Across the Spanish Main Part 11

This second discharge checked them and caused them to waver; but a tall man, gaily bedecked with feathers, instantly sprang from the ranks, and, haranguing them, called to his comrades to follow him, he himself leading the charge.

They soon reached the guns, and, leaping over them before they could again be loaded, were at once among the English, who had now to fight for dear life.

Howling with fury, they stabbed and slashed and struck with spear and club; and from the other side of the little circle came a shower of well-placed arrows, and many a brave seaman fell writhing his life out on the sand, which by this time was a.s.suming a sinister crimson hue.

Roger and Harry, each armed with an excellent sword borrowed from the s.h.i.+p's armoury, were here, there, and everywhere, but always together, doing much execution, and repeatedly saving each other's lives.

Cavendish, in the front of his men, swept his long blade from side to side, and as it fell, flas.h.i.+ng meteor-like in the brilliant suns.h.i.+ne, the naked warriors sank before it in heaps.

Now from seaward came the cras.h.i.+ng discharges of heavy guns, followed by renewed shrieks and cries, as the _Elizabeth_ and the _Good Adventure_ poured their broadsides into the closely-packed canoes.

"G.o.d grant," muttered Cavendish, "that those other vessels of ours may keep the canoes off; for if these fellows are reinforced, we can never hold out against them."

But n.o.body had time to see how the other action was progressing, for all were too busy with the work in hand, which was the task of defending their own lives.

Twice had the gallant little band of Englishmen driven the savages back over the barricade formed by the s.h.i.+ps' guns, and twice had the enemy, led by the tall savage, forced their way in again.

At last, seeing clearly that all hinged upon this man's downfall, Cavendish made many strenuous efforts to reach him; but for some time he failed, owing to the press. At length, however, an opening occurred, and Cavendish, rus.h.i.+ng forward, stood face to face with his arch-enemy.

The chief was a man of mighty stature, and evidently of enormous strength, standing nearly seven feet high; and at first sight the disparity between the two adversaries seemed enormous. But what the English captain lacked in height he made up in strength and agility.

Sword in hand he circled round and round his gigantic foe, watching like a cat for an opportunity to strike a deadly blow.

But the savage took the initiative, and, raising his spear, darted it at the Englishman with all his force. Cavendish, however, was not to be caught so easily, and, taking the shaft of the spear with the edge of his sword, he parried the thrust, and the weapon merely ripped his s.h.i.+rt instead of piercing his body.

Before the native could recover himself, and guard his body, the English captain thrust with all his strength, quite unprepared for the wily savage's next move.

Seemingly careless of the wound that he inflicted upon himself, the savage caught the keen blade of his adversary in his left hand, and, although the weapon lacerated his hand in a fearful manner, he succeeded in wresting it from the captain's grasp, while, at the same time flinging away his spear, he seized Cavendish round the lower part of the body, lifted him clear of the ground, and dashed him to the earth, himself falling with his antagonist.

The pair rolled upon the ground, each striving to obtain a grip of the other's right arm, to prevent any other weapon being used. Now the savage and now the white man was uppermost, but at length, with a huge effort, Cavendish twisted himself from under his foe, and lay full-length on top of him, feeling for his dagger. The chief, however, had likewise seized a knife which hung at his girdle, and, before the captain could draw his weapon, he plunged his knife into Cavendish's side.

The Englishman's grasp relaxed, he slipped from his position, and lay upon his side, writhing on the sand. The native now rose to his knees and raised his arm to deal a fatal blow; but, even as that blow fell, a sword flashed through the air, and arm and knife fell to the ground together.

Roger, for it was he who had thus appeared in the nick of time, at once turned his sword and drove it through the heart of the chief, who rolled over lifeless at his feet. The young hero then raised his captain in his arms, and, staggering out of the press of the battle, laid him down out of sight behind a gun-carriage.

Meanwhile the vessels afloat in the bay had been giving a very good account of the enemy in the canoes. The natives, it was clear, had been watching, and, having seen the preparations for careening the s.h.i.+ps, had hoped to find all four hauled up; in which case they would have secured an easy victory from force of numbers alone, as the s.h.i.+ps would then have been unable to use their guns against the force in the canoes. But as it was they had to deal with two fully-prepared s.h.i.+ps, and, after several fruitless attempts to board, were now hauling off with the remnant of their fleet, most of the canoes having already been destroyed by the broadsides from the _Elizabeth_ and the _Good Adventure_.

The land force, seeing their companions in the canoes withdrawing, and also having lost their chieftain, now began to waver. Observing this, the English hastily formed up into line, and, with a loud cheer, charged the enemy afresh, hewing right and left with hearty goodwill.

This fierce rally proved altogether too much for the savages, and they broke and fled precipitately.

The English now rushed to their guns, and, hastily completing the loading which had been checked at the first onslaught of the enemy, gave the flying savages another dose of grape and canister that strewed the beach with dead and dying, and further hastened the flight of the survivors, who quickly vanished in the recesses of the thick bush.

The enemy thus disposed off, finally as they hoped, Roger and Harry went off to attend to the captain.

They found him sitting up. He averred that his hurt was only a flesh wound; and after asking for, and obtaining, a draught of water, the gallant fellow got on his feet and went off to survey the scene of carnage.

Over a hundred of the natives lay dead on the sands; and a number of wounded were seen crawling towards the brush, endeavouring to escape.

They were allowed to go, as the English could not be burdened with wounded savages, and were indisposed to slay them in cold blood. There were twenty-three of the Englishmen who would never again answer the roll-call; and over forty wounded, who were conveyed on board the _Good Adventure_ and the _Elizabeth_, afloat in the bay. The dead, both black and white, were, for health's sake, immediately buried in the sand where they lay.

Cavendish, after having had his wound bound up, ordered a stockade to be at once built, and loopholed for guns and muskets, for their future defence, in the improbable event of the savages not having already received a severe enough lesson.

The seamen were now divided into two parties. One half of them were to continue the work of repairs and overhauling on the two vessels then careened, the _Stag Royal_ and the _Tiger_, and the remaining half were to work upon the stockade.

Then, this matter arranged, Cavendish called Roger to him, and, first thanking him for his timely rescue and the saving of his life, he put the lad in command of the party who were to build the stockade.

Roger was also publicly thanked, in the presence of officers and men, for the warning he had given, which enabled the party to make their hasty preparations for the reception of the natives, without which the whole party on sh.o.r.e would most likely have been cut off to a man. And if the s.h.i.+ps in the bay had not likewise been warned, it was quite within the bounds of possibility that they would have been boarded before the guns could have been loaded and brought to bear on the canoes; in which case there could be little doubt that the savages would have captured the vessels through sheer weight of numbers, for there were several hundred men in the canoes.

It ought to be mentioned that when Cavendish gave Roger the command of the company to be employed in building the stockade, he also endowed him with full power to use his own discretion as to how the work should be carried out, only occasionally giving the lad a few hints. Invested thus with such great responsibility, and with such important duties to execute, Roger naturally needed a lieutenant, and he selected Harry for the post, dividing his men into two parties, one of which he placed under the command of his friend.

This arranged, he sent Harry away into the woods with his men, armed with axes and bush knives, to cut timber for the stockade, while he himself, with his own party, remained on the beach, digging holes in which to deposit the uprights when they were cut, and also digging a ditch round where the palisade was to be, in order to drain off any water that might acc.u.mulate, and thus prevent the interior of their small fort from being flooded.

Harry and his gang soon returned with a load of stout stakes, plenty of suitable trees for the purpose being found close at hand. Depositing these on the beach, he then returned into the woods for more material, Roger and his men meanwhile proceeding to plant the main posts in a ring round the guns.

It was not long ere they had driven a row of posts deep and firm into the sand, starting from the margin of the beach nearest the water's edge.

This brought them, in the direction in which they were going, fairly close up to where the woods ceased at their junction with the beach.

Roger was watching the men drive in the next post with heavy wooden mallets, procured from the s.h.i.+p, when he observed that, although they were hammering hard at the stump, it did not seem to be going down as quickly as it should; indeed, upon closer inspection, it did not appear to be moving downwards at all. And, further, the mallets, instead of giving out a dull sound, as they had done whilst driving through sand, now gave out a sharper and quite different sound as the top of the post was struck.

One of the men engaged stepped up to Roger and touched his hat. "It seems to me, sir," said he, "as though something was stopping of this here post from going down any furder. I expects as how there is a stone or summat in the sand under the point. Do you think that ere stump is down fur enough as it is, or shall us pull un up and put un in somewheres else?"

Roger stepped up and shook the post, and, finding it quite loose, decided that it would have to be driven deeper in order to be secure.

Nevertheless it was necessary to s.p.a.ce the posts at equal intervals one from another, if his ideas were to be carried out; he therefore ordered the stump to be pulled up, the obstruction removed, and the post driven down again in the same position.

The seamen thereupon laid hold of the post, and, all hauling together, it soon came out; and with shovels and crowbars they began to break down the sand and enlarge the hole, so as to get at whatever was in the way and remove it.

It was not long ere the shovel of one of the men struck upon something hard, and the man, dropping upon his knees, went to work to sc.r.a.pe the sand away with his hands, presently laying bare to view what was apparently part of a spar of some kind, not old or worm-eaten, but seemingly almost new. Having located this, they started to clear the sand away from the whole length of the piece of timber, and, while doing so, found that there were two other poles or spars laid alongside it.

After an hour's hard work the three spars were unearthed, and proved to be the three poles of a set of sheer-legs, which had evidently only quite recently been hidden.

Roger then instructed the men to start probing in the sand, to see whether there might be anything else buried, and he himself took a boat and pulled away over the bay to the _Elizabeth_ to inform Cavendish of his discovery.

He found the captain lying in his bunk nursing his recent wound, and informed him of the circ.u.mstance, asking also what he should do in the matter.

"You have dug out of the sand what you think is a set of sheer-legs, eh, boy?" said the captain, raising himself in his berth on one elbow. "And have you found anything beside?"

"No, sir," said Roger in reply, "there was nothing else dug up when I left; but I told the men to probe the sand, whilst I came off to you, to see if there was anything else there."

"Well," responded the captain, "I must look into this. I will get up and come ash.o.r.e with you; but just go and call the surgeon first; I wish him to bind this wound of mine up again before I leave the s.h.i.+p."

Roger did so; and, the surgeon having dressed and bound up Cavendish's hurt again, the two descended the s.h.i.+p's side and, getting into the boat, were rowed ash.o.r.e.

When they reached the beach they saw that the men had already lifted out the three sheer-leg poles and laid them on the sand, and now a gang of men were hauling upon a rope attached to something still in the sand.

When Cavendish and Roger came up to the spot they saw that the top of an iron chest had been uncovered, and the men had fastened a rope to a ring in the lid, and were now hauling on the rope to drag the chest clear.

Cavendish watched the seamen a moment, and then went to examine the poles. After a few minutes' observation, he said to Roger: "It is pretty evident to me, boy, that this inlet has been used before for some such purpose as that for which we are using it, namely, for careening vessels for repairs and refit. These poles have been employed for lifting guns or other heavy material taken out of a s.h.i.+p or from off a raft. Now I wonder who it may be that has used these things? The Spaniards would not need to use this inlet for any such purpose, for they have their own ports on the island, where this kind of work could be done far better than here. Nor can they have been Englishmen, I should think, for if this place were known to any of our own people it would be marked on the chart, and we should have heard of it, most certainly. Also, the fact that these things have been buried points to the certainty that the people who have hidden them intend to return and use them again. If they had not meant to come back, they would have taken them with them when they left. No, it is evident to me that the people who left these articles will return periodically to this place to refit; and as this spot is almost unknown, as well as being lonely and secluded, it would seem to my poor understanding that the men who use this place are not Spaniards or English seamen proper, but pirates. It also occurs to me that there may be something in this box that they are just getting out which will tell us what we want to know."

As the captain finished speaking, the box came up suddenly, and the seamen, who were hauling manfully on the rope, fell upon their backs, only to scramble quickly to their feet again with much laughter at the mishap.