Part 25 (2/2)

”Hands, lower boats!” yelled Black at this moment, and then, leaving no more than ten or fifteen men in the steamer, he led the way to the launch.

We were now no more than a quarter of a mile from safety, but the run was full of peril, and, as the launch stood out, the nameless s.h.i.+p of a sudden shut off her light, if possible to s.h.i.+eld us in the dark. But the pursuer instantly flooded us with her own arc, and, following it with quick shots, she hit the jolly-boat at the third. Of the eight men there, only two rose when the hull had disappeared.

”Fire away, by thunder!” cried Black, shaking his fist, and mad with pa.s.sion; ”and get your hands in: you'll want all the bark you've got just now.”

But we had hauled the men aboard as he spoke, and, though two sh.e.l.ls foamed in the sea and wetted us to the skin in the pa.s.sage, we were at the ladder of the nameless s.h.i.+p without other harm, and with fierce shouts the men gained the decks.

For them it was a glorious moment. They had weathered the perils of a city, and stood where they could best face the crisis of the pursuit.

It was a spectacle to move the most stolid apathy: the sight of a couple of hundred demoniacal figures lighted by the great white wave of light from the enemy's s.h.i.+p, their faces upturned as they waited Black's orders, their hands flouris.h.i.+ng knives and cutla.s.ses, their hunger for the contest betrayed in every gesture. I stood upon the gallery high above the seas, and looked down upon the motley company, or along the s.p.a.ce of the hazy arc to the other vessel, and I asked myself again and again, What if we shall win--what if this desperate adventurer shall again outwit those who have coped with him, and hold his mastery of the sea?

Nor did it seem so improbable that he would. Those upon the Government cruiser betrayed their uneasiness every moment by casting the beams of their searchlight on every point of the horizon; but their signal was unanswered, no a.s.suring rays shone out in the distant blackness of the night. We two were alone upon the Atlantic, there to fight the duel of the nations; and I confess that in the unparalleled excitement of the moment I rejoiced that it was so; I hoped, even, that the nameless s.h.i.+p would carry the hour, so much had she fascinated me, so astounding were her achievements.

This truly was the critical moment in Black's career. He stepped on the bridge to find Karl wringing his hands, and ”Four-Eyes” was no less uneasy.

”Faith, sorr,” said he, as soon as we had come aboard, ”it's bad times intoirely if ye've no oil--we've been working two engines for three days, and we'll be sore put to ut to kape the third going, if ye can't mend us.”

Karl emphasised the words with stamps and tears and frantic gesticulation--not lost upon Black, who advanced to the front of the bridge, and called for silence in a voice that would have split a berg.

A deathlike stillness succeeded; you could hear the wash of the waves and the moaning of the wind: two hundred upturned faces shone ghastly white under the spreading beams which the cruiser's lantern cast upon them.

”Boys,” cried Black, ”yonder's a Government s.h.i.+p. You know me, that I don't run after war-sc.u.m every day, for that's not my business. But we're short of oil, and the cylinders are heating. If we don't get it in twenty-four hours, there'll be devil's work, and we shan't do it.

Boys, it's swing or take that s.h.i.+p and the oil aboard her--which'll you have?”

There was no doubt about their answer--there could be none. In one way it was almost as if the cruiser herself gave reply, for there was the roar of a great gun when Black had finished speaking, and a shot hissed from above our p.o.o.p and burst in the seas beyond us. A mighty shout followed, but was converted instantly into a cry of warning, as the forward hands sang out--

”Look out aft--the torpedo!” and other hands took up the cry, yelling ”The torpedo! The torpedo!”

The tiny line of foam was just visible for a second in the way of the light; but, the moment the cruiser had shot it from her tube, she extinguished her arc, leaving us to light the waters with our own.

There was no difficulty whatever in following the line of the deadly message, and for a moment every heart, I doubt not, almost stood still.

”Full speed astern!” roared Black, forgetting himself, but instantly ringing the bell, and the nameless s.h.i.+p moved backwards, faster and yet faster. But the black death-bearer followed her, as a shark follows a death-s.h.i.+p; we seemed even to have backed into its course--it came on as though to strike us full amids.h.i.+ps.

The excitement was almost more than I could bear; I turned away, waiting for the tremendous concussion; I heard awful curses from the men, the cowardly shouting of ”Roaring John,” the blasphemies of ”d.i.c.k the Ranter.” I knew that Black alone was calm; and at the last I fixed my eyes upon him when the head of the torpedo's foam was not thirty yards away from us. In that supreme moment the power of the man rose to a great height. He grasped the situation with the calmness of one thinking in bed; and waiting motionless for some seconds, which were seconds almost of agony to the rest of us, he cried of a sudden--

”Hard a-starboard!” and the helm went over with a run.

The movement was altogether superb. The great s.h.i.+p swung round with a majestic sweep, and as we waited breathlessly, the torpedo pa.s.sed right under our bow, missing the ram by a hair's-breadth. The reaction was nigh intolerable; the men waited for some seconds silent as the voice-less; then their cheers rang away over the seas in a great volume of sound, which must have re-echoed down in the caverns of the Atlantic.

”You, d.i.c.k,” ordered Black, ”return the lubbers that, or I'll whip you;” and d.i.c.k, who had got his wits back, replied--

”Skipper, if I dinna dive into their internals, gie me sax dozen.”

”Hands to quarters,” continued the skipper; ”let no man show himself till I call, then him as doesn't fight for all he's worth, let him prepare to swing.”

With this there fell a great busyness, the men going, some to the turrets, some to the magazines below.

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