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When morning broke, and no sign of their treacherous foes was visible, the vessel was again anchored, and the majority of the crew suffered to retire to their hammocks, while the few whose turn of duty it chanced to be, kept a vigilant look-out, that, on the slightest appearance of alarm, their slumbering comrades might again be aroused to energy and action.
The alarm was soon given, and the preparation became general, but neither among the watch, who slumbered in the forecastle, nor those who had turned into their hammocks, was there the slightest indication of confusion.
Above the hammocks, from transverse poles, were suspended the weapons of the men: the great bows, the long blowguns, the fighting spears whose deadly points now were sheathed in thick scabbards of grass, the unpoisoned fish spears and harpoons.
A small oil lamp on the table shed an uncertain light through the room, so that objects could be only dimly distinguished. Our valises, I should have said, had been left on the ground a short distance from the heads of our hammocks. How long I had been asleep I do not know, but I was awakened by a low growl from Lion. He did not spring forward, however.
The hammocks were piped down, those who were intoxicated were put to bed, and the ship was once more quiet.
Unlike the French battery, however, all the casemates were open, with the exception of four, two of which were converted into the officers' quarters, while the other two constituted the magazine; and in the shelter of these open casemates the artillerymen were slumbering soundly in hammocks, despite the storm, with their muskets piled under the shelter of a verandah that ran all along the front of the casemates.
Five minutes were sufficient to make the preparations, and the captain came up and reported that all was ready. "I have heaped up all the bedding on the floor, sir, and poured plenty of oil over it," he said. "Very well, then, take two men aft, and begin there and work your way forward, and finish with the fo'c'sle hammocks. You can begin at once."
In the mornings of autumn the webs of the spiders hang along the hedge bowed a little with dew, like hammocks of gossamer slung from thorn to thorn. Then the hedge-sparrows, perching on the topmost boughs of the hawthorn, cry 'peep-peep' mournfully; the heavy dew on the grass beneath arranges itself in two rows of drops along the edges of the blades.
However, night was drawing on, and it was advisable to dispose of the dead bodies of those who had been killed in the action, or who had died since of their wounds, without further delay. Some of the sailmaker's mates had been busy during the afternoon, sewing up the dead in new, clean hammocks, and weighting each one with heavy shot at the feet to draw it down.
It did me good to see the pleasure the kind captain felt at finding that we were alive. By this time some warm turtle soup was brought us, and a little weak brandy and water, and then we were carried below and put into hammocks. It was not till the next day that I was certain I was not mistaken about Toby Potts.
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