“Well, we must risk it, and get on board somehow,” said the doctor. “Give way, my lads, and pull for your lives. I’ll steer as well under cover as I can. Jack, lad, keep on bathing the poor fellow’s face.”
The men began pulling with all their might, and the nearer they drew to the yacht, naturally the better cover they secured, though, as Jack sat dipping his handkerchief in the sea from time to time, and laying it upon Ned’s burning head, he wondered that one or other of the canoes did not come round to meet them and cut them off.
Probably they were too much occupied by their own troubles, for, stung at last by the vicious attack into fierce reprisals, the yacht was giving the savages ample proof of her power.
“Don’t fire at them with rifles,” Sir John had said, “it is only slaughtering the poor ignorant wretches. Give them some good sharp lesson that shall teach them to respect an English vessel come upon a peaceful mission.”
“There is only one, sir,” said the captain quietly. “Sink two or three of the canoes with round-shot.”
“You feel that it is absolutely necessary?” asked Sir John.
“So necessary, that if we do not do that they will for certain board us, and as they are about fifty to one, we shall not be here to-morrow to tell the tale.”
Sir John hesitated no longer, and just as the boat was racing for the yacht, the firing had begun, the former shots having been with blank cartridge, in the vain hope of scaring the enemy away.
The boat was now sighted from the yacht’s deck, and a faint cheer reached Jack’s ears as they sped over the water. But while they were still some three hundred yards from the gangway, one of the great canoes suddenly started away from the others, and with the paddles making the water flash and foam, came round the yacht’s bows and made a dash for the solitary little boat to cut her off.
“Cease rowing,” cried the doctor; but every piece was already charged, and giving the order now for the rifles to be laid ready to seize at a moment’s notice, they began pulling now for the yacht’s bows.