Here at the head of her lovely bay tremblingly waited Mobile, never before so empty of men, so full of women and children. Southward, from two to four leagues apart, ran the sun-beaten, breezy margins2 of snow-white sand-hills evergreen3 with weird4 starveling pines, dotted with pretty summer homes and light steamer-piers. Here on the Eastern Shore were the hotels: "Howard's," "Short's," "Montrose," "Battle's Wharf5" and Point Clear, where summer society had been wont6 to resort all the way from beloved New Orleans. Here, from Point Clear, the bay, broadening south-westward7, doubled its width, and here, by and by, this eastern shore-line suddenly became its southern by returning straight westward in a long slim stretch of dazzling green-and-white dunes8, and shut its waters from the Gulf9 of Mexico except for a short "pass" of a few hundred yards width and for some three miles of shoal water between the pass and Dauphin Island; and there on that wild sea-wall's end--Mobile Point--a dozen leagues due south from the town--sat Fort Morgan, keeping this gate, the port's main ship-channel. Here, north-west from Morgan, beyond this main entrance and the league of impassable shoals, Fort Gaines guarded Pelican10 Channel, while a mile further townward Fort Powell held Grant's Pass into and out of Mississippi Sound, and here along the west side, out from Mobile, down the magnolia-shaded Bay Shell Road and the bark road below it, Kincaid's Battery and the last thousand "reserves" the town's fighting blood could drip--whole platoons of them mere11 boys--had marched, these two days, to Forts Powell and Gaines.
All this the Callenders took in with the mind's eye as they bent12 over a candle-lighted map, while aware by telegraph that behind Gaines, westward on Dauphin Island, blue troops from New Orleans had landed and were then night-marching upon the fort in a black rainstorm. Furthest down yonder, under Morgan's hundred and fifteen great guns, as Anna pointed13 out, in a hidden east-and-west double row athwart the main channel, leaving room only for blockade-runners, were the torpedoes14, nearly seventy of them. And, lastly, just under Morgan's north side, close on the channel's eastern edge, rode, with her three small gunboats, the Tennessee, ugly to look at but worse to meet, waiting, watching, as up here in Fort Powell, smiling at the scurviness of their assignment, watched and waited Kincaid's Battery.
Upstairs the new Steve gently wailed15.
"Let me!" cried Anna, and ran.
Constance drew out Mandeville's newspaper. Miranda smiled despairingly.
"I wish, now," sighed the sister, "we'd shown it when we got it. I've had enough of keeping things from Nan Callender. Of course, even among our heroes in prison, there still may be a 'Harry16 Rénard'; but it's far more likely that someone's telegraphed or printed 'Hilary Kinkaid' that way; for there was a Herry Rénard, Steve says, a captain, in Harper's calvary, who months ago quietly died in one of our own hospitals--at Lauderdale. Now, at headquarters, Steve says, they're all agreed that the name isn't a mite17 more suggestive than the pure daring of the deed, and that if they had to guess who did it they'd every one guess Hilary Kincaid."
She spread the story out on her knee: Exchange of prisoners having virtually ceased, a number of captive Confederate officers had been started up the Mississippi from New Orleans, under a heavy but unwary guard, on a "tin-clad" steamer, to wear out the rest of the war in a Northern prison. Forbidden to gather even in pairs, they had yet moved freely about, often passing each other closely enough to exchange piecemeal18 counsels unnoticed, and all at once, at a tap of the boat's bell had sprung, man for man, upon their keepers and instantly were masters of them, of them, of their arms stacked on the boiler-deck and of the steamboat, which they had promptly19 run ashore20 on the East Louisiana side and burned. So ran the tale, and so broke off. Ought Anna to be told it, or not?
"No," said the sister. "After all, why should we put her again through all those sufferings that so nearly killed her after Shiloh?"
"If he would only--"
"Telegraph? How do we know he hasn't?"
Next morning the two unencumbered Callenders went down the bay. But they found no need to leave the boat. A series of mishaps21 delayed her, the tide hindered, rain fell, and at length she was told to wait for orders and so lay all night at anchor just off Fort Gaines, but out of the prospective22 line of fire from the foe23 newly entrenched24 behind it. The rain ceased and, as one of Hilary's songs ran--
"The stars shed forth25 their light serene26."
The ladies had the captain's room, under the pilot-house. Once Anna woke, and from the small windows that opened to every quarter except up the bay townward looked forth across the still waters and low shores. Right at hand loomed27 Fort Gaines. A league away north-west rose small Fort Powell, just enough from the water to show dimly its unfinished parapets. In her heart's vision she saw within it her own Kincaid's Battery, his and hers. South-eastward28, an opposite league away, she could make out Fort Morgan, but not the Tennessee. The cool, briny29 air hung still, the wide waters barely lifted and fell. She returned and slept again until some one ran along the narrow deck under her reclosed windows, and a male voice said--
"The Yankee fleet! It's coming in!"
Miranda was dressing30. Out on the small deck voices were quietly audible and the clink of a ratchet told that the boat was weighing anchor. She rang three-bells. The captain's small clock showed half-past five. Now the swiftly dressed pair opened their windows. The rising sun made a golden path across the tranquil31 bay and lighted up the three forts and the starry32 battlecross softly stirring over each. Dauphin Island and Mobile Point were moss-green and pearly white. The long, low, velvety33 pulsations of the bay were blue, lilac, pink, green, bronze. But angry smoke poured from the funnels34 of the Tennessee and her three dwarf35 consorts36, they four also showing the battle-flag, and some seven miles away, out in the Gulf, just beyond the gleaming eastern point of Sand Island, was one other sign of unrest.
"You see they're under way?" asked Anna.
Yes, Miranda saw, and sighed with the questioner. For there, once more--low crouched37, war-painted and gliding38 like the red savages39 so many of them were named for, the tall ones stripped of all their upper spars, but with the pink spot of wrath41 flickering42 at every masthead--came the ships of Farragut.
The two women could not count them, so straight on were they headed, but a man near the window said there were seven large and seven less, lashed43 small to large in pairs. Yet other counting they did, for now out of Sand Island Channel, just west of the ships, came a shorter line--one, two, three, four strange barely discernible things, submerged like crocodiles, a hump on each of the first two, two humps on each of the others, crossed the fleet's course and led the van on the sunward side to bring themselves first and nearest to Morgan, its water-battery, and the Tennessee.
Anna sighed while to Miranda the man overflowed44 with information. Ah, ah! in Hampton Roads the Virginia had barely coped with one of those horrors, of one hump, two guns; while here came four, whose humps were six and their giant rifles twelve.
"Twenty-two guns in our whole flotilla," the man was saying to Miranda, "and they've got nearly two hundred." The anchor was up. Gently the boat's engines held her against the flood-tide. The man had turned to add some word, when from the land side of Gaines a single columbiad roared and a huge shell screamed off into the investing entrenchments. Then some lighter45 guns, thirty-twos, twenty-fours, cracked and rang, and the foe replied. His shells burst over and in the fort, and a cloud of white and brown smoke rolled eastward, veiling both this scene and the remoter, seaward, silent, but far more momentous46 one of Fort Morgan, the fleet, and the Tennessee.
The boat crept southward into the cloud, where only Gaines was dimly visible, flashing and howling landward. Irby was in that flashing. Steve was back yonder in Powell with Kincaid's Battery. Through Steve, present at the reading of a will made at Vicksburg the day after Hilary's capture there, Irby had just notified Anna, for Hilary, that their uncle had left everything to him, Adolphe. She hoped it was true, but for once in her life had doubts without discomfort47. How idly the mind can drift in fateful moments. The bell tapped for six. As it did so the two watchers descried49 through a rift48 in the smoke the Tennessee signaling her grim litter, and the four crawling forward to meet the ships. Again the smoke closed in, but the small boat stole through it and hovered50 at its edge while the minutes passed and the foe came on. How plain to be seen was each pair, how familiar some of those taller shapes!
"The Brooklyn, 'Randa, right in front. And there again is the admiral's flag, on the Hartford. And there, with her topmasts down, is the Richmond--oh, 'Ran', it's the same bad dream once more!"
Not quite. There were ships new to them, great and less, whose savage40 names, told by the man near the window, chilled the blood with reminder51 of old wars and massacres52: the Winnebago, Chickasaw, Octorora, Ossipee, Metacomet, Séminale. "Look!" said the man, pointing, "the Tecumseh--"
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1
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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margins
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| 边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数 | |
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evergreen
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| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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5
wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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8
dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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pelican
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| n.鹈鹕，伽蓝鸟 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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14
torpedoes
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| 鱼雷( torpedo的名词复数 )； 油井爆破筒； 刺客； 掼炮 | |
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15
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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18
piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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mishaps
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| n.轻微的事故，小的意外( mishap的名词复数 ) | |
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22
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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27
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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briny
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| adj.盐水的；很咸的；n.海洋 | |
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30
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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velvety
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| adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的 | |
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34
funnels
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| 漏斗( funnel的名词复数 )； （轮船，火车等的）烟囱 | |
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35
dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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36
consorts
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| n.配偶( consort的名词复数 )；（演奏古典音乐的）一组乐师；一组古典乐器；一起v.结伴( consort的第三人称单数 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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37
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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39
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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41
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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42
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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43
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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44
overflowed
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| 溢出的 | |
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45
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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46
momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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47
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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48
rift
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| n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入 | |
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49
descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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50
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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51
reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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52
massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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