The signal lights at the bend of the river had burned out, and nothing could be seen in that direction. The turn of the tide had carried the wreck of the Vampire, if she was a wreck, down the stream, and beyond what the steward had reported, nothing was known in regard to her. Mr. Watts possessed himself of the single fact that her walking-beam had been carried away by the shot, and he had not waited to ascertain anything more. She was disabled, and he had been instructed to hasten up the river as soon as he had assured himself of this fact, and made the signal.

As the extent of the calamity to the enemy was unknown, the young commander began to have some painful doubts in regard to the immediate future. He had given the order to slip the cable, and he could hear the rattle of the chain as it passed out through the hawse-hole. It was evident 126 enough to him that he had to run the gantlet of the party on board of the Vampire in descending the river. As the shot had hit the walking-beam of the steamer, it was not probable that she was seriously injured in her hull, if at all.

Some of the enemy had doubtless been hurt by the fall of the pieces of machinery, but Christy could not believe that the conspirators were disabled, as the vessel was. The enemy might make an attempt to board the Bellevite as she passed down the river, for the accident must have rendered the party more desperate than before. In the face of a failure to capture the Bellevite at her anchorage, which had seemed so easy a matter to the leaders of the expedition, they would be ready to take any chances of success that came in their way.

"Cable all out, sir," reported Boxie.

Not without some heavy doubts, Christy rang the bell to go ahead. He had no one in the pilot-house with whom he could consult except the two quartermasters, for Paul was in charge of the engine, and he could no more leave it than the midshipman could leave the wheel. The propeller 127 began to turn, and the ship gathered headway. To add to the responsibility of the young commander, his mother and sister had just come on board, and were now seated on the sofa in the engine-room.

The Bellevite was moving down the river, and the only thing Christy could do was to brace himself up to meet whatever might happen on the trip. He did this at once, and a moment later he rang to go ahead at full speed. He was approaching the bend of the river, and in a minute or two more he would be able to see the Vampire. But Captain Carboneer could no more see through the headland at the bend than he could, and he hoped that the leader of the enemy had not yet discovered that the Bellevite was under way.

The steamer increased her speed on the instant in response to the signal, and she rushed forward at a velocity that would be fatal to the Vampire if she happened to be in her path. But Christy was not disposed to make an issue with the enemy when they met; he intended to defend the Bellevite, if she was attacked, to the extent of his ability and small force.

"There she is!" exclaimed Beeks, as the Bellevite 128 began to change her course to go around the bend.

Christy saw the Vampire as soon as the quartermaster, and he was glad to find that she had drifted to the left bank of the river as far as the depth of water would permit. As her engine was disabled, she had no means of propulsion with which she could help herself. It was not improbable that she was aground. She was not armed with a single heavy gun, or with any gun, and she was entirely harmless.

Christy breathed more freely when he realized the situation of the Vampire. Probably she was provided with one or more boats, and it was possible that Captain Carboneer might attempt to board the Bellevite as soon as he discovered her. The deck of the steam-yacht was not very far above the water, and if a boat full of desperate men could get alongside of the ship, it would not be a very difficult matter for them to mount the side.

"Port a little," said Christy to the quartermasters at the wheel. "Keep her well over to the west shore. Steady."

A moment later the steamer had her course for passing the Vampire, and Christy left the pilot-house 129 to obtain a better view of the situation and movements of the enemy. It was not so dark as to prevent him from seeing all that was going on upon her deck, for the Bellevite had to pass within pistol-shot of her to avoid getting aground on the edge of the channel.

Sampson and the rest of the old ship's company gathered near him, where they could see over the rail. The oiler, as Paul Vapoor had instructed him to do, had armed all these men with a cutlass and a revolver, and very likely some or all of them would have been glad to make use of them.

"They are loading into a boat on the port side of the Vampire, sir, and it looks as though they intended to do something without delay," said Sampson; and, as the steamer had come about since she was disabled, this was the side nearest to the shore.

"I see that they are hurrying some movement with all their might," replied the midshipman, watching with the most intense interest the operations of the enemy. "Sampson, get out half a dozen sixty-pound, solid shot, and put them on the plankshear, twenty feet apart. Take all hands with you, and hurry up."

130 The oiler asked no questions, though he might have been excused for wondering what the young commander intended to do with shot without powder. In a few minutes the shot were in place, as Christy had directed. The midshipman was watching with all his eyes the movement of the enemy, and, as the Bellevite approached the position of the wreck, the boat darted out from the other side of her. It began to be exciting for the middy, loaded with the responsibility of the safety of the steamer, though he seemed to be as cool as Boxie h............