Part Four: The Stockade - Chapter 17: Narrative Continued by the Doctor: The Jolly-boat's Last Trip

by Robert Louis Stevenson

　　This fifth trip was quite different from any of theothers. In the first place, the little gallipot of aboat that we were in was gravely overloaded. Fivegrown men, and three of them--Trelawney, Redruth, andthe captain--over six feet high, was already more thanshe was meant to carry. Add to that the powder, pork,and bread-bags. The gunwale was lipping astern.Several times we shipped a little water, and mybreeches and the tails of my coat were all soaking wetbefore we had gone a hundred yards.

　　The captain made us trim the boat, and we got herto lie a little more evenly. All the same, we wereafraid to breathe.

　　In the second place, the ebb was now making--a strongrippling current running westward through the basin,and then south'ard and seaward down the straits bywhich we had entered in the morning. Even the rippleswere a danger to our overloaded craft, but the worst ofit was that we were swept out of our true course andaway from our proper landing-place behind the point.If we let the current have its way we should comeashore beside the gigs, where the pirates might appearat any moment.

　　"I cannot keep her head for the stockade, sir," said Ito the captain. I was steering, while he and Redruth,two fresh men, were at the oars. "The tide keepswashing her down. Could you pull a little stronger?"

　　"Not without swamping the boat," said he. "You mustbear up, sir, if you please--bear up until you seeyou're gaining."

　　I tried and found by experiment that the tide kept sweepingus westward until I had laid her head due east, or justabout right angles to the way we 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 musteven lie it," returned the captain. "We must keepupstream. You see, sir," he went on, "if once we droppedto leeward of the landing-place, it's hard to say where weshould get ashore, besides the chance of being boarded bythe gigs; whereas, the way we go the current must slacken,and then we can dodge back along the shore."

　　"The current's less a'ready, sir," said the man Gray,who was sitting in the fore-sheets; "you can ease heroff a bit."

　　"Thank you, my man," said I, quite as if nothing hadhappened, for we had all quietly made up our minds totreat him like one of ourselves.

　　Suddenly the captain spoke up again, and I thought hisvoice was a little changed.

　　"The gun!" said he.

　　"I have thought of that," said I, for I made sure hewas thinking of a bombardment of the fort. "They couldnever get the gun ashore, and if they did, they couldnever haul it through the woods."

　　"Look astern, doctor," replied the captain.

　　We had entirely forgotten the long nine; and there, toour horror, were the five rogues busy about her,getting off her jacket, as they called the stouttarpaulin cover under which she sailed. Not only that,but it flashed into my mind at the same moment that theround-shot and the powder for the gun had been leftbehind, and a stroke with an axe would put it all intothe possession of the evil ones abroad.

　　"Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray hoarsely.

　　At any risk, we put the boat's head direct for thelanding-place. By this time we had got so far out ofthe run of the current that we kept steerage way evenat our necessarily gentle rate of rowing, and I couldkeep her steady for the goal. But the worst of it wasthat with the course I now held we turned our broadsideinstead of our stern to the Hispaniola and offereda target like a barn door.

　　I could hear as well as see that brandy-faced rascalIsrael Hands plumping down a round-shot on the deck.

　　"Who's the best shot?" asked the captain.

　　"Mr. Trelawney, out and away," said I.

　　"Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick me off one ofthese men, sir? Hands, if possible," said the captain.

　　Trelawney was as cool as steel. He looked to thepriming of his gun.

　　"Now," cried the captain, "easy with that gun, sir, oryou'll swamp the boat. All hands stand by to trim herwhen he aims."

　　The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we leanedover to the other side to keep the balance, and all was sonicely contrived that we did not ship a drop.

　　They had the gun, by this time, slewed round upon theswivel, and Hands, who was at the muzzle with therammer, was in consequence the most exposed. However,we had no luck, for just as Trelawney fired, down hestooped, the ball whistled over him, and it was one ofthe other four who fell.

　　The cry he gave was echoed not only by his companionson board but by a great number of voices from theshore, and looking in that direction I saw the otherpirates trooping out from among the trees and tumblinginto their places in the boats.

　　"Here come the gigs, sir," said I.

　　"Give way, then," cried the captain. "We mustn't mindif we swamp her now. If we can't get ashore, all's up."

　　"Only one of the gigs is being manned, sir," I added;"the crew of the other most likely going round by shoreto cut us off."

　　"They'll have a hot run, sir," returned the captain."Jack ashore, you know. It's not them I mind; it's theround-shot. Carpet bowls! My lady's maid couldn'tmiss. Tell us, squire, when you see the match, andwe'll hold water."

　　In the meanwhile we had been making headway at a goodpace for a boat so overloaded, and we had shipped butlittle water in the process. We were now close in;thirty or forty strokes and we should beach her, forthe ebb had already disclosed a narrow belt of sandbelow the clustering trees. The gig was no longer tobe feared; the little point had already concealed itfrom our eyes. The ebb-tide, which had so cruellydelayed us, was now making reparation and delaying ourassailants. The one source of danger was the gun.

　　"If I durst," said the captain, "I'd stop and pickoff another man."

　　But it was plain that they meant nothing should delaytheir shot. They had never so much as looked at theirfallen comrade, though he was not dead, and I could seehim trying to crawl away.

　　"Ready!" cried the squire.

　　"Hold!" cried the captain, quick as an echo.

　　And he and Redruth backed with a great heave that senther stern bodily under water. The report fell in at thesame instant of time. This was the first that Jim heard,the sound of the squire's shot not having reached him.Where the ball passed, not one of us precisely knew, butI fancy it must have been over our heads and that the windof it may have contributed to our disaster.

　　At any rate, the boat sank by the stern, quite gently, inthree feet of water, leaving the captain and myself, facingeach other, on our feet. The other three took completeheaders, and came up again drenched and bubbling.

　　So far there was no great harm. No lives were lost,and we could wade ashore in safety. But there were allour stores at the bottom, and to make things worse,only two guns out of five remained in a state forservice. Mine I had snatched from my knees and heldover my head, by a sort of instinct. As for thecaptain, he had carried his over his shoulder by abandoleer, and like a wise man, lock uppermost. Theother three had gone down with the boat.

　　To add to our concern, we heard voices already drawingnear us in the woods along shore, and we had not onlythe danger of being cut off from the stockade in ourhalf-crippled state but the fear before us whether, ifHunter and Joyce were attacked by half a dozen, theywould have the sense and conduct to stand firm. Hunterwas steady, that we knew; Joyce was a doubtful case--apleasant, polite man for a valet and to brush one'sclothes, but not entirely fitted for a man of war.

　　With all this in our minds, we waded ashore as fast aswe could, leaving behind us the poor jolly-boat and agood half of all our powder and provisions.