Part 2 (1/2)
”Yes,” answered Jim, ”I distinctly caught sight of a flicker of flame.
It appeared to me as though somebody had struck a match for some purpose or other, and had hurriedly extinguished it. I wonder what is happening, away over there. There is certainly something going on that is not quite as it should be, I am convinced.”
During this brief interchange of remarks the noise of the churning little propeller had been drawing nearer; and, after listening intently for a few seconds longer, Douglas whispered hurriedly to his chum, ”Slip below _quickly_, Terry, and bring me up my night-gla.s.s; I believe there is something radically wrong about this business.”
In a moment O'Meara was back on deck, bearing the telescope, which Douglas hastily s.n.a.t.c.hed from him and brought to bear on the spot from whence the sound proceeded. He had been glancing through it for only about half a minute when he turned excitedly to Terry and gasped out, ”Rouse the s.h.i.+p, man--and quickly, too; there is a launch approaching, and she carries a spar-torpedo; she is making straight for us, _and evidently means to torpedo the flags.h.i.+p_!”
Like a flash Terry disappeared to rouse the crew, while Douglas continued to watch the approach of the launch, in a perfect agony of apprehension. The little craft was very close indeed now, and, steaming at the rate of some nine knots, she would be alongside the _Blanco Encalada_ in a couple of minutes; and once alongside the battles.h.i.+p, nothing could save the latter from destruction.
But anxiety lent wings to Terry's feet, and in a few seconds the men made their appearance on deck, in all stages of undress, for they fully appreciated the dangers of the situation and had not waited to clothe themselves. Their officers also had dashed up from below, and hurried words of command flew from one quarter of the s.h.i.+p to another. Admiral Williams himself rushed up from below, upon the alarm being given, and he now instructed the s.h.i.+p's bugler to sound the alarm, and to sound it with all his strength, while at the same time a blank charge was fired as a warning to the other s.h.i.+ps to be on the alert. Immediately afterward a bugle was heard shrilling from the _Almirante Cochrane_, and this was taken up by every s.h.i.+p in the squadron, for the whole fleet was now thoroughly alarmed and on the alert.
For a few moments a state nearly approaching to panic reigned aboard the flags.h.i.+p; but the men were quickly at their quarters, and every gun in the s.h.i.+p was promptly trained upon the position indicated by Douglas.
It was too dark to enable the gunners to aim with precision, but the sound guided them to some extent, and suddenly a perfect volcano of machine-gun fire broke out on board the _Blanco Encalada_, followed by a hoa.r.s.e scream of agony from the torpedo-launch. An iron bucket was partly filled with paraffin and this was lighted as a flare, throwing a lurid glare over the sea and disclosing plainly to view a couple of rapidly approaching launches, each of which carried a spar over her bows, from which a torpedo was suspended, the launches heading directly for the _Blanco Encalada_. But upon the nearest launch the effect of the flags.h.i.+p's fire was terrible. The helmsman had been cut nearly to pieces by the hail of bullets, and he now hung dead over the tiller of the little steamer, which was consequently yawing wildly about. The remainder of her crew were in the well abaft the boiler, some lying huddled up on the floor, while others hung loosely, like half-empty sacks, over the launch's bulwarks, their arms trailing in the water.
Indeed it appeared as though the _Blanco Encalada_, by a lucky fluke, had concentrated her whole fire upon that one devoted craft. For a moment it appeared as though the little steamer, with her crew of dead, would still effect her purpose, for the torpedo was still intact at the end of its spar, and the launch was heading straight for the battles.h.i.+p; but just at the last moment the corpse of the helmsman was jerked from the tiller by the motion of the sea, and the launch's head immediately fell off a point or two. She rushed past the _Blanco Encalada's_ bows, missing them by no more than a few feet, and a few minutes later a deafening report from the sh.o.r.e told those on board the flags.h.i.+p that the torpedo-launch had rushed at full speed upon the rocks, thus exploding her torpedo and blowing herself to pieces.
The second launch, which had been steaming about a hundred yards astern of her consort, had miraculously escaped that whirlwind of shot, and now, seeing the fate of her consort, she described a wide circle, and headed away to the north-west, out of the bay, at full speed. In a few minutes she would be beyond the circle of light thrown by the flags.h.i.+p's brazier of fire, and would be in safety; but she was not to escape so easily. The _Blanco Encalada's_ gunners carefully laid their machine- guns on the craft, and opened a furious fire upon her. The rattle of the Nordenfeldts sounded like a continuous roar of thunder, and the stream of fire from their muzzles itself illuminated the darkness of the night with a fitful glare.
The gunners got the range almost immediately, and those on board the flags.h.i.+p could see that the water was lashed into foam round the launch by the pelting rain of missiles. There was no escape from that iron hail, not even for those desperate members of the crew who dived overboard, for the men of the _Blanco_ made a target of every face that appeared upon the surface of the water.
Then the end came, suddenly and dreadfully. A bullet must have pa.s.sed in advance of the launch and struck the torpedo itself, for the onlookers saw a dazzling burst of whitish-blue flame, which was followed by a deafening, stunning explosion, and the launch seemed to disappear, as if by magic, in a tornado of flame, for not even a fragment of her appeared on the water afterwards. The roar of the machine-guns at once ceased, and every man on board the s.h.i.+p wiped away the cold sweat of fear which had burst out on his forehead at the prospect of being torpedoed; for there is no arm in the naval service so dreaded by the sailor.
Tranquillity was now gradually restored, and half an hour later peace once more reigned; but not a single man in the whole squadron could bring himself to go below again until day dawned. On every s.h.i.+p huge fires were lighted, and boats were sent to patrol the fleet in order to prevent a repet.i.tion of the occurrence; but it was not until daylight revealed a sea empty of craft save those of the Chilians that the fearful strain of suspense was relaxed.
Admiral Williams personally thanked Douglas and O'Meara for their quick action, which had undoubtedly saved the flags.h.i.+p, and very probably some of the other vessels of the squadron. He also questioned the lads closely, in order to ascertain whether they had heard or seen anything which would furnish a clue to the nationality of the occupants of the launches, but they could tell him nothing; and the Admiral was at length driven to the conclusion that his a.s.sailants must have come down the coast from Antof.a.gasta, and must have consisted of a couple of the ancient torpedo-launches which the Bolivians were known to possess, but which Williams had left out of his calculations as being too unimportant to be taken into consideration. How dearly this oversight might have cost him has already been seen.
The following, or rather, the same morning, the s.h.i.+ps' boats were lowered, and, a.s.sisted by flat-bottomed craft from the sh.o.r.e, began the work of embarking the remainder of the troops. It continued during the whole morning, and by mid-day the balance of the military contingent was distributed among the s.h.i.+ps, which then got up their anchors and turned their bows to the northward once more, still under easy steam for the benefit of the old and rotten _Esmeralda_, two of whose boilers were so eaten away by rust as to be useless. A particularly keen look-out for hostile s.h.i.+ps was kept, in view of the alarming incident in Caldera Bay, but nothing of a suspicious character was sighted, and on the evening of the 13th of February the fleet anch.o.r.ed before the town of Antof.a.gasta, the princ.i.p.al seaport of Bolivia, lying in a half-circle at a distance of about a mile and a half from the sh.o.r.e.
The obnoxious tax was to come into force on the following day, if Bolivia adhered to her original resolution; and Admiral Williams had orders that, should such prove to be the case, he was to seize the Custom House, invest the town, and in the event of resistance being offered, to bombard it. Chili did not intend to submit tamely to the high-handed action of Bolivia, which const.i.tuted a serious and intolerable infraction of treaty.
Immediately the squadron came to an anchor, therefore, every gun was trained upon the town, in readiness for action, should such become necessary; and early on the following morning Admiral Williams had his gig piped away, and, accompanied by his flag-captain, he was pulled ash.o.r.e to ascertain the intentions of the Bolivian authorities, and to warn all the Chilian inhabitants of the place that it would be bombarded should the President of the Republic not prove amenable to reason, so that they might leave the town, with their belongings, before his s.h.i.+ps opened fire.
The Admiral was ash.o.r.e until about three o'clock in the afternoon; and when he returned to the _Blanco Encalada_ it soon became known that the Bolivians had refused to relinquish their demands, and that therefore Antof.a.gasta was to be invested. He believed, however, that it would not be necessary to bombard the town, as he thought it was hardly likely that the inhabitants would be so unwise as to offer armed resistance to the landing of the Chilian troops. The soldiers were therefore to be landed at once under cover of the guns of the squadron, while a naval force, composed of men from the _Blanco Encalada_ and the _Almirante Cochrane_, were at the same time instructed to land at the northern part of the seaport and seize the Custom House.
The Chilian troops, under Colonel Sotomayor, were therefore put into boats belonging to the wars.h.i.+ps, which were then taken in tow by the small steam craft and conveyed to the wharves at the south end of the town, their landing being unopposed, except for a few stray shots which were fired from the cover of some closed shops, and which a few volleys from the soldiers promptly checked. Then the s.h.i.+ps' boats being once more available, the task of seizing the Custom House was proceeded with; and it was antic.i.p.ated that here, if anywhere, a determined resistance would be made. A council of captains was called on board the _Blanco Encalada_, and a plan of campaign resolved upon. It was decided that Captain Latorre, of the _Almirante Cochrane_, should lead the naval detachment, which was to be drawn from all the s.h.i.+ps of the squadron, in proportion to the complement of their crews; and Douglas was the officer selected to take charge of the party from the _Blanco Encalada_, much to his delight, the selection being probably due to a desire on Admiral Williams's part to recompense the lad in some measure for the prompt.i.tude and coolness which he had displayed in saving the flags.h.i.+p in Caldera Bay.
Jim joyously took leave of his friend Terry--who, as he belonged to the engine-room staff, could not expect to be sent on sh.o.r.e expeditions-- adjusted the sword at his side, ran down the side-ladder, and took his seat in the stern-sheets of the steam-launch which, with a whaleboat which it was to tow, carried the detachment of men from the _Blanco Encalada_. The boats of the other vessels were by this time ready; and, headed by the launch of the _Almirante Cochrane_, carrying Captain Latorre, the leader of the expedition, the little flotilla swept away from the s.h.i.+ps toward the north end of the town, vociferously cheered as they went by the remainder of the squadron.
The distance to the Custom House was about two miles; and by the time that they had covered half of it, it was seen that a considerable amount of activity was being manifested ash.o.r.e; in fact it looked as though here, at any rate, the Bolivians had fully determined to offer resistance.
Jim remarked on the circ.u.mstance to Lieutenant Alcerrerez, who was sitting next to him; and while he was speaking, Captain Latorre hailed the boats to slow up and come alongside, in order to receive further instructions. These were soon given, and were to the effect that the launches of the flags.h.i.+p and of the _Almirante Cochrane_ were to be the leading boats in a formation of double column of line ahead, in which order they were to attack. This matter having been arranged, all went ahead again at full speed, while the men eased the cutla.s.ses in their sheaths and inspected the cartridges in their rifles, in readiness for the antic.i.p.ated encounter.
Suddenly, when the boats were within a couple of hundred yards of the mole leading down from the Custom House, a blaze of fire leapt from the loopholed walls of the buildings, and bullets flew round the little flotilla in a perfect hailstorm. The Chilian ensign in the stern of Douglas's launch was literally ripped from its staff, proving that, had the Bolivians but depressed their rifle muzzles a trifle more, every man in the steamer's well would have been hit by the leaden shower.
Lieutenant Alcerrerez, who was sitting next to Douglas, emitted a curious little cough, turned half round, and fell forward over the lad's knees, while several men in the launch sprang convulsively to their feet, only to drop down again in a limp, motionless heap, or to fall over the low gunwales in the violence of their death-struggles. Jim shuddered as he thought of the fate of poor Lieutenant Alcerrerez, but he pulled himself together and laid the poor shot-pierced body gently down on the boat's floor grating, thereby saving his own life; for even as he stooped, another shower of rifle-bullets hurtled into the launch, killing several more men, and piercing the boat herself in six places below the water-line, so that she began to take in water at an alarming rate.
Some of the other craft had, however, come off still worse than the _Blanco Encalada's_ launch; for the casualties were even heavier in the _Almirante Cochrane's_ boats, while a shot had pierced the boiler of the launch belonging to the _O'Higgins_, which immediately blew up with disastrous results, killing and wounding nearly the whole of her crew.
The flotilla was by this time, however, within the shelter of the mole; and a minute later the boats rushed alongside at full speed, Jim leaping ash.o.r.e at the same time as Captain Latorre, who, sword in hand, formed his men quickly up, shouting, ”Forward, my children; you have your comrades to avenge!” And away raced the boat's crew along the pier toward the Custom House, receiving, as they did so, another terrible volley from the defenders. The Chilians' blood was up, however, and they did not even pause to succour their wounded, but dashed forward, holding their fire in reserve, and with their bayonets fixed.