Seventeen

THE STORY CONTINUED BY THE DOCTOR: THE BOAT'S LAST TRIP

This fifth trip was quite different from any of the others. In the first place, the little boat that we were in was far too heavily loaded. Five grown men were already more than she was meant to carry. Add to that the powder, meat and bread-bags. The water was almost level with the edge of the boat; several times it came over, and my clothes were wet through before we had gone a hundred yards.

There was a very strong flow running westward, so that we were carried out of our course. If we let the boat go as she wished, we should come to the shore just near the ship's boats, where the pirates might appear at any moment.

"I cannot keep her head towards the stockade, sir," said I to the captain. "The stream keeps washing her down. Could you pull a little stronger?"

"If I pull harder the boat will go under," said he. "You must do the best you can."

"We'll never get to land in this way," said I.

"If we go on as we are going, we shall get into easier water, and then we can make our way back along the edge of the shore."

"I think it is easier already," said the man Gray.

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; "but they could never get the gun on shore, and, even if they did, they could never drag it through the woods."

"Look behind you, doctor," replied the captain.

There, to our surprise and terror, were the five men busy with the gun, getting off its cover. Not only that, but I suddenly remembered that the shot and powder for the gun had been left behind, and a stroke with an axe would put this in the power of the devils on board.

"Israel was Flint's gunner," said Gray in a whisper.

At any risk, we must put the boat's head straight for the landing-place. We were now out of the stream and could keep our direction. But the worst of it was that we were now broad-ways on to the Hispaniola, so that they could hardly miss us if they fired.

I could hear Israel Hands putting the heavy iron shots down beside the gun.

"Which of us here can shoot best?" asked the captain.

"Mr. Trelawney is by far the best," said I.

"Mr. Trelawney, will you please pick off one of those men for me, sir? Hands, if possible."

Trelawney was as cool as ice. He looked to his gun. He raised it. We stopped rowing and leant over the other side of the boat to keep it steady when he fired.

They had now swung the gun round in order to load it. Hands was at the front of it, putting in the powder, and so was most open to our fire. However, we were unfortunate, for just as Trelawney fired, down he bent, and it was one of the other four who fell.

The cry of the wounded man was repeated, not only by his companions on the ship, but by a great number of voices from the shore, looking in that direction I saw the other pirates running out from among the trees and getting into their places in the boats.

"Here come the boats, sir," said I.

"Then," said the captain, "we must row our hardest, and no matter if the boat sinks under us. If we can't get on shore, we are done for."

"Only one of the boats is coming, sir," I added; "the crew of the other are probably going round by shore to cut us off."

"They'll have a hot run, sir," said the captain. "But it's not them I fear; it's the round-shot. They can't miss us. Tell us, Mr. Trelawney, when you see them ready to fire, and well stop the boat suddenly."

We were now only thirty yards from the beach. "If I dared," said the captain, "I'd stop and pick off another man."

But it was plain that they meant that nothing should delay their shot. They had never so much as looked at their fallen companion, though he was not dead, and I could see him trying to drag himself away.

"Ready!" cried Trelawney.

"Hold!" cried the captain.

And he and Redruth pushed the boat backward, so that she seemed to leap almost out of the water. The sound of the gun reached us at the same instant. (This was the first shot which Jim heard, for the sound of Mr. Trelawney's gun did not reach him.) Where the ball passed, not one of us exactly knew; but I fancy it must have been over our heads, and that the wind of it may have caused our ruin.

The boat sank, quite gently, in three feet of water, leaving the captain and myself, facing each other, on our feet. The other three went in head first, and came up again wet and breathless.

So far there was no great harm. No lives were lost, and we could get to the shore in safety. But there were all our stores at the bottom, and, to make things worse, only two guns out of five remained in a state fit for use. Mine I had held over my head. The captain had carried his over his shoulder. The other three had gone down with the boat.

To add to our troubles, we heard voices already drawing near us in the woods along the shore. We were in danger of being cut off from the stockade. Added to this was the fear that, if Hunter and Joyce were attacked by half a dozen men, they might not stand firm.

With all this in our minds we hurried on shore leaving behind us the boat with half of our powder and food.