The Boy Captain of the Black Swallow — page 25: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PASSAGE ‘Stand by all, end keep to your posts, and have your arms ready!” cried Thurrel, as they passed the high, bold cliff a mile above the fort, which was just becoming visible in the dis- tance and darkness. ‘J will superintend the two guns, Bissey, you will keep the helm and steer close in by the fort. Let my last orders be obeyed !” The men now ranged themselves in their places, five being stationed at each gun, be- tween Which Thurrel took his station with a piece of ignited rope in hishand. Both guns were placed on the starboard side of the schooner, amidships. Twenty men with muskets were posted upon the quarter-deck, and ten forward. Bissey, by the aid of one of the crew, held the helm open. Suddenly a loud hail came from the far-off ramparts through a trumpet. “Stand straight on as you are! Steady and close! Keep cool, my men, and never mind her gunsif she blazes away. You can’t see shot in the night, and there is no use in being afraid of what you can’t see. Just think they are giving you a complimentary salute !” A second hail, louder and nearer than the first, now came from the fort. Atthe same moment the fiash of the links was seen as they were waved over the guns in the embrasures. ‘Now, my men, down all upon your faces !” cried Thurrel. The fort, at the same instant, discharged, in rapid succession, three cannon. .The roar, the flashes, the whizzing of the shot, were terrific to the ears of men unaceustomed to the din of battle. The bulwarks were perforated with grape, and an eighteen-pounder lodged in the mainmast, ten feet from the deck, “Now, up and let them have it! Silence them before they can discharge their other pieces!” cried Thurrel, in a voice that could have been heard on both shores of the river. He applied his torch first to one and then the other of his pieces of cannon, which were dis- charged almost simultaneously, while the crash of forty muskets from the forward and after part of the vessel mingled with their thunder. The vessel reeled under the concussion, and for an instant her topsails flapped against their masts with the reaction of the air. ‘* Keep her steady, Bissey !” shouted Thurrel. “In five minutes more, if we are lucky, we shall be out of reach of their fire. Load away there, briskly !” he cried to the men who had charge of the two guns. z “We will give them another broadside before we leave them! Don’t slack your firing, there, muskets! Aim at the edge of the parapets and embrasures! Here we have it again |” In rapid succession, four other guns were fired from the fort, but the shot passed across their wake far astern, the schooner so rapidly moving out of range that they could not train their cannon upon her with any accuracy of nim, while the fort, being stationary, afforded a sure target to the two guns of the schooner. As the shot of the last guns passed harmlessly ustern, the crew of the “ Arnold” raised a loud OF THE FORT. 23 shout of triumph. Thurrel levelled his guns, and a second time discharged them, though he had boldly to luff up into the wind to bring them to bear, “There is one widow made on this deck to- night, Captain Thurrel,” said a faint voice. With these words the breath left the body of poor Billy Plympton. The continual groans of two or three others lying upon the deck, showed Thurrel that the first fire of the fort had not been without fatal results. He had the wounded, five in all, earried below, while the schooner kept on her course as if nothing had happened. The pumps were tried to see if by chance a shot had struck her near the water-line, but she was perfectly sound. A few holes were made in her sails, and some splinters knocked off her bulwarks and spars, otherwise she escaped without injury. One more gun was fired from the fort after the schooner, but the shot-was heard to dash up the water several hundred yards to wind- ward. “Weare now in safety, my men. Now, my brave fellows, we shall soon be abreast of Cape Small Point, when I will heave to and land you. In three hours you ean get back to Bath before your absence is suspected. “Stand by there forward, men, to man the braces when we shall want to come to!” eried Thurrel, lighting a cigar at the binnacle lamp. The schooner kept on her course about a mile and a half, and coming into the open sea, soon rounded to ata safe distance from the low, sandy point, upon which he was to land his armed force. The schooner being stationary and motionless, save the undulating movement eaused by the ground-swell, three skiffs and two yawls attached to her, were lowered, and the men were landed. It took about half an hour for this to be done, and the boats re- turned. The wounded were also landed with the rest. The dead were cast overboard. Thurrel, then, with his crew of eight men, once more braced round and stood boldly out to sea, passing Seguin Island on an E.S.E. course. * Now, my lads, our fortune is made,” said he, as the dark, mountain-like form of the island fell rapidly astern. “ By daylight we shall be alongside of the Englishman, and then a round twenty thousand will reward us for our adventure.” “And what are you going to do with the twenty thousand ?” drily asked Bissey. “Carry it into Harpswell, where Sapping will be ready to receive it.” “And pay you your pittance and ours out of it P”’ “Yes. But a thousand dollars to me, and three hundred to you, and fifty to each of the men, is no pittance, man.” *Itis, compared with twenty thousand.” “Yes, that itis. But those who adventure most should share most. We put inno capital, you know, and Sapping and the others have put in all that is aboard.” * But, suppose Sapping should not get his oO CORMICLOo cS co