Part Four: The Stockade - Chapter 21: The Attack

by Robert Louis Stevenson

　　As soon as Silver disappeared, the captain, who hadbeen closely watching him, turned towards the interiorof the house and found not a man of us at his post butGray. It was the first time we had ever seen him angry.

　　"Quarters!" he roared. And then, as we all slunk backto our places, "Gray," he said, "I'll put your name inthe log; you've stood by your duty like a seaman. Mr.Trelawney, I'm surprised at you, sir. Doctor, I thoughtyou had worn the king's coat! If that was how you servedat Fontenoy, sir, you'd have been better in your berth."

　　The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes,the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, andeveryone with a red face, you may be certain, and aflea in his ear, as the saying is.

　　The captain looked on for a while in silence. Thenhe spoke.

　　"My lads," said he, "I've given Silver a broadside. Ipitched it in red-hot on purpose; and before the hour'sout, as he said, we shall be boarded. We'reoutnumbered, I needn't tell you that, but we fight inshelter; and a minute ago I should have said we foughtwith discipline. I've no manner of doubt that we candrub them, if you choose."

　　Then he went the rounds and saw, as he said, that allwas clear.

　　On the two short sides of the house, east and west,there were only two loopholes; on the south side wherethe porch was, two again; and on the north side, five.There was a round score of muskets for the seven of us;the firewood had been built into four piles--tables,you might say--one about the middle of each side, andon each of these tables some ammunition and four loadedmuskets were laid ready to the hand of the defenders.In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.

　　"Toss out the fire," said the captain; "the chill ispast, and we mustn't have smoke in our eyes."

　　The iron fire-basket was carried bodily out by Mr.Trelawney, and the embers smothered among sand.

　　"Hawkins hasn't had his breakfast. Hawkins, helpyourself, and back to your post to eat it," continuedCaptain Smollett. "Lively, now, my lad; you'll want itbefore you've done. Hunter, serve out a round ofbrandy to all hands."

　　And while this was going on, the captain completed, inhis own mind, the plan of the defence.

　　"Doctor, you will take the door," he resumed. "See,and don't expose yourself; keep within, and firethrough the porch. Hunter, take the east side, there.Joyce, you stand by the west, my man. Mr. Trelawney,you are the best shot--you and Gray will take this longnorth side, with the five loopholes; it's there thedanger is. If they can get up to it and fire in uponus through our own ports, things would begin to lookdirty. Hawkins, neither you nor I are much account atthe shooting; we'll stand by to load and bear a hand."

　　As the captain had said, the chill was past. As soon asthe sun had climbed above our girdle of trees, it fellwith all its force upon the clearing and drank up thevapours at a draught. Soon the sane was baking and theresin melting in the logs of the block house. Jacketsand coats were flung aside, shirts thrown open at theneck and rolled up to the shoulders; and we stood there,each at his post, in a fever of heat and anxiety.

　　An hour passed away.

　　"Hang them!" said the captain. "This is as dull as thedoldrums. Gray, whistle for a wind."

　　And just at that moment came the first news of the attack.

　　"If you please, sir," said Joyce, "if I see anyone, amI to fire?"

　　"I told you so!" cried the captain.

　　"Thank you, sir," returned Joyce with the same quiet civility.

　　Nothing followed for a time, but the remark had set usall on the alert, straining ears and eyes--themusketeers with their pieces balanced in their hands,the captain out in the middle of the block house withhis mouth very tight and a frown on his face.

　　So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped uphis musket and fired. The report had scarcely diedaway ere it was repeated and repeated from without in ascattering volley, shot behind shot, like a string ofgeese, from every side of the enclosure. Severalbullets struck the log-house, but not one entered; andas the smoke cleared away and vanished, the stockadeand the woods around it looked as quiet and empty asbefore. Not a bough waved, not the gleam of a musket-barrel betrayed the presence of our foes.

　　"Did you hit your man?" asked the captain.

　　"No, sir," replied Joyce. "I believe not, sir."

　　"Next best thing to tell the truth," muttered CaptainSmollett. "Load his gun, Hawkins. How many should saythere were on your side, doctor?"

　　"I know precisely," said Dr. Livesey. "Three shotswere fired on this side. I saw the three flashes--twoclose together--one farther to the west."

　　"Three!" repeated the captain. "And how many on yours,Mr. Trelawney?"

　　But this was not so easily answered. There had comemany from the north--seven by the squire's computation,eight or nine according to Gray. From the east andwest only a single shot had been fired. It was plain,therefore, that the attack would be developed from thenorth and that on the other three sides we were only tobe annoyed by a show of hostilities. But CaptainSmollett made no change in his arrangements. If themutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued,they would take possession of any unprotected loopholeand shoot us down like rats in our own stronghold.

　　Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly,with a loud huzza, a little cloud of pirates leaped fromthe woods on the north side and ran straight on the stockade.At the same moment, the fire was once more opened from thewoods, and a rifle ball sang through the doorway and knockedthe doctor's musket into bits.

　　The boarders swarmed over the fence like monkeys.Squire and Gray fired again and yet again; three menfell, one forwards into the enclosure, two back on theoutside. But of these, one was evidently morefrightened than hurt, for he was on his feet again in acrack and instantly disappeared among the trees.

　　Two had bit the dust, one had fled, four had made goodtheir footing inside our defences, while from theshelter of the woods seven or eight men, each evidentlysupplied with several muskets, kept up a hot thoughuseless fire on the log-house.

　　The four who had boarded made straight before them forthe building, shouting as they ran, and the men amongthe trees shouted back to encourage them. Several shotswere fired, but such was the hurry of the marksmen thatnot one appears to have taken effect. In a moment, thefour pirates had swarmed up the mound and were upon us.

　　The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared atthe middle loophole.

　　"At 'em, all hands--all hands!" he roared in a voiceof thunder.

　　At the same moment, another pirate grasped Hunter'smusket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands,plucked it through the loophole, and with one stunningblow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor.Meanwhile a third, running unharmed all around thehouse, appeared suddenly in the doorway and fell withhis cutlass on the doctor.

　　Our position was utterly reversed. A moment since wewere firing, under cover, at an exposed enemy; now itwas we who lay uncovered and could not return a blow.

　　The log-house was full of smoke, to which we owed ourcomparative safety. Cries and confusion, the flashesand reports of pistol-shots, and one loud groan rangin my ears.

　　"Out, lads, out, and fight 'em in the open!Cutlasses!" cried the captain.

　　I snatched a cutlass from the pile, and someone, at thesame time snatching another, gave me a cut across theknuckles which I hardly felt. I dashed out of the doorinto the clear sunlight. Someone was close behind, Iknew not whom. Right in front, the doctor was pursuinghis assailant down the hill, and just as my eyes fellupon him, beat down his guard and sent him sprawling onhis back with a great slash across the face.

　　"Round the house, lads! Round the house!" cried thecaptain; and even in the hurly-burly, I perceived achange in his voice.

　　Mechanically, I obeyed, turned eastwards, and with mycutlass raised, ran round the corner of the house.Next moment I was face to face with Anderson. Heroared aloud, and his hanger went up above his head,flashing in the sunlight. I had not time to be afraid,but as the blow still hung impending, leaped in a triceupon one side, and missing my foot in the soft sand,rolled headlong down the slope.

　　When I had first sallied from the door, the othermutineers had been already swarming up the palisade tomake an end of us. One man, in a red night-cap, withhis cutlass in his mouth, had even got upon the top andthrown a leg across. Well, so short had been theinterval that when I found my feet again all was in thesame posture, the fellow with the red night-cap stillhalf-way over, another still just showing his headabove the top of the stockade. And yet, in this breathof time, the fight was over and the victory was ours.

　　Gray, following close behind me, had cut down the bigboatswain ere he had time to recover from his lastblow. Another had been shot at a loophole in the veryact of firing into the house and now lay in agony, thepistol still smoking in his hand. A third, as I hadseen, the doctor had disposed of at a blow. Of thefour who had scaled the palisade, one only remainedunaccounted for, and he, having left his cutlass on thefield, was now clambering out again with the fear ofdeath upon him.

　　"Fire--fire from the house!" cried the doctor. "Andyou, lads, back into cover."

　　But his words were unheeded, no shot was fired, and thelast boarder made good his escape and disappeared withthe rest into the wood. In three seconds nothingremained of the attacking party but the five who hadfallen, four on the inside and one on the outside ofthe palisade.

　　The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter.The survivors would soon be back where they had lefttheir muskets, and at any moment the fire might recommence.

　　The house was by this time somewhat cleared of smoke,and we saw at a glance the price we had paid forvictory. Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned;Joyce by his, shot through the head, never to moveagain; while right in the centre, the squire wassupporting the captain, one as pale 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 never run again."

　　"Five!" cried the captain. "Come, that's better. Fiveagainst three leaves us four to nine. That's betterodds than we had at starting. We were seven to nineteenthen, or thought we were, and that's as bad to bear."*

　　*The mutineers were soon only eight in number, for theman shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the schooner diedthat same evening of his wound. But this was, ofcourse, not known till after by the faithful party.