Taken by the Enemy

by Oliver Optic

"Look out, up there, Christy!" shouted the engineer, a little later.

The pilot turned his attention to the boat again, and saw that the major and the lieutenant were loading their muskets again, and the two men not at the oars were doing the same. The commandant evidently began to feel that he was to miss his prey if he depended upon the oars of the soldiers, and he was about to turn his attention again to the business of disabling the pilot of the tug. Christy dropped down on the floor again, and steered by the compass, which was still where he had placed it before.

He could hear a rumbling sound on the forward deck, and he was curious to know what the captain was doing; but it was not prudent to look out at the window. After a great deal of hard kicking and prying, he succeeded in removing a narrow board from the front of the pilot-house near the floor; and through this aperture he could see that the acting engineer had just finished reloading the gun, and was changing its position so as to bring it to bear on the long-boat.

The enemy were now a little forward of the beam of the tug, and not more than fifty yards from her; but Christy was satisfied that the Leopard would go clear of the long-boat if his craft was not disabled. The major and his companions could not help seeing that Captain Pecklar had deserted their cause, and that, with the gun on the deck, he was a dangerous enemy.

The report of a musket in the direction of the boat caused Christy to look very anxiously to the forward deck; but to his great satisfaction he saw that the captain had not been hit. But he immediately retired under the pilot-house, so that he could not see him. He was brave enough to stand up and be shot at, but he was also prudent enough not to expose himself unnecessarily.

Three other shots followed the first, one of the balls passing through the boards of the pilot-house, above the helmsman's head; and he saw a splinter fly from a stanchion forward. Captain Pecklar waited for the fourth shot,—and he had evidently noticed how many men had muskets in their hands,—then he sprang out from his hiding-place, sighted the gun, and pulled the lock-string.

Through the aperture he had made, Christy looked with intense interest to ascertain the effect of this shot. As soon as the smoke blew away, he saw that the shot had passed obliquely into the boat, striking the stern-board just behind Major Pierson, and splitting off the plank near the water-line.

There was a commotion in the ranks of the enemy, and it was plain enough that the water was flowing into the craft. The soldiers stopped rowing, and the lieutenant and one of the extra men were sent into the bow. This change settled the bow of the boat down into the water, and lifted the stern. The major appeared to be equal to the emergency; he gave his orders in a loud voice, and the rowing was renewed with the delay of not more than a couple of minutes. But that was enough to defeat his present purpose, though he still urged his men to exert themselves to the utmost.

The long-boat went astern of the tug, and Christy came out from his place on the floor to the windows. Captain Pecklar was loading the gun, as he had done before, by swinging it around so that the muzzle was under the pilot-house.

"I think you will have no further use for that gun," said Christy, when he saw what the captain was doing.