The Octopus and the Drummer

I shivered. I could tell from looking at the other soldiers’ faces I wasn’t the only one with chills going up his spine. It wasn’t cold, it was fear. We all knew we might have only hours to live.

The Confederate Destroyer was coming! The ironclad was bristling with one hundred cannon and had solid iron armor. It was invincible!

The bell tolled 4:00 a.m. It was my turn to fetch water. I set down my drum, grabbed a bucket, and snuck down to the water’s edge.

As I stooped to fill the bucket, something caught my eye. It was an octopus! I was surprised when it showed me a jug without a bottom and a tube out the top.

 I’ll never know why, but I put the jug on my head and dove beneath the water. The jar fit tightly on my head so water didn’t seep in and I could breathe.

After a couple minutes my head hit something. I looked up in surprise. It was the ironclad! As I felt the ship I discovered it was made of plates.

The octopus tapped my shoulder. As I turned my head, it put a piece of iron into my hand.

At once I understood. I put the metal between two plates on the underside of the ship. With the help of the octopus I pulled the plate off and climbed into the ship.

Around me were many sacks of gunpowder. I went through a door and came to the engine room. I saw a box of torches and a coil of rope and had my idea. I used the rope as a fuse to the gunpowder, lit it with the torch, and ran.

The flame crawled slowly up the rope as I swam back to shore. Just as I surfaced I heard a deafening boom!

I ran back to camp but I didn’t forget to fill the water bucket. When I told the men my story they didn’t believe me. “Octopuses don’t live around here!” they said.

Then something in the bucket caught their eyes. It was the octopus!