Part 32 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIX

FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE

Well might it be said that the good wishes and anxious thoughts of hundreds followed the gallant Hobson and the meager crew of the _Merrimac_ as she steamed towards Santiago. High hope of success, apprehension increased by the darkness and uncertainty as to her whereabouts, kept everyone in a fever. No one could sleep, and from the open ports, and from the silent and darkened decks of battles.h.i.+ps, cruisers, and gunboats, a thousand and more pairs of anxious eyes stared into the gloom.

”Where was she? Had she run aground? Had she lost her bearings in the darkness? Hus.h.!.+ Did anyone hear that? What was it then? Oh, only escaping steam? What a relief to think of it!”

The questions were pa.s.sed along the decks, time and again, and for the most part left unanswered. Then, as each man became silent in despair of hearing anything, a faint, almost inaudible hail came across the heaving water.

”Hark! Huss-s-s-h! Did anyone hear that? What was it? Discovery?”

Almost instantly a spout of flame shot from a cliff beneath the Morro Castle, cutting the darkness in twain as with an arrow, while a deafening report set the air throbbing and reverberating. Another followed, and then a third, and within a few seconds a line of flaming dots cut along the dark hillside, while sh.e.l.ls flashed brilliantly red in the air as they s.h.i.+vered into a thousand pieces. Nor was this all.

The torpedo-boat _Pluton_ was patrolling the entrance, and at once added the sharp, angry snap of her quick-firers to the din, while guns from another battery ash.o.r.e, and from the _Reina Mercedes_, a battles.h.i.+p anch.o.r.ed within the harbor, played upon the black hull of the devoted _Merrimac_. Add to this a couple of torpedoes, which were discharged in her direction, and some idea can be obtained of the terrors that a.s.sailed her.

Meanwhile Hal had been by no means idle. No sooner had the moorings been dropped, than he opened the cabin door and went into the saloon.

”I'll just stay here till I think we're getting close insh.o.r.e,” he murmured; ”then I'll get on deck. Let me think. The small torpedoes are placed to port; that means that I must get away to starboard to escape the explosion. Hobson stays on board for that, and so shall I. When she begins to sink, I shall go overboard, and swim straight for the sh.o.r.e.

By Jove! I forgot a life-belt, but perhaps there's one in the cabin.”

He ran back, and felt above his head for the racks upon which the belts are usually placed. A low cry of pleasure escaped his lips, for the very thing he wanted was there. Taking it down, he promptly slipped his arms through the slings and quickly buckled the belt on. Then he crept to the companion-way, and sat down upon the bottom step of the ladder, where he waited for what, in his overstrung condition, seemed to be hours.

Bang! The report made him start to his feet, and stand there holding to the rail, while the thump of his heart seemed to shake him from head to foot.

Bang, bang, bang! Cras.h.!.+ The _Merrimac_ s.h.i.+vered as a six-inch sh.e.l.l struck her true in the center, and piercing her thin plates as if they were sheets of tissue paper, exploded forward of the engines, blowing a big gaping hole through the saloon in which Hal sat.

”Another such as that, and I shall get caught down here,” he thought.

”If I am to be hit, it will be better to receive the wound on deck, for then, when she sinks, I may have a chance, and not be drowned like a rat in a cage.”

He felt his way up the ladder, and crawled silently across the deck to the starboard side, where he crouched close to the bulwarks. Above him the bridge appeared dimly, and behind that a circle of sparks flew into the air from the funnel. There, too, standing upon the frail support, was the hero of the hour--Lieutenant Hobson, the gallant officer who had devised the scheme, and begged, not in vain, to carry it out.

More than once, as the guns on the hillside flashed, Hal saw his figure silhouetted clearly against the light. He stepped from the side to the center of the bridge, and, placing his hands to his mouth, so that his voice should not be drowned by the din and uproar, shouted some order in stentorian tones to the man who was stationed at the wheel. Then Hal heard the tiller-chains rattling, and for an instant in the light of a brilliant flash, which had darted suddenly from the battery stationed on the frowning heights of Morro Castle, caught sight of the steersman bending to his work, and putting all his power into the spokes. But the _Merrimac_ kept steadily on, failing to answer to her rudder, which had been smashed to pieces by a sh.e.l.l. At the same moment steam was turned off, and the two men who had been stationed in the engine-room hastily quitted it, and tumbled up on deck as fast as their legs would carry them.

”It's getting nearly time for the torpedoes,” Hal murmured, ”for I judge that we must now be approaching the entrance of Santiago harbor. Ah!

what was that?”

Two loud splashes reached his ear, coming from fore and aft, and a moment's reflection told him that the anchors had been let go. But the Americans were not to have it all their own way, for ill luck again followed the _Merrimac_. A sh.e.l.l, unfortunate for them, but lucky for the Spaniards had crashed into her stern at a most critical moment, and had smashed her rudder into splinters; and now, when that defect might have been remedied by anchoring fore and aft, and afterwards floating her down to the entrance to Santiago, the anchors, in whose powers Lieutenant Hobson's hopes were centered, failed to grip the bed of the ocean, and in consequence the long black hull forged slowly on through the water till it took the ground near Estrella Point. As it did so, there was a series of loud and deafening reports as her intrepid commander pressed the b.u.t.ton and exploded his row of miniature torpedoes.

”That will finish her!” thought Hal. ”I'll wait till she sinks lower, and then I'll dive overboard. My best plan will be to swim away from her as far as possible, though there will be no great danger of being carried under as far as I can see, for the water here is very shallow, and will scarcely cover her upper works when the keel is resting upon the bottom. I'll just creep to the bows, so as to make it as short a swim as possible.”

He rose to his feet and stole forward. But, unfortunately for Hal, a strong tide was running, and floating the sinking _Merrimac_ free of the land, it swept her into deep water. An instant later, a Whitehead torpedo, discharged by the _Reina Mercedes_, which lay within the harbor, rushed seething through the water at more than thirty knots an hour, and struck the hull right forward almost directly beneath Hal's feet. There was a terrific concussion, and a blinding sheet of flame seemed to envelop the _Merrimac_. A column of water started high into the air, while Hal was hurled overboard as if from the arms of a Hercules. Indeed, so great was the shock that he lost consciousness, and might very well have been drowned in that condition. However, the cold water surging about him brought him to his senses almost instantly. Then the instinct of self-preservation a.s.serted itself, and, without exactly knowing why, he commenced to strike out l.u.s.tily, swimming away from the sh.o.r.e, for he was almost too dazed to know what he was doing.

Suddenly the clatter of quick-firers behind attracted his attention, and, turning, he began to forge a way towards the sh.o.r.e. And now he had cause to congratulate himself upon the fact that he had donned a life-belt, for the shock of the torpedo explosion had sadly deprived him of his strength. Indeed, but for the support he received, he would have sunk there and then, and the name of Hal Marchant would have disappeared from this narrative. He was not, however, the sort of lad to give in without a struggle, so, clenching his teeth, he turned on his side, and struck out with all his power. Something touched his hand--something slimy and covered with weed--which he grasped with thankfulness. Then, having rested for a moment, he dragged himself on to a ma.s.s of rock, which jutted into the sea, and seated himself upon it, his head still throbbing painfully, while his brain was dizzy and overcome by the crash of the explosion.

”This won't do,” he said at last. ”Dawn will be breaking before very long, and it is quite time that I looked for a hiding-place. On the appearance of the first ray of light I should at once be discovered if I were still seated here. Besides, I must not forget that, once the interest in the _Merrimac_ is gone, the sentries whose attention is attracted just now to the entrance of the harbor will become more vigilant in watching for the possible landing of enemies upon the particular part of the coast intrusted to each man's care.”

He rose from his seat with an effort, for he was feeling thoroughly done up. Then he groped his way across the rough surface of the rock, and, having waded through a deep pool, was in the act of climbing on to dry ground, when someone pounced upon him with a guttural exclamation of delight, and he found himself in the arms of a Spanish sentinel.