We ran on deck. The pitch
was bubbling in the seams; the nasty stench of the place turned me sick;
if ever a man smelled fever and dysentery it was in that abominable
anchorage. The six scoundrels were sitting grumbling under a sail in the
forecastle; ashore we could see the gigs made fast, and a man sitting in
each, hard by where the river runs in. One of them was whistling
"Lillibullero."

Waiting was a strain, and it was decided that Hunter and I should go
ashore with the jolly-boat, in quest of information.

The gigs had leaned to their right, but Hunter and I pulled straight in,
in the direction of the stockade upon the chart. The two who were left
guarding their boats seemed in a bustle at our appearance;
"Lillibullero" stopped off, and I could see the pair discussing what
they ought to do. Had they gone and told Silver, all might have turned
out differently; but they had their orders, I suppose, and decided to
sit quietly where they were and hark back again to "Lillibullero."

There was a slight bend in the coast, and I steered so as to put it
between us. Even before we landed we had thus lost sight of the gigs; I
jumped out and came as near running as I durst, with a big silk
handkerchief under my hat for coolness' sake, and a brace of pistols
ready primed for safety.

I had not gone a hundred yards when I came on the stockade.

This was how it was: A spring of clear water arose at the top of a
knoll. Well, on the knoll, and inclosing the spring, they had clapped a
stout log house, fit to hold two-score people on a pinch, and loopholed
for musketry on every side. All around this they had cleared a wide
space, and then the thing was completed by a paling six feet high,
without door or opening, too strong to pull down without time and labor,
and too open to shelter the besiegers. The people in the log house had
them in every way; they stood quiet in the shelter and shot the others
like partridges. All they wanted was a good watch and food; for, short
of a complete surprise, they might have held the place against a
regiment.

What particularly took my fancy was the spring. For, though we had a
good place of it in the cabin of the _Hispaniola_, with plenty of arms
and ammunition, and things to eat, and excellent wines, there had been
one thing overlooked--we had no water. I was thinking this over, when
there came ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point of
death. I was not new to violent death--I