“Why, to help in the fight, of course!” shouted that young man brightly. “We’ve got a gun too, have we not?”
“Yes, but you ain’t going to use it,” returned Captain Franks, losing all sight of the fact that military authority was now paramount. “Cap’en Warner”—they were now so close that he had not even to use his speaking-trumpet—“you know that wood-pile you passed three miles up? If the enemy think of that, we’re gone geese! Full steam ahead and stand by to protect it. If there’s nobody there, you get on board every stick you can carry—enough for us as well as yourselves.”
“Don’t go, captain,” said Brian encouragingly. “He’s trying to do you out of the fight. Sure I’ll stand by you.”
“You’ll be coming on board here in irons as a mutineer in another two minutes, young gentleman,” returned Captain Franks savagely. “Cap’en Warner, who’s senior skipper of this flotilla? You have your orders.”
“Aye, aye, Cap’en Franks!” responded Captain Warner peaceably. “You coming with us, sir?”
“Not a bit of it!” said Brian, and jumped from one ship to the other as the Nebula drew away. He landed neatly on the paddle-box, but his orderly, following as in duty bound, fell into the water, and had to be rescued with ropes by the Irish soldiers, who were enjoying themselves hugely. Hauling him up on deck meant displacing the bulwark of boxes, which brought Captain Franks down from the bridge in wrath to insist upon its being put back instantly, in which he was backed by Captain Montgomery as soon as he understood what had to be done next. The flat-bottomed boat containing the horses drew considerably less water than the steamer, and lay farther up the little creek in the sand, so that the Asteroid had to back towards her for the tow-rope to be attached, and go ahead again to tow her out. While this manœuvre was going on, the twelve-pounder was necessarily out of action, and the enemy, waxing bold, made their appearance in the dry bed of the river, as though resolved to emulate the unique feat of the French in the Texel, and capture a vessel by means of cavalry. But the European soldiers, lying down behind the boxes, fired through the openings between them, and though the small remainder of precious ammunition was woefully diminished, the enemy’s courage soon evaporated.
The danger was not over yet, however. The steamer was laden almost to the water’s edge, and the flat overcrowded and difficult to move. Twice she ran aground, and once the tow-rope broke, while the resourceful enemy added to the confusion by opening fire from the three guns he had by this time mounted under the trees by the water-gate. Musketry was of no avail at such a distance, and the Asteroid drew off again and brought her gun to bear, while the mate led a party of volunteers to the rescue of the flat. Three times was she brought a little way in triumph, and three times was the triumph checked, but at last she was got out into the stream, while the Asteroid kept down the fire of the prudent gunners at the gate. The course of the river took the steamer and her unwieldy consort nearer the shore again as they moved off, and they were assailed not only by the guns, but by musketry fire from matchlockmen posted in every patch of cover. Every one had to lie flat on the deck save Captain Franks, who seemed to bear a charmed life as he conned his ship through the winding channel. So obvious were the dangers of the navigation that the enemy on the bank kept up with the steamer for two miles, in the earnest hope of seeing her run aground, when they could have poured down on the sands and stormed her. But she failed to fulfil their expectation, and drew up at length level with the Nebula, placidly taking in logs from a colossal stack on the opposite bank till she looked like a floating wood-pile. They anchored for the night side by side.
“And we never had a fight at all, at all!” said Brian.
“A pretty fair imitation of one,” said Richard. “You might let your sister please herself with the belief that she has seen a fight at last.”
“Seen it?” demanded Eveleen tragically. “Not the least taste of it did I see—except puffs of smoke. Would you call it seeing to be at the bottom of a well, and hear all sorts of things going on without knowing what they were?”