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The Rock of Chickamauga - A Story of the Western Crisis by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
page 236 of 323 (73%)
settled again into quiet, as he saw the boat was not coming toward him.
Doubtless the man had merely fired the shot to satisfy himself that it
was really a log, and if Dick allowed it to float naturally he would be
convinced.

It was a tremendous trial of nerves to run the gantlet in this way,
but as it was that or nothing he exerted all his will upon his body,
and let himself float slowly, sunk again to the mouth and with his head
thrown back, so it would present only a few inches above the surface.

The boat turned, and seemed once upon the point of coming toward him.
He could hear the creaking of the oars and the men talking, but they
turned again suddenly and rowed up the stream. Again, his fate had hung
on a chance impulse. He drifted slowly on until the town and the bluffs
sank in the darkness. Then he drew himself upon his plank and swam,
doubling his speed. He knew that some of the Union gunboats lay not
far below, and, when he rounded a curve, he saw a light in the stream,
but near the shore.

He approached cautiously, knowing that the men on the vessel would be on
guard against secret attack, and presently he discerned the outlines of a
sidewheel steamer, converted into a warship and bearing guns. He dropped
down by the side of his plank until he was quite close, and then, raising
himself upon it again, he shouted with all his voice: "Ship ahoy!"

He did not know whether that was the customary method of hailing on the
Mississippi, but it was a memory from his nautical reading, and so he
shouted a second and yet a third time at the top of his voice: "Ship
ahoy!" Figures bearing rifles appeared at the side, and a rough voice
demanded in language highly unparliamentary who was there and what he,
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