Brave Old Salt Part 28

By the first conveyance Mr. Hudson was sent to Washington with the despatches of Captain Cascabel, and one from Somers. On the second day the messenger returned, with orders from the department. The young officer took the bundle of doc.u.ments into the cabin, and proceeded to examine those directed to himself. He was ordered to hand his prisoners over to the commandant of the fort, to deliver his vessel into the keeping of the senior naval officer on the station, and to rejoin his ship forthwith, taking pa.s.sage in a supply steamer to sail on the following day. He was highly commended for the skill and energy with which he had discharged his duty on board the Ben Nevis, full particulars of which had been communicated by Mr. Hudson.

Another doc.u.ment contained his commission as master, the next rank above that of ensign, which had been solicited by Captain Cascabel. This paper was full of interest to the recipient of it, and he was obliged to open the long letters he had written to his mother and to Kate Portington, in order to add, in a postscript, this important intelligence. He was proud and happy, and more than ever satisfied that republics are not ungrateful, notwithstanding the tradition to the contrary.

At the proper time he proceeded to execute his orders in regard to the vessel and the prisoners. Pillgrim and his fellow-conspirator were brought on deck. The former looked easy and defiant, as usual, and a.s.sured his captor that he should be at liberty in a few days.

"Perhaps not," said Somers.

"You shall yet be cheated of your victim, but I shall not be cheated of mine," said he, with a malignant smile.

"I bear you no malice, Mr. Pillgrim."

"I do bear you malice; and the heaviest revenge that ever fell on man shall fall on you before the end of this year."

"Your threats are idle. I have heard too many of them. Pa.s.s into the boat, if you please."

Pillgrim and Walmsley went over the side, and the boat pulled away. The chivalrous military officer removed the irons from their legs and arms as soon as he received them.

The Ben Nevis was to be sent to New York to be condemned, and Somers handed her over to the naval officer, according to his orders.

CHAPTER XVII.

OFF MOBILE BAY.

Somers was now entirely relieved from duty. He had delivered up the prize and handed the prisoners over to the proper officers. On the following day he went on sh.o.r.e to spend a few hours before the supply steamer sailed. On visiting the fortress, he received the astonishing intelligence that Mr. Pillgrim had escaped from the officer having him in charge, even before he had been placed in the cas.e.m.e.nt appropriated to his use. Somers had cautioned the lieutenant to whom he had delivered him, of the danger of removing the irons, but his advice had not been heeded. The careless officer was now under arrest for his neglect of duty.

By none was this unfortunate event more deeply regretted than by him who had been the means of foiling the schemes of the traitor and handing him over to the custody of the government. Pillgrim had boasted that he would soon be at liberty. He was certainly a talented and a daring fellow; and to handle him safely, it was necessary to understand him thoroughly. Somers had a suspicion that the officer from whom the wretch escaped was bribed by his prisoner; but of course there could be no evidence on this interesting point.

A careful search had been made by the garrison of the fort, but without success. Pillgrim was dressed in the full uniform of a naval lieutenant, and in this garb his ingenuity would enable him to pa.s.s the military lines, if indeed he was not provided with the means of doing so by the faithless officer in charge of him. The prisoner had escaped on the preceding day, and there was now little hope of recapturing him; but Somers gave such information as he possessed in regard to the fugitive.

Captain Walmsley had been less fortunate, and was still in durance.

The story of the traitor's escape was a very simple one. When the boat which had conveyed the prisoners from the steamer to the sh.o.r.e reached the pier, and they had landed, Walmsley began to protest against his confinement, being a British subject. He insisted upon seeing the commandant of the fortress; and while everybody was listening to this debate, Pillgrim slipped into the crowd and disappeared, pa.s.sing the sentinels, who had no suspicion that he was a prisoner, without a challenge. Immediate search was made for him; but he must have taken to the water, since there was no other place of concealment which was not examined. A calker's stage was moored to the sh.o.r.e near the pier, and it was afterwards surmised that he had crawled under this, securing a position so that his head was out of water, and remained there till evening.

He was gone, and that was all it was necessary to know. The officer who had permitted him to escape would be court-martialed and broken, and that would be the end of it. At noon, as Somers was about to embark on the supply steamer, a letter was handed to him, which had been brought in by a contraband. The negro said it had been handed to him by "a gemman wid de anchors on his shoulders," whom he had met on the road to Williamsburg, nine miles from the fort.

The epistle was from Pillgrim, as Somers would have known from the writing, without the contraband's description of the person who had given it to him. He put it in his pocket, and did not open it till he had taken possession of his state-room on board the steamer. He was confident that it contained nothing but threats and abuse, and he felt but little interest in its contents. The writer, chagrined at the failure of his plot, was running over with evil thoughts and malicious purposes. Somers opened the letter and read as follows:--

OLD POINT COMFORT, July 14.

SOMERS: You have been promoted. You remind me of the fable. The goat went down into the well. The fox sprang upon his horns and leaped out.

You are the fox; you jumped over my head; you went up; you are a master now. I congratulate you. You are the only man in the world I hate.

The Tallaha.s.see is doing a good business for the South. She has captured fifty vessels. The Ben Nevis was her sister. You have her. There are more of the same family. You believe I am used up. No. I write this letter to inform you that I am not even singed yet, say nothing of being burned out. I shall be afloat soon. The Ben Lomond, twin sister of the Ben Nevis and the Tallaha.s.see, will be at work in a fortnight. She will then be called the Tallapoosa. Look out for her.

The Ben Nevis was captured; my agents bought her again. The Ben Lomond is now at--you wish you knew where! I shall command her. I could not resist the temptation to inform you of my plan. I know you will enjoy my prospects!

You would like to make a little arrangement for the capture of the Ben Lomond. I wish you might. You will hear of her on the broad ocean in a few weeks,--capturing, burning, bonding Yankee ships. It will please you to read the papers then! I shall strike for a California steamer. Her treasure will make good my losses.

I am so anxious to meet you again that I am tempted to tell you where my ship is. I would like to meet you on her quarter deck. You are a remarkably enterprising fellow; perhaps we shall meet. If we do, I should feel justified in hanging you at the yard-arm. You belong to the South. You accepted a commission in her navy. You betrayed your trust. I shall _endeavor_ to see you again.

Give my regards to the officers of the Chatauqua. Inform them of my present brilliant prospects. Remember me kindly to Kate Portington.

Possibly she may be a little _chilly_ when you see her again.

If you capture the Ben Lomond, otherwise the Tallapoosa, it would make you a lieutenant. Do it by all means.

PILLGRIM.

Somers read this singular letter three times before he could form an opinion whether or not its statements were mere idle boasts, and whether or not they had a foundation of truth. Was there any such vessel in existence as the Ben Lomond? This was the interesting and important question to him. At this time the Tallaha.s.see was making fearful ravages among the shipping on the coast, and the success and impunity with which she carried on her depredations offered plenty of encouragement for the rebels to send forth similar vessels, if they could obtain them.

The Ben Nevis had been named after a mountain in Scotland; Ben Lomond was the name of another. The former was a Clyde-built vessel, and it would have been natural to give these twin names to twin steamers.

Pillgrim, in the character of "Coles," had given him a certain amount of correct information in respect to the Ben Nevis, though he had deceived him in regard to her destination. He had obtained this knowledge by accident, and the Ben Nevis had been captured.

To Somers there appeared to be a strong probability that the statements contained in the letter were wholly or partially true. There were only two rebel ports into which it was possible for the Ben Lomond to have run--Mobile and Wilmington. The conspirators had told him that the Ben Nevis was bound to Mobile when she was actually going to Wilmington.

Pillgrim, in his letter, declared that he was to command the Tallapoosa.

If there was any plan at all, of course it had been laid before the Chatauqua sailed from Philadelphia.

Why did Pillgrim start for Mobile in the Chatauqua? Was it not possible that he intended, as second lieutenant of a national ship, to obtain the means of getting the Ben Lomond, or Tallapoosa, through the blockading fleet? Did he not endeavor to involve the fourth lieutenant in the meshes of the conspiracy for the purpose of obtaining his a.s.sistance in this work? It was plausible. Perhaps the recreant wretch had left some papers in his state-room on board the Chatauqua, which would be intelligible in the light which he could bring to bear upon them.

Bewildered and astonished by the prospect before him, as he read the letter again and again, and considered its remarkable statements in connection with his previous knowledge, Somers spent the whole afternoon in his state-room, and was only aroused from his meditations by the supper bell. In the evening he resumed his study of the case, and tried to reconcile the theory he had framed with reason and common sense.

There was nothing to conflict with this theory but the fact that Pillgrim himself had given him the information upon which it was based.

The traitor would not intentionally betray himself. Perhaps he did not expect his statements would be credited; or if he did, he had twice before been equally reckless.

Then Somers attempted to a.n.a.lyze the mental const.i.tution of Pillgrim.

The conspirator seemed to be able to endure all misfortunes. The loss of the Ben Nevis had not affected him, and he had endangered, defeated his plan to recapture her by indulging in idle threats before the match was applied. He had been more desirous of mortifying, humiliating, and overwhelming Somers, than of recovering his lost steamer. With great talents for scheming and plotting, he had displayed the most amazing stupidity.

At this point the remark to the letter that Kate Portington would be _chilly_ when he saw her again, came up for consideration. Pillgrim certainly had some purpose in view which was equal to, or greater than, his desire to serve the South, or even himself, in a pecuniary point of view. He was the friend of the commodore--had known the family before the war. Somers could not help believing that, in spite of his thirty-five years, he was an aspirant for the hand of Kate, and that the bond he had signed was for her use rather than his own.

Miss Portington might well be _chilly_, if she discovered that Somers had pledged a part of her fortune at the present stage of proceedings!

Somers was nervous and uneasy until he had reasoned and coaxed himself into a full belief in the theory which he had suggested. He could not wait for evidence, if, indeed, any could be obtained. For the present he was satisfied, and determined to proceed upon his hypothesis, just as though every point in the argument had been fully substantiated.

Our young officer was never idle when it was possible to work. If any of our readers believe that Somers was very "smart," very skilful, and very fortunate in his previous career, we beg to remind them, and to impress it upon their minds in the most forcible manner, that he owed more to his industry and perseverance than to the accidents of natural ability and favorable circ.u.mstances combined. For example, when he captured the Ben Nevis, instead of gaping idly about the deck, and thinking what a great man he was, he went into the hold, and made a careful examination of the steamer's cargo. The knowledge thus gained had prevented him from abandoning the vessel when she was believed to be on fire, and thus saved the prize and confounded the conspirators.

Somers was not idle now. He procured "Blunt's Coast Pilot," and "A Chart of the North Coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from St. Mark's to Galveston,"

of the captain of the steamer, and diligently studied up, and even committed to memory, the bearings, distances, and depths of water in Mobile Bay and vicinity. He carefully trained his mind on these matters so important to a seaman; and being blessed with a retentive memory, he hoped and expected to have this knowledge at command when it should be serviceable. It was hard study--the hardest and dryest kind of study; but he stuck to it as though it had been a bewitching novel.

To a.s.sist his design he drew maps and charts of the coast from memory, and was not satisfied till he could make a perfect diagram of the coast, shoals, islands, and bars, mark the prominent objects to be sighted from a vessel, and lay down the depth of water. He had nothing else to do on the pa.s.sage; and as the steamer glided swiftly over the summer sea, he found it a more agreeable occupation than smoking, playing cards, and "spinning yarns," which were the employments of his fellow-pa.s.sengers.

On the eighth day from Fortress Monroe the supply steamer reached the blockading fleet off Mobile Bay, and Somers was warmly welcomed by his brother officers. Of course he had a long story to tell, which was listened to with interest. The escape of the late second lieutenant was received with becoming indignation. Somers was now the third lieutenant of the Chatauqua, and he moved into the state-room formerly occupied by Mr. Garboard, who had also advanced one grade in his relative rank.

"Somers, you are just in time for a big thing," said Mr. Hackleford.

"Our Brave Old Salt is going to take us up Mobile Bay in a few days."

"Indeed?"

"Yes, the Old Salamander has issued his orders."