After the battle of Angamos Commodore—or rather Admiral as he was now—Riveros had been greatly exercised in his mind as to what course he should pursue with regard to the corvette Union. She had effected her escape before the battle commenced, and when last seen was steaming in the direction of Arica, the most southerly port which the Peruvians possessed. She was a very heavily armed ship, and was nearly, if not quite, as formidable as the Huascar had been, and thus still constituted a standing menace to the unfortified ports of Chili. Riveros was in a quandary, for he already had more work on his hands than he knew how to deal with; yet the Chilians resident in the coast ports were clamouring for him to proceed to sea again and hunt down the cruiser. But he did not in the least know where to look for her; nor could he, by the most diligent inquiry, gain any intelligence of her. She might be at any one of the numerous Peruvian ports; and were he to go in search of her she would quite probably slip past him again in the night, as she and the monitor had once before done.
The fleet had been lying at Valparaiso for nearly a month undergoing the repairs and refit of which they so sorely stood in need, when one morning Jim, from his station on the Blanco Encalada’s bridge, where he was on duty, observed a signal flying from the official residence of the Secretary for War. In a moment he had his glass to his eye, and began to spell out the signal, which, when completed, ran as follows: “Blanco Encalada. Admiral Riveros to call here without delay. I have important orders for him.”
“Hallo!” thought Jim, “what’s in the wind now? More work for somebody, I’ll be bound. I wonder whether the Union has been up to any fresh tricks? She has kept remarkably—suspiciously—quiet for some time now.”
Then the young man made his way down to the admiral’s cabin and delivered the message, with the result that the admiral’s barge was piped away, and five minutes later Riveros was being pulled across the sparkling blue waters of the bay, to learn what it was that Señor Baquedano wanted to communicate to him.
Several hours elapsed before the gallant Chilian returned aboard, and when he finally did so his first action was to send for Jim Douglas and request him to accompany him to his cabin. Arrived there, the admiral closed the door, locked it, and then leaning across the table toward Douglas, remarked in a low tone:
“Señor Douglas, I am paying you no empty compliment, when I say that I consider you a remarkably efficient and promising young officer. You have carried out, with the utmost credit to yourself, several exceedingly difficult pieces of work, and for that reason I am going to detail you for a service which I suspect will prove even more difficult than any which you have yet been called upon to perform.”
Jim bowed, and did his best not to look too pleased.
“As you, of course, are aware,” continued the admiral, smiling, “we lost sight of the Union corvette before the battle of Angamos, and as we had more important business on hand at the moment, we were not able to pursue her; consequently she got clear away. The Chilians in the coast towns have for some time been living in mortal dread of her appearing, some fine day, off one or another of their ports, and bombarding it; and for some weeks past I have been daily expecting orders to sail in pursuit of her and to hunt her down. We have, however, until to-day had no definite news of her whereabouts upon which we could work. But this afternoon I was summoned ashore and informed by his Excellency, General Baquedano, that the Peruvians are expecting several cargoes of arms from Europe, and he has been informed by one of our spies that the Union has been dispatched to the mouth of the Straits of Magellan to convoy those vessels to Callao, or whatever Peruvian port they are bound for. If, then, we dispatch a vessel down to the Straits we are almost certain to fall in with the corvette and bring her to action; and if we are lucky we may also secure the arms-carrying vessels. That would of course be in itself a service of inestimable value to our government, since if our enemies cannot obtain arms and ammunition they will soon be obliged to give up the struggle. To make a long story short, you, Señor Douglas, are the man whom I have selected to perform this difficult, arduous, and decidedly dangerous task. We have recently purchased a steamer, which we have armed so powerfully that she is to all intents and purposes a cruiser, and you will be given the command of her. Your task is, as I have just explained, to hunt down and destroy the Union, and if possible to capture the gun-running steamers which she has been sent to convoy. This new cruiser of ours has been named the Angamos, in honour of our recent victory; and I shall look confidently to you to uphold the honour of her name. She is quite ready to sail, and you must commission her to-morrow, and sail the same day. It is a very important service for so young a man as yourself, but from what I have already seen of you I am confident of your ability to bring your task to a successful termination. That is all, I think, that I have to say to you, Señor Douglas, except that, should you wish to do so, you have my permission to number your friend, the young engineer, among your crew. Now, good day, young sir, and the best of good luck to you.”
Jim saluted in silence, feeling rather at a loss to know what to say by way of thanks, and marched out of the cabin, “as proud as a dog with two tails.” He had never anticipated anything like this when he entered the Chilian service, and the news seemed almost too good to be true. Yet he speedily pulled himself together and hurried off to find his friend O’Meara, whom he came across in his cabin, smoking, and to whom he promptly imparted the joyful news. And half an hour later the two lads had packed up their slender stock of baggage and were quite ready for their new adventure. Bearing in mind the admiral’s order that he should lose no time in getting his new command ready for sea Jim, accompanied by his chum, went the rounds of the flagship, saying good-bye to their numerous friends, who betrayed no little curiosity as to the reason of the Englishmen’s somewhat sudden departure. But Jim thought it best to keep his own counsel, and only enlightened the Chilians so far as to say that his friend and he had been selected for a special service, the nature of which he was not at liberty to disclose.
A shore-boat was then signalled for, and upon her arrival alongside the two lads got into her and had themselves and their baggage conveyed ashore, where they chartered another boat in which they were rowed out to the Angamos. The object of the double journey was to keep, as far as possible, their movements secret.