The National tribune., 1900-12-13

| -
hailed the queer-lookng craft Sternly:
Boat, ahoy! Who are your Come t.
at once or Ill blow you out of water
The pilot slowed down and Shad an
swered:
The United States transport Lorena
Bound for Chattanooga"
That n United States transport" re
turned the Lieutenant scornfully, as he
surveyed the wreck of Smott Jinkins' cabin
covering the decks, and the boats skeleton
sides, from which the sheathing had beer
| torn. Looks more like country sawmil
that's run away with crossroads school
house."
The boats crew laughed loudly at theil
commanders wit.
You mill-pond sailors, you canal-boai
| Marines shouted Shorty angrily, IF you
l and your little two-for-a-cent breyet gun.
1 boat had been through One-tenth part what
l we have, you'd "A been dead-that's ALL"
| Stop your engines and come to, there, y
| repeated the Lieutenant, ''Or I'll sink you
What. With that condemned old brass
| shotgun, ri contemptuously inquired, al.
luding to the six-pounder in the bow,
You couldn't wake us if we was asleep
with that old smoothbore. You couldn't
| knock a hen off her nest"
| we can't stop our engines" answered
Shad. The currents too swift. Wen 90
onto bar"
The mere mention of a bar made all the
| SOtt-hdiutb. icuiuB, StEdiHeu boys STOdIl
painfully.
Come. no subterfuges with me-" shout
! ed the Lieuteant, who was determined
that the LOrena should be his prize, If he
could make it so. I'm not to be trifled
with: Stop your engines at once, or Ill
| fire into you"
Run over the whippersnapper, Shad."
said 81, irritably,, and let's get somewhere
where we can rest. before we drop in our
tracks"
But the pilot, much more in awe of gun
boat officers, had already stopped the en-
| gines and the Lorena began to drift back
ward.
! Keep your men below there sir com
| manded the Lieutenant, approaching eau
| tiously, with a man holding taut the Ian
yard of his gun, ready to fire at the i'll
slant. Keep your men below till look
you over. Who are you, sir, and where did
| you come from"
I'm Acting Lieutenant Graham
Acting Lieutenant" repeated the Lieu
tenant, scornfully. Anybody can be an
| Acting Lieutenant. Where did you come
from?"
We came up through the Shoals. Have
| had terrible time"
Game up through the Shoals? That's
| ridiculous on the face of it. No boat can
get through the Shoals. They're full Of
rebels. Hoods whole army is crossing
down there"
so we found out" said Shad quietly.
Your story don't go at all, sir. It's
false on the very face of it. You are
rebels who have stolen that boat and try
ing to make sneak on US. Everything
about you shows it. Haul down that flag
at once, sir, or I'll put shot through You"
You can just bang away" returned
Shad, defiantly. That's our flag and we
don't haul it down for any body"
Keep your men down there, | tell you,
sip oh taI thn hnt
stirred up by the colloquoy, began swarm
ing forward. guns in hand.
Say, stop your dumbed fOOliShnesS,"
pleaded 81, anxiously, "and let us go ahead.
Wen be back on that bar in a minute, and
then have to work till our eyeballs pop to
get off. If you had half sense you could
see that we're Union"
Il order you once more to haul down
that flag" said the Lieutenant, looking
meaningly ut the man with the lanyard. Il
shall not speak again"
The noisy conversation had awakened
the Colonel. who came out on deck with his
coat thrown on over his wounded arm. He
looked around, took in the situation, and
noted the young Lieutenant and his
threatening cannon. He Immediately
swelled to the full dimensions of Colonel
of Engineers.
Who is this person, Lieutenant?" he
inquired of Shad, with a contemptuous flip
of his thumb toward the Lieutenant, his
petty gunboat, and his shining six-pounder
And what business is he trying to trans
act with your
He is Lieutenant of the Navy, sir,
and he's halted us, and will not allow us to
20 ahead, and we are afraid, sir, of drift
ing onto a bar. He seems to think we are
rebels" answered Shad, respectfully
saluting.
THE devil he does,' roared the Colonel
That's just about as much sense as they
are putting into the heads of the whipsters
they're graduating from West Point and
Annapolis nowadays. All the brains they
have run to dancing and ) O'Clock teas. Go
ahead, sir. Pay no attention to him.
When | want this boat stopped, I'll give
you orders, SIR"
Then to the Lieutenant:
Look here, young man, l don't know
who you are,"--
I'm Lieutenant WHIP began the of
ficer: with great dignity, but still little
awed. ~ ~
Il don't care what your COMPOUNDED
name is broke in the Colonel, getting
fiercer with every word 1t had been a
long time since he had skinned anybody
and much acrimony had accumulated. "Its
perfectly Indifferent to me, sir, whether
you're named Smith, or Jones. or Brown
/ only know that you are COMPOUNDED. i'm
pudent, impertinent, interfering coxsc0mb,
sir. | am Colonel Bonesteel, sir, of the
United States Engineers, in command of
this transport and of this expedition, sir:
yes. sir. this expedition"
The Colonel swelled up still bigger Mt the |
discovery of this important designation for
his command. ~.
My name is much more important to
you, sir, than yours is TO me. as you will |
find, to your sorrow, sir. What do you
mean, sir, by the upspeakable impudence |
of stopping my boat on the broad river"
Il thought, Colonel the Lieutenant |
began.
you thought, did you?" roared the
Colonel. You mean you thought you
thought. You thought, did you? What
the devil have you got to think with, I'd
like to know? Get out of my way with
that cookie shell, or I'll run over you aud
save the Government the expense of longer
supporting such blockhead The idea of
you, sir, paltry little Lieutenant, the
latest Matching from an incubator of snol,s
and tops, pin-feather gosling from
Mother Goose's nursery on the Chesa-
peake, n little webfoOt that's scarcely GOT
ten away from his blackboard and his
copybOoks. should have the unparalleled
impudence. the audacious effrontesy, the
reckless audacity. TO get in the way of a
regular expedition, on United States
transport, led by II Colonel Of Engineers,