"Arran, ahoy!" shouted a hoarse voice through a speaking trumpet from the steamer.
"On board the Scotian!" replied Christy through his trumpet.
After the vessel had hailed the Arran, the captain had no difficulty in deciding that the other craft was the Scotian; and he was especially glad that the officer of that vessel had hailed him in this particular form. The single word spoken through that trumpet was the key to the entire enigma. Every possible doubt was removed by it. He was now assured, as he had not been before, that he had fallen in with one of the two vessels of which his father had given him information, and which his sealed orders required him to seek, even if he was detained a week or more. Christy spent no time in congratulating himself on the situation, but the tremendous idea passed through his whole being in an instant.
"We are disabled!" shouted the officer on board of the Scotian through his trumpet. "Please send your engineer on board."
"All right!" replied Christy. "Go ahead a little faster, Mr. Sampson. We are very near the steamer."
The young commander cast his eyes over the deck of his vessel to assure himself that everything was ready for the important moment, though the situation did not indicate that a very sharp battle was to be fought. Everything was in order, and the first lieutenant was planking the deck, looking as though he felt quite at home, for he was as cool as a Jersey cucumber. Farther aft was Lillyworth, as uneasy as a caged tiger, for no doubt he realized that the Scotian was to fall a victim to the circumstances that beset her, rather than as the result of a spirited chase or a sharply fought battle. He looked about him for a moment, and the instant he turned his head, Mulgrum came out from behind the mast, and passed quite near him.
The captain could not tell whether the second lieutenant had spoken to the deaf mute or not, but the latter hastened to the engine hatch, and descended to the engine room. The Bronx was within less than a cable's length of the Scotian, whose name could now be read on her stern, when Mulgrum, apparently ordered by Lillyworth to do so, had hastened to the engine hatch. Even on the bridge the noise of a scuffle could be heard in the engine room, and the captain was sure that Sampson had been obedient to his orders. Another minute or two would determine in what manner the Scotian was to be captured, and Christy hastened down the ladder to the deck.
As soon as his foot pressed the planks, he hastened to the engine hatch. Calling to the engineer, he learned that the deaf mute had been knocked senseless by Sampson, and lay on the sofa. He waited to hear no more, but went forward where there were bell pulls on the deck, and rang two bells to stop her. Then he gave some orders to the quartermaster, and rang three bells to back her. The Bronx came alongside of the Scotian as handsomely as though she had been a river steamer making one of her usual landings. The hands who had been stationed for the purpose immediately used their grappling irons, and the two vessels were fast to each other.
"Boarders!—" the first lieutenant shouted at a sign from the captain; but before he could complete the order, Pawcett, for we may now call him by his right name, leaped on the bulwarks of the Bronx.
"This is a United States"—he began to say, but he was allowed to proceed no farther, for the first lieutenant raised the revolver he carried in his left hand, doubtless for this very purpose, and fired.