“The old fellow is in the wrong box,” whispered Desmond, he having observed what was taking place; “there’s a chance after all for the little barkey.”
“Cease firing,” cried Commander Allport. Directly afterwards Murray sent his second lieutenant to the Anaconda, with a request that the commander would come on board his ship to consult with him as to the best means of saving Her Majesty’s ship Flash, now in sight on the rocks. The request, of course, amounted to an order, which Commander Allport, however unwillingly, obeyed.
“Save her?” he exclaimed; “surely you mean destroy her as soon as possible. I have done my best for the last two hours to knock her to pieces.”
“I am very sorry to hear it,” answered Murray; “we should never abandon a vessel while there is the slightest hope of saving her; and the enemy might easily have been kept at a sufficient distance to prevent them from interfering with us, when getting her off. I must ask you to stand in towards the shore, as close as you can venture, and keep the enemy in check with your guns.”
For the first time for some hours Adair’s heart began again to beat with hope, as the two steamers, with the lead going and a bright look-out kept ahead, stood towards the shore. The artillery were seen to limber-up and gallop off, while the infantry scampered away, as fast as they could go, to a safe distance; judging correctly that as they had made no material impression upon a single ship, they were unlikely to impede the proceedings of two.
Murray, accompanied by Adair, and followed by the whole of the boats of the Flash, immediately pulled on board her. Groans, and expressions which were certainly not groans, however much they were like growls, proceeded from the crew, as they observed the damage committed by the Anaconda’s shot. A very brief inspection satisfied Murray and Adair that she was too completely ruined to allow of any hope that she could be got off.
“It can’t be helped,” exclaimed poor Terence; “the only thing now to be done is to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. I would sooner have gone down in her to the bottom of this wretched pool than this should have happened. We must blow her up; I know it—I am the most unhappy fellow alive—I shall never get another ship, and Lucy is farther off than ever.”
“We must set her on fire, of course, or the enemy will boast that they have captured her; but as to any blame being attached to you personally at a court-martial, I don’t believe it,” answered Murray, in a tone calculated to soothe the feelings of his friend. “From what I see, I am pretty sure that, had old Allport not taken it into his head to knock her to pieces, we should have got her off and put her to rights in a few hours. The side exposed to the enemy is but slightly damaged, and he allows that you must have fought her bravely, and that he only ordered you to desert her for the sake of preserving the lives of you and her crew. The first thing, however, we have to do is to weigh her guns.”
Murray, having formed his plans, summoned the larger boats of the squadron, when, after much labour, the guns were weighed, and conveyed on board the Giaour. The Russian troops had taken their departure, and a good many parties of the peasantry were seen on the shore, spectators of what was going on, probably hoping that the wreck would be deserted, and that they should find a rich booty on board her. They were to be disappointed. Now came the scene most trying to Adair; everything of value, and that time would allow, was removed; the Flash was set on fire, and the boats pulled away, leaving her in flames fore and aft.
“There goes our little barkey,” exclaimed Desmond; and in a short time she blew up, covering the sea on every side with the fragments of wreck. “I am glad, Tom, it was not you or I got her on shore; I don’t envy old Fusty his feelings, if he’s got any; perhaps he hasn’t. If Uncle Terence doesn’t get a ship, he’ll be for cutting the service and going out and settling in Australia; and I intend to go with him, to keep sheep and ride after wild cattle, and lead an independent sort of life. I say, Tom, won’t you come too?”