Marjorie Page 29

  CHAPTER XXIX

  THE ATTACK AT LAST

  In what I am going to tell there will be little of Marjorie for a while,for sorely against her will we refused to rank her as a fighting man andmade her keep within shelter, though busy in many ways making ready forthe inevitable attack.

  Nothing happened on the next day or the next to disturb our quiet andthe beauty of the weather. For all that was evident to the contrary wemight very well have been the sole inhabitants of that archipelago, thesole children of those seas, with Marjorie for our queen.

  We did not hope, however, nor indeed did we wish, that we had heard thelast of our enemies. There was a moment even when Lancelot consideredthe feasibility of our making an attack upon Early Island in the hope ofrescuing some of the captives. But the plan was only suggested to bedismissed. For every argument which told against their attempting tomake an attack upon us told with ten times greater force against ourmaking an attack upon them. They outnumbered us; they were perhapsbetter armed. The odds were too heavily against us. But our hearts burntwithin us at the thought of the captives.

  We had evidently come in for one of those spells of fine weather whichin those regions so often follow upon such a storm as had proved theundoing of the Royal Christopher. If the conditions had been differentour lives would have been sufficiently enviable. Fair Island deservesits name; we had summer, food and water; so far as material comfortwent, all was well with us.

  But mere material comfort could not cheer us much. We were in perilourselves; we were yet more concerned for the peril of Captain Amber, ofwhose fortunes and whose whereabouts we knew absolutely nothing. If hefailed to meet a ship he was to return to Early Island. What might notbe his fate? To diminish in some degree the chance of this catastrophe,we resolved to erect some signal on the highest point of Fair Island, inthe hope that it would have the result of attracting his attention andleading him to suppose that the whole of the ship's company were settleddown there.

  There was no difficulty in the making of such a signal. We had a flagwith us in the boat, and all that it was necessary to do was to fix itto the summit of one of the tall trees that crowned the hill whichsprang from the centre of Fair Island. In a few hours the flag wasflying gallantly enough from its primitive flag-staff, a sufficientlyconspicuous object even with a gentle breeze to serve, as we hoped, ourturn.

  In the two days that followed upon the visit of the pirates we were busyvictualling the stockade and supplying it with water, looking to ourarms and ammunition, and, which was of first importance, in building astrong fence, loopholed like the stockade. This fence or wall led downto where our boat lay, and enabled us to protect it from any attempt ofthe pirates to carry it off or to destroy it. In work of this kind theeight-and-forty hours passed away as swiftly as if they had been but somany minutes.

  On the afternoon of the third day all our preparations were completed,and I was convinced that within that stockade our scanty force couldkeep the pirates at bay for a month of Sundays, so long as they did notsucceed in getting sufficiently close to employ fire as a means offorcing an entrance. But though I felt cheered I noticed that there wasno corresponding cheerfulness in Lancelot's face. He never lookeddespondent, but he looked dissatisfied.

  I drew him aside and asked what troubled him.

  'The moon troubles me,' he answered.

  'The moon!' I said in astonishment.

  'Yes,' he answered, 'the moon--or rather, the absence of the moon. Lastnight was the moon's last night, and to-night we shall be in darknessafter sunset. It is under cover of that darkness that, some time oranother, to-night or another night, sooner or later, the pirates willmake an attempt to land. For you may be sure that they have notforgotten us, and that they would be glad enough to pull down yonderflag.'

  I felt in my heart that what Lancelot said was true enough, but I triedto put a bold face upon it.

  'After all,' I said, 'the darkness will be as bad for them as it is forus.'

  'No,' Lancelot said; 'they can steer well enough by the stars. If Ithought that they could get round to the back of the island and fallupon us that way, I should feel that we were in a very bad case indeed.But of that I have no fear. There is no place for landing in that part,and if there were they would find it hard enough to force their waythrough the woods. No, no; they will come as they came before.'

  I asked him what he thought was the best thing to do. He replied thatthe only thing was to keep a very sharp look-out, and to fight hard ifit came to fighting, a pithy sentence, which seemed to me to sum up thewhole art of war--at least, so far as we were concerned who dwelt onFair Island. To make assurance doubly sure, however, Lancelot did duringthe day place a man by the flag-staff, from which point, as the hill ranup into a high peak, he would be able to sweep the sea in alldirections. With regard to the night, Lancelot showed me how fortunateit was that he had brought the fireworks with us, as, at a pinch, in thedarkness, we could get a gleam of light for a minute by firing them.

  I was getting so unstrung by all these alarms and watchings that I beganto wish that the pirates would come once for all that we might have donewith them. For I had confidence in our side and the certainty of itswinning which was scarcely logical, maybe, but which, after all, I thinkis a great deal better than feeling suspicious of the strength of one'sown side or speculative as to the merits of one's own cause.

  How often afterward, in other places and amid perils as great, orindeed ten times greater, have I remembered that night with all itsagony of expectation!

  The main part of our little garrison was ensconced in the stockade andsleeping, or seeking to sleep, for every man of us knew well enough thathe needed to have all his energies when the struggle came, and that themore rest he got beforehand the better the fighting trim he would be inafterward.

  We had sentinels posted at different points along that portion of thecoast where landing was possible, and though we had been grateful to itbefore for being such an easy place to land upon, we could almost havewished in our hearts now that it had been less easy of access.

  In front of the stockade, but some considerable distance from it, and onthe sloping land that was nigh to the beach, we had thrown up a kind ofintrenchment, behind which we could kneel and fire, and under whosecover we hoped to be able to make a good account of assailants. I was onguard here at night, and I paced up and down in front of it thinking ofall the chances that had happened since I sailed in the RoyalChristopher; and I pleased myself by recalling every word that Marjoriehad said to me, or in thinking of all the words that I should like tosay to her.

  Suddenly my thoughts were brought from heaven to earth by a sound as ofa splash in the water. It might have been but a sweep of a sea-bird'swing as it stooped and wheeled in its flight over the sea, but it set mypulses tingling and all my senses straining to hear more and to seesomething.

  The sea that lay so little away from me was all swallowed up indarkness. I could see nothing to cause me alarm. The quiet of the nightseemed to breathe a deep peace that invited only to thoughts of sleep.But I was as wide awake as a startled hare, and I listened with all myears and peered into the blackness. Was it my heated fancy, I askedmyself, or did I indeed hear faint sounds coming to me from where thesea lay?

  I whistled softly a note something like our English starling's--a signalthat had been agreed upon between Lancelot and me. In a very few secondshe was at my side.

  As I told him of my suspicions Lancelot peered into the darkness,listening very carefully, and now both he and I felt certain that wecould hear sounds, indistinct but regular, coming from the sea.

  'They are doing what I thought they would,' Lancelot whispered to me.Lancelot's voice had this rare quality, that when he whispered everysyllable was as clear as if he were crying from the housetops. 'Theyhave chosen this dark night to attack us, and they are rowing withmuffled oars. We must do our best to give them a wild welcome. It iswell we have those fireworks; they will serve our turn now.'

  He slippe
d away from my side and was swallowed up in the darkness. Buthe soon came back to my side.

  'All is ready,' he said.

  He had been from man to man, and now every one was at his post. The bulkof our little body crouched down behind the breastwork while four menwere stationed by the open gates of the stockade to allow us to make ourretreat there. Those who were behind the breastwork knew that whenLancelot gave the word they were to fire in the direction of the sea.Lancelot had his lights ready, and we waited anxiously for the flare.

  The seconds seemed to lengthen out into centuries as we lay there,listening to those sounds growing louder, though even at their loudestthey might very well have escaped notice if one were not watching forthem. At last they came to an end altogether, and we could just catch asound as of a succession of soft splashes in the water.

  Lancelot whispered close to my ear: 'They are getting out in the shallowwater to draw their boats in. We shall have a look at them in aninstant.'

  While I held my breath I was conscious that Lancelot was busy with hisflint and steel. His was a sure hand and a firm stroke. I could hear theclick as he struck stone and metal together; there was a gleam of fireas the fuse caught, and then in another instant one of his fireworksrose in a blaze of brightness. It only lasted for the space of a coupleof seconds, but in that space of time it showed us all that we had tosee and much more than we wished to see.

  As our meteor soared in the air the space in front of us was lit with alight as clear as the light of dawn, though in colour it was more likethat of the moon--at least, as I have seen her rays represented oftenenough since in stage plays. Before us the sea rippled gently againstthe sand, and in the shallows we saw the pirates as clearly as we hadseen them on the day when they first came to the island.

  There were now three boatloads of them, and the boats were more fullymanned than before. Many of the men were still in the boats, but thegreater part were in the water, barelegged, and were stealthily urgingthe boats ashore. They were doing the work quietly, and made littlenoise. It was the strangest sight I had ever seen, this sight of thosemen in their scarlet coats, that looked so glaring in that blue light,with their gleaming weapons, all moving towards us with murder in theirminds.

  In their amazement at the flame the pirates paused for an instant, andin that instant Lancelot gave the order we itched for.

  'Fire!'

  Then the silence was shattered by the discharge of our pieces in asteady volley. All the island rang with the report, and at that veryinstant the rocket on its home curve faded and went out with a kind ofwink, and darkness swallowed us all up again.

  But what darkness! The darkness had been still; now it was full ofnoises. The echo of the report of our volley rang about us; from thewoods came clamour, the screaming and chattering of wakened birds, andwe could even hear the brushing of their wings as they flew from treeto tree in their terror. But in front of us the sounds were the mostterrible of all; the splashing of bodies falling into the water, theshrieks of wounded men, the howls and curses of the astonished andinfuriated enemy. We could not tell what hurt we had done, but it musthave been grave, for we had fired at close range, and we were all goodmarksmen.

  But we could not hope that we had crippled our invaders, or done muchtoward equalising our forces. For, as it had seemed in that moment ofillumination, we were outnumbered by well-nigh two to one.

  There was no need to fire another light; it was impossible that we couldhope to hold our own in the open, and our enemies would be upon usbefore we had time to reload, so there was nothing for it but to retreatto the stockade with all speed.

  Lancelot gave the order, and in another instant we were racing for thestockade, bending low as we ran, for the pirates had begun to fire inour direction. But their firing was wild, and it hit none of us; and itstopped as suddenly as it began, for they soon perceived that it wasidle waste of powder and ball in shooting into the darkness.

  Luckily for us, we knew every inch of our territory by heart, and couldmake our way well enough to the stockade in the gloom, while we couldhear the pirates behind splashing and stumbling as they landed.

  But as they were taken aback by the suddenness of our assault and itsresult, they were not eager to advance into the night, and, as Iguessed, waited awhile after landing from their boats.

  As for us, we did not pause until we had passed, every one of us,between the gates of our stockade, and heard them close behind us, andthe bar fall into its place. The first thing I saw in the dim light wasthe face of Marjorie, fair in its pale patience. She had a pistol in herhand, and I knew why she held it.