Archie contemplated Captain Hall where he stood in a little group of men. He looked even less of a personage in the morning light than he had done in the cabin, and the young man suspected that he had gone to bed in his clothes. This reminded him that he himself was unwashed, unshaven, and very hungry. Whatsoever the issue of the attack might be, there was no use in remaining starved and dirty, and he determined to go below to forage and to find some means of washing. There was no one to gainsay him at this time of stress, and he walked into Hall’s cabin reflecting that he might safely steal anything he could carry from the ship, if he were so minded, and slip overboard across the narrow arm to the bank with nothing worse than a wetting.
Whilst he was attending to his own necessities, the booming went on overhead, and at last a shout from above sent him racing up from the welcome food he had contrived to secure. The wall on Inchbrayock was shattered in two or three places and the unseen gun was silent. The cannonade from Dial Hill had stopped, but a train of figures was hurrying across from the northern shore of the island, taking shelter among the bushes and stones. A boat was being lowered from the Venture, for the tide, now sweeping in, had covered the mud, making a landing possible. Men were crowding into her, and as Flemington got round to his former place of observation she was being pushed off.
Hall, who was standing alone, caught sight of him and came towards him; his face looked swollen and puffy, and his eyes were bloodshot.
“We have been attacked,” he began—“attacked most unexpectedly!”
“I had the honour to report that possibility to you last night, sir,” replied Flemington, with a trifle of insolence in his manner.
An angry look shot out of Hall’s rabbit eyes. “What could you possibly have known about such a thing?” he cried. “What reason had you for making such a statement?”
“I had a great many,” said Archie, “but you informed me that you had no leisure to listen to any of them until this morning. Perhaps you are at leisure now?”
“You are a damned impudent scoundrel!” cried the other, noticing Flemington’s expression, which amply justified these words, “but you had better take care! There is nothing to prevent me from putting you under arrest.”
“Nothing but the orders I carry in my pocket,” replied Archie. “They are likely enough to deter you.”
The other opened his mouth to speak, but before he could do so a shot crashed into the fore part of the ship, and a hail of bullets ripped out from the thicket on the island; the boat, which was half-way between the Venture and Inchbrayock, spun round, and two of the rowers fell forward over their oars. Hall left Archie standing where he was.