Under the Chilian Flag Part 9

The Chilian fire immediately ceased, of course, but the battle was even yet not quite over, for down below, in the seclusion of the engine-room, it was not known that the men on deck had surrendered, and the engines were still kept moving. The Chilians therefore reopened their fire, and the _Blanco Encalada_ rushed up close alongside the now fast-sinking monitor, intending to ram her, but was stayed in her deadly purpose by the exhibition of fresh signals of surrender.

At length a boat, manned by a lieutenant, an engineer, half a dozen seamen, and four soldiers, was dispatched from the _Cochrane_ to go on board and take possession of the _Huascar_. They met with no resistance; and Jim, who, in a boat from the _Blanco_, had also boarded, at once rushed below, just in time to prevent the Peruvian engineers from sinking the ship. A little longer delay and he would have been too late; for the _Huascar_ had already nearly two feet of water over her engine-room floor when he rushed in, revolver in hand, and many of the shot-holes in the hull were by that time all but flush with the water's edge. At the point of his pistol he drove Macmahon and the other engineers away from the valves and closed them. The battle of Angamos was over at last. The _Huascar's_ men were then secured, a prize-crew placed on board, and under escort of the _Almirante Cochrane_ and _Blanco Encalada_ she went under her own steam into the harbour of Mejillones, where she was temporarily patched up and rendered more or less seaworthy.

Two days later the three ships left in company for Valparaiso, where they arrived on the 14th of October, amid the salutes of the forts and the frantic cheers of the populace, who were thankful beyond measure to be freed from the menace of the _Huascar_, which, they had felt, might attack any of their seaports during the absence of the Chilian fleet.

Commodore Riveros was promoted to be Rear-Admiral, Captain Latorre to be Commodore, and Jim was made First Lieutenant of the _Blanco Encalada_.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE GUN-RUNNERS.

The ovation accorded to the victorious Chilians upon their return to Valparaiso was enthusiastic in the extreme; the officers were everywhere feted and made much of; and Jim Douglas and Terry O'Meara came in for a very large share of attention owing to the fact that they were British.

The sympathies of Great Britain had been decidedly turned in favour of Chili by the atrocities which had been committed by the Peruvian fleet in its war against commerce, and by which English ships had suffered to a very serious extent.

After the battle of Angamos Commodore--or rather Admiral as he was now-- Riveros had been greatly exercised in his mind as to what course he should pursue with regard to the corvette _Union_. She had effected her escape before the battle commenced, and when last seen was steaming in the direction of Arica, the most southerly port which the Peruvians possessed. She was a very heavily armed ship, and was nearly, if not quite, as formidable as the _Huascar_ had been, and thus still const.i.tuted a standing menace to the unfortified ports of Chili.

Riveros was in a quandary, for he already had more work on his hands than he knew how to deal with; yet the Chilians resident in the coast ports were clamouring for him to proceed to sea again and hunt down the cruiser. But he did not in the least know where to look for her; nor could he, by the most diligent inquiry, gain any intelligence of her.

She might be at any one of the numerous Peruvian ports; and were he to go in search of her she would quite probably slip past him again in the night, as she and the monitor had once before done.

The fleet had been lying at Valparaiso for nearly a month undergoing the repairs and refit of which they so sorely stood in need, when one morning Jim, from his station on the _Blanco Encalada's_ bridge, where he was on duty, observed a signal flying from the official residence of the Secretary for War. In a moment he had his gla.s.s to his eye, and began to spell out the signal, which, when completed, ran as follows: "_Blanco Encalada_. Admiral Riveros to call here without delay. I have important orders for him."

"Hallo!" thought Jim, "what's in the wind now? More work for somebody, I'll be bound. I wonder whether the _Union_ has been up to any fresh tricks? She has kept remarkably--_suspiciously_--quiet for some time now."

Then the young man made his way down to the admiral's cabin and delivered the message, with the result that the admiral's barge was piped away, and five minutes later Riveros was being pulled across the sparkling blue waters of the bay, to learn what it was that Senor Baquedano wanted to communicate to him.

Several hours elapsed before the gallant Chilian returned aboard, and when he finally did so his first action was to send for Jim Douglas and request him to accompany him to his cabin. Arrived there, the admiral closed the door, locked it, and then leaning across the table toward Douglas, remarked in a low tone:

"Senor Douglas, I am paying you no empty compliment, when I say that I consider you a remarkably efficient and promising young officer. You have carried out, with the utmost credit to yourself, several exceedingly difficult pieces of work, and for that reason I am going to detail you for a service which I suspect will prove even more difficult than any which you have yet been called upon to perform."

Jim bowed, and did his best not to look too pleased.

"As you, of course, are aware," continued the admiral, smiling, "we lost sight of the _Union_ corvette before the battle of Angamos, and as we had more important business on hand at the moment, we were not able to pursue her; consequently she got clear away. The Chilians in the coast towns have for some time been living in mortal dread of her appearing, some fine day, off one or another of their ports, and bombarding it; and for some weeks past I have been daily expecting orders to sail in pursuit of her and to hunt her down. We have, however, until to-day had no definite news of her whereabouts upon which we could work. But this afternoon I was summoned ash.o.r.e and informed by his Excellency, General Baquedano, that the Peruvians are expecting several cargoes of arms from Europe, and he has been informed by one of our spies that the _Union_ has been dispatched to the mouth of the Straits of Magellan to convoy those vessels to Callao, or whatever Peruvian port they are bound for.

If, then, we dispatch a vessel down to the Straits we are almost certain to fall in with the corvette and bring her to action; and if we are lucky we may also secure the arms-carrying vessels. That would of course be in itself a service of inestimable value to our government, since if our enemies cannot obtain arms and ammunition they will soon be obliged to give up the struggle. To make a long story short, you, Senor Douglas, are the man whom I have selected to perform this difficult, arduous, and decidedly dangerous task. We have recently purchased a steamer, which we have armed so powerfully that she is to all intents and purposes a cruiser, and you will be given the command of her. Your task is, as I have just explained, to hunt down and destroy the _Union_, and if possible to capture the gun-running steamers which she has been sent to convoy. This new cruiser of ours has been named the _Angamos_, in honour of our recent victory; and I shall look confidently to you to uphold the honour of her name. She is quite ready to sail, and you must commission her to-morrow, and sail the same day. It is a very important service for so young a man as yourself, but from what I have already seen of you I am confident of your ability to bring your task to a successful termination. That is all, I think, that I have to say to you, Senor Douglas, except that, should you wish to do so, you have my permission to number your friend, the young engineer, among your crew.

Now, good day, young sir, and the best of good luck to you."

Jim saluted in silence, feeling rather at a loss to know what to say by way of thanks, and marched out of the cabin, "as proud as a dog with two tails." He had never antic.i.p.ated anything like this when he entered the Chilian service, and the news seemed almost too good to be true. Yet he speedily pulled himself together and hurried off to find his friend O'Meara, whom he came across in his cabin, smoking, and to whom he promptly imparted the joyful news. And half an hour later the two lads had packed up their slender stock of baggage and were quite ready for their new adventure. Bearing in mind the admiral's order that he should lose no time in getting his new command ready for sea Jim, accompanied by his chum, went the rounds of the flagship, saying good-bye to their numerous friends, who betrayed no little curiosity as to the reason of the Englishmen's somewhat sudden departure. But Jim thought it best to keep his own counsel, and only enlightened the Chilians so far as to say that his friend and he had been selected for a special service, the nature of which he was not at liberty to disclose.

A sh.o.r.e-boat was then signalled for, and upon her arrival alongside the two lads got into her and had themselves and their baggage conveyed ash.o.r.e, where they chartered another boat in which they were rowed out to the _Angamos_. The object of the double journey was to keep, as far as possible, their movements secret.

Having arrived on board, Jim found that everything was in readiness for a start, except for the fact that certain stores had not yet come off from the sh.o.r.e. He mustered his crew aft, however, and proceeded to read his commission to them. His appointment to the command was received with cheers of delight, for the crew was made up, for the most part, of men drafted from the other ships of the squadron, consequently they either knew Jim personally or had heard something of his exploits.

They therefore knew what sort of commander they were sailing under, and looked forward to a lively and adventurous cruise. Douglas then sent the purser and a few men ash.o.r.e to hurry up the belated stores; and by midnight everything and everybody was on board--and the ship ready. But remembering Admiral Riveros' orders as to sailing on the morrow, he waited until daybreak, and then signalled that everything was in readiness for his departure, and inquired whether it was the admiral's pleasure that he should sail at once. The answer promptly came back that the sooner he sailed the better; and Jim, ordering the saluting guns to be manned and loaded, made his way with a proud step to the navigating bridge, and rang his engines to half-speed ahead, the anchor having already been got up.

There was a responsive tinkle from the bridge-telegraph, at which the young commander smiled, for he recognised, in the long-continued response, the hand of Mr Terence O'Meara. A slight tremor thrilled through the hull as the screw began to revolve, and the shipping in the harbour drifted slowly astern as the fine 1180-ton cruiser gathered way and threaded her path out of the anchorage. Then, as she pa.s.sed the _Blanco Encalada_, the guns roared out their salute, and a tempest of cheers burst out on board the flagship as her crew recognised who it was that was standing on the cruiser's bridge; and Jim could see the glances of astonishment and the questioning looks writ large upon the faces of his recent companions. But the _Angamos_ was past the flagship in about half a minute, and Jim then put his engines at full speed. The cruiser, which had only very recently been built, was capable of steaming at the rate of fourteen knots, consequently she was at least two knots faster than the _Union_, the ship she was being sent to hunt down. She very soon covered the length of the harbour and vanished from the sight of the fleet beyond Punta Angeles.

Although from the information in Jim's possession it was to be supposed that the _Union_ was by this time several days' steam ahead of him, it was yet by no means certain where she really was; and it was quite within the bounds of possibility that they might sight her at any moment. Douglas therefore took the precaution to have a man in the fore-topmast crosstrees, with instructions to keep his eyes wide open, and to report any three-masted, one-funnelled steamer that might happen to put in an appearance. A fresh man was sent aloft every two hours, since the weather was hot, and it was distinctly irksome to be obliged to remain aloft, exposed to the full glare of the sun for any length of time; moreover, Jim kept a man at the masthead day and night. There was therefore absolutely no chance of the _Union_ being missed should she come within twenty miles from the _Angamos_, for a man with a powerful telescope would be able to cover at least that distance from the cruiser's fore-topmast head.

But despite the strict look-out maintained aboard the _Angamos_, the days pa.s.sed without any sign of the _Union_ making her appearance. The gun-running vessels Jim did not expect to meet until several days after his arrival off the Straits of Magellan; but he could not quite understand not having yet sighted the Peruvian corvette. Past Concepcion they swept, on the afternoon of the second day out from Valparaiso; then past Valdivia, and still there was no sign of the enemy; then Childe Island was dropped astern, and on the fifth day out at about two o'clock in the afternoon Cape Pillar, at the north end of Desolation Island and the entrance to the Straits, was sighted, but the sea was still bare of the ship of which they had come in search.

Still, as Jim remembered, the _Union_ was a very fast boat, only two knots slower than the _Angamos_ herself, and he thought it not improbable that she might be found lurking somewhere among the numerous islands which make the navigation of Magellan Straits so difficult and dangerous. The young skipper therefore took his cruiser into every little creek and inlet that he came to, in the hope of finding his quarry there; or, if the water was too shoal, sent away boat expeditions to explore. But still there was no sign of the _Union_, and a week after leaving Valparaiso the _Angamos_ dropped her anchor off Punta Arenas, and Jim went ash.o.r.e to interview the governor of that port, in the forlorn hope that he might have seen the Peruvian pa.s.s, or have heard something of her whereabouts.

Then Douglas received a surprise which he little expected. He found Senor Morales, the Governor, in a state of great perturbation. That worthy man had a body of only forty men under his command to garrison the place; and he gave Jim the astonishing news that the _Union_, with brazen effrontery, had called in at Punta Arenas that very morning, and that her skipper, taking an armed force ash.o.r.e with him, had seized Morales, and placed the town under contribution for a supply of coal and a quant.i.ty of provisions which he needed.

There was no resisting him, averred the unhappy governor, for the Peruvians numbered quite eighty men and were all fully armed, while the corvette's guns were trained on the town, so that, in the event of resistance being offered, she could have brought the place about their ears.

To make a long story short, said the governor, the _Union_ had coaled and taken in a supply of provisions--neither of which had been paid for, by the way--and had steamed off down the Straits to the eastward not three hours before the Chilian cruiser had hove in sight. He was quite sure that _el Senor Capitan_ would catch the scoundrel if he sailed at once. And, moreover, the _carnicero_ had had the audacity to boast that he was going to convoy two cargoes of arms, which were coming from Europe, back to Peru; that he should return through the Straits; and that he should knock the town to pieces as he went past, as payment for the articles that he had received.

Jim ground his teeth with anger upon hearing the recital of this insolence, and he vowed that, could he but find the _Union_, he would make Captain Villavicencio eat his words. But unfortunately the _Angamos_ was herself short of coal and fresh water, and several hours-- very precious hours--were spent in getting these necessaries on board; so that it was already dark before Douglas finally got away, having promised the Governor that he would do all in his power to prevent the Peruvian from carrying out his threat. But the _Union_ was by this time a good many miles ahead, and the navigation of the tortuous and intricate channel, with its furious currents, was not a thing to be undertaken at any great speed at night. Consequently Douglas was obliged to crawl slowly along at about five knots an hour, with two leadsmen in the fore chains, at the very time when he wanted to be steaming fourteen; and he feared that the _Union_ would have got such a lengthy start, while daylight lasted, that it would be a very difficult matter indeed to overhaul her. But there was just one hope for him; he reflected that she would almost certainly wait at the eastern entrance of the Straits for her convoy, and, if she were there, he would find her, and bring her to action.

The moment that daylight dawned, Jim, whose nerves were by this time torn to fiddle-strings by frequent necessary stoppages during the night, put his vessel at full speed again, and, still with two leadsmen sounding the whole time, the _Angamos_ swept along the narrow waters, finally emerging at the Argentine end of the Straits. A fresh disappointment was, however, in store for the young Englishman; for still there was no sign of the corvette; and now he did not in the least know in what direction to look for her. Finally, after cruising to and fro off the entrance for some hours, in the hope of sighting the chase, he determined to reach over toward the Falkland Islands, in the hope that the _Union_ might have gone there to meet the convoy.

The _Angamos_ had, by about midnight on the next night, traversed close upon half the distance to the Islands, and Jim was almost beginning to despair of ever catching the elusive corvette, when a hail came down from one of the men who were still stationed at the masthead: "Light ahead! bearing about a point on our port bow!"

Douglas's heart jumped. Here, surely, must be the craft of which he was in search. He had to wait a few seconds to control his excitement, and then he replied: "How far distant is the light, and what does it look like?"

"It's about eight miles distant," replied the seaman, "and looks like the light at a ship's masthead; but I can now see two red lights, one over the other, arranged just below the white one; and I should say that the three of them, shown together as they are, mean a signal of some sort; for I can see neither port nor starboard lights showing in their usual places."

"Aha!" thought Jim, "this is not so bad, after all; this approaching craft can hardly be our friend the _Union_, I should think; it is more likely that she will prove to be one of the gun-running steamers, and if so--well, her career as a gun-runner will close somewhat abruptly, I think.--Masthead ahoy, what is it now?" he continued aloud, as the seaman aloft gave an excited yell, which he immediately suppressed.

"Why, sir," the fellow answered, "I have just sighted a second set of lights, almost dead astern of the first lot; we have just this moment opened them. There are certainly _two_ steamers approaching, sir; and-- ah! one of them has just sent up a rocket--I expect it is because she has sighted us."

"Then, by jingo!" soliloquised the Englishman, "they will be the gun- runners, and no mistake about it. How I wish I knew what lights it has been arranged for the _Union_ to show as a signal to them. However, I don't; so that cannot be helped." Aloud, he went on, addressing the excited Chilian at the masthead, "Keep your eye on those ships, Pedro; and report any change to me at once."

"Ay, ay, sir!" replied the man, "they are still coming this way." Then Jim called up his lieutenant, a young fellow named Manuel, and instructed him to get the ship immediately cleared for action, and to douse every single one of the lights on board at once. He then went back to the bridge, and, as soon as every light on board had been extinguished, ordered the quartermaster at the wheel to turn the ship's head eight points to starboard; thus, a few minutes later, the _Angamos_ was running at full speed, on a course at right angles to her previous one, and was leaving the gun-runners on her port quarter.

Douglas still continued to watch their lights intently, and soon perceived that his failure to give them a signal of some sort had occasioned quick suspicion to their skippers, for they gradually slowed up; and presently the lights drew close together, by which Jim could guess that the steamers had run alongside each other to permit of a conference between the two captains.

A few minutes later Jim turned the _Angamos_ eight points to port, bringing her back to her old course, but at a distance of about four miles from the supposed gun-runners. He held on in this direction until he was well astern of them, and then circled right round and headed straight after them, immediately in their wake, at full speed. After a pause of about a quarter of an hour the Peruvian skippers again went ahead on their old course, doubtless much perturbed in their minds at the sudden and extraordinary disappearance of the craft which, a short time before, had seemed to be coming directly toward them. And so simple were they that they did not suspect Jim's subsequent _move_, but went straight ahead, keeping all their lights burning as before; thus he was able to keep them in full view, although they could not see him.

Probably it never occurred to either of them to cast a single glance astern!

Jim had reckoned on the suspected steamers being slower than his own cruiser, and he soon saw that he was steaming about three knots to their two, and overhauling them fast. The lieutenant had some time ago reported the ship as cleared for action; and the look-out aloft stated that there was no other sail in sight; consequently, Jim reckoned on bringing the enemy to book in about half an hour's time, and dealing summarily with him before the _Union_ could complicate matters by putting in an appearance; a prospect which caused him no little satisfaction, as he felt that he might have had all his work cut out to deal effectively with the three, had the corvette been opposed to him at the same time.

The _Angamos_, vibrating from stem to stern under the rapid revolutions of her screw, plunged along through the black night, while, three miles ahead, the guiding-lights shone out clearer and clearer every moment.

Half an hour pa.s.sed and the cruiser was very, very near; so near, indeed, that Jim could plainly hear the throbbing of the gun-runner's machinery; and they must also have caught the sound of his, for he suddenly saw another rocket rush up into the still night air, and directly afterwards a red glow began to hover over the tops of their funnels, showing that they were trying to increase their speed by coaling up furiously.

But it was of no use. The gun-runners only gained a very few minutes'

grace. The _Angamos_ was much too fast a ship for them; and a few minutes later she ranged up on the starboard side of the sternmost steamer, while Jim, seizing a speaking-trumpet, hailed at the top of his voice: "What ship is that? Heave-to! I wish to speak to you!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

CAPTAIN VILLAVICENCIO CATCHES A TARTAR.

For the s.p.a.ce of quite half a minute there was no reply; and then, in response to Jim's repeated summons, both steamers, as if by previous arrangement, began to send blue rockets flying into the air; while both set up a most unearthly shrieking on their steam-whistles. They had by this time recognised that the suspicious stranger was not the _Union_; but, knowing that she must be somewhere in the vicinity, they determined to attract her attention by some means or other, should she be anywhere within sight or hearing.

But Jim smiled grimly to himself as he saw and heard their despairing efforts, for he had kept a man at the masthead for the express purpose of ascertaining whether the Peruvian corvette was anywhere in the vicinity, and the last report, received less than five minutes before, a.s.sured him that she was nowhere to be seen.

He waited patiently, therefore, until the discordant blasts on the sirens had ceased, and then hailed again for the skipper to heave-to, vowing that he would fire into him if he did not do so. The young Englishman had imagined that he saw, by the light of the rockets, a number of men scampering about the decks, but he concluded that it was merely the effect of terror and astonishment, and he was totally unprepared for the gun-runner's next move. The fellow had, when he saw that there was no hope of escape, hastily prepared his ship for action; and the last words were hardly out of Jim's mouth when a perfect storm of machine-gun fire broke out aboard the flying steamer, and the bullets whistled round Douglas like hail, killing the quartermaster at the wheel, and several other seamen who were not under shelter.