It was fully a quarter of an hour before the last wounded man left the building which had been converted into a temporary hospital, and then, foot by foot, the little party of artillerists literally fought their way backward, while the rapid discharge of fire-arms from those in advance told that the apes had already circled around the retreating army. As a cannon was discharged it would be drawn twenty or thirty paces to the rear, the men reloading even while it was moving, and the showers of stones came thicker and more frequent.
Before half the necessary distance was traversed Philip’s left shoulder had been so severely cut with a fragment of rock as to render the arm useless, while blood streamed down the captain’s face from many minor wounds. Hardly a man among those who were protecting the rear was uninjured, and just when Philip began to fear that what had commenced as an orderly march would end in a complete rout, reinforcements from the ships arrived.
This party of thirty fresh men, each with a plentiful supply of ammunition, checked the closely-pursuing apes, and it became possible to move the cannon forty or fifty yards after each discharge.
Finally, to the intense relief of all, the beach was gained, and here it was necessary to form in regular line of battle while the wounded were being conveyed to the ships in small boats.
It seemed as if the apes understood that this was their last opportunity, for they immediately redoubled their efforts. But now, however, being so near a place of safety, the men fought even more courageously than before, and huge sheets of flame burst from the weapons as the missiles went hurtling through the branches, causing great slaughter, as could be told by the shrieks of the wounded and dying animals.
Then the cannon were abandoned on the sea-shore when the boats from both vessels were drawn up ready to receive the defenders at the same moment, and, still discharging their muskets rapidly, the men were at last conveyed to a place of comparative safety.
The deck of the Reynard looked not unlike that of a line-of-battle ship after a terrific naval engagement. Hammocks were slung in every direction; improvised cots were placed fore and aft; and the surgeon, with all the women, was fully occupied in dressing the wounds until the sun once more sent down his pitiless glare over the island and the sea.
Looking shoreward, along the road Philip had caused to be made while he was king of the apes, nothing could be seen of the picturesque little village save a heap of blackened, smoking ruins. The flames had done their work thoroughly, and not a single building remained standing. That the scheme of colonizing the island must be abandoned for the time being, at least, Philip understood, since even if Goliah and his forces could have been exterminated immediately a return to the United States was necessary in order to replenish the stores, as well as to provide new buildings for the laborers.
When the wounded had been made as comfortable as was possible under the circumstances, Philip thought for the first time of the two chimpanzees, and not seeing them anywhere around, he feared, through some mischance, they had gone ashore in one of the boats, in which case their doom was certainly sealed.
In this, however, he was mistaken. Half an hour later, while assisting the crew to rig up temporary berths in the hold, he found the two animals cowering in the forward portion of the ship, behind some spare cables, and it was many moments before he could induce either to come on deck.