!"
"What lawful standing have you--leading an armed expedition from the United States into Canada!" retorted Renoux, red with anger and looking about for his hat.
"If you don"t get back I shall surely kill you!" replied Skeel. "I count three, Renoux:--one--two--three." Bang! went another rifle, and Renoux shrugged and dropped reluctantly back into the ditch.
"They"re crazy," he said. "Barres, fire across that boat out yonder."
Westmore also fired, aiming carefully at Ferez. It was too far; they both knew it. But the ricochetting bullets seemed to sting the rowers to frantic exertion, and Ferez, at the rudder, ducked and squatted flat, the tip of his hat alone showing over the gunwale.
"We can"t stop them," said Renoux desperately. "They"re certain to reach that boat."
Now, suddenly, Skeel"s six rifles cracked viciously and the bullets came screaming over the ditch.
Renoux fairly gnashed his teeth:
"If a bluff won"t stop them, then I"m through," he said bitterly. "I haven"t any authority. I haven"t the audacity to fire on them--to so insult your Government. And yet, by G.o.d!--there"s the ca.n.a.l to remember!"
Another volley from the Green Jackets, and again the whizzing scream of bullets through the cat-tails above their heads.
"Look!" cried Barres. "They"re embarking already! There isn"t a chance of holding them."
It was true. Pell-mell through the shallow water and into the boat leaped the Green Jackets, holding their rifles high in the early sunshine; Skeel sprang in last of all; the oars flashed.
Pistols hanging helplessly, Renoux and his men stood there foolishly on the edge of their ditch and watched the boat pull back to the big power-craft.
n.o.body said anything. The Green Jackets climbed aboard with a derisive cheer. So near was the power-boat that Skeel, Ferez, and Soane were easily distinguishable there in the brilliant sunshine, on deck.
"Anyway," burst out Renoux, "they"ll not dare lie there at anchor and wait for dark, now."
Even as he spoke the anchor came up.
Very deliberately the small boat was hoisted to the davits; the big craft began to move, swinging her nose north by west, the spray breaking under the bows. She was already under way, already headed for the open sea.
And then, without any warning whatever, out of the northeast, almost sheering the jutting point which had concealed her, rushed a Canadian patrol boat, her forward deck a geyser of spouting foam.
A red lance of flame leaped from her forward gun; the sharp crack shattered the summer stillness; the sh.e.l.l went skittering away over the water, across the bows of the power-boat; a string of signals broke from the cruiser"s mast.
Then an amazing thing happened; the power-boat"s after deck suddenly swarmed with Green Jackets; there came a flash and a report, and a sh.e.l.l burst over the Canadian patrol cruiser, cutting her halliards to ribbons.
"Well--by--G.o.d!" gasped Renoux. Barres and Westmore stood petrified; but the three Frenchmen, with one accord, and standing up very straight, uncovered in the presence of these men who were about to die.
Suddenly the power-boat broke out a flag at her masthead--a bright green flag bearing a golden harp.
Again the small gun flashed from her after-deck; another gun spoke with a splitting report from the starboard bow; both the sh.e.l.ls exploded close to the patrol cruiser, showering her superstructure with steel fragments.
And, as the concussions subsided, and the landward echoes of the shots died away, far and clear from the power-boat"s decks, across the water, came the defiant chorus:
"I saw the Shannon"s purple tide Roll by the Irish town, As I stood in the breach by Donal"s side When England"s flag went down!--"
They were singing "Green Jackets," these doomed men. Barres could hear them cheering, too, for a moment only--then every gun aboard the flimsy little craft spat flame at the big Canadian, and the bursting sh.e.l.ls splashed the water all around her with their pigmy fragments.
Now, from the cruiser, a single gun bellowed. Instantly a red glare wrapped the launch; there was a heavy report, a fountain of rushing smoke and debris.
Against the infernal flare of light Skeel"s tall figure showed in silhouette, standing there with hat lifted as though cheering. Again, from the cruiser, a gun crashed. Where the burning launch had been a horrible flare shot up; and the shocking detonation rocked land and sky. On the water a vast black cloud rested, almost motionless; and all around rained charred things that had been wood and steel and clothing, perhaps--perhaps fragments of living creatures.
So pa.s.sed into eternity Murtagh Skeel and his Green Jackets, hurled skyward in the twinkling of an eye on the roaring blast of their own magazine. What was left of their green flag attained an alt.i.tude unparalleled that sunny morning. But their souls soared higher into that blinding light which makes all things clear at last, solves all questions, all perplexities--which consoles all griefs and quiets at last the bitter mirth of those who have laughed at Death for conscience"s sake.
Very slowly the dull cloud lifted from the sunlit water. Dead fish floated there; others, half-stunned, lay awash with fins quivering, or strove to turn over, shining silver white in the morning sun.