The stirring call of the bugles sounded with its nerve-tingling ring throughout the ship, repeated in a few minutes by the “Monadnock,” and with a cheer of delight the crews disappeared below decks to their stations for battle.
Inside of fifteen minutes all was in readiness, and the heavy anchors were lifted from the bottom of the river.
With all the men not at gun stations behind the thick armor of the small river battle-ships, the “Monterey” gracefully turned around close to the fleet of anchored gunboats. Phil’s nerves were atingle as he heard the admiring cheers of the allies float to them across the water. Then the “Monterey,” her huge turret guns loaded and ready to open the battle, and followed closely by her consort, steamed swiftly toward the hostile forts.
“Break the battle flags,” Commander Hughes ordered in his calm voice, standing on the bridge beside the captain of the “Monterey,” while Phil, Sydney and Langdon, in the lee of the conning-tower, gazed, consumed with excitement, upon the forts, toward which the two big twelve-inch guns were pointing. Phil saw on the flagstaff at the top of the emplacement the proud yellow banner of China, with its monster dragon endeavoring to swallow a red ball, just beyond the reach of its fiery nostrils.
“O’Neil is in the turret,” Sydney exclaimed to Phil at his side. “He will fire one of the guns. I wonder if he can still shoot the way he did at our record target practice when you had the after turret.”
“He’s as steady as a rock,” Phil replied enthusiastically. “I’ll wager that every one of his shots will go true. He was the best gun-pointer on the ‘Connecticut.’”
“What’s the range?” Commander Hughes inquired, a shade of excitement creeping into his voice.
“Three thousand yards, sir,” the officer at the range-finder called out hoarsely.
“Fire one shot at the nearest gun emplacement,” the American commander ordered the “Monterey’s” captain, “and signal the ‘Monadnock’ to sheer up abreast us and when the fort replies swing around and open with her broadside.”
Phil saw the alert signalmen swiftly signal with their small hand flags the message to their consort, and then immediately afterward the “Monadnock,” which had been steaming in the “Monterey’s” wake, swung her bow in toward the city of Ku-Ling, which the two vessels were rapidly passing. The high wall was thronged with Chinamen; their curiosity having overcome their fear of the terrible foreign war-ships.