By approaching this close the flagship came within easy range of the shore guns, and when she was only a few cables’ length distant from the lighter, a shell was sent screeching over the water from one of the rifled pieces in the castle. It struck to the south of her, fully a quarter of a mile.
“That bluff is so poor that I should think her commander would see through it,” said Captain Saunders.
“What do you mean by a bluff, father?” asked Carl.
“Why, that gun-fire, evidently ordered to lull the suspicions of the Chileans, who might wonder if no shots were let fly.”
“Didn’t they aim at her, then?”
“Certainly not, son.”
At that moment a shell flew from the Chucuito fort, and it went as wild as had that from the castle.
Then everybody bent forward breathlessly, looked out over the bay with staring eyes, and not a word was spoken; a silence as of death had fallen upon the multitude that thronged the shore lines. For the Blanco Encalada had slowly passed between the lighter and the land, had reversed her propeller, and had come to a stop with the lighter alongside. None could see this boat that was crowded with food-stuffs and undermined with sufficient explosives to destroy every ship out there in the offing, but they knew that it had been made fast, and that greedy eyes of half-famished sailors were spying the wealth of edibles—enough food to put new life into every man in the fleet, even as there was sufficient material, hidden by the green, to insure every man a horrible death.
Minutes passed like hours; the ticking of watches could be heard. What could they be about on the ironclad? Why the delay? Why did the crash not come and be over with?
Harvey was watching as were the others, but all at once he buried his face in his hands and covered his eyes. The boy who had stood before the Majeronas so bravely became dizzy when he thought of the awful scene that might spring into being any moment out in the bay; a lump was in his throat. Carl and Louis also turned away at times. Strong men were affected and nervously twitched their fingers, tapped the floor with their feet, or bit the ends of their mustaches.