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Page 14
I considered, still all in one and the same moment, that Charker was
a brave man, but not quick with his head; and that Sergeant Drooce,
with a much better head, was close by. All I said to Charker was,
"I am afraid we are betrayed. Turn your back full to the moonlight
on the sea, and cover the stem of the cocoa-nut tree which will then
be right before you, at the height of a man's heart. Are you
right?"
"I am right," says Charker, turning instantly, and falling into the
position with a nerve of iron; "and right ain't left. Is it, Gill?"
A few seconds brought me to Sergeant Drooce's hut. He was fast
asleep, and being a heavy sleeper, I had to lay my hand upon him to
rouse him. The instant I touched him he came rolling out of his
hammock, and upon me like a tiger. And a tiger he was, except that
he knew what he was up to, in his utmost heat, as well as any man.
I had to struggle with him pretty hard to bring him to his senses,
panting all the while (for he gave me a breather), "Sergeant, I am
Gill Davis! Treachery! Pirates on the Island!"
The last words brought him round, and he took his hands of. "I have
seen two of them within this minute," said I. And so I told him
what I had told Harry Charker.
His soldierly, though tyrannical, head was clear in an instant. He
didn't waste one word, even of surprise. "Order the guard," says
he, "to draw off quietly into the Fort." (They called the enclosure
I have before mentioned, the Fort, though it was not much of that.)
"Then get you to the Fort as quick as you can, rouse up every soul
there, and fasten the gate. I will bring in all those who are at
the Signal Hill. If we are surrounded before we can join you, you
must make a sally and cut us out if you can. The word among our men
is, 'Women and children!'"
He burst away, like fire going before the wind over dry reeds. He
roused up the seven men who were off duty, and had them bursting
away with him, before they know they were not asleep. I reported
orders to Charker, and ran to the Fort, as I have never run at any
other time in all my life: no, not even in a dream.
The gate was not fast, and had no good fastening: only a double
wooden bar, a poor chain, and a bad lock. Those, I secured as well
as they could be secured in a few seconds by one pair of hands, and
so ran to that part of the building where Miss Maryon lived. I
called to her loudly by her name until she answered. I then called
loudly all the names I knew--Mrs. Macey (Miss Maryon's married
sister), Mr. Macey, Mrs. Venning, Mr. and Mrs. Fisher, even Mr. and
Mrs. Pordage. Then I called out, "All you gentlemen here, get up
and defend the place! We are caught in a trap. Pirates have
landed. We are attacked!"
At the terrible word "Pirates!"--for, those villains had done such
deeds in those seas as never can be told in writing, and can
scarcely be so much as thought of--cries and screams rose up from
every part of the place. Quickly lights moved about from window to
window, and the cries moved about with them, and men, women, and
children came flying down into the square. I remarked to myself,
even then, what a number of things I seemed to see at once. I
noticed Mrs. Macey coming towards me, carrying all her three
children together. I noticed Mr. Pordage in the greatest terror, in
vain trying to get on his Diplomatic coat; and Mr. Kitten
respectfully tying his pocket-handkerchief over Mrs. Pordage's
nightcap. I noticed Mrs. Belltott run out screaming, and shrink
upon the ground near me, and cover her face in her hands, and lie
all of a bundle, shivering. But, what I noticed with the greatest
pleasure was, the determined eyes with which those men of the Mine
that I had thought fine gentlemen, came round me with what arms they
had: to the full as cool and resolute as I could be, for my life--
ay, and for my soul, too, into the bargain!
The chief person being Mr. Macey, I told him how the three men of
the guard would be at the gate directly, if they were not already
there, and how Sergeant Drooce and the other seven were gone to
bring in the outlying part of the people of Silver-Store. I next
urged him, for the love of all who were dear to him, to trust no
Sambo, and, above all, if he could got any good chance at Christian
George King, not to lose it, but to put him out of the world.
"I will follow your advice to the letter, Davis," says he; "what
next?"
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