“If,” mused Jim, “the Almirante Cochrane or some other of our ships are really after these fellows it will probably mean the saving of us, for the Huascar and the Union will in that case hardly dare to remain and fight against us.
“Ah!—” he continued, as he saw a rocket stream up into the air from the Huascar, “they have sighted us, that is clear, and we shall have to fight after all. Yes; here they come! They are both altering their course now, and heading directly for us. I was afraid we should not escape detection.”
The Peruvians, which had been heading off the land, had now turned slightly, and were pointing about north-north-west, directly for the spot where the Covadonga was creeping along under the land, and Jim could see the dull red glare above their funnels which showed that the stokers were coaling up vigorously.
Condell now shouted down the voice-tube to the engine-room, ordering the staff to let him have as much steam as the boilers would carry, and rang for full speed at the same time. The little gunboat began to quiver from stem to stern, from truck to keel, under the increased pulsations of the throbbing screw, while the curl of white water at her bows gradually crept higher and still higher up her stem as her speed increased, until she swept along at her best pace of about nine knots in the hour.
As she ran down the coast the Huascar and the Union both pointed their bows more and more shoreward, as if to cut off the gunboat; and it began to look very much as though there was no hope for the Covadonga, when suddenly another rocket, blue this time, soared up from the monitor, and she described a wide circle seaward once more, her consort following her example. Jim immediately guessed that Admiral Grau had, like a prudent man, had a leadsman at work on board his ship, and that the Peruvian skipper had suddenly found himself in danger of running aground through standing so close inshore.
The two hostile warships then eased down to half-speed, and kept on a course parallel with the shore, and at a distance of about a mile away from it. As the Covadonga herself was obliged, by reason of shoals and sunken reefs, to keep at a distance of quite half a mile from the beach, this left her an avenue of escape just about half a mile in width. But although the Huascar and the Union could not approach closer than eight or nine hundred yards from the gunboat, she would still have to run the gauntlet of their fire, and they could easily destroy her, by gun-fire alone, at six times that distance. There did not appear to be very much hope for the Covadonga, thought Jim, unless she could somehow manage to disable her antagonists—a very unlikely contingency, owing to the smallness of her guns, or unless a Chilian ship should happen to be in the neighbourhood and be attracted to the spot by the sound of the firing which was bound to open in a few minutes.
When the Covadonga had approached to within about a mile of the Peruvian ironclads, Jim saw the Huascar go about and heave-to, with her bows pointing to the south, while the Union came foaming along on her original course, which was parallel to that of the gunboat, and about half a mile distant from it to seaward.
“Aha!” thought he to himself, “so that is the manoeuvre, is it? Grau is going to get us between two fires if he can. As soon as the corvette is past us she too will swing round and attack us with her bow-guns while the Huascar rakes us with her stern weapons. It looks as though the Covadonga were in for a hot time!”
The young Englishman’s surmise soon proved correct; for directly the Union had passed out of the line of fire the Huascar opened with one of her turret 300-pounder guns. The first shell passed close ahead of the gunboat, but it was aimed much too high, and struck the cliffs on the Covadonga’s port beam, exploding with a brilliant flash of light and a roaring concussion that sent ton after ton of rock hurtling down into the sea. The corvette was now abreast of the Chilian ship, and as she drew level she let fly her whole broadside, consisting of one 100-pounder, one 70-pounder, and six 40-pounders, at the devoted gunboat.
The effect was as though a hurricane of fire and steel had broken loose aboard the Covadonga. Three of her smaller machine-guns, together with their crews, were blown to atoms, while her bulwarks were levelled with the decks in several places. The execution on board was terrible; and Jim had an exceedingly narrow escape, for at the moment when the Union fired he was just entering the little conning-tower with a communication for Captain Condell, and a 100-pounder shell struck full upon one of the Covadonga’s 70-pounder gun-shields, tearing a portion of it away. It then burst into a thousand fragments, one of which whizzed past Jim’s head and struck the conning-tower beside him with such force that the piece of metal weighing several pounds was firmly embedded in the soft steel of which the tower was constructed, while Jim was dazed with the shock and half blinded by the flying iron dust and grains of powder.