Harry Collingwood

“ Jim felt his heart stand still, for discovery now would mean the utter ruin of his project, to say nothing of the death of all of them; for a shot from one of those enormous 20-inch guns would send the frail Janequeo to the bottom like a stone, if it chanced to hit her. And evidently the Peruvians in that particular battery had taken alarm at something; for a tiny point of light appeared on the ramparts, and then quickly flared up into a bright blaze. A beacon-fire had been lighted, and at any moment now its glare might reveal the presence of the torpedo-boat to the Peruvians. ”

“ A rending sound of ripping and tearing timber and another awful crash came immediately afterward, and every man in the Blanco Encalada’s launch was hurled off his feet, and thrown either into the bottom of the boat or overboard, while the little steamer’s bows rose bodily out of the water until her keel reached an angle of almost forty-five degrees, and there she stuck, still quivering in every timber from the shock. ”

“ There was no cheering from the fleet, not even so much as a shout of “Farewell!” but in his heart every man in every ship silently wished success to the daring young Englishman and his crew. The Janequeo was out of sight in half a minute; and when she had vanished the squadron got under way once more, and continued its usual nightly cruise on and off the port; while Admiral Riveros, standing on the navigating bridge, strained his ears in an attempt to catch the sounds which should tell him that Jim’s effort had been unsuccessful, and that he and his gallant crew were no more. ”

“ A rousing cheer answered his words, and the men returned to their guns full of hope and with renewed energy. They opened such a furious fire upon the Peruvian that she fairly reeled under the impact of that storm of missiles. But she nevertheless came on, unchecked, and a few minutes later ranged up, broadside on to the Covadonga, at a distance of about seven hundred yards, when the action at once became close and fierce.
In less than a minute the Chilian gunboat had her mizzen-mast shot away close to the deck, her funnel riddled by machine-gun bullets, and every man not under cover killed. ”

“ Douglas had suddenly remembered that he was wearing a Peruvian soldier’s uniform; and his idea was to allow the fugitive to pass him and then join in the chase, trusting to luck that the pursuers would mistake him for one of themselves. He would, of course, take care not to overtake the Chilian,—let the poor man get away if he could, by all means,—but he thought that if he could himself lead the pursuit, so to speak, he might be able gradually to out-distance the rest of the soldiers, and thus finally get clear away by allowing the Peruvians to imagine that he was still keeping up the pursuit. ”

“ He lay half awake in his bunk for a minute or two, and heard men running about overhead, the sound of excited voices shouting, and then, loud and clear above the uproar, rang out Carlos Condell’s voice giving orders for the men to be called to quarters and the guns to be cast loose. Evidently, thought Jim, there was more fighting in the wind. He quickly tumbled into his clothes, slung his uniform ulster over his shoulders, for the night was cold, and stumbled up on deck, every pulse in him throbbing with excitement at the anticipation of another encounter with the enemy. ”

“ The rifle-shot was the signal for an immediate uproar; it seemed as though every man must have been asleep at his post, for the Atahualpa’s decks suddenly became literally alive with figures, and rifles began to flash about her in scores, while the bullets pattered round and into the torpedo-boat with most unpleasant accuracy of aim.
“There is no time to destroy the Union now,” hissed Douglas between his teeth; “we shall have to be satisfied with what we have already done, and, caramba! we shall be fortunate if we get away with whole skins. Look out, all people with thin skulls ”

“ A fortnight had passed since that memorable night upon which Jim communicated his plan of escape to his fellow-prisoners, and still no opportunity had come for the Chilians to make a bid for freedom. For some days after Douglas had communicated with them the weary men had brightened up considerably. The spark of hope which glimmered in the midst of their darkness gave them strength to bear up under their many misfortunes. ”

“ Jim came in sight of the bridge—or, rather, its remains—a few seconds later, and saw at once what had happened. The dull, chopping noise which had first attracted his attention had been caused by axe-strokes, and the bridge had been cut through from the farther side, allowing it to fall into the ravine. In a moment the significance of the occurrence flashed into Douglas’s mind. What if the place whereon they were camped should prove to be a sort of island between the ravines? And suppose the farther bridge, their only way of escape, should also have been destroyed? ”

“ The light became stronger and stronger, and the cloud more luminous, until it seemed to be a mass of living flame; and presently, out of the mist, pictures began to shape themselves one after another, in rapid succession.
Jim saw his friend, Montt, as the central figure in many battles, conducting himself with unexampled bravery, and covering himself with glory. Scenes occurred which Douglas knew, instinctively, related to the war at present in progress. ”

“ Man after man fell under the deadly hail of fire from the hulk, but as fast as they fell others took their places, until at last, under their furious exertions, the little steamer began to quiver, and then moved slightly backward off the boom. There was an ominous cracking of timber for a few seconds, as some part of her splintered planking caught in the obstruction, and then, with a rending, tearing noise, it gave way, and the launch slid into the water of the bay, shipping a ton or two of it over her stern as she splashed in. ”

“ At four o’clock that afternoon the train crawled and jolted into Lima; the trucks were at once surrounded by soldiery who were waiting for their arrival, and the unhappy prisoners were roughly hauled out and formed up in a square as before. The weary, hungry and thirsty prisoners were hurried off to the castle of Lima, where, in the courtyard, they were given the first food and water that many of them had received for nearly thirty-six hours.
While the starving wretches were refreshing themselves, the gates opened to admit another body of about fifty Chilians surrounded by guards. ”

“ Lopés, quivering with fear, glanced at Douglas, and then at the open door, as though meditating flight, and he had evidently just made up his mind to decamp when Carlos came plunging down the stone steps.
“Amigo mio!” he gasped hoarsely, “something has gone terribly wrong somewhere, for the Chilian squadron is bombarding Iquique; and what is more, all the shells are falling in this quarter. The streets are full of dead, and a man I saw flying past just now says that a body of marines is already on shore, and coming this way. We must fly at once, or we shall be too late! ”

“ They saved a good many, but if Jim had but been close enough he would have seen that his prophecy with regard to the sharks had proved only too true; for the voracious monsters, darting hither and thither, snapped up the unfortunate men before the very eyes of the comrades who were straining every nerve to save them, the fierce fish sometimes leaping half their length out of the water in their furious efforts to snatch their prey back even when the man had been hauled up on to the boat’s gunwale. ”

“ Jim almost groaned in his agony of mind, for it seemed as though the accident to the launch had doomed the flagship to destruction, and he was just about to order his men to fire the Gatling gun at the dimly seen shape, in the hope of hitting her, despite the fact that the smoke would hide the chase from him, when he saw a long steel-coloured shape glide past the bows of his own boat. ”

“ Although somewhat disappointed at their failure to find the Peruvian fleet lying in Arica Bay, the men on board the Blanco Encalada looked forward, with all the pleasure of anticipation, to the time when they should overtake the marauding warships, bring them to action, and destroy them. And Commodore Riveros’ offer of a hundred pésos to the man who should first sight the enemy, only increased the anxiety of the flagship’s crew to fever-heat, and men were to be found aloft upon the look-out at all hours of the day and night. ”

“ We have never treated our prisoners of war as these fellows are doing; I wish I had some water to give them, but unfortunately I have none; moreover, I am nearly perishing with thirst myself. Dozens of these men are wounded, you know, Carlos,” he continued, to a brother officer who was sitting next to him, “and their sufferings must be awful; some of them will go mad before we get to Lima. Hallo! quick there, stop that man!” he yelled, as a haggard-looking Chilian soldier staggered to his feet, his eyes blazing with insanity.
But Douglas’s warning came too late. ”

“ But as day after day came and went without the signal being given, a dull despair had taken the place of hope, and many a worn-out and soul-sick man fell down in the dusty road, never to rise again. Belonging, as the bulk of the prisoners did, to a southern race, they were very easily cheered up or cast down, and their despair was all the deeper for the short interval of hope which had been given them. The majority of them seemed to have almost resigned themselves to fate, and were looking forward to nothing better than a lifelong captivity in the mines of Sorata. ”

“ Then came the corvettes O’Higgins and Chacabuco; and, lastly, the sloop Esmeralda. Presently they all slowed up and anchored; and as they did so there came the sound of tumultuous cheering from the city, to which the ships replied by dipping their ensigns.
“As you say, Jim, this is no revolution,” answered Terry. “War has probably broken out between Chili and some other country—I wonder which. Peru, I expect. And it seems to me, my lad, that we have just arrived in the very nick of time. Here is the chance of our lives, and we shall be foolish if we don’t make the most of it.” ”

“ Instead, therefore, of shooting you, I am sending you, together with a number of your comrades, the Chilian officers whom I captured in the Rimac, to the silver mines on the shores of Lake Titicaca. That will, in some sort, compensate me for your insulting remark about the incident in the Second Narrows, for I can promise you that your life, and the lives of your comrades, will be made a very purgatory for you. Shooting is much too easy a death for you, my friend; you will die, all the same, in the silver mines; but the process of dying will be slow and very unpleasant. ”