The Reindeer went ahead at full speed, while the Bellevite stood up the bay, picking up the crew of Mr. Blowitt's boat on the way, evidently with the intention of taking part in the action which the Bronx had initiated. The loud reports at intervals indicated that the Bronx was using her big midship gun, while the feebler sounds proved that the metal of the battery was much lighter. The prize was not a fast steamer, and she was over an hour in making the dozen miles to Egmont Island, on which was the tower of a lighthouse forty feet high, but no use was made of it at that time.
The Bellevite proceeded very slowly, sounding all the time; but at the end of half an hour the Reindeer was at least ten miles from her, which was practically out of sight and hearing. About this time Christy observed that Captain Stopfoot left the pilot-house, where he had remained from 336 the first; but he paid no attention to him. He had three men on the quarter-deck of the steamer, one in the pilot-house with him, and five more in other parts of the vessel.
Christy knew the channel to the south of the lighthouse, and piloted the steamer to a point about half a mile to the westward of the island. He was looking through one of the forward windows of the pilot-house, selecting a proper place to come to anchor, in accordance with the orders of Captain Breaker. While he was so engaged he heard some sort of a disturbance in the after part of the steamer.
"On deck there!" he called sharply; and the five men who had been stationed in this part of the steamer stood up before him, jumping up from the beds they had made for themselves on the cotton bales, or rushing out from behind them. "Hopkins and White, go aft and ascertain the cause of that disturbance," he added.
The two men promptly obeyed the order, and the naval officer directed the other three to stand by to anchor the steamer. In a few minutes the anchor was ready to let go. Perhaps a quarter of an hour had elapsed, when Christy began to wonder 337 what had become of the two men he had sent aft to report on the disturbance.
"Linman," he called to one of the three men on the forecastle, "go aft and see what has become of Hopkins and White."
Linman proceeded to obey the order, but had not been gone twenty seconds, before the noise of another disturbance came to Christy's ears, and this time it sounded very much like a scuffle. Up to this moment, and even since Captain Stopfoot had left the pilot-house, Christy had not suspected that anything on board was wrong. The sounds that came from the after part of the vessel excited his suspicions, though they did not assure him that the ship's company of the steamer were engaged in anything like a revolt.
"Follow me, Bench and Kingman!" he shouted to the two men that remained on the forecastle. "Strike two bells, Landers," he added to the wheelman.
Christy had drawn the cutlass he carried in his belt, and was ready, with the assistance of the two men he had called, to put down any insubordination that might have been manifested by the ship's company of the prize. He would have been willing 338 to admit, if he had given the matter any attention at that moment, that it was the natural right of the captured captain and his men to regain possession of their persons and property by force and violence; but he was determined to make it dangerous for them to do so.
"On the forecastle, sir!" exclaimed Landers, the wheelman.
Christy had put his hand upon the door of the pilot-house to open it as the two men were moving aft; but he looked out the window at the exclamation of the wheelman. The cotton bales seemed to have become alive all at once, for half a dozen of them rolled over like a spaniel just out of the water, and four men leaped out from under them, or from apertures which had been formed beneath them.
illustration of quoted scene
"His assailant put his arms around him and hugged him like a bear." (Page 339)
Bench and Kingman seemed to be bewildered, and both of them were thrown down by the movement of the bales. The four men who had so suddenly appeared sprang upon them, and almost in the twinkling of an eye had tied their hands behind them. Christy drew one of the revolvers from his belt; but he did not fire, for he was as likely to hit his own men as their assailants. The 339 victors in the struggle dragged the two men into the forecastle, and disappeared themselves.
Christy was almost confounded by the suddenness of the attack; but he did not give up the battle, for he had at least six men in the after part of the steamer. Bidding Landers draw his cutlass and follow him, he rushed out at the door he had before opened. He could not see anything aft but the walls of cotton bales, with a narrow passage between them and the bulwarks. He moved aft with his eyes wide open; but he had not gone ten feet before a man dropped down upon him from the top of the deck-load with so much force as to carry him down to the planks.
His assailant put his arms around him and hugged him like a bear, so that he could neither use his cutlass nor his revolvers. At the same moment another man dropped down on Landers in like manner. It was impossible to resist an attack made from overhead, where it was least expected, and when they were taken by surprise. Christy was a prisoner, and his hands were bound behind him.
At this moment Captain Stopfoot presented himself before the prize-master, his face covered 340 with smiles, and nervous from the excess of his joy at the recapture of the Reindeer. Christy could not see what had become of the rest of his men. He knew that three of them had been secured, but he did not know what had become of the other six, and he had some hope that they had escaped their assailants, and were in condition to render him needed assistance, for it seemed impossible that all of them could have been overcome.
In spite of his chagrin and mortification, Christy could not help seeing that the affair on the part of Captain Stopfoot had been well managed, and that the author of the plot was smart enough to be a Yankee, whether he was one or not............