17 How My Sea Adventure Began

CHAPTER 17 How My Sea Adventure Began The mutineers did not come back that day. They had had their fill of fighting. As for us, Hunter never did recover and died that night of his injuries. Captain Smollett was wounded badly but not permanently, the shot having gone through his shoulder and nicked his lung. He would survive, but was under the doctor's orders not to move. Just after noon, the coast being clear, the doctor strapped on his pistols and headed silently out to his meeting with Ben. Gray

thought him insane to do so under such conditions. In the meantime, I sat thinking it unfair that I should just sit and wait. I soon snuck out, filled my pockets with biscuits, and decided on my own mission. I would go to find, for certain, if Ben's boat existed and was in good shape. I armed myself with pistols and powder and slipped out. It was foolish to do so, but I was only a boy. As it turned out, it helped save us all. I headed quickly along the shore to the white rock and soon saw the ship rocking in the waves at the same place, the Jolly Roger still flying. I also saw Silver and the pirate, last seen coming over the fence, pulling back to shore from the boat. And I heard the squawking laughter of his parrot in the wind. Soon they were coming my way, and I hurried on toward the white rock.

Below it was the boat, well hidden. It was the simplest, lightest, most basic craft possible. It looked as if it were made by men hundreds of years ago. But it was light and it would float. I soon had another notion that I could not get rid of. I thought I would take the boat out under cover of night to the Hispaniola. Then I would cut the ship loose and let it go ashore in the night in some other cove. I thought this would stop our pirates from taking to the seas to kill again. And, I thought, as careless and sloppy as they were, it should be easy to do. I waited until the dark and fog had set in and ate my biscuit. Then I carried my little boat to the water. In the dark, I saw that there were only two lights. One was the fire of the defeated pirates spread out on the shore. The other was the Hispaniola. I waded out, set my boat in the water, and made for

the ship. My new boat and I soon made it out into the surf and quickly found our way up close to the Hispaniola. It took some time to get used to, but it was a fairly solid boat and light in the water. Soon enough, I had laid hold of the rope that anchored the ship, called the hawser. It was tight and taut and I knew that with one cut, the entire Hispaniola would go humming along in the tide. I knew also that the taut hawser could snap and would kill me with its force if I let it. So I began to cut it slowly, fiber by fiber. Suddenly, as I finished cutting the final threads, it slipped under the water. I had been hearing loud voices from the

cabin and now realized that there was a fight on board and the angry voices were getting louder. I knew it was Israel Hands and another, the pirate with the blade in his teeth who had tried to scale the fence. I heard them call each other terrible names and then it got quiet for a moment. I could also hear the voices of the mutineers on shore and could hear songs being croaked out in raspy voices. At last, a breeze came up and the ship moved sideways and began to draw away and I was suddenly caught up in the wake of the big boat. I thought I might be smashed, but somehow I was not. I now decided to pull myself up for a look into the cabin and saw the two men wrestling madly. They each had the other by the throat. I ducked down quickly and shut my eyes tight. I heard more singing coming from the shore—

"Fifteen men on a dead man's chest— Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Drink and the Devil had done for the rest — Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" Suddenly, I felt that the boat had increased in speed and opened my eyes to see that we had sped across the shore. The campfire was right behind me. We had been set on a new course and were heading out to sea. I could see the ship was moving on a sideways course, and the sailors inside knew they were in real danger and had stopped fighting. They could tell disaster was afoot.