“All ready with the anchor!” shouted Uncle Dick, and that was the first order the boys had heard since coming on deck.
“All ready, sir,” was the reply.
The schooner ran on a quarter of a mile farther, the water growing more and more quiet the nearer she approached the beach, and then the order was given to let go. The anchor was quickly got overboard, and when she began to feel its resisting power, the Stranger came about and rode safely within short rifle-shot of the shore where the boys had expected her to lay her bones, and perhaps their own. As soon as she was fairly brought up with her head to the waves, a squad of men was sent to the pumps, and the boys tottered back, and supporting themselves by the first objects they could lay hold of, panted loudly. They were almost exhausted.
“Mr. Baldwin,” said Uncle Dick, “have a fire started in the galley without a minute’s delay, and see that the doctor serves up the best he’s got in the lockers to these weary men. We’ll be the better for a cup of hot coffee.”
Having given these orders, Uncle Dick came up and shook each of the boys by the hand with as much cordiality as he would have exhibited if he had not seen them for a twelvemonth.
“Now that it is all over, I can tell you that awhile ago I thought it was the last of us,” said he. “Mr. Baldwin,” he added, as the mate came up out of the galley, “have the magazine lighted. Frank, I think you had better send our compliments to those fellows in the shape of a two-second shell.”
Uncle Dick pointed over the stern, and Frank was surprised to see a fleet of canoes loaded with natives approaching the schooner. His mind had been so completely occupied with other things that he had not thought of them since he saw Long Tom go overboard.
“Perhaps they are coming to help us,” said he.
“Well, we don’t want any of their help, and you had better tell them so in language they will understand. Do it, too, before they come much nearer.”
If Frank had been as cool as he usually was, and as cool as Uncle Dick was in spite of the trying scenes through which he had just passed, he would have seen the reason for this apparently hasty order. One glance at the approaching canoes would have been enough. He would have noticed that those of the natives who were handling the paddles bent to their work with an eagerness which showed that they were animated by something besides a desire to render assistance to the distressed vessel; that the others brandished their weapons about their heads in the most threatening manner; and, had the wind been blowing from them toward himself, he would have heard yells such as he had never heard before, not even when the Indians attacked the wagon-train to which he once belonged. He went to the gun, which was quietly stripped and cast loose. A cartridge with a shrapnel attached was driven home, and the nearest of the approaching canoes was covered by the weapon.