“The natives of course know by this time that we are coming, and to show them that we are prepared to take care of ourselves, wouldn’t it be a good plan to kick up a little dust out there with a thirty-pound shot?”
“I think it would,” answered Frank. “As our vessel is small, they will know that we have a small crew, and the noise of a shell or two whistling through the trees may save us from an attack if we lie at anchor all night.”
Since leaving Bellville the crew had been drilled in the use of small arms and in handling the big guns almost as regularly as though the Stranger had been a little man-of-war; but none of the pieces had ever spoken yet, and the Club were delighted with the prospect of hearing Long Tom’s voice. The crew were at once piped to quarters, the shifting men took their place about the thirty-pounder (the vessel’s company was too small to allow of a full crew for each of the three guns), and in response to the old familiar order, “Cast loose and provide,” which they had all heard many a time when it meant something besides shelling an unoccupied piece of woods, quickly stripped off the canvas covering and made the piece ready for business. A cartridge was driven home, a shell placed on top of it, the gun was trained in accordance with Frank’s desires, the second captain lowered the breech a little, the first captain raised his hand, and the crew stood back out of the way.
“Fire!” said Frank.
The first captain pulled the lock-string, and the little vessel trembled all over as Long Tom belched forth its contents. Then something happened that the Club had not looked for. As the smoke arose from the mouth of the cannon, a crowd of natives, who had been lying concealed behind the rocks on the beach, jumped to their feet and ran with all haste into the woods. The shell ploughed through the trees above their heads, and exploding, sent up a cloud of white smoke to mark the spot.
“That was pretty close to some of them, Frank,” said Uncle Dick.
“It is no matter if it hurt some of them,” said Frank, in reply. “They had an ambush ready for us, didn’t they? Suppose we had been out of water, and had sent a boat’s-crew ashore after some? There wouldn’t a man of them have come back to us.”
Three more shells followed the first, being thrown toward other points on the island, to show the treacherous inhabitants that the schooner’s company could reach a good portion of their territory if they felt so disposed, and then the cannon was taken in charge by the quarter-gunner, who, after rubbing it inside and out until it shone like a mirror, put on its canvas covering again. A few minutes afterward, the Stranger dropped anchor in the bay, near the spot where the Tycoon had been moored when attacked by the natives.
“This is the place,” said Frank, to the boys who gathered around to hear once more the story of the thrilling scenes that had been enacted in that lonely spot but a few short weeks before. “Here is where the ship was anchored, and that creek over there was the ambush from which the canoes came. The boats’ crews who went ashore after water were attacked on that white beach you see off the port bow, and there was where we landed when we went out to burn the village, which was located about three-quarters of a mile from the beach.”
The boys could understand Frank’s description of the fight now that they saw before them the very spot in which it had taken place. They listened to the story as attentively as though they had never heard it before, and ran down to supper telling one another that they would see and learn more in the morning when they went ashore after terrapins. “And I hope that then the natives will try and see what we are made of,” said Eugene to Archie, in a confidential whisper. “My new Henry rifle that I bought in ’Frisco to replace the one Jack stole from me will rust for want of use if it lies in its case much longer.”