"'Punch her again,' added Will; and, as he did not indicate who
was to act, all four of his party obeyed the order."—Page 263.
"Punch her again!" added Will; and as he did not indicate who was to act, all four of his party obeyed the order, the other four being at the stern to receive the assailants of the other boat, which had not yet come within punching distance of the caisson.
The effect of all these blows was to riddle the bows of the Dasher, and crowd her away from the tow. As the latter was now making at least three miles an hour, the shattered barge fell astern of her prey. The water was pouring in at the bow of the boat through half a dozen ragged holes, and the craft was settling rapidly.
"We are sinking!" cried one of the Chesterfields.
Mad Twinker seemed to realize the situation by this time, and all his warlike energy evaporated. He called the remaining Topovers from the bow, and several of his crew from the forward thwarts. As the boat had been well down by the head on account of the weight of the five boarders who had been stationed there, the order of the coxswain relieved the boat from her peril immediately. But she seemed to be half full of water.
Three of the Topovers had secured a footing on the caisson. All of them struck on their faces, and Will could easily have rolled them into the water; but no attention was given to them, and they crawled out from under the pikes of the victorious defenders of the craft. They made their way to the forward end of the tow; but the disaster to the Dasher disturbed their calculations, and suddenly cooled their warlike enthusiasm.
"That boat has had enough of it for to-day," said Will Orwell, as he glanced at the Racer approaching at the stern of the caisson.
"She can't do anything more if she tries," replied Lew Shoreham. "We can make short work of the other barge."
But Jeff Monroe, the coxswain of the Racer, was not blind. He had been watching the onslaught of the Dasher, and had seen her bow riddled by the pikes of the defenders of the caisson. He could see her settled down in the water almost to her gunwale. Four pikes were poised ready to inflict the same chastisement upon his own craft, and against such weapons he was powerless to contend. He gave the order to hold water when the Racer was within ten feet of the caisson, and then to back her.
"He has concluded not to take his punching," said Will Orwell, who had reinforced the stern with his party.