Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1901-01-10

NJ ARY 10, 1901,
ous was the crew she carried. The
ports were triced up. and through them
gaped ugly. yawning gun muzzleS.
The gunners were at their posts; the
blue smoke from their line stocks rose
lazily from the waist until the breeze
caught it and hurried ii to leeward.
and ever and anon the sun would CLINT
from shining pike head or sword
blade. Few men We're visible, and
those, as their hoarse sea hauling cries
indicated, were merely sailors. But,
though we could not see them, we
could guess that a mass of armed men
seethed within the lofty walls of that
floating fortress.
To attempt the capture of such
stronghold by simple escalade, without
ladders, without hooked poles, with
nothing but our own strong figures and
the stimulus of q desperate cause,
seemed forlorn hope indeed, and of
our little band many a sea warrior who
lad grinned death in the face score
OF times believed that now at last his
time had come and hoped for nothing
more than to deal a berserk blow or
two before the swarming soldiers spill
ed his life with sword thrust. But
not man shrank from the battle.
Most of us discarded helmet and all
else except sword or ax and at Alecs
word strobe down the rocks and into
the water.
But where were the old man and the
marvellous engine of which he had
boasted? Where was iac vaunted de-
struction which he was 10 deal out to
just such Il foe as this? Had lie failed
us? All, well, a crazy man is Il cracked
reed to lean upon, and perhaps we were
fools to hope that the old man could
save us
"On with the boat there" cried Alec
cheerily, land, Jan Fengony, lead your
lads to board at the waist. We others
will swim till our claws touch the
heak. and if we once get n hold | war
rant we will not leave go till we've
made this big sea fowl as harmless and
succulent n morsel as a well hung hen
pheasant Our heads in the water will
be small marks for their cannon, so
they won't waste powder by firing
their large pieces All the better for
us, There'll be the more to stow in the
Scourge's powder room. Have at 'em!
England forever is the cry. and mark
how that herd of hinG3 will quail when
they hear it,
And so into the water we slipped and,
going straight out from the shore, wait
ed with quick beating hearts for the
great vessel to come down to us.
On she drove with steady, cruel pow
er, gashng the little wavelets with her
beak and crushing them contemptuous-
ly beneath her apple bows, stately as
rock that is stepped in the earth's cen
ter. But of the bobbing heads in the
water and Of the boat creeping out
through the rocks she had not as yet
taken the smallest notice. The sus-
pense was fearful.
Presently a sentry spied us and gave
the word. The big ship woke up with
a scurry and hustle. The trumpeter
made his noise, and some arquebus-
iers, clapping matches to the printing
of their pieces, sent few maravedis'
worth of lead screaming over the heads
Of the unsoldierlike heretics who were
adopting this unrecogniZed means of
attack. They effected little, however,
beyond satisfying themselves that they
had obeyed orders.
But soon q deadly arrow shower
commenced from behind the bulwarks
and from the round tops, by which the
water here and there was redeemed and
the strength of more than one stout
fellow tapped. The doors of the for
ward castle opened, and detachment
OF mail clad soldiers trooped out to
guard the beak.
Armored men at the top Of a high,
steep wall against naked men in deep
water at its foOt-there could be small
doubt what the issue of such 4 combat
would be. But, little though we liked
it, it was a trial from which we dared
not shrink, and so, with grim deter
mination to do or perish in the trying,
we swan with slow, steady strokes to
meet the Spaniard, each man Of US
looking out eagerly for the best point
to board. In another half minute we
should be facing the climb and making
vicious sword thrusts at the axmen
who Topped at our limbs from above.
All, well, it would be a speedy death!
But, as it happened, there was to be
no rasping of steel against steel just
then.
With a sudden roar like the bursting
of a thunderbolt spout of fire darted
from the cluster of rocks on the outly-