Half-Pikes and Machetes
The Spaniards had by this time been buried. The two maroons were still
hacking at the trees. Nothing had been reported by the man on the
look-out. Glancing at the sun, Dennis guessed that it was still two or
three hours from setting. But for interruptions there would be ample
time to develop his plan.
"Come beneath the shade," he said to Turnpenny. "There is much to be
said and done. If perchance a man lands from the ship, we must take
him prisoner. If several come, we must fight them at the gully. If
they lie secure, and we are undisturbed, we shall capture their vessel
this night."
"I believe it, sir, partly; I'd believe it more firm if I understood."
"Give me your judgement on my plan. At sunset we will haul some logs
down to the shore and push off in the boat, as if we were the Spaniards
with their slaves. You and I will rig ourselves in the doublets and
hose of the two yonder; it will go hard with us if, in the dark, we do
not mislead the Spaniards into security. We will mount into the
vessel, and if luck favour us we shall be masters of the craft before
the Spaniards have awakened to the danger."
"A noble plan, but fearsome," said Turnpenny, shaking his head. "We
shall be two short, sir. We rig up as Spaniards, you and me; granted;
but the knaves on deck will see two Spaniards instead of three, and
they will want to know what has become of Haymoss Turnpenny."
"We will take our prisoner. Then they will see three Spaniards, and if
they then miss Amos Turnpenny, let them suppose that the sailor man has
turned troublesome, and been left on the island, to bring him to a
reasonable humility."
"Ay, sure, that unties the knot. But I would not give a groat for my
chance of seeing Plimworth Sound again if the knaves spy the head of
Haymoss sticking out o' the Spanish doublet. The captain, he be a man
of desperate fight; no miserable dumbledore is he; 'tis a word and a
blow with him; I've seed him kill a man of his own breed for no more
than a wry word."
"We must trust to our disguise, and the dark."
"But the maroons, sir; they'll be of no use 'ithout weapons, and if
they climb aboard with naked steel in their hands, 'tis all over with
us."
"You and I will mount first."
"That would put the knaves on guard at once. 'Tis always us poor
slaves that come over side last into the boat and go first out of it,
so as never to give us no chance of making off. They need not be
afeard; whither could poor miserable wretches escape away? But there
it is."
"Well, Amos, we must accept the wonted course, though I would fain go
first, with you at my elbow."
"It is my very own thought, sir. No white man can trust a black un in
the deadly breach. But be jowned if I see any ways o' they maroons
getting aboard with arms in their hands."
"Nor I. Mayhap an idea will enter our conceits anon."
"My heart! There be another thing I had clean forgot. We have ta'en
their irons off."
"We must put them on again. We will not fail for the sake of a clank."
"Ay, but there's the rub, sir. The maroons will show fight if we
attempt that same. Poor souls! Having no language and no intellecks
to speak of, they'll not understand the main of our intent. They will
suppose 'tis but a change of masters, and I fear me my few words o'
Spanish will not suffice to set their minds at ease."
"You made them understand you a while ago; you must try again. But a
word more. I judge the sun is grown far on the west; 'twill soon be
time to put our fortunes to the hazard. And, lest our dallying here
waken the suspicions of the Spaniards, let us don these articles of
apparel e'en now, and fix on the irons, and then go down to the shore,
the maroons hauling the stripped logs thitherwards. The ropes are
handy here."
"What, sir, haul logs in the very sight of the knaves?"
"Ay, do we not wish to deceive them? If they see two Spaniards
marshalling the black men, cracking their whips, moreover, will they
not believe 'tis their comrades, bent on finishing the work this night?
'Tis growing towards dusk; the vessel lies out too far for them to mark
our lineaments; 'twill lull them into a fool's security."
"And so it will. I will presently go speak to the maroons with my
tongue, and, seeing that the poor mortals lack understanding, with my
fingers and my eyes and my ten toes if the case do require it."
Dennis watched the sailor somewhat anxiously. It would be a stroke of
rank ill-fortune if they refused to have their manacles replaced.
Everything depended on their docility. To his joy, after some minutes
of gesticulation, Turnpenny came back, his broad face beaming with
conscious self-esteem.
"Be jowned if I haven't done it easy!" he said. "I spoke 'em plain,
and to make all clear, I put my two hands together, with one finger
pointing aloft: that stood for yonder vessel. Then I pointed to this
doublet, and to yours, and set my face to a most wondrous frown, by the
which they understood that you and me pass for Spaniards. A firk with
my cutlass did signify our warlike intent, a thrust of my arms forth
and back pictured the sweep of oars; and, to make an end o't, they
understand our fixed purpose and are keen set to lend us their aid."
"Admirably contrived!" said Dennis. "Now, while I bring the Spaniard
to bear us company, do you replace the irons and fasten ropes about the
logs. Darkness will steal upon us unawares and prevent the first part
of our contriving."
As Dennis returned to the gully to fetch the Spaniard, he saw that
Mirandola was keeping pace with him through the trees. Since the event
of the morning the monkey had held himself aloof, as if scared by the
presence of so many strange men. Dennis halted and called to him, but
the animal blinked and made no movement to descend.
"Ah, Mirandola," said Dennis, as he walked on, "even the wisest of us
have our failings. Jealousy, my friend, is a canker. I love thee none
the less because I have a new friend. Will you not believe it? Is
there not room for both--Turnpenny and Mirandola? If we succeed in
this enterprise, you and Amos must be made at one."
Some little while later, in the growing dusk, the four maroons were
hauling a heavy log out from the undergrowth that fringed the sea.
Dennis and Turnpenny urged them with rough cries and persistent
cracking of their whips. As soon as they came within view of the
vessel the ropes were cast off, and they all made their way back. When
they returned with a second log, there came a faint hail from the
vessel.
"Ay, ay, 'od rot you!" shouted Turnpenny indistinctly in response,
knowing that at the distance his voice could not be recognized.
"Belike 'tis a call to us to embark, sir," he said to Dennis. "Mark
you, they called us; no man dare say they did not call us; and if they
do not like us when we appear, 'tis not because we are not proper men."
The logs were laid alongside of those brought down the previous day;
then the men released the boat's moorings, and hauled her off the shoal
where she lay into water deep enough to float her. By this time it was
almost dark, and the number of men who clambered into the boat could
not easily be counted on board the vessel, nor would it be noticed that
the maroons hoisted each a large bundle. At the last moment Dennis had
decided not to encumber the boat with the captive Spaniard. He had
thought of using the man to reply in Spanish to any hail from the
vessel during the passage from the shore; but this might be attended
with danger if the Spaniard should have courage enough to risk the
inevitable penalty should he raise his voice to warn his comrades.
Accordingly he was left on shore, gagged and bound, in a spot where he
might easily be discovered by the Spaniards next day if the enterprise
failed. There were no wild beasts to molest him, and the place chosen
was remote from the haunts of the boa constrictor.
The maroons pulled steadily towards the silent vessel, lying low in the
water some two hundred yards off shore. Already a lamp had been lit
aboard. Every member of the little party in the boat was tense with
anticipation. Not a word was spoken. The silence would cause no
wonderment among the Spaniards on the vessel; a party of free negroes
might have filled the air with their babblement; but the maroons
partook of the reserve of the Indian race, and, living, as they did, in
a state of deadly feud with the Spaniards, they nourished a deep silent
longing for vengeance in their hearts. Besides, these men were cowed
slaves, and, after the hard day's toil they were supposed to have
undergone, no one would have expected them to be talkative or merry.
Stroke by stroke the boat drew nearer to the ship. At length a voice
hailed it, and a flare was kindled in the waist of the vessel for its
guidance.
"Why do you return so late?" came the question in Spanish.
Turnpenny answered in passable Spanish, but in a muffled tone--
"Wait till we come aboard."
A few seconds later the boat came beneath the vessel's side and was
made fast. The biggest of the maroons--he who had flung his axe at the
Spaniard--got up and clambered aboard. On his back he bore a huge load
of bananas. Close to his clanking heels swarmed a second man; before
the first was well over the bulwarks a third was beginning the ascent,
each carrying a similar bundle. The fourth man had but just set his
foot on the rope ladder that hung over the side when there came to the
ears of Dennis and the sailor, nervously awaiting their turn, the sound
of altercation above. One of the Spaniards had bestowed a kick upon
the foremost of the slaves, and, laughing loud, grabbed at the load of
fruit upon his back. The maroon, instead of dropping his burden and
cowering away, as was the wont of slaves, held firmly to it, and
stepped back to avoid the Spaniard's clutch.
"You hound!" cried the man, with an oath, and snatched a knife from his
belt.
Then, to his utter amazement, the maroon let his load fall indeed,
contriving as he did so to rip out of it a shortened half-pike which
was cunningly concealed there. The light of the torch fell on the
naked steel. With a loud cry of rage the Spaniards who had been
lolling on the vessel's side sprang towards the slave, cursing his
audacity, shouting to their supposed comrades in the boat below to ask
the meaning of this unheard-of act of mutiny. But he stood his ground,
glaring upon them, holding his weapon to ward them off. And now at his
side his three fellow-slaves were ranged, their bundles lying at their
feet, glistening half-pikes in their hands. Yelling with fury the
Spaniards, armed at the moment only with their knives, pressed forward
to teach these mutineers a lesson. What access of madness had seized
them? Where was the abject look of terror with which they usually
shrank from their masters? What could the men in charge have been
about? The Spaniards rushed to the fray with the violence of wrath and
outraged bewilderment.
At this first moment the fight was not unequal. The six Spaniards who
had been on deck found that with their knives they could not come to
close quarters with the four stalwart maroons wielding half-pikes. The
latter, moreover, had kicked off the fetters loosely set about their
ankles, and moved with freedom. And while the Spaniards were shouting
for their comrades in the cabin and, as they supposed, in the boat
below to come to their aid, the numbers of the mutineers were suddenly
augmented. At the first sound of the scuffle, Dennis and Turnpenny,
each armed with a cutlass, had sprung on to the ship, the former by the
ladder behind the last maroon, the latter, with a sailor's agility,
leaping up to the gunwale and hauling himself over. When they reached
the deck they found the Spaniards dancing round the little group of
slaves, who were keeping them at bay with valorous lunges of their
weapons.
No sooner had the two Englishmen joined the combatants than they found
that they had now the whole ship's company to reckon with. A huge
Spaniard rushed from the main cabin behind the maroon, a machete in one
hand, a pistol in the other. There was a flash, a sharp barking sound;
one of the slaves staggered and fell. Other Spaniards came headlong
out, in their haste not pausing to bring fire-arms. From the
forecastle ran one of the sick maroons. The instant his eyes took in
the scene, he snatched up a belaying pin from the deck and, weak as he
was, threw himself into the melee. Now had come the chance for which
he had so long hungered, and his black blood seethed as he rushed to
pay off old scores.
There was hot work then amidships that narrow vessel. Cutlass and pike
were matched, not for the first time, against the long Spanish knife.
Under the disadvantage of surprise the Spaniards, though they
outnumbered their assailants, were not so effectively armed for the
fray. The maroons laid about them doughtily; they knew how terrible a
weapon was the knife at close quarters, and their whole purpose was to
hold their masters off and cripple them if they could.
The big Spaniard who had rushed first from the cabin and fired at the
maroon found himself immediately afterwards engaged with a lithe young
man who, though clad in a Spanish doublet, was certainly not a
fellow-countryman of his. Instinctively, as it seemed, captain singled
out captain. Dennis made a vigorous cut at him, but the blade was
fouled by the shrouds above his head, and the blow, losing half its
force, was easily warded off by the Spaniard's machete. He sprang
back; if his opponent had been a little nimbler Dennis would have been
at his mercy; but the Spaniard was gross with idleness and good living;
heavy of movement he failed to seize his advantage, though in the lunge
his knife cut the lad's doublet, and gashed his sword arm in the
recovery.
[Illustration: "Captain singled out Captain."]
Dennis was scarcely conscious of his wound. At this fierce moment his
practice on the deck of the _Maid Marian_ served him well. To attempt
a second cut would have been to give another opening. He shortened his
arm and gave point. The Spaniard was no tyro. With a turn of the
wrist he parried the thrust, which was aimed low, but could not prevent
the blade from entering his shoulder. He staggered and reeled back
towards the doorway of the cabin, and the two men immediately behind
him rushed into the fight. Turnpenny meanwhile had been engaged in a
similar duel, and by the sheer force of his bulk had borne his opponent
to the deck. Side by side Dennis and he faced their new assailants.
One of these, a long sinewy fellow, had an amazing dexterity with his
knife, and a most perplexing nimbleness of movement. Dennis kept him
at bay only by the length of his cutlass. For a few moments there was
brisk work around the mast. Making a sweeping cut, Dennis somewhat
overreached himself, and it would have gone ill with him had not
Turnpenny, who had run a second man through, perceived his danger in
the nick of time. Springing forward, he pierced the fellow to the
heart.
Three of the Spaniards had now fallen. The rest, who had barely held
their own against the maroons, were stricken with fear when they saw
their comrades' fate. Two of them sprang overboard; the remaining
four, finding the three maroons now reinforced by the Englishmen,
rushed back after their captain into the cabin, and, before they could
be overtaken, slammed-to the door and shot the bolt. Dennis snatched
up a belaying pin and brought it with all his force against the door,
but made no impression on its stout timbers. There was a roar and a
flash close to his ear; he felt his cheek singed; one of the Spaniards
had fired through a loophole in the cabin wall. The moment after,
there was another flash from a loophole on the other side, and one of
the maroons uttered a cry of pain. In the open waist of the vessel the
little party had no protection from musket fire; the loopholes had
doubtless been pierced against the contingency of such an assault as
this, and nothing but the darkness could prevent the Spaniards in the
cabin from bringing down a man at every discharge. They had the whole
armoury of the ship to draw upon; there was no means of checking their
fire; and realizing the situation Dennis called on Turnpenny and the
rest to seek cover. Some found shelter just forward of the mainmast;
two swarmed on to the poop, and, climbing to the edge of its break,
held themselves ready with their half-pikes to attack any one
attempting a sortie from the cabin. Dennis and the sailor, picking up
the calivers they had laid down when they boarded the vessel, dropped
down behind a coil of rope towards the forecastle.
"My heart!" exclaimed Turnpenny, as he primed his weapon. "'Twas brisk
work, and not the end neither."
"They are run to earth, Amos, 'tis true, got away like foxes. Our case
is not too good. We are baulked, my friend."
"Ay, sir. With all the victuals and munitions abaft, the knaves have
the better of us. We cannot get at them; say we made endeavour to
scuttle the ship, they could shoot us afore we got away."
"And there are sick maroons in the forecastle, I bethink me you said.
I would fain save them alive. We must do something to bring the knaves
to an engagement. There are five of them now. With time to recover
themselves somewhat, and fortify themselves with food, they can if it
so please them lie low till morning light, then sally out upon us with
arms loaded, several pistols apiece, and we, fasting, would be of a
surety overmatched."
"Ay, and we cannot feed ourselves even on that noble store of bananas,
for they lie athwart the very course of bullets from the cabin."
"Could we smoke them out? Could we blow the door in?"
"With a sufficiency of powder, but the magazine is beneath the cabin."
"Is there none elsewhere?"
"Why, now I do mind me, the boatswain hath a vast relish for wild fowl,
and is never loath to go a-shooting on shore. 'Tis like he hath a
little secret store."
"Then I will go rummage the forecastle. Do you bide here, Amos, and
keep ward over my caliver until I return."
When the party boarded the vessel, there had been a dim light in the
forecastle. It was now extinguished. Dennis went in through the open
entrance; then, feeling safe from the enemy's bullets, he took a candle
from his pouch and having lit it, held it above his head. He shrank
back, startled for the moment. The pale flame had fallen full on the
face of a big negro, crouching in the corner of an upper bunk. A
second glance assured him that he had nothing to fear; the black face
was sickly with terror. In a flash Dennis remembered the negro cook of
whom Amos had spoken. As cook, being allowed a certain freedom of
movement about the vessel, the man would probably know where the
boatswain kept his powder, and search might be unnecessary. Dennis
called to him; the negro only showed more of the whites of his eyes.
Dennis beckoned him with his finger; he only cowered and groaned.
"'Tis to be main force then, you white-livered rascal!" cried Dennis,
and, setting down his candle, caught the man by his waist-band and
began to haul his oily mass out of the bunk. "You gibber more
brutishly than Mirandola; come, or I'll shake your fat bulk to a jelly."
Not without labour he lugged the negro forth, and dragged him aft to
the place where Amos was crouching.
"Here's a fat knave that's like to dissolve with fright," he said. "I
do not understand his monkey-talk; speak to him, Amos. Ask of him what
we need to know, and tell him we intend him no harm, and will certainly
not expect such a craven to fight."
"Ay, sir, 'tis Baltizar the cook, and a very whey-blooded knave. I'll
ferret it out of him, trust me."
He took some minutes in his scraps of Spanish to make the man
understand what was required of him. When he understood, the negro
became very voluble. He said that the boatswain did indeed keep a
small jar of powder in his sea-chest, but there was a much larger
quantity concealed among the ship's stores under hatches. It had been
placed there by the mate--"the long knave I spitted," Amos
explained--who was accustomed to do a little private trading with the
natives of the mainland, and had destined the powder as a bribe for
certain pearl-fishers of the coast.
"Is it in the fore-peak?" asked Dennis, remembering where he had found
powder on the _Maid Marian_.
"No, worse luck!" replied Turnpenny, after questioning the man. "'Tis
in the lazaretto, and the hatchway being but a few feet from the break
of the poop, we cannot come at it 'ithout running the hazard of a shot
from the cabin."
"'Tis darker now; could I not risk the deed?"
"The knaves med not see you, 'tis true; but you could not knock out the
battens 'ithout raising a din, and they would know your whereabouts,
and not all on 'em would miss your carcase. Be jowned if I'd like to
see 'ee make the venture."
Releasing the negro, Dennis crouched again behind the coil of rope.
"We must find a way to get that powder," he said. "A mariner like you,
Amos, ought to be fertile in devices. Come, set your brains on the
rack."
"I be afeard they be soft wi' four years' misery, but I'll rouse 'em.
If I had but the second sight, now, like the old witch as lived within
a cable-length o' my grandad's hut on the moors!"
But Amos had done his brains an injustice. He had not pondered many
minutes before he exclaimed--
"My heart! We have them on the hip! We'll e'en shin up the shrouds
and lower the mainsail. She's furled on the yards, but we can unreeve
her 'ithout noise, and when she's down, she'll be a barricade betwixt
the mainmast and the break o' the poop, and not a knave of them can see
what is toward in the waist."
Dennis applauded the notion, and the two instantly set about their
task. Crawling to the starboard side, they crept along by the rope
netting that replaced in the waist the wooden bulwarks which bounded
the decks, and reached the shrouds of the mainmast unperceived by the
enemy in the cabin. To swarm up was the work of a few moments to
Turnpenny, and Dennis was little less expert, having practised himself
on the _Maid Marian_ in many details of the mariners' duties. Gaining
the yards, they cast off the robands, made the buntlines fast, then,
easing the earings, lowered away by the buntlines and the clew-garnets.
Scarcely five minutes after they had left the shelter of the rope-coil,
a wall of canvas shut the waist from the view of the Spaniards.
They had barely finished their task when two musket-shots rang out, and
two holes were cut in the sail. Clearly the enemy was on the alert.
There was no time to be lost. Turnpenny knocked out the battens as
quickly as possible, and lifting the hatch, disclosed a small ladder
leading down into the lazaretto.
"I will go down," said Dennis, "being of less bulk than you, Amos."
He climbed nimbly down, struck a light, and after a little search
discovered a jar of powder among a miscellaneous collection of ship's
stores. Hoisting the jar up, he gave it into the hands of Turnpenny,
climbed up again, and returned with the sailor to the coil of rope, to
be out of harm's way while they went on with their preparations.
"If we fire the whole jar we shall of a surety sink the ship," said
Dennis; "and that I am loath to do. We must needs make a petard; but
how?"
"That cook knave shall find us a tin vessel, or I'll firk him," said
Turnpenny.
He went into the forecastle. Dennis heard a brisk exchange of bad
Spanish; then the sailor returned, with a small canister out of which
he poured a heap of peppercorns.
"Most admirable!" said Dennis, who had meanwhile forced off the top of
the jar. Making a hole in the rim of the canister near the lid, he
filled the vessel with powder and firmly closed it.
"There's our petard, Amos. Now to place it."
"That be my job, sir."
"No, no, we go shares in this work. 'Twas your idea to lower the sail.
I carry less flesh than you, and therefore can go more lightly."
"But mayhap I be surer footed on the plank, being a mariner of forty
year."
"I doubt it not, yet the deed shall be mine."
Carrying the canister, and in the pouch slung at his neck a handful of
powder for the train, he crept to the side of the vessel, ran lightly
along the gangway by the rope netting, and lifting a corner of the
sail, stood between it and the wall of the cabin. Then he dropped on
hands and knees, and wormed his way forward until he touched the wall,
following it along until he reached the door. Being beneath the line
of loopholes, he was in no danger so long as he moved quietly; but at
the slightest sound the enemy would fling open the door and give him
his quietus before help could reach him from beyond the barricade. He
might have felt still more confident had he known that Turnpenny had
crept along after him, and was waiting at the corner of the sail, ready
to spring to his aid in case of need.
Feeling with his hand for the middle panel of the door, Dennis laid the
canister down close against it. To ensure that the hole he had made in
it, to connect with the train of powder, should rest upon the planks
and not turn over, he pressed a slight dent in the rim. Then he crept
backwards the way he had come, laying close to the cabin wall a train
of powder from his pouch, not stinting the quantity, so that there
might be no gaps in the line. He drew a breath of relief when he came
once more to the further side of the canvas and stood erect. There was
not a gust of air stirring; the confined space between the sail and the
cabin was hot and stuffy; and what with holding his breath during the
minutes his task had occupied, and the strain upon his nerves, he had
felt almost suffocated.
He said not a word when he found Turnpenny awaiting him, but placed his
finger on his lips and motioned the man to return. The charge having
been laid in safety, it remained to arrange a course of action when the
door should be blown in. While the sail was still lowered it would be
impossible to dash forward into the cabin. The screen was no longer
required now that there was no further need for the open hatchway; to
remove it might indeed put the enemy on their guard, but they could not
know what to expect, and there would be no time after the explosion to
hoist the sail, even if it were possible to spare men for the task. So
Turnpenny volunteered to replace the hatch and hoist and bend the sail,
work which he would do more quickly and expertly than Dennis. It was
then necessary to communicate with the maroons, for to attack the cabin
in less than full strength, against superior weapons, would be to court
disaster. A loud whisper reached the men who had taken shelter behind
some tackle forward of the mainmast, and brought them crawling to their
leaders. It was not so easy to attract the attention of the two men
who had shinned up the poop, and to whom, though they had probably seen
Dennis as he crawled beneath the sail, he had not dared to make a sign.
The difficulty was removed by a word from Turnpenny to one of the
maroons. The man made a strange clicking in his throat, and within a
couple of minutes his comrades had crept noiselessly along the port
side of the vessel, and the party was complete.
With great solemnity and many repetitions the sailor exhausted his
small stock of Spanish in explaining what was required of them. They
were all to charge together the instant after the petard had done its
work. If the force of the explosion proved sufficient to blow in the
door, they would dash through into the cabin and engage the enemy hand
to hand. If, on the other hand, the door should be only partially
shattered--as Turnpenny pointed out, there was no calculating on the
precise effect of a charge of gunpowder--two men were to break it in
with a short spar unrigged for a battering ram. Dennis counted on
gaining a few moments while the Spaniards recovered from the surprise
and shock of the explosion. In that brief interval it might be
possible for him and Turnpenny to find the loopholes in the cabin wall
and thrust the muzzles of their calivers through. By the time they had
fired the door would be burst in, and then it would be a fight to the
death.
If the occupants of the cabin had felt any wonder or misgiving at the
manipulation of the sail, there was nothing during the pause to give
them either explanation or reassurance. They might have suspected that
the intention of lowering the sail was to screen an approach to the
hatchway; but as, according to Baltizar the cook, the jar of powder had
been appropriated by the mate secretly, and he was now dead, it would
never have occurred to them that their enemy would seek there anything
but food. Otherwise they would assuredly have made some effort, beyond
the firing of two random shots, to avert their fate.
There was absolute silence when Turnpenny had concluded his whispered
instructions to the maroons. The vessel rocked gently, almost
imperceptibly; the tide was on the turn. Dennis crept once more to the
gangway by the rope netting, stole along on bare feet, and stooped with
a beating heart to apply the match which Turnpenny had made for him.
It had an inch or two to burn before it reached the train of powder;
and he stood back against the side, out of danger from the explosion,
ready to rush across to the nearest loophole when the moment came.
Suddenly a line of flame shot like a lightning flash across the planks.
In an instant there was a deafening crash, and though each man of the
attacking party knew what was coming, and was beyond reach of actual
harm, they were all somewhat dazed by the explosion. But it was only
for the fraction of a second. Then Dennis and Turnpenny sprang
forward, one on each side of the cabin entrance, towards the loopholes
whose position they had marked in the previous fight. For a few
moments they were baffled by the blinding smoke, but finding the holes
almost simultaneously, they thrust in the muzzles of their weapons, and
fired at random into the cabin. A muffled cry from within announced
that one or other of the shots had taken effect, but the next instant
there was a roar as the Spaniards discharged their muskets together at
the gaps rent in the door by the explosion. At the time the Englishmen
knew not whether any man was hit, for, dropping their calivers, they
seized their cutlasses, and, just as the spar carried by two lusty
maroons levelled the shattered door, they dashed at the opening.
The light from a horn lantern hanging in its gimbals struggled with the
smoke that filled the room. Dennis stumbled over a body that lay
across the entrance. He had barely recovered his footing when he was
amazed to hear a frenzied shriek from the further end of the cabin, and
two men rushed forward with uplifted hands, shouting again and again a
single word which, being Spanish, he did not understand.
"My heart! they cry for quarter!" cried Turnpenny, as much amazed as
Dennis.
One of the maroons who had carried the spar, either not understanding
or not heeding the wild despairing cry, thrust at the foremost Spaniard
with a half-pike, and the wretch fell forward, hurling Dennis to the
floor and doubly blocking the entrance. Dennis threw the man off and
scrambled to his feet; but before he could take a step forward there
was a second explosion, louder and more shattering than the first, and
when he recovered his dazed senses he found himself lying at the fore
end of the waist, twenty feet away from the cabin.