The Island Home | Page 9

have failed to have observed and avoided, from the manner in which the sea broke upon it.
A shout of mingled exultation and derision, as they witnessed this disaster, greeted us from the long-boat, which was ploughing through the water, but a little way behind us, and some twenty yards further out from the shore.
"It is all up," said Morton, bitterly, dropping his oar.
"Back water! Her stern still swings free," cried Arthur, "the next swell will lift her clear."
We got as far aft as possible, to lighten the bows; a huge wave broke upon the ledge, and drenched us with spray, but the yawl still grated upon the coral.
Luerson probably deemed himself secure of a more convenient opportunity, at no distant period, to wreak his vengeance upon us: at any rate there was no time for it now; he merely menaced us with his clenched fist, as they swept by. Almost at the same moment a great sea came rolling smoothly in, and, as our oars dipped to back water, we floated free: then a few vigorous strokes carried us to a safe distance from the treacherous shoal.
"One effort more!" cried Arthur, as the mutineers disappeared behind the point; "we are not yet too late to give them a warning, though it will be but a short one."
Again we bent to the oars, and in a moment we too had doubled the point, and were in the wake of the long-boat. The ship lay directly before us, and within long hailing distance.
"Now, comrades, let us shout together, and try to make them understand their danger," said Browne, standing up in the stern.
"A dozen strokes more," said Arthur, "and we can do it with more certain success."
Luerson merely glanced back at us, as he once more heard the dash of our oars; but he took no farther notice of us: the crisis was too close at hand.
On board the ship all seemed quiet. Some of the men were gathered together on the starboard bow, apparently engaged in fishing; they did not seem to notice the approach of the boats.
"Now, then!" cried Arthur, at length, unshipping his oar, and springing to his feet, "one united effort to attract their attention--all together--now, then!" and we sent up a cry that echoed wildly across the water, and startled the idlers congregated at the bows, who came running to the side of the vessel nearest us.
"We have got their attention; now hail them," said Arthur, turning to Browne, who had a deep powerful voice; "tell them not to let the long-boat board them."
Browne put his hands to his mouth, and in tones that could have been distinctly heard twice the distance, shouted--"Look-out for the long-boat--don't let them board you--the men have killed the first officer, and want to take the ship!" From the stir and confusion that followed, it was clear that the warning was understood.
But the mutineers were now scarcely twenty yards from the vessel, towards which they were ploughing their way with unabated speed. The next moment they were under her bows; just as their oars flew into the air, we could hear a deep voice from the deck, sternly ordering them to "keep off," and I thought that I could distinguish Captain Erskine standing near the bowsprit.
The mutineers gave no heed to the order; several of them sprang into the chains, and Luerson among the rest. A fierce, though unequal struggle, at once commenced. The captain, armed with a weapon which he wielded with both hands, and which I took to be a capstan-bar, struck right and left among the boarders as they attempted to gain the deck, and one, at least of them, fell back with a heavy plunge into the water. But the captain seemed to be almost unsupported; and the mutineers had nearly all reached the deck, and were pressing upon him.
"Oh, but this is a cruel sight!" said Browne, turning away with a shudder. "Comrades, can we do nothing more?"
Morton, who had been groping beneath the sail in the bottom of the boat now dragged forth the cutlasses which Spot had insisted on placing there when we went ashore.
"Here are arms!" he exclaimed, "we are not such boys, but that we can take a part in what is going on--let us pull to the ship!"
"What say you!" cried Arthur, glancing inquiringly from one to another; "we can't, perhaps, do much, but shall we sit here and see Mr Erskine murdered, without trying to help him!"
"Friends, let us to the ship!" cried Browne, with deep emotion, "I am ready."
"And I!" gasped Max, pale with excitement, "we can but be killed."
Can we hope to turn the scale of this unequal strife? shall we do more than arrive at the scene of conflict in time to experience the vengeance of the victorious