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.