Part 13 (2/2)

For about five minutes more, the Bronx went ahead at full speed, and Christy was confident that she was again making fifteen knots.

”On the bridge, sir!” called the man on the fore yard.

”Aloft!”

”I make her out now; she has the Confederate flag at the peak.”

”All right!” exclaimed Christy to himself, though he spoke out loud.

The steamer had set her colors, and there was no longer any doubt in regard to her character. The flag also indicated that she was not a blockade runner in the ordinary sense of the word, but a Confederate man-of-war. Warnock reported that she had taken her armament on board from another vessel at some point south of England, and the colors also a.s.sured Christy that the steamer was one of the pair expected.

Still the Bronx went ahead at full speed, and presently a gun was heard from the direction in which she lay, though the captain was unable to decide what it meant. It might be a signal of distress, but the man on the yard had not reported the colors as union down; and it might be simply a defiance. It was probable that the Scotian and Arran had put in at St. George, and it was more than possible that they had s.h.i.+pped a reinforcement to her reported small crew.

”Aloft!” called the captain again.

”On the bridge, sir!” replied the lookout.

”Is the steamer under way?”

”I think not, sir; but I can't make out her wake, it is so low.”

”Starboard a little, quartermaster.”

”Starboard, sir.”

Christy heard, or thought he heard, for he was not sure about it, the sound of a bell. A minute later the quartermaster in the pilot house struck seven bells, which was repeated on the top-gallant forecastle of the Bronx, and he was confident this was what he had heard on board of the stranger.

”Quartermaster, strike one bell,” he added.

”One bell, sir;” and the gong resounded from the engine room, and the speed of the Bronx was immediately reduced.

A minute later Christy obtained a full view of the steamer. She was headed to the southwest, and her propeller was not in motion. As the lookout had reported, she was the counterpart of the Bronx, though she was a larger vessel. He gave some further orders to the quartermaster at the wheel, for he had decided to board the steamer on her port side. The boarders had been concealed in proper places under this arrangement, and the captain had directed the course of the Bronx so that a shot from her could hardly do any harm, if she took it into her head to fire one.

”Arran, ahoy!” shouted a hoa.r.s.e voice through a speaking trumpet from the steamer.

”On board the Scotian!” replied Christy through his trumpet.

After the vessel had hailed the Arran, the captain had no difficulty in deciding that the other craft was the Scotian; and he was especially glad that the officer of that vessel had hailed him in this particular form. The single word spoken through that trumpet was the key to the entire enigma. Every possible doubt was removed by it. He was now a.s.sured, as he had not been before, that he had fallen in with one of the two vessels of which his father had given him information, and which his sealed orders required him to seek, even if he was detained a week or more. Christy spent no time in congratulating himself on the situation, but the tremendous idea pa.s.sed through his whole being in an instant.

”We are disabled!” shouted the officer on board of the Scotian through his trumpet. ”Please send your engineer on board.”

”All right!” replied Christy. ”Go ahead a little faster, Mr. Sampson.

We are very near the steamer.”

The young commander cast his eyes over the deck of his vessel to a.s.sure himself that everything was ready for the important moment, though the situation did not indicate that a very sharp battle was to be fought.

Everything was in order, and the first lieutenant was planking the deck, looking as though he felt quite at home, for he was as cool as a Jersey cuc.u.mber. Farther aft was Lillyworth, as uneasy as a caged tiger, for no doubt he realized that the Scotian was to fall a victim to the circ.u.mstances that beset her, rather than as the result of a spirited chase or a sharply fought battle. He looked about him for a moment, and the instant he turned his head, Mulgrum came out from behind the mast, and pa.s.sed quite near him.

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