The Mysterious Island (58 page)

"Have we any chance of escape, captain?" asked the sailor.

"Yes, Pencroft."

"Hum! six against fifty!"

"Yes! six! without counting—"

"Who?" asked Pencroft.

Cyrus did not reply, but pointed upwards.

The night passed without incident. The colonists were on the qui vive,
and did not leave their post at the Chimneys. The pirates, on their
side, did not appear to have made any attempt to land. Since the last
shots fired at Ayrton not a report, not even a sound, had betrayed the
presence of the brig in the neighborhood of the island. It might have
been fancied that she had weighed anchor, thinking that she had to deal
with her match, and had left the coast.

But it was no such thing, and when day began to dawn the settlers could
see a confused mass through the morning mist. It was the "Speedy."

"These, my friends," said the engineer, "are the arrangements which
appear to me best to make before the fog completely clears away. It
hides us from the eyes of the pirates, and we can act without attracting
their attention. The most important thing is, that the convicts
should believe that the inhabitants of the island are numerous, and
consequently capable of resisting them. I therefore propose that we
divide into three parties. The first of which shall be posted at the
Chimneys, the second at the mouth of the Mercy. As to the third, I think
it would be best to place it on the islet, so as to prevent, or at all
events delay, any attempt at landing. We have the use of two rifles and
four muskets. Each of us will be armed, and, as we are amply provided
with powder and shot, we need not spare our fire. We have nothing to
fear from the muskets nor even from the guns of the brig. What can they
do against these rocks? And, as we shall not fire from the windows of
Granite House, the pirates will not think of causing irreparable damage
by throwing shell against it. What is to be feared is, the necessity of
meeting hand-to-hand, since the convicts have numbers on their side. We
must therefore try to prevent them from landing, but without discovering
ourselves. Therefore, do not economize the ammunition. Fire often, but
with a sure aim. We have each eight or ten enemies to kill, and they
must be killed!"

Cyrus Harding had clearly represented their situation, although he spoke
in the calmest voice, as if it was a question of directing a piece
of work and not ordering a battle. His companions approved these
arrangements without even uttering a word. There was nothing more to be
done but for each to take his place before the fog should be completely
dissipated. Neb and Pencroft immediately ascended to Granite House and
brought back a sufficient quantity of ammunition. Gideon Spilett and
Ayrton, both very good marksmen, were armed with the two rifles,
which carried nearly a mile. The four other muskets were divided among
Harding, Neb, Pencroft, and Herbert.

The posts were arranged in the following manner:—

Cyrus Harding and Herbert remained in ambush at the Chimneys, thus
commanding the shore to the foot of Granite House.

Gideon Spilett and Neb crouched among the rocks at the mouth of the
Mercy, from which the drawbridges had been raised, so as to prevent any
one from crossing in a boat or landing on the opposite shore.

As to Ayrton and Pencroft, they shoved off in the boat, and prepared to
cross the channel and to take up two separate stations on the islet.
In this way, shots being fired from four different points at once,
the convicts would be led to believe that the island was both largely
peopled and strongly defended.

In the event of a landing being effected without their having been able
to prevent it, and also if they saw that they were on the point of being
cut off by the brig's boat, Ayrton and Pencroft were to return in their
boat to the shore and proceed towards the threatened spot.

Before starting to occupy their posts, the colonists for the last time
wrung each other's hands.

Pencroft succeeded in controlling himself sufficiently to suppress his
emotion when he embraced Herbert, his boy! and then they separated.

In a few moments Harding and Herbert on one side, the reporter and Neb
on the other, had disappeared behind the rocks, and five minutes later
Ayrton and Pencroft, having without difficulty crossed the channel,
disembarked on the islet and concealed themselves in the clefts of its
eastern shore.

None of them could have been seen, for they themselves could scarcely
distinguish the brig in the fog.

It was half-past six in the morning.

Soon the fog began to clear away, and the topmasts of the brig issued
from the vapor. For some minutes great masses rolled over the surface of
the sea, then a breeze sprang up, which rapidly dispelled the mist.

The "Speedy" now appeared in full view, with a spring on her cable, her
head to the north, presenting her larboard side to the island. Just as
Harding had calculated, she was not more than a mile and a quarter from
the coast.

The sinister black flag floated from the peak.

The engineer, with his telescope, could see that the four guns on board
were pointed at the island. They were evidently ready to fire at a
moment's notice.

In the meanwhile the "Speedy" remained silent. About thirty pirates
could be seen moving on the deck. A few more on the poop; two others
posted in the shrouds, and armed with spyglasses, were attentively
surveying the island.

Certainly, Bob Harvey and his crew would not be able easily to give an
account of what had happened during the night on board the brig. Had
this half-naked man, who had forced the door of the powder-magazine, and
with whom they had struggled, who had six times discharged his revolver
at them, who had killed one and wounded two others, escaped their shot?
Had he been able to swim to shore? Whence did he come? What had been his
object? Had his design really been to blow up the brig, as Bob Harvey
had thought? All this must be confused enough to the convicts' minds.
But what they could no longer doubt was that the unknown island before
which the "Speedy" had cast anchor was inhabited, and that there was,
perhaps, a numerous colony ready to defend it. And yet no one was to be
seen, neither on the shore, nor on the heights. The beach appeared to be
absolutely deserted. At any rate, there was no trace of dwellings. Had
the inhabitants fled into the interior? Thus probably the pirate captain
reasoned, and doubtless, like a prudent man, he wished to reconnoiter
the locality before he allowed his men to venture there.

During an hour and a half, no indication of attack or landing could be
observed on board the brig. Evidently Bob Harvey was hesitating. Even
with his strongest telescopes he could not have perceived one of the
settlers crouched among the rocks. It was not even probable that his
attention had been awakened by the screen of green branches and creepers
hiding the windows of Granite House, and showing rather conspicuously on
the bare rock. Indeed, how could he imagine that a dwelling was hollowed
out, at that height, in the solid granite? From Claw Cape to the
Mandible Capes, in all the extent of Union Bay, there was nothing to
lead him to suppose that the island was or could be inhabited.

At eight o'clock, however, the colonists observed a movement on board
the "Speedy." A boat was lowered, and seven men jumped into her. They
were armed with muskets; one took the yoke-lines, four others the oars,
and the two others, kneeling in the bows, ready to fire, reconnoitered
the island. Their object was no doubt to make an examination but not to
land, for in the latter case they would have come in larger numbers. The
pirates from their look-out could have seen that the coast was sheltered
by an islet, separated from it by a channel half a mile in width.
However, it was soon evident to Cyrus Harding, on observing the
direction followed by the boat, that they would not attempt to penetrate
into the channel, but would land on the islet.

Pencroft and Ayrton, each hidden in a narrow cleft of the rock, saw them
coming directly towards them, and waited till they were within range.

The boat advanced with extreme caution. The oars only dipped into the
water at long intervals. It could now be seen that one of the convicts
held a lead-line in his hand, and that he wished to fathom the depth of
the channel hollowed out by the current of the Mercy. This showed that
it was Bob Harvey's intention to bring his brig as near as possible
to the coast. About thirty pirates, scattered in the rigging, followed
every movement of the boat, and took the bearings of certain landmarks
which would allow them to approach without danger. The boat was not more
than two cables-lengths off the islet when she stopped. The man at the
tiller stood up and looked for the best place at which to land.

At that moment two shots were heard. Smoke curled up from among the
rocks of the islet. The man at the helm and the man with the lead-line
fell backwards into the boat. Ayrton's and Pencroft's balls had struck
them both at the same moment.

Almost immediately a louder report was heard, a cloud of smoke issued
from the brig's side, and a ball, striking the summit of the rock which
sheltered Ayrton and Pencroft, made it fly in splinters, but the two
marksmen remained unhurt.

Horrible imprecations burst from the boat, which immediately continued
its way. The man who had been at the tiller was replaced by one of his
comrades, and the oars were rapidly plunged into the water. However,
instead of returning on board as might have been expected, the boat
coasted along the islet, so as to round its southern point. The pirates
pulled vigorously at their oars that they might get out of range of the
bullets.

They advanced to within five cables-lengths of that part of the
shore terminated by Flotsam Point, and after having rounded it in a
semicircular line, still protected by the brig's guns, they proceeded
towards the mouth of the Mercy.

Their evident intention was to penetrate into the channel, and cut off
the colonists posted on the islet, in such a way, that whatever their
number might be, being placed between the fire from the boat and the
fire from the brig, they would find themselves in a very disadvantageous
position.

A quarter of an hour passed while the boat advanced in this direction.
Absolute silence, perfect calm reigned in the air and on the water.

Pencroft and Ayrton, although they knew they ran the risk of being
cut off, had not left their post, both that they did not wish to show
themselves as yet to their assailants, and expose themselves to the
"Speedy's" guns, and that they relied on Neb and Gideon Spilett,
watching at the mouth of the river, and on Cyrus Harding and Herbert, in
ambush among the rocks at the Chimneys.

Twenty minutes after the first shots were fired, the boat was less than
two cables-lengths off the Mercy. As the tide was beginning to rise with
its accustomed violence, caused by the narrowness of the straits, the
pirates were drawn towards the river, and it was only by dint of hard
rowing that they were able to keep in the middle of the channel. But, as
they were passing within good range of the mouth of the Mercy, two balls
saluted them, and two more of their number were laid in the bottom of
the boat. Neb and Spilett had not missed their aim.

The brig immediately sent a second ball on the post betrayed by the
smoke, but without any other result than that of splintering the rock.

The boat now contained only three able men. Carried on by the current,
it shot through the channel with the rapidity of an arrow, passed before
Harding and Herbert, who, not thinking it within range, withheld their
fire, then, rounding the northern point of the islet with the two
remaining oars, they pulled towards the brig.

Hitherto the settlers had nothing to complain of. Their adversaries
had certainly had the worst of it. The latter already counted four men
seriously wounded if not dead; they, on the contrary, unwounded, had not
missed a shot. If the pirates continued to attack them in this way, if
they renewed their attempt to land by means of a boat, they could be
destroyed one by one.

It was now seen how advantageous the engineer's arrangements had
been. The pirates would think that they had to deal with numerous and
well-armed adversaries, whom they could not easily get the better of.

Half an hour passed before the boat, having to pull against the current,
could get alongside the "Speedy." Frightful cries were heard when they
returned on board with the wounded, and two or three guns were fired
with no results.

But now about a dozen other convicts, maddened with rage, and possibly
by the effect of the evening's potations, threw themselves into the
boat. A second boat was also lowered, in which eight men took their
places, and while the first pulled straight for the islet, to dislodge
the colonists from thence the second maneuvered so as to force the
entrance of the Mercy.

The situation was evidently becoming very dangerous for Pencroft and
Ayrton, and they saw that they must regain the mainland.

However, they waited till the first boat was within range, when two
well-directed balls threw its crew into disorder. Then, Pencroft and
Ayrton, abandoning their posts, under fire from the dozen muskets, ran
across the islet at full speed, jumped into their boat, crossed the
channel at the moment the second boat reached the southern end, and ran
to hide themselves in the Chimneys.

They had scarcely rejoined Cyrus Harding and Herbert, before the islet
was overrun with pirates in every direction. Almost at the same moment,
fresh reports resounded from the Mercy station, to which the second boat
was rapidly approaching. Two, out of the eight men who manned her,
were mortally wounded by Gideon Spilett and Neb, and the boat herself,
carried irresistibly onto the reefs, was stove in at the mouth of the
Mercy. But the six survivors, holding their muskets above their heads to
preserve them from contact with the water, managed to land on the right
bank of the river. Then, finding they were exposed to the fire of the
ambush there, they fled in the direction of Flotsam Point, out of range
of the balls.