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PART FOUR--The Stockade
Chapter 16
Narrative Continued by the Doctor:
How theShip Was Abandoned
IT was about half past one--three bells in
the sea phrase--that the two boats went
ashore from the HISPANIOLA.
The captain, the squire, and I were talking
matters over in the cabin.
Had there been a breath of wind, we should
have fallen on the six mutineers who were
left aboard with us, slipped our cable, and
away to sea.
But the wind was wanting; and to complete
our helplessness, down came Hunter with the
news that Jim Hawkins had slipped into a
boat and was gone ashore with the rest.
It never occurred to us to doubt Jim
Hawkins, but we were alarmed for his
safety.
With the men in the temper they were in, it
seemed an even chance if we should see the
lad again.
We ran on deck.
The pitch was bubbling in the seams; the
nasty stench of the place turned me sick;
if ever a man smelt fever and dysentery, it
was in that abominable anchorage.
The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling
under a sail in the forecastle; ashore we
could see the gigs made fast and a man
sitting in each, hard by where the river
runs in.
One of them was whistling "Lillibullero."
Waiting was a strain, and it was decided
that Hunter and I should go ashore with the
jolly-boat in quest of information.
The gigs had leaned to their right, but
Hunter and I pulled straight in, in the
direction of the stockade upon the chart.
The two who were left guarding their boats
seemed in a bustle at our appearance;
"Lillibullero" stopped off, and I could see
the pair discussing what they ought to do.
Had they gone and told Silver, all might
have turned out differently; but they had
their orders, I suppose, and decided to sit
quietly where they were and hark back again
to "Lillibullero."
There was a slight bend in the coast, and I
steered so as to put it between us; even
before we landed we had thus lost sight of
the gigs.
I jumped out and came as near running as I
durst, with a big silk handkerchief under
my hat for coolness' sake and a brace of
pistols ready primed for safety.
I had not gone a hundred yards when I
reached the stockade.
This was how it was: a spring of clear
water rose almost at the top of a knoll.
Well, on the knoll, and enclosing the
spring, they had clapped a stout loghouse
fit to hold two score of people on a pinch
and loopholed for musketry on either side.
All round this they had cleared a wide
space, and then the thing was completed by
a paling six feet high, without door or
opening, too strong to pull down without
time and labour and too open to shelter the
besiegers.
The people in the log-house had them in
every way; they stood quiet in shelter and
shot the others like partridges.
All they wanted was a good watch and food;
for, short of a complete surprise, they
might have held the place against a
regiment.
What particularly took my fancy was the
spring.
For though we had a good enough place of it
in the cabin of the HISPANIOLA, with plenty
of arms and ammunition, and things to eat,
and excellent wines, there had been one
thing overlooked--we had no water.
I was thinking this over when there came
ringing over the island the cry of a man at
the point of death.
I was not new to violent death--I have
served his Royal Highness the Duke of
Cumberland, and got a wound myself at
Fontenoy--but I know my pulse went dot and
carry one.
"Jim Hawkins is gone," was my first
thought.
It is something to have been an old
soldier, but more still to have been a
doctor.
There is no time to dilly-dally in our
work.
And so now I made up my mind instantly, and
with no time lost returned to the shore and
jumped on board the jolly-boat.
By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar.
We made the water fly, and the boat was
soon alongside and I aboard the schooner.
I found them all shaken, as was natural.
The squire was sitting down, as white as a
sheet, thinking of the harm he had led us
to, the good soul!
And one of the six forecastle hands was
little better.
"There's a man," says Captain Smollett,
nodding towards him, "new to this work.
He came nigh-hand fainting, doctor, when he
heard the cry.
Another touch of the rudder and that man
would join us."
I told my plan to the captain, and between
us we settled on the details of its
accomplishment.
We put old Redruth in the gallery between
the cabin and the forecastle, with three or
four loaded muskets and a mattress for
protection.
Hunter brought the boat round under the
stern-port, and Joyce and I set to work
loading her with powder tins, muskets, bags
of biscuits, kegs of pork, a cask of
cognac, and my invaluable medicine chest.
In the meantime, the squire and the captain
stayed on deck, and the latter hailed the
coxswain, who was the principal man aboard.
"Mr. Hands," he said, "here are two of us
with a brace of pistols each.
If any one of you six make a signal of any
description, that man's dead."
They were a good deal taken aback, and
after a little consultation one and all
tumbled down the fore companion, thinking
no doubt to take us on the rear.
But when they saw Redruth waiting for them
in the sparred galley, they went about ship
at once, and a head popped out again on
deck.
"Down, dog!" cries the captain.
And the head popped back again; and we
heard no more, for the time, of these six
very faint-hearted ***.
By this time, tumbling things in as they
came, we had the jolly-boat loaded as much
as we dared.
Joyce and I got out through the stern-port,
and we made for shore again as fast as oars
could take us.
This second trip fairly aroused the
watchers along shore.
"Lillibullero" was dropped again; and just
before we lost sight of them behind the
little point, one of them whipped ashore
and disappeared.
I had half a mind to change my plan and
destroy their boats, but I feared that
Silver and the others might be close at
hand, and all might very well be lost by
trying for too much.
We had soon touched land in the same place
as before and set to provision the block
house.
All three made the first journey, heavily
laden, and tossed our stores over the
palisade.
Then, leaving Joyce to guard them--one man,
to be sure, but with half a dozen muskets--
Hunter and I returned to the jolly-boat and
loaded ourselves once more.
So we proceeded without pausing to take
breath, till the whole cargo was bestowed,
when the two servants took up their
position in the block house, and I, with
all my power, sculled back to the
HISPANIOLA.
That we should have risked a second boat
load seems more daring than it really was.
They had the advantage of numbers, of
course, but we had the advantage of arms.
Not one of the men ashore had a musket, and
before they could get within range for
pistol shooting, we flattered ourselves we
should be able to give a good account of a
half-dozen at least.
The squire was waiting for me at the stern
window, all his faintness gone from him.
He caught the painter and made it fast, and
we fell to loading the boat for our very
lives.
Pork, powder, and biscuit was the cargo,
with only a musket and a cutlass apiece for
the squire and me and Redruth and the
captain.
The rest of the arms and powder we dropped
overboard in two fathoms and a half of
water, so that we could see the bright
steel shining far below us in the sun, on
the clean, sandy bottom.
By this time the tide was beginning to ebb,
and the ship was swinging round to her
anchor.
Voices were heard faintly halloaing in the
direction of the two gigs; and though this
reassured us for Joyce and Hunter, who were
well to the eastward, it warned our party
to be off.
Redruth retreated from his place in the
gallery and dropped into the boat, which we
then brought round to the ship's counter,
to be handier for Captain Smollett.
"Now, men," said he, "do you hear me?"
There was no answer from the forecastle.
"It's to you, Abraham Gray--it's to you I
am speaking."
Still no reply.
"Gray," resumed Mr. Smollett, a little
louder, "I am leaving this ship, and I
order you to follow your captain.
I know you are a good man at bottom, and I
dare say not one of the lot of you's as bad
as he makes out.
I have my watch here in my hand; I give you
thirty seconds to join me in."
There was a pause.
"Come, my fine fellow," continued the
captain; "don't hang so long in stays.
I'm risking my life and the lives of these
good gentlemen every second."
There was a sudden scuffle, a sound of
blows, and out burst Abraham Gray with a
knife cut on the side of the cheek, and
came running to the captain like a dog to
the whistle.
"I'm with you, sir," said he.
And the next moment he and the captain had
dropped aboard of us, and we had shoved off
and given way.
We were clear out of the ship, but not yet
ashore in our stockade.