Flint's Island by Leonard Wibberley

Author:Leonard Wibberley [Wibberley, Leonard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Duchy of Grand Fenwick
Published: 2015-11-20T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

CAPTAIN SAMUELS WAS FOR attempting to retake the Jane immediately. He was boiling with wrath that his ship had been taken from him, and by pirates, and of all pirates, by Silver. Silver had duped him as readily as a child, despite the captain’s distrust of the man. The tale of that duplicity, which I learned later, is soon told. When all the treasure was aboard, and Captain Samuels and one or two others with it, Silver had got the greater part of the crew into the cave and produced a cask of rum, which he said he had put by for just that occasion.

It is not hard to persuade seamen, once ashore, to take a drink, and it must be acknowledged that few crews had such a cause for celebration, as they thought, as ours. First one had taken a drink, and then another, and before long the crew had utterly lost all guard and discipline and determined on finishing the cask before going on board. Peasbody, the officer in charge, should have prevented all this, but Peasbody had no real authority with the men and, indeed, hoping to show himself just such a fellow as they, had joined them in a toast. After that, it was no trouble to persuade him to one more, and he had soon lost all competence as an officer. He remembered enough of his duty, however, to get back to the ship and report that the hands were all drunk ashore. Captain Samuels left immediately, taking Hogan, the sailing master, with him, and leaving Peasbody aboard protesting childishly that he had done his best to keep discipline among the men.

It was not until the captain was inside the cave and haranguing the crew that Silver summoned his rogues, whom he had visited each day hidden about the island. There was a sharp tussle, some of the men not being entirely gone in drink, but men stupefied with rum and taken by surprise were no match for the remnant of Flint’s crew. Captain Samuels went down, felled by a blow from Long John’s crutch, and Sweeney had been shot dead, and four others gravely wounded. The crew, in short, were soon subdued and tied up, and then it had been an easy matter for Silver to take the brig, defended as it was only by Peasbody and two hands, who could only gape as the pirates came alongside. One did try to get to the swivel in the ship’s waist, we learned later, but it was a futile gesture. It took three hands to serve that piece, and all he got for his pains was a blow on the side of the head with the flat of a cutlass.

Released then by Hodge and me, Captain Samuels was determined to launch a counterattack immediately, and it was the sailing master, Mr. Hogan, who pointed out to him, patiently but firmly, that this might lead only to the slaughter of his unarmed crew.

“We’re seventeen,” said Captain Samuels, “and they are but six, including Silver.

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