“Get under cover yourself!” cried Elliott, furiously. “You can’t do anything. Why aren’t you below?”
But the concentrated, rapid fire had already done its work. The boat had drifted upon a reef, perforated undoubtedly in a dozen places. She capsized with a sudden lunge upon the rocks, and her crew went into the water, where a few swimming heads presently reappeared.
“Don’t fire at them,” said Henninger, grimly contemplating the swimmers. “They can’t hurt us; they’ve lost their rifles. How’s Sullivan?”
Margaret turned up a pale, frightened face, with eyes that were full of tears. “I—don’t know,” she faltered.
Sullivan’s eyes were open, but his face was already pale, and he lay perfectly motionless on the deck. Henninger ripped open his shirt, wiped the blood from the wound in the chest, and felt his wrist.
“Shot through the heart,” he said, laying the arm down very gently. No one spoke; they all gazed silently at the whitening face. A bullet, fired from the island, ripped through the sail and plunged viciously into the bulwark.
“Elliott, you and Bennett carry him below,” commanded Henninger, harshly. “No time for mourning now. Miss Laurie, you go below and stay there. Don’t bunch together like that, the rest of you. We can’t afford to lose any more men.”
But for a few minutes the men ashore ceased their fire. When Elliott came on deck again the smoke had blown clear. The steamer lay immobile in the offing, heaving upon the roughening sea, and the wrecked boat was bobbing up and down in the surf, bottom upward. There were no signs of the fight but the scattered cartridge-cases on the deck, a few splintered holes in the woodwork and a red smear on the planking.
Henninger took the glass and carefully scrutinized the steamer, and then turned his gaze upon the island.
“I don’t know what they’re up to,” he said, with dissatisfaction. “I can’t see a hair of them. Either they’re lying mighty close, or else they’ve slipped around the hill and are climbing to the top. I can see another boat on the steamer, but I don’t think it’ll try to come ashore—not till dark, anyway.”