Part 33 (1/2)
Captain Bristler and his effects were sent back to the Raven, the grappling irons and the fasts were cast off, and the St. Regis backed out from her position on the port side of the prize. During all this time Christy was very busy with his gla.s.s. As Mr. Baskirk had discovered, the leading steamer had three blockaders in chase of her.
She was now headed to the south, having done so as soon as she saw the four vessels lying in her course.
”Make the course south-west by south, Mr. Baskirk,” said the young commander, after he had brought his trigonometry into use again.
Then it became a very exciting question to ascertain which was the faster steamer of the two.
CHAPTER x.x.xI
A VICTORIOUS UNION
The fog was coming and going in the distance, and at times the land could be just discerned. In spite of the number and vigilance of the blockading fleet, several hundred blockade-runners had succeeded in making their way into Cape Fear River, though several hundred also had been captured, not to mention a very considerable number that had been run ash.o.r.e or burned when escape became hopeless.
It was the policy of the Confederacy to send out vessels to prey upon the commerce of the United States. Some of them began their depredations without making a port in the South, and a few of the swift steamers that succeeded in getting into Mobile, Wilmington, and other safe places, were fitted out for the work of destruction. The fog that prevailed insh.o.r.e was favorable to blockade-runners; and if there was a vessel of this character in Cape Fear River, the early morning had been such as to tempt her to try to make her way through the blockaders to sea.
”She is not one of the ordinary steamers that run in and out of the river,” said Mr. Baskirk, while he and the commander were still watching the progress of the chase, and Paul Vapoor was warming up the engine as he had done before.
”She is larger than the St. Regis, but hardly equal in size to the Bellevite,” added Christy. ”She cannot draw more than twelve or fourteen feet of water, or she could not have come out through those shallow channels at the mouth of Cape Fear River. She seems to have the speed to run away from her pursuers; but probably not one of them can make fifteen knots an hour.”
The three pursuers of the blockade-runner had changed their course when the chase did so; but it was already evident that they had no chance to overhaul her. They were still three miles astern of her, while the St.
Regis, at sunset, was not more than three. Not a shot had been fired by any one of the steamers, and it would have been a waste of ammunition to do so.
”We are gaining on her,” said Christy, half an hour later. ”That steamer is making sixteen knots at least.”
”If she has found out that we can outsail her, very likely she will count upon the darkness to enable her to give us the slip,” suggested Mr. Baskirk.
”Mr. Vapoor has come to his bearings, and in another half hour we shall be within one mile of her. But I am afraid we shall not be able to settle this affair finally to-night,” replied Christy.
The darkness gathered around the two s.h.i.+ps, and none of the steamers in the distance could any longer be seen. The officers could just make out the steamer ahead, which still kept on her course. The mids.h.i.+p gun was now brought into use, and a round shot was sent on its mission to her; but with little chance of hitting her in the increasing gloom, for the sky was obscured with clouds, and all the signs indicated fog during the night, which would be exceedingly favorable to the chase. A flash was seen in the distance, and then came the roar of a heavy gun.
”She is not merely a blockade-runner; for it appears now that she is an armed vessel, and has some heavy metal on board,” said Christy.
”But no shot has come within hearing,” added Mr. Baskirk. ”Perhaps she only wished to inform us that she could bite as well as bark.”
The St. Regis kept on her course for another hour. Christy was very anxious, for the chase was plainly a Confederate man-of-war, or a privateer; and if she escaped she might begin her work of destruction the very next day. At two bells in the first watch she could not be seen; but the commander kept on his course another half-hour, and then he ran into a fog.
The log indicated that the s.h.i.+p was making her best speed; and if the chase continued on her former course, she must have been within sight or hearing by this time. Christy peered through the gloom of the night and the fog, and listened for any sound. He kept up a tremendous thinking all the time, and acted as though he was in doubt.
”Make the course east, Mr. Baskirk,” said he, calling the executive officer.
”East, Captain Pa.s.sford?” interrogated the lieutenant; and if he tried to conceal the astonishment he felt, his tones failed him.
”East, Mr. Baskirk,” repeated the commander.
The course was given to the quartermaster at the wheel; and the St.
Regis came about gradually, and stood off in the direction indicated.
Christy had a theory of his own, in regard to the probable movements of the chase, and he desired to be solely responsible for the result: therefore he kept his plan to himself.