swinging around, and you will
not be able to use that gun as it points now," said Boxie, touching his
hat to the young commander.

"Stand by your engine, Paul; we will get under way at once. Boxie, cast
off the cable, and let it run out. You buoyed it, did you not?" said
Christy, with a sudden renewal of energy, as he hastened to the
pilot-house, where Beeks and Thayer had been sent before.

"I buoyed the cable, sir," replied the sheet-anchorman.

"Then cast it off. Sampson, open the cabin for the ladies," added
Christy, as he disappeared in the pilot-house.

But the ladies preferred to go into the engine-room.

CHAPTER XI

THE BATTLE ALONGSIDE THE BELLEVITE

The signal lights at the bend of the river had burned out, and nothing
could be seen in that direction. The turn of the tide had carried the
wreck of the Vampire, if she was a wreck, down the stream, and beyond
what the steward had reported, nothing was known in regard to her. Mr.
Watts possessed himself of the single fact that her walking-beam had
been carried away by the shot, and he had not waited to ascertain
anything more. She was disabled, and he had been instructed to hasten up
the river as soon as he had assured himself of this fact, and made the
signal.

As the extent of the calamity to the enemy was unknown, the young
commander began to have some painful doubts in regard to the immediate
future. He had given the order to slip the cable, and he could hear the
rattle of the chain as it passed out through the hawse-hole. It was
evident enough to him that he had to run the gantlet of the party on
board of the Vampire in descending the river. As the shot had hit the
walking-beam of the steamer, it was not probable that she was seriously
injured in her hull, if at all.

Some of the enemy had doubtless been hurt by the fall of the pieces of
machinery, but Christy could not believe that the conspirators were
disabled, as the vessel was. The enemy might make an attempt to board
the Bellevite as she passed down the river, for the accident must have
rendered the party more desperate than before. In the face of a failure
to capture the Bellevite at her anchorage, which had seemed so easy a
matter to the leaders of the expedition, they would be ready to take any
chances of success that came in their way.

"Cable all out, sir," reported Boxie.

Not without some heavy doubts, Christy rang the bell to go ahead. He
had no one in the pilot-house with