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As the fishermen who lived near were absent in their boats, the women and children, who were startled from their sleep by her piercing shrieks, dared not attempt a rescue. Taking her a little way from shore in their boat, the pirates flung her into the sea, and as she came to the surface and clutched the gunwale they hewed at her hands with cutlasses. She was heard to cry, "Lord, save me! Mercy!
"Now lads, we will drive these Frenchmen below, as we promised them. All of you follow me!" and, led by the lieutenant and Dick, the English crew threw themselves on the lugger's deck, trusting rather to their cutlasses and stout arms than to any other weapons. Voules, with those who had remained on the cutter's forecastle, now gained a footing on the fore part of the lugger's deck.
The boats were run one on either side; the crews pulled out their cutlasses and sprang up, racing as to who should be first on board; and after a short sharp struggle the smugglers were beaten down, and the lugger was taken. "Now, Waters, make sure of the prisoners, and don't trust them below!" cried the lieutenant. "Come, my lads. Crew of the first boat head for the shore."
In another moment they were up to the schooner, and, leaping on her deck, led by Pearce, laid on them so fiercely with their cutlasses that the Frenchmen, deserting their guns, sprang over the bulwarks into their boats on the other side nearest the shore, and, before another boat reached the vessel, pulled away towards where the troops were marching down to their support.
The next morning, twenty water-casks were put on board the prize, together with the two boats and twenty men, well armed with muskets, pistols, and cutlasses, with a supply of ammunition; I repaired on board, got the prize under way, ran in, and anchored about one hundred yards from the beach.
"Keep off, or we will fire into you!" shouted the man on the forecastle, who appeared to be the principal man of the party. "See that your pistols and cutlasses are ready for use," said the third lieutenant, in a tone loud enough to be heard by the crew only. "We are all private citizens," added the sloop's spokesman.
"Not so," answered Arthur, "for I think that two or three of the cutlasses may be converted into tolerable saws, with which, by dint of a little patience, we can get out as many posts and rafters as will be requisite for the frame of our building, though I admit it will be tedious work."
"What are you thinking about?" cried my companion. "Why don't you speak?" "I was thinking about the cutlasses," I said. "Well, it is a surprise!" cried Bigley. "Oh, I know. Your father's an old sea captain, and they say the French are coming. He's going to arm some men as volunteers."
There was a round score of muskets for the seven of us; the firewood had been built into four piles tables, you might say one about the middle of each side, and on each of these tables some ammunition and four loaded muskets were laid ready to the hand of the defenders. In the middle, the cutlasses lay ranged.
The men stood with their muskets in their hands, and pikes and cutlasses ready for use. The strangers drew closer and closer. They still hoped, we concluded, to catch us unprepared. We, however, did not wish to begin the combat unless they gave us indubitable signs of their intentions.
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