Adventure Magazine Cover — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

Adventire 35 3S - “Yankee your grandmother’s cat!’’ yelled the Be ¥ Shier: dancing joyously up and down on the __. paddle-box. the Merrimac type. “Tt’s a Confederate ironclad of Seg See her ensign. See the _ ___ shape of her.” _. S$§quare and sloping amidships, with a half- submerged ram and flying the Confederate : 2 battle-flag, the black-painted hulk moved slow- ly down the channel. Her engines seemed barely able to make headway against the in- coming tide.. She moved like a waterlogged hulk and looked exactly like a wood-cut in : 3 _ Harper’s Weekly or the Illustrated London News. As the runner drew near, the ironclad turned clumsily about until the length of her blocked ! two-thirds of the channel. “Ship ahoy! What. ship is that?” hailed a voice from within her built-up pilot-house. “The Gray Fox, from Nassau to Port Caroline. What ship is that?” - “The United States gunboat H aboken!”” =e whooped the exultant Jonathan Gifford as the captured Confederate ensign was hauled down and the Stars and Stripes run up. “Heave to and stop your engines. eS “Thanks, no,” answered the’ plucky Britisher, and rang four bells for “full speed ahead.” The great feathering floats of the blockade- -Tunner’ s wheels tore the water to foam; her gel % _ sharp iron prow bore straight down on the gun- _~ boat’s broadside. - tack, the startled gunners made poor practise; Unprepared for such an at- the holes they punched through the Gray 3 Fox’s thin plating did nothing to check her ed. The H Hoboken backed water barely in time to escape being cut open and sunk. The Britisher’s stem struck and tore away the whole elaborate structure of wood and canvas with which Jonathan Gifford had disguised his bows. It melted and sank beneath the whirling blows of the churning paddles as the tall gray hull flashed past and up the channel. Around swung the baffled gunboat and seunded after in hot pursuit. The painted canvas curtains that had hidden the overhang. of her hull and the paddle-wheels beneath now flapped grotesquely with the vehemence of her quivering engines. She looked like a fat apple- woman chasing a predatory small boy, and with about as much chance of success. The Gray Fox was already half a mile ahead and drawing close to the shelter of the mine-field before the Hoboken’s crew could clear away the rest of the wreckage and bring the pivot-gun to bear. “Stand aside, boy,’ commanded Captain Gifford. ‘‘T’ll lay this gun myself.” The ferry-boat was bobbing up and down in the steamer’s wake, and the big smooth-bore was an awkward piece toaim. But the eighteen- twelver had learned his trade on far less stable decks, with far more primitive guns. Lock- string in hand, he sighted for the base of the ‘tain Hallett spoke through a speaking-trumpet ~ bows and burst i in the air about half a mile dead ~ahead of you and nowhere near the target. . fugitive’s funnel as she a around a an angle: 5 of the channel, and let dri _ Even as he did so the Platisburg, coming up astern, fired her Parrott rifle; the brief delay and the bends of the channel had brought her within range. Both bow-chasers spoke together; both blinded the men behind them with a sting- ing white cloud of black-powder smoke, tillthe vessel drove through and clear. At the sight ~ 2 before them the crews of both Union war-ships gave an exultant cheer. One of the shells had burst impotently in the air, but the other had struck squarely against the blockade-runner’s port paddle-box and bur&t inside, shattering ~ the wheel to bits. Whirling about, the stricken = Gray Fox ran far up on the shoal and grounded on the soft mud. ee Up raced the Platisburg, Son overtaking the laboring Hoboken, which, greatly to Captain Hallett’s surprize, drew ee and let him pass. Around the long curve of the channel the cruiser swung with ever diminishing speed, till. she stopped almost abreast of the stranded steamer. Down dropped her boats and away ey pulled to take possession of the waiting But when the Hoboken had swung aside she kept on, out of the channel and straight across the shoal. Jonathan Gifford knew the bottom. S of Okra Sound as well as he did the surface. = Though the Hoboken was of deeper draft than iz the Southern Belle she was a skimming-dish as compared with either of the two ocean steamers; the tide was at flood and a shart-cut perfectly feasible. Placidly she waddled across the bows of the Platisburg’s cutters and docked herself alongside the motionless Gray Fox. An armed boarding-party, assembled on the cabin-roof, had a short leap and an easy scramble over the Britisher’s rail. They had run up an ensign and were passing a tow-line before the Platts- burg’s swearing boat-crews had returned to their own ship. Dropping astern of her prize, the Hoboken tugged at the tow-rope with all the strength of her powerful engines. The Gray Fox, not yet settled into the mud, stirred, slid off, and was towed away stern foremost. As they drew abreast of the Plattsburg Cap- — to his old commander: “That vessel is my prize, sir, not yours. I sighted her at sea, chased her in here, and stopped her after you had failed to do so.’ “Oh, you did, did you?” answered Jonathan Gifford. “Who shot away her port-paddle- wheel, I’d like to know?” ai did, sir,” claimed Hallett.. “Your shell went wild: my foretopmen saw it leave your They will testify so in the prize-court, sir.” ta Rese, oe comicbooks