PART FOUR

The Stockade

16

Narrative Continued by the Doctor:

How the Ship 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 log-house 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 seamen.

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.

****

Top of Page

< BACK    NEXT >

| Home | Reading Room | TREASURE ISLAND