as the doldrums.--Gray,
whistle for a wind."

And just at that moment came the first news of the attack.

"If you please, sir," said Joyce, "if I see any one am I to fire?"

"I told you so!" cried the captain.

"Thank you, sir," returned Joyce, with the same quiet civility.

Nothing followed for a time; but the remark had set us all on the alert,
straining ears and eyes--the musketeers with their pieces balanced in
their hands, the captain out in the middle of the block-house, with his
mouth very tight and a frown on his face.

So some seconds passed, till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and
fired. The report had scarcely died away ere it was repeated and repeated
from without in a scattering volley, shot behind shot, like a string of
geese, from every side of the enclosure. Several bullets struck the
log-house, but not one entered; and, as the smoke cleared away and
vanished, the stockade and the woods around it looked as quiet and empty
as before. Not a bough waved, not the gleam of a musket-barrel betrayed
the presence of our foes.

"Did you hit your man?" asked the captain.

"No, sir," replied Joyce. "I believe not, sir."

"Next best thing to tell the truth," muttered Captain Smollett. "Load his
gun, Hawkins. How many should you say there were on your side, doctor?"

"I know precisely," said Dr. Livesey. "Three shots were fired on this
side. I saw the three flashes--two close together--one farther to the
west."

"Three!" repeated the captain. "And how many on yours, Mr. Trelawney?"

But this was not so easily answered. There had come many from the
north--seven, by the squire's computation; eight or nine, according to
Gray. From the east and west only a single shot had been fired. It was
plain, therefore, that the attack would be developed from the north, and
that on the other three sides we were only to be annoyed by a show of
hostilities. But Captain Smollett made no change in his arrangement. If
the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would
take possession of any unprotected loophole, and shoot us down like rats
in our own stronghold.

Nor had we much time left to us for thought. Suddenly, with a loud huzza,
a little cloud of pirates leaped from the woods on the north side, and
ran straight on the stockade. At the same moment the fire was once more
opened from the woods, and a rifle-ball sang through the doorway, and
knocked the doctor's musket into bits.

The board