Part 7 (1/2)

What particularly took h place of it in the cabin of the HISPANIOLA, with plenty of ars to eat, and excellent wines, there had been one thing overlooked--we had no water I was thinking this over when there ca 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 cuot a wound myself at Fontenoy-- but I know one,” wasto 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 juood fortune Hunter pulled a good oar We side and I aboard the schooner

I found the down, as white as a sheet, thinking of the harood soul! And one of the six forecastle hands was little better

”There's atowards hi, 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 accoallery between the cabin and the forecastle, with three or four loaded ht the boat round under the stern-port, and Joyce and I set to work loading her with powder tins, nac, and my invaluable medicine chest

In the meantime, the squire and the captain stayed on deck, and the latter hailed the coxswain, as 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 nal of any description, that ood deal taken aback, and after a little consultation one and all tu no doubt to take us on the rear But when they saw Redruth waiting for thealley, they went about shi+p 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 seas in as they came, we had the jolly-boat loaded as h the stern-port, and we ain 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 e my plan and destroy their boats, but I feared that Silver and the others ht 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 onceto take breath, till the whole cargo was bestohen 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 seee of nue of arms Not one of the et 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 aiting for one froht the painter andthe 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 poe dropped overboard in two fathoht steel shi+ning far below us in the sun, on the clean, sandy botto to ebb, and the shi+p inging 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, ell to the eastward, it warned our party to be off

Redruth retreated froallery and dropped into the boat, which we then brought round to the shi+p'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, Abraha”

Still no reply

”Gray,” resu this shi+p, 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 ive you thirty seconds to join me in”

There was a pause

”Co so long in stays I'entlemen 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 ca 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 shi+p, but not yet ashore in our stockade

17

Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-boat's Last Trip

THIS fifth trip was quite different froallipot of a boat that ere in was gravely overloaded Five grown men, and three of theh, was already more than she was s The gunas lipping astern Several times we shi+pped a little water, andwet before we had gone a hundred yards

The captain ot her to lie a little more evenly All the same, ere afraid to breathe

In the second place, the ebb was now h the basin, and then south'ard and seaward down the straits by which we had entered in the er to our overloaded craft, but the worst of it was that ere swept out of our true course and away fro-place behind the point If we let the current have its e should coht appear at any moment

”I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir,” said I to the captain I was steering, while he and Redruth, two freshher down Could you pull a little stronger?”

”Not without swa the boat,” said he ”You must bear up, sir, if you please--bear up until you see you're gaining”

I tried and found by experi us ard until I had laid her head due east, or just about right angles to the e ought to go

”We'll never get ashore at this rate,” said I

”If it's the only course that we can lie, sir, we must even lie it,” returned the captain ”We must keep upstream You see, sir,” he went on, ”if once we dropped to leeward of the landing-place, it's hard to say where we should get ashore, besides the chance of being boarded by the gigs; whereas, the e go the currentthe shore”

”The current's less a'ready, sir,” said thein the fore-sheets; ”you can ease her off a bit”

”Thank you,had happened, for we had all quietly made up our minds to treat him like one of ourselves

Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought his voice was a little changed

”The gun!” said he

”I have thought of that,” said I, for Iof a boun ashore, and if they did, they could never haul it through the woods”

”Look astern, doctor,” replied the captain