CHAPTER XVIII
"Repel Boarders!"
The three vessels had now ceased firing, and from under their sterns six large boats, crowded with armed men, were being pulled straight towards us with all their rowers' might.
We could see the water foaming at their bows, and hear the splash of the oars as they dipped with rapidity and regularity, while the sun glistened on gun barrel, pike, and cutlass.
Unmolested they passed between the two arms of the harbour, then, having drawn into line, they separated, three boats making for each of our vessels.
Suddenly the order was given to open fire. The guns were run out, and the Golden Hope quivered from truck to keelson with the roar of her ordnance. The Neptune followed suit, while the stockade ashore added to the din.
The calm water around the boats was transformed into a veritable cauldron, and it seemed impossible that a single boat could remain afloat in that iron hail.
Although taken completely by surprise, the buccaneers were made of stern stuff, and before the smoke cleared away sufficiently to enable us to see the result of our united broadsides, they were swarming up over our tall sides.
"Repel boarders!" thundered Captain Jeremy, waving his cutlass as he sprang to meet the attack. Nobly our men responded, and midst the sharp crack of pistols, the groans of the wounded, and the sharp exclamations of fury, cutlass crossed with cutlass and pike encountered pike.
I found myself opposed to a villainous halfcaste, clad only in a pair of drawers, and armed with a large cutlass. In spite of my efforts, for I possessed both skill and strength far beyond my age, I soon found that I had all my work cut out, for my opponent whirled his blade with great force and rapidity. Twice, however, I put in a thrust beneath his guard, wounding him slightly on the hip and on the right shoulder. Yet in spite of this slight advantage I was slowly and surely being driven back, when, tripping over a broken spar, I fell heavily.
Every instant I expected to feel the sweep of the pirate's cutlass, but the blow never came. So I took courage and raised myself on my elbow, and, to my surprise, I found my late antagonist engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with the man who had been brought before Captain Jeremy for skulking in the hold.
All sense of fear had apparently left the latter. I heard afterwards that he had received a slight wound in his left arm, and the pain had transformed him into a veritable demon. Shouting, "Let me have a rub at the brutes!" he seized an iron bar, and met the onrushing buccaneers with the utmost fury. Two men had already gone down before his ponderous weapon ere, fortunately for me, he diverted the attention of the mulatto just as he had me at his mercy.
Even as I looked the iron bar crashed past the pirate's uplifted cutlass and, descending on the half-caste's head, stretched him lifeless on the deck; but in the moment of victory a chance pistol shot laid the erstwhile coward over the body of his antagonist.
It seemed at this juncture that the buccaneers would succeed in carrying the Golden Hope, till Clemens, the Cornishman whom we had rescued from the Algerine vessel, clambered up the shattered poop ladder, and, training one of the swivel guns, which fortunately was loaded, upon the thickest of the press of our enemies, fired a heavy charge of small shot with deadly effect.
Then, headed by Captain Jeremy and the master gunner, our men made a determined rush, and, still contesting every inch of our planks, the buccaneers were forced back over the side.
A hurried glance showed that the Neptune had also succeeded in beating off her attackers, and was already resuming her fire upon the retreating boats.
Without pausing to regain their breath, our men also remanned their guns and poured a destructive broadside on the boats, of which three had been sunk when we first opened fire. Two more disappeared amidst a swirl of shot-torn water, while the sole remaining boat, moving slowly, for most of her oars had been shattered and she was more than half-full, managed by little short of a miracle to regain her parent ship.
But there was no respite for our weary crew, for the three buccaneering craft resumed their fire. It being comparatively feeble, we knew that their guns were now ill-served, and that they were only firing to aid their escape.
"Aim carefully! Wing 'em!" shouted the master gunner, as he passed along the line of guns, some, alas! silent for want of a crew. In spite of his cautions, however, our men, elated with their victory, fired rapidly and erratically; but as the buccaneers made haste to sheer off, the mainmast of one came crashing over the side, while the others' spars were in a tottering state.
We could see the discomfited crew of the former vessel attack the wreckage with axes in an attempt to free themselves from the fatal encumbrance, but ere this could be done their ship drifted on to a shoal.
The remaining vessels were more fortunate. Slowly tacking, they drew beyond range, and having picked up the survivors of their consort who, on finding their vessel aground, had abandoned her, they gained the open sea.
"Man the long-boat and make sure of yonder craft!" shouted Captain Jeremy. "Let go her anchors when you get aboard, or she may float off with the rising tide."
Even as he spoke there was a crashing report, and, clapping his hands to his head, our gallant Captain staggered and fell senseless to the deck.
One of the buccaneers, who had been left for dead on our deck, had treacherously shot him at almost point-blank range.
With a howl of rage some of our men threw themselves upon the villain and dispatched him with their cutlasses, while others hastened to raise Captain Jeremy and bear him into his cabin.
There we found that the wound, though dangerous, might not prove mortal. The bullet had ploughed a furrow just above the temple, and though the place bled profusely, Captain Jeremy soon recovered his senses.
His first thought was of the disabled buccaneering vessel. "Hath the long-boat pushed off yet?" he asked. "No? Then bid them go at once."
"Master Hammond," said Touchstone, on whom the command of the Golden Hope now devolved, "do you take charge of the boat. You know your orders?"
"Yes, sir," I replied.
"Then carry them out--but, hark'ee, mind how you board. Be careful; make sure she is quite deserted, and straightway examine her hold. I know the villains; unless I am much mistaken, they will have left a slow match to the magazine."
Taking my place in the stern sheets, I ordered the boat to give way, feeling highly elated at my first command, yet, withal, having a presentiment that 'twas a hazardous enterprise.
Half-way across the harbour we came upon the shattered bow of one of the pirates' boats floating just awash, while all around were pieces of planks, showing how effectual and destructive our fire had been. The other boats that had been destroyed must have sunk with the weight of their contents, for we saw no signs of them.
The deserted ship lay with her bow towards the reef on the larboard side of the channel, and having received several shot-holes 'twixt wind and water, had settled down somewhat, till the sea lapped her after ports.
"She's safe enough, sir!" exclaimed one of the boat's crew, looking over his shoulder at the wreck, as he rested on his oar. "Her hold is full of water. That'll put out any trains, if the villains have left them."
I was of the same opinion, so, having rowed completely round the stranded ship, which seemed quite deserted, I gave the word to run alongside.
Bidding all the men save one to remain in the boat, I made sure of the priming of my pistols, then swinging myself up the side by means of the cordage of the broken mainmast, I gained the deck.
It was deserted, save for the corpses of some half a dozen men who had been slain by the discharge of our ordnance, most of them being shockingly mangled.
A hurried yet cautious search revealed a like state of things in the after cabins, while the fo'c'sle was also empty. Peering down the main hatch I saw that, as we had expected, the main hold was flooded, though amidships the depth of water was but a foot.
Making fast one end of a rope, for there was no sign of a ladder, I threw the other end down the hatchway, and by this means gained the sloping planks of the hold. Ankle deep in water, I made my way forward, till in the dim light I perceived a stout bulkhead running athwartships and pierced by a little sliding door, or hatch.
Owing to the slight list of the ship this door had jammed, so that it required considerable effort ere I opened it sufficiently to enable me to squeeze through.
Within it seemed as black as the darkest night, till I saw a sight that caused me to be rooted to the spot. Softly fizzing and spluttering within a few inches of two tiers of sinister-looking barrels was a fuse!