Treasure Island
The Attack
AS soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who had been closely him, the of the house and not a man of us at his post but Gray. It was the time we had him angry.
“Quarters!” he roared. And then, as we all to our places, “Gray,” he said, “I’ll put your name in the log; you’ve by your like a seaman. Mr. Trelawney, I’m at you, sir. Doctor, I you had the king’s coat! If that was how you at Fontenoy, sir, you’d have been in your berth.”
The doctor’s watch were all at their loopholes, the were the muskets, and with a red face, you may be certain, and a in his ear, as the saying is.
The captain looked on for a while in silence. Then he spoke.
“My lads,” said he, “I’ve Silver a broadside. I it in red-hot on purpose; and the hour’s out, as he said, we shall be boarded. We’re outnumbered, I needn’t tell you that, but we in shelter; and a minute ago I should have said we with discipline. I’ve no manner of that we can them, if you choose.”
Then he the and saw, as he said, that all was clear.
On the two of the house, east and west, there were only two loopholes; on the south where the was, two again; and on the north side, five. There was a score of for the seven of us; the had been into four piles—tables, you might say—one about the middle of each side, and on each of these tables some and four were to the hand of the defenders. In the middle, the ranged.
“Toss out the fire,” said the captain; “the is past, and we mustn’t have in our eyes.”
The iron fire-basket was out by Mr. Trelawney, and the among sand.
“Hawkins hasn’t had his breakfast. Hawkins, help yourself, and to your post to eat it,” Captain Smollett. “Lively, now, my lad; you’ll want it you’ve done. Hunter, out a of to all hands.”
And while this was going on, the captain completed, in his own mind, the plan of the defence.
“Doctor, you will take the door,” he resumed. “See, and don’t yourself; keep within, and fire through the porch. Hunter, take the east side, there. Joyce, you by the west, my man. Mr. Trelawney, you are the best shot—you and Gray will take this long north side, with the five loopholes; it’s there the is. If they can up to it and fire in upon us through our own ports, would to look dirty. Hawkins, neither you I are much account at the shooting; we’ll by to and a hand.”
As the captain had said, the was past. As soon as the sun had above our of trees, it with all its upon the and up the at a draught. Soon the was and the resin melting in the of the house. Jackets and were aside, open at the and rolled up to the shoulders; and we there, each at his post, in a of and anxiety.
An hour passed away.
“Hang them!” said the captain. “This is as as the doldrums. Gray, for a wind.”
And just at that moment came the news of the attack.
“If you please, sir,” said Joyce, “if I see anyone, am I to fire?”
“I told you so!” the captain.
“Thank you, sir,” returned Joyce with the same civility.
Nothing for a time, but the had set us all on the alert, ears and eyes—the with their pieces in their hands, the captain out in the middle of the house with his mouth very tight and a on his face.
So some passed, till Joyce up his and fired. The report had died away it was and from without in a volley, shot, like a of geese, from every of the enclosure. Several the log-house, but not one entered; and as the away and vanished, the and the around it looked as and empty as before. Not a waved, not the of a musket-barrel the presence of our foes.
“Did you your man?” asked the captain.
“No, sir,” Joyce. “I not, sir.”
“Next best thing to tell the truth,” Captain Smollett. “Load his gun, Hawkins. How many should say there were on your side, doctor?”
“I know precisely,” said Dr. Livesey. “Three were on this side. I saw the three flashes—two close together—one to the west.”
“Three!” the captain. “And how many on yours, Mr. Trelawney?”
But this was not so easily answered. There had come many from the north—seven by the squire’s computation, eight or nine according to Gray. From the east and west only a single had been fired. It was plain, therefore, that the attack would be from the north and that on the other three we were only to be by a of hostilities. But Captain Smollett no in his arrangements. If the succeeded in the stockade, he argued, they would take of any and shoot us like in our own stronghold.
Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly, with a loud huzza, a little cloud of from the on the north and ran on the stockade. At the same moment, the fire was once more opened from the woods, and a sang through the and the doctor’s into bits.
The over the like monkeys. Squire and Gray again and yet again; three men fell, one into the enclosure, two on the outside. But of these, one was more than hurt, for he was on his again in a and among the trees.
Two had the dust, one had fled, four had good their our defences, while from the of the seven or eight men, each with muskets, up a though fire on the log-house.
The four who had them for the building, as they ran, and the men among the trees to them. Several were fired, but such was the of the that not one to have taken effect. In a moment, the four had up the and were upon us.
The of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at the middle loophole.
“At ’em, all hands—all hands!” he in a voice of thunder.
At the same moment, another Hunter’s by the muzzle, it from his hands, it through the loophole, and with one blow, the on the floor. Meanwhile a third, all around the house, appeared in the and with his on the doctor.
Our position was reversed. A moment since we were firing, under cover, at an enemy; now it was we who and not return a blow.
The log-house was full of smoke, to which we our safety. Cries and confusion, the and reports of pistol-shots, and one loud in my ears.
“Out, lads, out, and ’em in the open! Cutlasses!” the captain.
I a from the pile, and someone, at the same time another, gave me a cut across the which I felt. I out of the door into the clear sunlight. Someone was close behind, I not whom. Right in front, the doctor was his the hill, and just as my upon him, his and sent him on his with a great across the face.
“Round the house, lads! Round the house!” the captain; and in the hurly-burly, I a in his voice.
Mechanically, I obeyed, eastwards, and with my raised, ran the of the house. Next moment I was to with Anderson. He aloud, and his up above his head, in the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid, but as the still impending, in a upon one side, and missing my in the soft sand, rolled the slope.
When I had from the door, the other had been already up the to make an end of us. One man, in a red night-cap, with his in his mouth, had got upon the top and a leg across. Well, so had been the that when I my again all was in the same posture, the with the red night-cap still half-way over, another still just his above the top of the stockade. And yet, in this of time, the was over and the victory was ours.
Gray, close me, had cut the big he had time to from his last blow. Another had been at a in the very act of into the house and now in agony, the pistol still in his hand. A third, as I had seen, the doctor had of at a blow. Of the four who had the palisade, one only for, and he, having left his on the field, was now out again with the of death upon him.
“Fire—fire from the house!” the doctor. “And you, lads, into cover.”
But his were unheeded, no was fired, and the last good his and with the into the wood. In three nothing of the party but the five who had fallen, four on the and one on the of the palisade.
The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter. The would soon be where they had left their muskets, and at any moment the fire might recommence.
The house was by this time of smoke, and we saw at a the price we had paid for victory. Hunter his loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, through the head, to move again; while right in the centre, the was supporting the captain, one as as the other.
“The captain’s wounded,” said Mr. Trelawney.
“Have they run?” asked Mr. Smollett.
“All that could, you may be bound,” returned the doctor; “but there’s five of them will again.”
“Five!” the captain. “Come, that’s better. Five against three us four to nine. That’s than we had at starting. We were seven to then, or we were, and that’s as to bear.” *
*The were soon only eight in number, for the man by Mr. Trelawney on the died that same of his wound. But this was, of course, not till after by the party.
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