The Three Commanders Part 43

"If that Commander Allport would stand in like a true man and lend us a hand, we might get off even now," exclaimed Desmond. "Arrah, my poor uncle, 'twill be after breaking his heart to leave the barkey here."

The _Anaconda_ now fired a gun and made fresh signals, ordering Adair immediately to quit the s.h.i.+p. The boats, all of which had escaped injury, were hoisted out, and the crew were ordered to leave the s.h.i.+p they had fought so bravely. Adair was the last man to quit her.

"Well, I am the most unfortunate fellow alive!" he exclaimed.

He was thinking of Lucy and his promotion stopped, and all the other unpleasant consequences of the loss of his s.h.i.+p. The only thing which kept up his spirits was the hope that he might persuade Commander Allport to stand in and make fresh efforts to get her afloat. It was a wonder none of the boats were struck as they left the s.h.i.+p. They, however, at length succeeded in getting on board the _Anaconda_.

Commander Allport, who was standing on deck, received Adair with a supercilious air. He had been many years a lieutenant, and his temper had been considerably soured before he had got his promotion; indeed, some of those whom he had known as mids.h.i.+pmen were now admirals, and he seemed to take especial pleasure in acting in a dictatorial manner towards all those under him.

"Well, Commander Adair," he observed, as Terence stepped on deck, "you have made a pretty business of this somehow or other; young officers are, however, not always the best navigators, and the _Flash_ has been lost to Her Majesty's Service. It won't bring much credit on those concerned."

Adair bit his lip, but, though ready enough to retort, he wisely restrained his temper, and answered, "If you will let me have your boats, or will stand in and give us a tow while we keep the enemy at bay, we may get the _Flash_ off before many hours are over; she has not a shot-hole in her to signify, as we plugged them all as soon as they were received."

"Impossible, Commander Adair," answered his superior officer; "the only thing we can do is to prevent the _Flash_ from falling into the enemy's hands. I cannot uselessly expose the lives of my crew in so hopeless an undertaking. Those who have the advantage of experience know that it is the duty of an officer to watch with a father's care over his people.

We'll stand in closer, and then see what is to be done."

Adair still urged the possibility of saving the _Flash_.

"I am your superior officer, and it is my duty to act as I think fit, without taking your opinion," answered Commander Allport.

Adair turned away with no very affectionate feeling in his heart towards his "superior officer."

The _Anaconda_ stood on till, when still at a safe distance from the enemy's shot, she brought her broadside to bear upon the unfortunate little _Flash_, and commenced practising with her heavy guns. A groan escaped from Adair's bosom, echoed by many others from his crew, as he saw one huge missile after another strike his devoted craft, and in a short time commit more mischief than the enemy had inflicted on her during the gallant fight he had waged for so many hours.

"We must take care, should she fall into the hands of the Russians, that she is reduced to an utter wreck," observed Commander Allport.

"You are certainly setting about the right way to make her so," observed Adair.

He even now was strongly inclined to urge the old martinet to desist, as he saw shot after shot strike the hull of his vessel. The enemy, seeing that the English were engaged in destroying her, wisely saved their own powder by ceasing to fire, and allowed them to finish the work which they had commenced.

While the _Anaconda_ was thus employed, another vessel hove in sight, steaming up from the westward.

"She's the _Giaour_," observed Commander Allport, looking at the signal-book; "Murray will a.s.sist us in knocking her to pieces."

"I very much doubt whether he will do anything of the sort," answered Adair, unable to restrain himself; "I only wish he had come an hour ago, to save her from destruction."

"You are forgetting our relative positions, Commander Adair," observed Commander Allport, beginning now to fume.

"I only expressed my opinion that Murray would not have tried to knock the _Flash_ to pieces, till he had a.s.sisted me in making further efforts to get her off," answered Adair; "and I only ask you to desist from firing till you have his opinion."

Now Commander Allport did not recollect that Murray was his senior. The latter had been promoted a few weeks before him, and would have power to decide the question. Instead of desisting, however, he directed his guns so as to concentrate their fire upon one portion of the _Flash_, thus more completely to ruin her. Adair knew that it would be useless to plead any longer; his only regret was that he had obeyed his superior officer's command, and quitted the vessel, instead of remaining on board and taking the consequences. Had he remained he felt that he would certainly have run the risk of censure for disobeying orders, but he would have saved his s.h.i.+p, and that alone would have proved a sufficient excuse had Commander Allport brought him to a court-martial; which it was very likely he would not have dared to do. Terence consoled himself with the reflection that he had fought his s.h.i.+p gallantly, and would have continued to fight her till she had been knocked to pieces, and that he had acted in obedience to the orders of a superior in quitting her.

"Well," he said to himself, "as Murray always used to advise, 'Do right and take the consequences.' I have done right in obeying, but the consequences are not less unpleasant. I shall be reprimanded for losing my s.h.i.+p, and shall be sent on sh.o.r.e with a black mark against my name, and all my prospects in the service ruined; and Sir John will be less likely than ever to allow me to marry Lucy. I _am_ the most unfortunate fellow alive." This was about the twentieth time poor Terence had uttered the expression since he had been compelled to leave the _Flash_.

As long as he continued on her deck, fighting her bravely, he had not cared half so much about her having run on sh.o.r.e; besides which, he had never abandoned the hope of getting her off. So completely did his feelings run away with him that he even began to contemplate, though his calmer moments would have forbidden him doing so, the idea of calling out Commander Allport, as the only way of avenging the injury he had received; but he, happily, had strength to banish the thought almost as soon as it was conceived, and, walking to the other side of the s.h.i.+p, he anxiously watched the approach of the _Giaour_.

As soon as she drew near, he ordered his gig, and, without holding any further communication with Commander Allport, pulled on board her.

"Why, Adair, what have you been doing with the _Flash_?" asked Murray, as he sprang up the side. Terence briefly explained what had happened, and declared his conviction that the s.h.i.+p might have been saved by the adoption of proper measures.

"Instead of that, old Allport is expending powder and shot in making a target of her, for no earthly reason beyond that of showing that he is my superior officer, though of equal rank. I wish to goodness he had been laid on the shelf, the only position he is fit for."

"We must try what can be done," said Murray. "Happily, I am _his_ superior officer, which he will find out by looking at the _Navy List_, if he does not know it already;" and Murray directed a signal to be made to the _Anaconda_ to "Cease firing." Commander Allport, who still had not discovered that Murray was his superior, was at first inclined to pay no attention to the signal; till his first lieutenant, happening to know the true state of the case, brought him a _Navy List_, and pointed out to him Murray's date of promotion.

"The old fellow is in the wrong box," whispered Desmond, he having observed what was taking place; "there's a chance after all for the little barkey."

"Cease firing," cried Commander Allport. Directly afterwards Murray sent his second lieutenant to the _Anaconda_, with a request that the commander would come on board his s.h.i.+p to consult with him as to the best means of saving Her Majesty's s.h.i.+p _Flash_, now in sight on the rocks. The request, of course, amounted to an order, which Commander Allport, however unwillingly, obeyed.

"Save her?" he exclaimed; "surely you mean destroy her as soon as possible. I have done my best for the last two hours to knock her to pieces."

"I am very sorry to hear it," answered Murray; "we should never abandon a vessel while there is the slightest hope of saving her; and the enemy might easily have been kept at a sufficient distance to prevent them from interfering with us, when getting her off. I must ask you to stand in towards the sh.o.r.e, as close as you can venture, and keep the enemy in check with your guns."

For the first time for some hours Adair's heart began again to beat with hope, as the two steamers, with the lead going and a bright look-out kept ahead, stood towards the sh.o.r.e. The artillery were seen to limber-up and gallop off, while the infantry scampered away, as fast as they could go, to a safe distance; judging correctly that as they had made no material impression upon a single s.h.i.+p, they were unlikely to impede the proceedings of two.

Murray, accompanied by Adair, and followed by the whole of the boats of the _Flash_, immediately pulled on board her. Groans, and expressions which were certainly not groans, however much they were like growls, proceeded from the crew, as they observed the damage committed by the _Anaconda's_ shot. A very brief inspection satisfied Murray and Adair that she was too completely ruined to allow of any hope that she could be got off.

"It can't be helped," exclaimed poor Terence; "the only thing now to be done is to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. I would sooner have gone down in her to the bottom of this wretched pool than this should have happened. We must blow her up; I know it--I am the most unhappy fellow alive--I shall never get another s.h.i.+p, and Lucy is farther off than ever."

"We must set her on fire, of course, or the enemy will boast that they have captured her; but as to any blame being attached to you personally at a court-martial, I don't believe it," answered Murray, in a tone calculated to soothe the feelings of his friend. "From what I see, I am pretty sure that, had old Allport not taken it into his head to knock her to pieces, we should have got her off and put her to rights in a few hours. The side exposed to the enemy is but slightly damaged, and he allows that you must have fought her bravely, and that he only ordered you to desert her for the sake of preserving the lives of you and her crew. The first thing, however, we have to do is to weigh her guns."

Murray, having formed his plans, summoned the larger boats of the squadron, when, after much labour, the guns were weighed, and conveyed on board the _Giaour_. The Russian troops had taken their departure, and a good many parties of the peasantry were seen on the sh.o.r.e, spectators of what was going on, probably hoping that the wreck would be deserted, and that they should find a rich booty on board her. They were to be disappointed. Now came the scene most trying to Adair; everything of value, and that time would allow, was removed; the _Flash_ was set on fire, and the boats pulled away, leaving her in flames fore and aft.

"There goes our little barkey," exclaimed Desmond; and in a short time she blew up, covering the sea on every side with the fragments of wreck.

"I am glad, Tom, it was not you or I got her on sh.o.r.e; I don't envy old Fusty his feelings, if he's got any; perhaps he hasn't. If Uncle Terence doesn't get a s.h.i.+p, he'll be for cutting the service and going out and settling in Australia; and I intend to go with him, to keep sheep and ride after wild cattle, and lead an independent sort of life.

I say, Tom, won't you come too?"

"Oh no; I am bound to come out here, and marry my little Feodorowna,"

answered Tom; "though perhaps she'd like to come out to Australia with me."

"You be hanged, Tom! that's all nonsense," answered Desmond. "I thought you had forgotten all about that affair."

"Of course not!" exclaimed Tom indignantly; "if she's faithful to me, I am bound to be faithful to her."

"Always provided Sir John approves of your faithfulness," put in Desmond.

"Let's change the subject," said Tom. "It's time that you and I and Gordon should pa.s.s for seamans.h.i.+p, and as soon as we go home we shall get through the college and gunnery, and then, I hope, before long get our promotion."

Castles in the air erected by mids.h.i.+pmen are apt to fall to pieces, as well as those built by older persons. They serve, however, to amuse their architects, and after all, as they do not exhaust the strength or energy, are not productive of any harm.

The squadron continued their depredations along the coast, till not a Russian vessel, or any craft larger than a c.o.c.k-boat, remained afloat, and every storehouse and stack of corn or hay which could be got at by the British seamen had been destroyed. As no private property was intentionally injured, these proceedings produced scarcely the slightest ill-will among the inhabitants, though they might have thought the perpetrators somewhat impious for thus daring to offend their sacred Emperor. History tells how gallantly the naval brigade behaved before Sebastopol, and how at length, the night before that proud fortress fell, the Russians sank their remaining line-of-battle s.h.i.+ps; and how the English and French admirals, to prevent a single keel from escaping, placed their fleets across the mouth of the harbour, when the garrison, despairing of saving even their steamers, set them on fire with their own hands; and after proud Sebastopol had fallen, how Kinburn, not far from the mouths of the Boug and the Dnieper, a strong casemated fort, armed with seventy heavy guns, supported by well-made earthworks, each furnished with ten guns more, was attacked by the combined fleets. Its best defence, however, existed in the shallowness of the surrounding water and the intricacy of the navigation, so that s.h.i.+ps of the line could not approach it; while the smaller vessels ran the risk of getting on sh.o.r.e when attempting to do so.

The fleet consisted of between thirty and forty steam-vessels, and numerous transports conveying four thousand troops. The French had as many troops, but fewer s.h.i.+ps of war; among them, however, were three newly-invented floating batteries, from which the Emperor Napoleon expected, it was said, great things. Difficult as was the navigation, every inch of ground was well known to the commanders of the fleets, it having been thoroughly surveyed by Captain Spratt of the _Spitfire_.

Early on the morning of the 15th the troops were thrown on sh.o.r.e, to the south of the princ.i.p.al fort, when they immediately entrenched their position, to cut off the retreat of the garrison. The next day proving too rough for the s.h.i.+ps to co-operate with the troops, the attack was postponed; but on the 17th the work was begun in earnest by the English mortar-boats, which first opened fire on the devoted fort. The French floating batteries followed suit, throwing their shot and sh.e.l.l with effective precision, while the enemy's round-shot dropped harmless from their iron sides, their sh.e.l.ls s.h.i.+vering against them like gla.s.s. After this game had been carried on for about a couple of hours, the s.h.i.+ps of the line stood in on the southern side of the forts, till they got within twelve hundred yards.

"Now comes our turn!" exclaimed Jack Rogers to Adair, who was serving as a volunteer on board the _Tornado_, which s.h.i.+p, following close astern of the _Giaour_, formed one of a large squadron of steamers which had been directed to approach the forts on the northern side.

The two squadrons reached their destined positions at the same time, when they both opened a tremendous fire, literally raining down shot and sh.e.l.l upon the hapless garrison. Stubborn as were the Russians, human endurance could not long withstand such a fire.

"Faith, I'm very glad I'm not inside those walls," said Gerald to Tom, as they watched the effects of their shot, hundreds of sh.e.l.ls bursting in the air together, and raining down fragments of iron on the heads of the unfortunate garrison; "if each round-shot and sh.e.l.l only kills a single man, there won't be one left alive in the course of a few minutes."