About a mile, as I remember it, from the bar stood the lighthouse. Early in the war the rebels, in accordance with their general policy, had removed the lantern, and had then attempted to blow up the tower; but the sturdy shaft had defied their efforts, and, barring a ragged gap in one side, it was, as yet, practically intact.
Landing a few rods from the lighthouse, I left the boat beached, with orders to the crew not to stray away and to keep their arms in readiness for use. Then, accompanied by the doctor and my coxswain, I strolled up to the tower, intending to obtain from the top a lookout over the surrounding country.
But this I soon found was no easy task, for the rebels had blown out the lower iron steps from the inside: and it was only by using considerable effort that we at last succeeded in accomplishing our object, and only then after pulling down in the struggle two of the steps still remaining in place. However, at last we scrambled up and made our way to the balcony above the lantern-room.
From this point the view was very extended; and unslinging my marine glass, I, sailor-like, turned first to look at the beautiful picture my noble ship presented gracefully riding at her anchors, her tall masts tapering skyward, the ensign and pennant drooping idly from the peak and masthead in the light air, the guns peering from her side being the only thing to indicate that she was not some “peaceful merchant caravel.”
“She is certainly a beauty, doctor. You don’t often see a prettier craft, and she is as good as she is bonny, and carries a swift pair of heels into the bargain! But what are you looking at over there so intently? It is easy to see that you are not a sailor! Have you got a bullock in range over those hills?”
While speaking I turned my glass in the direction where the doctor was looking so earnestly, and the sight presented almost took away my breath, and for an instant I was speechless.
On our right, over the sheltering sand hill which had heretofore concealed them from our view, was a rebel camp in plain sight, into which, as I looked down from the tower, it seemed to me that I could have cast a stone!
Two score dingy shelter tents and two or three larger marquee tents indicated the presence of at least a hundred men, while before one of the large tents were two brass field-pieces!
There was no perceptible stir in the camp, and for a moment I hoped that we might not have been observed, and that possibly there was yet time for us to escape unnoticed from this trap into which I had so unwittingly cast myself.
But the silence and quiet were delusive; for as I looked again more carefully, I saw that men were stealing over the sand hills toward my boat, which they doubtless hoped to capture by surprise!