CHAPTER V.
THE BRIG AND THE SCHOONER.
"Blaze away! Gun at a time!" shouted Captain Avery, as the _Noank_tacked across the harbor mouth. "We can afford a few blank cartridgesfor such news as this is."
"The whaleboat's goin' to beat us gettin' in," replied Sam Prentice."The folks'll know it all before we git there."
"Don't care if they do," said the captain. "We'll only be in portag'in a few hours, anyhow. Night's our time. We know, now, jest whatthe cruiser is, and there doesn't seem to be another 'round."
The _Noank's_ sixes were, therefore, shouting to the forts and the townthat good news of some kind was coming. The men at the batteries heardand wondered, and grew impatient. They thought they knew all there wasto be known of the mere exchange of shots with the _Boxer_. Theirfriends had not been harmed; neither had the brig; the whaleboat hadescaped; and that was all that they could understand. Now, however,they saw the _Noank_ sending up every American flag she had on board.
What could it mean? Lyme Avery was not a man to have suddenly lost hisbalance of mind.
"Something's up," they said. "No matter what it is, we'll answer him."
So a roaring salute was fired for something or other that was as yetunknown to the gunners, and more flags went up on the forts; while thejoyous cannonading called out of their houses nearly all the populationof New London, every soul as full of eager curiosity as were thesoldiers of the garrisons.
Out they came, and they were not at all an unprosperous looking lot ofmen and women and children. Probably the most important thing whichthe war statesmen of Great Britain overlooked in making theircalculations for subduing the colonies was that the resources ofAmerica were in no danger of becoming exhausted. On the contrary,nearly all the states were growing richer instead of poorer. Strangelyenough, the war itself was a powerful agent for the development ofAmerica. Continental paper money was as yet answering very well forlocal payments and exchanges, and its subsequent depreciation was ofless importance than a great many people imagined. Nothing was reallylost when a paper dollar dwindled to fifty cents and then went down toten--or nothing. Nearly all the old farms were as good as ever, andnew ones were opening daily. There were more acres undercultivation--a great many more--all over the country, out of the rangeof British army foraging parties. The farms which the foragers couldnot reach included all of the New England states, all of Pennsylvania,Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, nearly all of SouthCarolina and Georgia, and all of New York above the Hudson Riverhighlands. A large part of even harassed New Jersey was doing verywell.
Something more than merely the farming interests were to be taken intoconsideration, moreover. Prior to the rebellion, the policy of themother country had choked to death all manufacturing undertakings inAmerica, in order that the colonies might serve only as markets forEnglish-made goods. Now, not only was the prohibition removed, but therebels were absolutely compelled to manufacture for themselves. Theywere altogether willing to set about it. They had an abundance of rawmaterials, and could increase their productions of all sorts. They hadgreat mechanical skill, marvellous inventive genius, and unlimitedwater-power. Everywhere began to spring up woollen and cottonfactories, potteries, iron works, wagon shops, tanneries, and other newindustries unknown before.
Cattle, horses, sheep, swine, mules, multiplied without any hinderancewhatever from the war. For all food products there were more mouths tofill, and for all things salable there was more power to pay. Itfollowed that there soon were many more tradesmen, merchants, andmiddlemen, doing vastly more business, whether for cash or barter.
There were more men, too, and more women. The sad losses of men inbattles, camps, prisons, were only a small number compared with thethousands of stalwart youths who were growing up. These, too, weregrowing up as Americans, knowing no allegiance to England, full ofeager patriotism, and ready, whenever their turns might come, to taketheir places in the army or in the navy.
There were desolated regions, but the area of these was limited. As awhole, the new republic was increasing tremendously in both wealth andpopulation. Its resources for all war purposes were growing from dayto day through all the dark years of the Revolution.
The New Londoners had no idea of waiting patiently under suchcircumstances as these, with so much salute firing tantalizing them.Boats of all sorts put out, and these were shortly met by the LongIsland news-carriers. Their entry had not depended at all upon thewind, and not much upon even the tide, so well they were pulling.
Guert and his _Noank_ friends, therefore, were robbed of the pleasureof being the first to tell the great tidings from the bank of theDelaware. It swiftly reached the shore, to be greeted with half-madenthusiasm. Before the _Noank_ lowered her last sail at her wharf,there were men on horseback and men in sleighs, and women, too, evenmore excitedly, all speeding out to villages and towns and farm-housesto set the hearts of patriots on fire with joy and hope.
It was quite likely that every courier would picture the success ofGeneral Washington at least as large as the reality. Lord Cornwallishimself, rallying his somewhat scattered detachments to strike back athis unexpected assailant, was aware of stinging losses, but not that hehad been seriously defeated. He had suffered a sharp check, and he hadafterward failed to surround and capture Mr. Washington and his braveragamuffins. That appeared to be about all. It hardly occurred to theself-confident British generals that so small an affair as that ofTrenton, or a drawn battle like that of Princeton, could have any greator permanent consequences. Little did they imagine how great a changewas made in the minds, in the courage and hope of a host of previouslydispirited Americans.
There had been many, for instance, who had been losing confidence inWashington's ability as a general. He had been too often defeated, andthey could not rightly understand or estimate the causes for hisreverses, or how well he had done in spite of terrible disadvantages.Now, as his star again blazed forth, these very faultfinders were readyto believe him one of the greatest generals of the age.
The political consequences were invaluable. Not only the Congress atPhiladelphia, but the state legislatures, most of them, were more readyto push along with measures of a military nature. The entire aspect ofaffairs underwent a visible change, not only in America, but, verysoon, in Europe.
Especially dense was the crowd that gathered at the wharf toward whichthe _Noank_ was to be steered. All the other crowds probably wishedthat they had known just where to go. Most of them at once set out ona run in the corrected direction. The cheering done had already made agreat many of the patriots somewhat hoarse, and they were all thereadier to hear as well as talk.
"Oh! Guert!" exclaimed his mother, as she hugged him, the moment hecame over upon the wharf. "I'm glad of the victories, but I'm gladderstill to see you safe back again!"
"Up-na-tan hit the brig, mother," he said. "Captain Avery says we canrun out right past her. Hurrah for General Washington!"
"Thee bad boy!" said Rachel Tarns, behind Mrs. Ten Eyck. "Thee and thyschooner should have been with him at Trenton. He was in need of thyfine French guns and thy sailors."
"That's so, I guess!" said Guert. "We'd ha' sailed right in, if we'dbeen there. I'd like to ha' seen the battle. Mother, Up-na-tan'sgoing to teach me how to handle cannon. He says he's going to make agood gunner of me."
"I want you to be a captain," she said.
"Guert," said Rachel, "I wish thee might become as good an artillerymanas thy old friend Alexander Hamilton. It is my pride and joy, thisday, that I paid for the first powder for his cannon. I also praisethe Lord that Alexander knoweth so well what to do with them and withthe powder."
"I'll learn what to do with mine," said Guert. "'Tisn't easy, though.'Tisn't like handling a rifle or a shotgun. It's a good deal in theloading and in guessing distances."
"Up-na-tan," was Rachel's next half-humorous inquiry, "thee wicked oldIndian! Has thee been shooting at thy good king wit
h thy big gun?"
"Ole woman no talk!" grumbled the Manhattan. "Up-na-tan all mad! Wantlong thirty-two. Pivot-gun too small. Hit lobster brig. No sink her."
"Ole chief not take any 'calp," chuckled Coco, maliciously, "so he feelbad. Want 'calp somebody, soon's he can. Now old Coco had fight,s'pose he 'bout ready for he supper."
That feeling seemed to have spread very widely, as if good news werecalculated to produce good appetites. It was a hungry time as well asa triumph, and in many houses there were home-made feasts, thatevening. There was one, for instance, at the Avery house, and Guertwas there, of course. He was glad of one more visit to his mother, buta peculiarly warlike thrill went over him before he reached the gate.It was when Lyme Avery said to his mate, as they separated:--
"Sam Prentice, tell your wife to send you out good and early. We'regoin' to have another brush with that there British brig, to-morrow, ifthe wind's at all right for it."
"I don't know," replied Sam. "Our best hold is to slip past her, if wecan, and git out into the open sea. It wouldn't do to run back intothe Sound, but I'd like to pick up another prize right here. We might."
"A little too risky," said the captain, "with her on the watch. That'sthe talk, though. We're goin' to bring more'n one prize into NewLondon, 'fore we git through."
Guert was well aware that the _Noank_ had taken out what were called"letters of marque and reprisal," and was therefore a regularlyauthorized and commissioned commerce-destroyer. She was one of many.In several of the colonial ports, north and south, precisely suchsea-wolves had long since made their preparations, and some werealready at sea. They were making serious havoc and were soon to makemore in the widely distributed, ocean-going commerce of Great Britain.It was a cruel, destructive, uncivilized kind of warfare, but it wascustomary among all the nations of the earth. In like manner, at thisvery date, British privateers were out after American prizes. Theselatter, moreover, had the regular cruisers of England as auxiliaries.Less agreeably, sometimes, the warships came in as business rivals orto claim a division of spoils. The Yankee privateers themselvesconstituted nearly the entire navy of the United States.
Sunrise does not come early in the month of January. It seems to comeearlier and there is more of it, if the weather is clear. On the nextmorning after the arrival of the Trenton news, however, a thick whitemist came drifting up New London harbor from the sea. There was only alight wind blowing from the westward, and it promised to be one of thehazy days of winter, such as come before a thaw.
"This 'ere is jest the thing for us," remarked Captain Avery, when hecame out to see about the weather. "It's the right kind o' breeze fora schooner, and it's jest the wrong thing for a square rig. We canspread more canvas for our draft and tonnage than that king's brig can,anyhow."
There was no one to dispute him, and he and Vine and Guert were shortlyon their way to the wharf. The Yankee shipbuilders, with abundance ofthe best timber at hand and any number of bays and inlets to work in,had constructed admirable shipyards upon plans of their own. Pointafter point they had gone away from antiquated models, and they hadalready made many important improvements in the building and rigging ofall kinds of craft. Before many years, the whole sea-going world wasto be forced to recognize their superiority.
All of the _Noank's_ crew were on board when her captain reached her,and he at once gave orders to cast off from the wharf. Only a very fewof her friends came down to see her go. Farewells had been alreadysaid, for the greater part, and even the sailors' wives had been awarethat there would be no lingering. The Long Island whaleboat wasnowhere to be seen. It might be that her hardy oarsmen, their errandaccomplished, had set out to recross to their own shore under the coverof darkness.
"Some o' those island chaps," remarked Sam Prentice, "ain't but alittle better'n so many buccaneers. They're up to 'most any kind o'pillagin'. Do ye know, Lyme, the first o' the West Injy pirates, longago, made their beginnin' with very much that kind o' open boat? Itwas a good while before they were able to supply themselves with theright kind o' sailin' vessels."
"They did it, though," said Lyme.
"Murderous lot they were, too," said Vine. "They never left anybodyalive to tell tales of 'em."
"Ugh! Ugh!" came from Up-na-tan, in a sort of snarl. "All Kidd mendead now. No come again."
The Manhattan had seated himself upon a coil of rope and was busy witha hone and the edge of a cutlass, as if he hoped to use it soon.
"No, they're not," replied Prentice, with energy. "There's enough of'em yet. Some say they're gettin' worse'n ever within a year or so.This 'ere schooner's got to keep a sharp lookout for 'em, soon's we'reamong the islands."
"That's so, Sam," said Captain Avery. "I'll tell ye one thing more,too. I'd ruther come to close quarters with a cruiser like that thereBritish brig than with one o' those half-Spanish West Injy picaroons.Some right well-armed British and French fightin' craft have found 'emdreadfully hard to handle."
"So would we," said Sam, "and I wouldn't at all mind sendin' one of 'emto the bottom. It'd be a matter o' life and death, ye know, for theydon't show any kind o' mercy. Not to man, woman, or child."
Guert listened intently, for he had already heard, year after year, agreat many terrible yarns concerning the rovers of the Antilles. Partof his daily business, too, was to listen well to whatever he mighthear, and he was learning a great deal in various ways. Brought up onManhattan Island, as he had been, he was familiar, of course, with theexternal appearance of all kinds of shipping, whether of war or peace.He had also seen a great deal of boat service. Now, however, he haddiscovered that all this had not made a sailor of him. He was only amere beginner, although it seemed to him that he had been getting alongrapidly ever since he first saw the _Noank_. This was his first actualcruising, but he had spent a great deal of time on board while she waswaiting in port. He believed that he knew every nook and corner ofher. He could go aloft like a squirrel or a monkey, but for all thathe felt dreadfully raw and green among such a crew of seasoned oldmariners. Every man of them, almost, could tell of long voyages. Theyknew the Antilles well, and the other groups of American islands. Someknew more of the coasts of South America, some of Europe. More innumber, and even more full of daring and of danger, were the tales hehad heard of the whale fishery, with its glimpse of ice-fields,icebergs, frozen seas, and its combats not only with the oil-producingmonsters of the sea, but with white bears also, and walruses, andhostile red men; to him, therefore, these men of the _Noank's_ companywere the heroes of the ocean. He admired them tremendously, just now,as they discussed, in their matter-of-fact way, quietly, calmly,fearlessly, the seemingly desperate chances just before them. They alladmitted, without hesitation, that it was a pretty doubtful problemwhether or not they would be able to escape not only the one cruisernear them, but afterward the vigilant British blockade of the Soundentrance and of the adjacent waters. The _Noank_ had very seriousrisks to run before she could spread her wings on the Atlantic.
The mist was hanging lower, thicker, whiter, and the morning gun fromFort Griswold had long since announced that in the opinion of thegunners the sun had risen.
"Hullo! What?" exclaimed Captain Avery, springing to his feet."Another? They don't fire a shotted gun jest for sunrise."
His practical ears had told him that this report was not made by ablank cartridge. What could it mean?
"Gunner saw lobster ship," said Up-na-tan, quietly.
Away he went, then, toward his long eighteen, followed by Coco andGuert and several sailors.
"Captain Avery," he called back, "ole chief get gun ready. S'pose fortgunner no fool."
"Ready with her!" said the captain. "Ready! Every gun! Silence, all!This fog's a friend of ours."
The Indian's understanding of the shotted cannon was correct. Thesharp-eyed lookout upon the rampart had detected something more thanfog in the general whiteness which concealed the sea, and the nearestgunner had at once put in a nin
e-pound ball on top of his signalcartridge.
"That brig has crept in to watch for the _Noank_," they said to eachother. "Let's give her a pill."
The pill went well enough for a warning to the _Boxer_ that her slycreeping in had been discovered, but it did no damage. Probably itsbest use was the response it provoked from the too hasty gunners of the_Boxer_. For the brig to fire at the fort was mere bravado, of course;but her commander was nettled.
"Give 'em a broadside!" he roared. "Let 'em have it. They can'tstrike us out here in the mist. Blaze away!"
All the port guns of the brig, five in number, were of small accountagainst earth and stone works; but they could express warlike feeling,and they immediately did so, and they did one thing more.
"Good!" said Captain Avery, as he heard them. "Now I know jest whereshe is. Wish I knew how she's headed. We've all sail on. Keep still,all! We can slip past her."
As quietly as so many ghosts, the men went hither and thither abouttheir duties. They had not very much to do, for every square yard ofthe schooner's canvas was already taking that fair light wind. Thebrig, on the other hand, was by no means under full sail, for somereason, and she was tacking now that she might run deeper into the fogand out of the way of harm from the fort batteries. These were notwasting any more ammunition upon her, or rather upon the mist and thesea. Only her topsails had been seen, in the first place, and thesehad been quickly hidden again. The two vessels were, nevertheless,drawing nearer to each other, unawares. There was no carefully keptsilence on board the _Boxer_; on the contrary, her crew were every nowand then doing something to send out notice to any ears near enough tohear. At close quarters she would have been a dangerous antagonist forthe Yankee schooner. There was nothing at all to be made in a fightwith her, and Captain Avery was strongly averse to the idea of havinghis vessel crippled or worse at the very outset of his voyage.
A wonderful thing is a curtain of sea fog. Sometimes it may bebeautiful, but it is never at all under human control. The _Noank_ wasrunning swiftly along and the very breeze which made her do so wasgetting its grip upon the banks of vapor. It tore one of these in themiddle, suddenly. A great rift was opened, and clear water showedacross one short half-mile of the tossing sea.
"There she blows!" sang out an old harpooner of the _Noank's_ crew, asif the _Boxer_ had been a whale.
"Luff! Luff!" shouted the British commander. "Bring your guns tobear! We have her! Hurrah!"
"Whoo-oop! Up-na-tan!" came fiercely from behind the breech of the_Noank's_ long eighteen, and the Manhattan's warwhoop was closelyfollowed by the roar of his gun.
"Hard a-lee!" called out Captain Avery. "Sam! Run her into the fog.All hands, to go about. We must get under cover ag'in."
Short range and a good aim, with the _Boxer's_ masts nearly in line,had been bad for the Englishman's triumph. Down came his foretopmast,splintered at the cap, dragging with it enough of spars and hamper toassure that anything like racing condition had been knocked out of thebrig. She obeyed her helm, at first. She swung around and her portbroadside was delivered; but it was a mere waste of powder and roundiron. Not a shot touched the saucy _Noank_, speeding away through afog bank.
Loud, indeed, was the startled exclamation of the astonished Britishcommander as he surveyed his unexpected damages.
"'Pon my soul!" he said. "That pirate is going to get away from us.This is too bad, altogether!"
His sailors sprang to do what they might for the wreck, but theappearance of things was unpromising.
"Good for you, Up-na-tan!" said Captain Avery. "That shot tells forold practice. I guess I'd better make you captain of that gun."
"Ole chief keep gun," replied the Indian. "Find gun shoot straight.Good!"
"I'm mighty glad o' that," said the captain. "I mean to train everyhand on board, though. We may get stuck where we can't afford to missa shot. Straight shootin' is better than the heaviest kind o' shootin'that doesn't hit."
The breeze was increasing finely, and away went the swift privateer.She had escaped from her first pursuer, and not far ahead of her, now,were pretty surely her next batch of perils.