_ CHAPTER XIII. THE CATASTROPHE TO THE FATIME
If the strength of the little Maud was never fully tested before, it was done on the present occasion; and the construction and material of the Fatime at the same time. The story of the manner in which the Guardian-Mother had run into and made a hole in the side of the Viking had been many times repeated on board of the ship while the "Big Four" were on board of her; for this affair had interested Scott more than any other item of her voyage.
The young captain had done at this time precisely the same thing that Captain Ringgold had at another; and the blow had not been given by accident on either occasion. When at the distance of sixty feet from the Maud, the pirate had swung to and discharged her starboard gun, the shot from which had passed through the galley. She was under full steam; her port gun was no doubt all ready, and another turn of the wheel would have enabled her to send another shot through the Maud.
To Captain Scott it was the critical moment of the conflict. Another ball from the enemy might go through the boiler or the engine, or disable his beloved little craft in some other manner; and he did what seemed to be the only thing he could do for the salvation of the Maud and his ship's company. He had disabled his vindictive enemy.
Up to the moment when the Maud struck the decisive blow, the five "sharpshooters," as Scott had called them, had used their rifles; but the people of the Fatime had taken refuge under her top-gallant forecastle, or behind whatever would afford them shelter from the bullets, and not many of them appeared to have been hit. Besides, the situation was altogether too novel and exciting for the party to act with anything like coolness, and the smoke from the twelve-pounder concealed the enemy at the most critical moment. They had discharged the rifles at random, rather than with careful aim at each shot.
The moment the collision came, the voice of the captain called the party to the main deck; for the battle appeared to him to be ended. The enemy could not board the Maud, for she had backed at least fifty feet from the disabled steamer; but all hands were needed there in case they attempted to do so with their boats, of which she had one on each quarter.
"Don!" shouted Scott, as soon as the rifle-party appeared on the forecastle, and while the little steamer was still backing.
"On deck, sir," promptly responded the second engineer.
"Go below forward, and see what damage has been done to us," added the captain. "Flix, heave the lead!"
However it may have been with the others on board of the Maud, the young commander was in full possession of all his faculties, in spite of the tremendous excitement which must have pervaded the minds of all on board of the little craft. His first care was for the Maud, and he looked all about him to ascertain what mischief had been done. He sent Pitts to the galley to report on the effect of the shot there.
"And a quarter seven!" reported Felix.
This was the first mark on the chart outside of the shoal line from one to two miles from the shore. The captain now turned his attention to the condition of the Fatime. Louis had gone into the pilot-house to receive any orders the commander had to give him. The collision had been a surprise to him. It had not occurred to him that Captain Scott would resort to such an extreme measure, though he had hinted at something of the kind early in the morning.
"I suppose we may consider the battle as ended, Louis," said Scott, as the other took his place on the opposite side of the wheel, where he could see out of the front window on the port.
"I should say that it was decidedly ended, and in the most decisive manner," replied Louis, though his thoughts were not a little scattered and confused by the exciting events of the last few moments. "What next?"
"If the pirates undertake to board us with their boats, we must be ready to repel them," replied Scott.
"Board us! Why, the water is pouring into that hole in her side as through a mill-sluice!" exclaimed Louis.
"But they are lowering their boats; and it remains to be seen what they intend to do with them."
All the hands on board of the Fatime appeared to be Moors, for they were all dressed in Oriental costume. By this time she was letting off steam with a tremendous racket. The crew were casting loose the boats at the quarter davits. If there was an English engineer on board of her, he had clothed himself in Moorish costume, for no one in a European dress could be seen.
"She is settling in the water," said Louis, as he observed the condition of the disabled vessel.
"In a word, Louis, she is going to the bottom!" exclaimed Captain Scott. "Do you see anything of Mazagan?"
"I have been looking for him, but I can't make him out," replied Louis.
By this time one of the boats was in the water, and the men were crowding into her without any order or method in their movements. No one appeared to be in command, and every one was acting for himself. There must have been a couple of officers besides the captain; but no one exerted his authority. The other boat was soon in the water, and all who had not found a place in the first one crowded into her, some of them jumping overboard in their haste to save themselves.
The first boat shoved off from the side of the Fatime, and all the people of the Maud watched it, some of the firing party seizing their rifles, and preparing to use them, to ascertain what the pirates intended to do. It contained ten men, as Morris counted them. The four men at the oars gave way as soon as it was clear of the vessel, but the head of the boat was directed to the shore.
"Those villains have had fighting enough, and I don't believe they will give us any more trouble," said Captain Scott, when the boat was fairly in motion for the shore. It was evident enough that they could do nothing to save the steamer, and they had abandoned her. The other boat presently came out from the farther side of the vessel, and it contained only seven persons, from which it appeared that the Fatime's ship's company consisted of only seventeen men, unless some of them had been killed or wounded, and left on board.
"This looks like the end of the Fatime, and I don't believe she will give us any further trouble in our voyage, wherever we may go," said Captain Scott, while all hands were watching the passage of the two boats to the shore.
"But why don't she sink?" asked Louis.
"Though that is a big hole in her side, the most of it was above water in the first of it, and the brine did not flow in very rapidly; but she is settling very fast now, and it is a question of only a few minutes with her now," replied the captain, as he rang three bells upon the gong in the engine-room to back her. "We are rather too near her if she makes much of a stir-about when she goes down."
"Help! Help! Save me! Save me!" came in rather feeble tones from the wreck of the Fatime.
At the same time the form of a man was seen staggering to the end of the bridge.
"That's Captain Mazagan!" shouted Felix from the forecastle.
"Mazagan!" exclaimed Louis.
"Shall we do anything for that man, Captain Scott?" asked Don, coming to the front windows of the pilot-house. "If we do, it must be done in a hurry, for that craft is going to the bottom in less than two minutes."
"Of course we shall save him," replied the captain, looking at Louis.
"Certainly, we must save him!" added Louis with an earnestness that impressed his companion. "Don't let us forget that we are Christians at such a moment as this! How shall it be done, Captain? Give your orders, and count me in as the first volunteer."
"Get the boat into the water, Morris! Be lively about it. Louis and Felix will go in it to save this man if they can," replied the captain.
The boat on the hurricane deck was a small and light one, and the first officer had it in the water almost in the twinkling of an eye. Louis and Felix leaped into it, and in another instant they were pulling for the wreck. It was a smooth sea, and the distance was not more than fifty feet; for the captain had rung to stop the backward motion as soon as the cry from the survivor reached his ears.
"Mind your eye, Louis!" shouted Scott, as soon as they were in motion. "She may go down at any moment! When I shout to you, back out as fast as you can! I will watch her, and let you know when she is likely to make her last dive!"
"Ay, ay!" returned Louis.
"I beg you, Captain Scott, not to let them go any farther," said Don very earnestly. "She is settling fast by the stern, and she will go down by the time they get alongside of her. She has settled so that the hole is more than half under water."
"That is so!" exclaimed Scott, as he glanced at the stern of the wreck. "Hold on! Hold on!" he shouted with all the force of his lungs. "Back out!"
The two rowers obeyed the order promptly, and backed water with all their might; and it was fortunate that they did so, or they would have been caught in the swirl of the sinking vessel. Before they had retreated twenty feet, the stern of the Fatime suddenly went down, with a mighty rush of the water around her to fill up the vacant space inside of her, and then she shot to the bottom, disappearing entirely from the gaze of the beholders, as well in the two boats of the ship's company that had abandoned her, as of those on board of the Maud.
"That is the end of the pirate!" exclaimed Captain Scott, with a sort of solemnity in his tones and manner, as though he regarded the fate of the steamer as a retribution upon her for the use to which she had been applied.
"Amen!" responded Don at the window of the pilot-house.
The burden of his responsibility began to weigh upon his mind as Captain Scott witnessed the last scene of the drama. But his thoughts were recalled to the present moment when he saw Louis and Felix, the commotion of the water having subsided, pulling with all their might back to the scene of the catastrophe.
The little boat had not been far enough away from the turmoil of the water to be unaffected by it; and for a moment the puny craft had rolled and pitched as though it would toss its passengers into the bay. A skilful use of the oars had saved the boat from being upset, and Louis and Felix began to survey the scene of the uproar as soon as the waves ceased the violence of their motion.
"Mazagan has gone to the bottom with her!" exclaimed Felix, as he looked about the various objects that had floated away from the wreck as it sank to the bottom.
"Perhaps not," replied Louis. "He was on the end of the bridge, and he may have floated off and come to the surface. Give way again, Flix!"
"There he is!" shouted the Milesian, as he bent to his oar with his boatmate. "His head just up out of the water, as though he had just come up from the bottom."
A few more strokes brought the boat to the point where Felix had seen the head just as it rose again. He rushed to the bow, and seized the drowning man by the collar of his vest, for he wore no coat, and dragged him to the middle of the boat. He seemed to be exhausted or insensible, for he did not speak. With a great deal of difficulty they labored to get him in; but the boat was so small that they did not succeed at once.
"All right, Flix; hold him where he is, if you can. The captain has started the Maud, and she will be here in a moment," said Louis. "Pass the painter of the boat under his arms, and make it fast if he is too much for you, though it will be but for a moment."
"I can hold him in the water easily enough, my darling. I wonder what made him come up," replied Felix.
"I suppose he was lighter than the water. But here is the Maud."
The little steamer ran alongside the tender, and Don and Pitts leaped into it. By the order of the captain they drew the insensible form into the boat, which was then taken on board with the victim in it. It was shoved aft to the cabin door, in which Morris had made up a bed for the sufferer.
The engineer and the cook proceeded to examine him. In his right shoulder they found a bullet-wound, which he must have received while on the bridge, doing his best for the destruction of the Maud. The cook declared that it was not a very bad wound, and not at all likely to be fatal. Pitts brought some brandy from the medicine-chest, and gave him a small quantity of it.
This stimulant revived him, and then he wanted to talk; but Pitts would not permit him to do so. He remained with him, while Louis and Felix went forward to report to the captain, and Don went to the engine-room to tell Felipe the news. _