Part 2 (1/2)
”Silence! listen to what our old mother has to say!” cried a humorist.
Amid laughter the captain began, but the laughter quickly ceased and his words were listened to with attention.
”Fellow voyagers,” said he in conclusion, ”you will find on the bulletin board to-night some information and advice relative to your trip to Granada. For the past ten days you have been under my charge and I have looked after your welfare, but to-morrow you leave the vessel for two days. I wish you a pleasant excursion and a safe return to shelter under the care of your 'Old Mother.'”
After the applause had subsided and a response had been made by one of the pa.s.sengers, the orchestra played as a finale Liebe's ”Auf Wiedersehen.”
Then we, after securing pencil and paper, hastened to join the crowd around the bulletin board to make notes of the directions for the trip into Spain. The notice read as follows:
”The Moltke will arrive at Gibraltar to-morrow, February fifteenth, before daylight. Breakfast will be served at an early hour and tenders will be alongside the steamer at seven o'clock to take the tourists to the dock. There guides will be in waiting and three hours will be spent in Gibraltar.
”At ten o'clock the tourists will be conveyed in the steam ferry across the bay to the railroad station at Algeciras, from which place the train will start for Granada. During the ferry pa.s.sage a box containing luncheon to be eaten on the train will be given to each person.
”Dress warmly or take heavy wraps, as it is sometimes cold at Granada at this season of the year.
”Call at the office at the news-stand on main deck for railroad tickets and hotel a.s.signments.
”The excursion party returning will leave Granada at four o'clock Monday afternoon and arrive at the steamer about midnight. The Moltke will then sail for Algiers.”
”Let us go to the office at once. The giving out of tickets may require considerable time,” said my room-mate.
Others were of the same opinion, it seemed, for many were ahead of us, but there was no delay, each applicant receiving promptly with his railroad ticket a card bearing the name of the hotel in Granada to which he was a.s.signed. The managers of the tour, having arranged in advance for the required number of rooms at the princ.i.p.al hotels, were prepared to make the allotment before leaving the vessel, so avoiding confusion and delay on our arrival at our destination, and securing for us prompt attention at the hotels.
Some of our friends who had already received their envelopes rejoiced to see on their cards ”Hotel Was.h.i.+ngton Irving,” a hotel which they knew from description to be beautifully situated on the heights near the Alhambra.
”Hotel Victoria,” I read on mine. I was disappointed at first, but on the following day I found that the central location of the ”Victoria”
gave opportunities to see much of the life of the city that might have been missed had the a.s.signment been to the hotel in the suburbs.
When we awoke the next morning the Moltke was lying quietly at anchor.
We hastily dressed and ascended to the deck.
Any one who has seen pictures of the huge rock that guards the entrance to the Mediterranean will recognize Gibraltar at sight if he approaches the rock from the right point of view. The ill.u.s.trations, however, represent a somber mountain. The picture we saw showed white houses, red roofs, green trees, patches of lawn, groups of shrubbery, and plots of flowers, all contrasting with gray rocks; these with blue sky overhead, and white sails in the foreground gave life and color to the scene.
As we gazed for some time from the vessel's deck at the strong fortress which has been held securely in the grasp of Great Britain for two hundred years, we thought of the many unsuccessful attempts that have been made during those two centuries to wrest it from British control; most noted of all, the long siege by the French and Spanish forces that continued for four years when Napoleon was supreme in France. What might have been the result, if England's grasp on the rock had been broken by Napoleon; or what the outcome, if Napoleon's fleet had been victorious in the conflict on the near-by Trafalgar Bay!
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ROCK HAD A PEACEFUL LOOK.]
The rock had a peaceful look, but we knew that the cactus plants, which grew rank on the slope of the mountain, concealed powerful batteries, and that on the summit of the rock were mounted cannons of the largest calibre, which, if required, could hurl projectiles to the far side of the strait, a distance of twelve miles.
On one of the highest points of the rock stands the Signal Tower. To this tower the officers of the Moltke had signaled the news of our arrival when the steamer entered the harbor, and before we had stirred from our berths, that information had been flashed over the cable to London and New York. On the following morning our friends at home read in the s.h.i.+pping news of their daily paper, the following item:
”Arrived out; Feb. 15, Gibraltar, Moltke, from New York.”
As we started ash.o.r.e on the lighters at the early hour appointed, we realized that we should have to take in a great deal in a very little while. We entered the city of Gibraltar by a tunnel-like entrance through walls of great thickness. The gateway was closely guarded by sentinels, who demanded the pa.s.ses with which we had been furnished and who told us that these would be good only until sunset, for at the firing of the evening gun each day the gates are closed and the pa.s.ses then are useless.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WE DESCENDED A LONG LADDER OF FIFTY STEPS.]