Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1906-11-16
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:" 1ohe1Sner, ana may want help.
small we leave her, or shall we stand by?"
IhV gave great shout at this, and
the skipper touched the bell, which stop
ped our engines. Glasses were turned
upon us from the decks of the yellow ship,
ana from the Ocean King, whose men
were still busy with the signal flags, and
lhls Time, as we made out in a direct re-
quest to us that we should stand by, I
watched the captain of the steamer par
leylng with the men in the launch below
him.
While tall man with fair hair-my
glass gave me the impression that he was
the fellow known as Roaring john
stood in the bows of the launch, and ap-
peared to be gesticulating wildly to the
skipper OF the Ocean King, the nameless
snip set up OF a sudden great shrieking
with her deck whistle, which she blew
three times with terrific power; and at
the third sound of it the launch which
had been holding to the side of the steam
er, let go, running rapidly back to the arm
ed vessel, where it was taken aboard
again.
The whole thing was done in so short
space of time that our men scarce had
opportunity to express surprise when the
launch was hanging at the davits again.
The great activity that we had observed
on the decks of the war vessel ceased as
mysteriously as it had begun. She bound
ed past us at a speed the like to which
L had never seen upon the deep.
So remarkable a face-about seemed to
dumbfound our men. But the key to the
riddle was given, not by one of them.
but by Paolo, whom I now found at my
elbow
~ he cried, she's American -
l saw what troubled him. There was
a great white steamer coming up at a
high speed, and l knew the form of her
at once, and of two others that followed
her. She was one of the American navy.
The secret of the flight was no longer in
| applicable; the yellow ship had fed from
| the trap into which she was so nearly
| falling.
''You have sharp eyes, Paolo," said l :;
| Il imagine it's lucky for the pair of us.
The nameless ship, of sudden, ceased
| her flight, and came almost to a stand
some half mile away on our port bow.
| AS she swung round to head the seas, |
| saw at once that another cruiser, long
and white, and seemingly we'll armed. had
| come up upon that side, and now barred
| her passage.
The nameless ship hau now hundreds of
men about her decks, and these were at
| the machine guns and elsewhere active in
preparation. The great hull swung round
| slowly and passed at a moderate speed
| past the bow of the other. When she
was nearly clear, her two great guns
( ii, nj 70 nd oc
| the shells swept along the deck of the
| cruiser, they carried men and masts and
| deck houses with them in one awful con-
| fusion of wreckage and of death. The
| cruiser was utterly unprepared for the
| treachery, and lay Keeling on the sea as
| her opponent treated her to the hail of
| her machine guns.
The battle could have ended but in one
way, had not the other American war
ships now come so close to us that they
| opened fire with their great guns. The
| huge shells Kissed over our heads, and all
about us. The captain of the nameless
| shin fired twice from his turrets, and then
| headed of at prodigious speed. In five
minutes he was out of gunshot; in ten,
| the American vessels were taking men
| from their crippled cruiser, whose antago-
nists had almost disappeared on the hori-
| ION
Upon our own decks the noise and hub
bub were almost deafening. We put out
| boat with ease upon the still sea and
| hailed the passenger steamer after twenty
minutes stout rowing. She was yet pit
| iful spectacle. When we got up on her
main deck. Captain Ross. her commander,
greeted us with great thanks. He took
ne to his chart room, for he would have
| all particulars about us
"Twenty years." he said, with tears -
! anoar in his eyes. II have crossed the
Atlantic. but this is the first time that l
ever heard the like! It's piracy on the
biob seas; and they shall swing, if there's
onIv one rope in Europe. What does it
| moan? Are we at war? You saw the
Cbilian flag. Is there no treaty of PARISH
The first of the American ships came
nm with us, and the commander OF her
| mt out a boat, and having gone aboard
! the manned cruiser, he came afterwards to
the Black Anchor ship, and Joined us IN
| the chart room.
! .sIt's an international question,
guess" he said; land if he doesn't pay
with his neck for the twenty men deau
on nv cruiser, to say nothing OF the t"en-
ty thousand pounds or more of damage 10
| her. I will-why. We'll run him down III
| four-and-twenty hours
heard it agreed between them that
tbe second cruiser of the American meet
should start at once in pursuit WINE the
ironclads should accompany US 10 Ne"
York. so making little convoy tor sale-
| tvs sake. -. .,o shin
With this arrangement we left the snip
and regained the Celsis. Paolo stoou a.
| tbe TOP of the ladder as [ came on dech'
and listened, / thought, to our protes.a-
| lions that the danger was over win
somatbing of sneer on his face. In
deed. | thought that heard him mutter,
bnt I did not know then how mucn the
laugh was to be against rs, and that we
should leave the convoy long before we
| cached New York.
CHAPTER Y.
| For full FIVE days we steamed with the
lis vndar no stress to keep the