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I saw the doctor on the roof with a gang of black workmen, and I noticed the flash of polished metal turned rapidly this way and that, but there was some intervening obstacle which prevented me from getting a good view of the mechanism employed. It certainly bore no resemblance to a hose-pipe, or anything of that kind.
"What are you about, you rascal?" roared the learned gentleman, springing from his perch to the deck. But it would have been better for him to remain where he was, for the instant his feet struck the deck, the full force of the stream from the hose-pipe saluted him squarely in the face, filling his mouth with water, and well nigh overthrowing him with its violence. This was a sad accident.
An occasional dash from the branch soon stayed all alarm as to the farm-house being in danger, and the captain, directing his stream of water against the burning barn, ordered his men to attach another hose-pipe and branch to the engine, so as to double the stream of water thrown upon the flames; this was soon done, and it being evident that nothing would avail to stay the progress of the fire in the ricks and sheds, which were one mass of red glow, both branches were devoted to the attack upon the big barn.
But there's an old flat-footed friend of mine in the department and he, whenever he writes me, never forgets to mention that every once in a while the chief clerk, or somebody or other in his division, is sure to look out the window and across the street at the White House grounds, as if trying to remember something; and whenever he takes a particularly long look he is always sure to turn around and say to the man at the nearest desk, 'What d' y' s'pose ever became of that hose-pipe spook used to haunt this place? And the man at the nearest desk he'll look up and nibble at the end of his pen-holder, or maybe he'll get up and have a look out of the window at the Cabinet playing tennis, and after a while he'll say: 'That's so; I wonder what ever did become of that?
And now when he began to relate the history of the famous length of hose-pipe, we knew that he would have it right. "I was in well, call her the cruiser Savannah this time " "Were you a yeoman, Dallie?" "Yes, a yeoman, bright Reggie boy; what else d' y' think I'd be a signal-girl? A good old ship, the Savannah, and were tied up to the dock at the Navy Yard." "Boston yard, was it, Dallie?"
"Sheer off, you black-an'- tan mongrels!" he roared at them. "Go an' ax some one to play on you with a hose-pipe. Jow, you soors! D'ye think the lady likes to be pisened?" He cleared a space, and rolled away towards the town.
Every officer and every non-com. down the long length of the trench was giving the same advice, and the Turks were allowed to approach until their squat forms loomed clear in the starlight. 'Now let 'em have it. Pump it into 'em, lads! came O'Brien's voice again. With one crash every rifle spoke at once, and at the same time the maxims turned loose their hose-pipe streams of lead.
Their situation was anything but enviable; for the watery stream, propelled against them with as much force as from the hose-pipe of a fire-engine, almost washed them from their unstable seats; to say nothing of the great discomfort which the douche occasioned them. It would be difficult to guess what could be the object of the elephant in this curious performance.
The rocks all round the battle-field were similarly veneered. "It looks to me," said Captain Carter, "as if old Syx had turned one of his spouts of artemisium into a hose-pipe and soaked 'em with it." "That's it," chimed in a lieutenant, "that's exactly what he's done." "Well," returned the captain, "if he can do that, I don't see what use he's got for us here."
"Of course, Captain Carter's suggestion that Syx turned molten artemisium from his furnace into a hose-pipe and sprayed the enemy with it is ridiculous. But it is much easier to dismiss Carter's theory than to substitute a better one.
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