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Tob gave the word to haul-to the anchor, and get her away from the beach. "Greeting, my lord," said he, "but I'd have been pleased to see you earlier. We've small enough force and slow enough heels in this vessel, and it's my idea that the sooner we're away from here and beyond range of pursuit, the safer it will be for my woman and brats who are in that hutch of an after-castle.
Lower and lower sank the stout ship, her stern lifted high out of the water, then downwards she glided, her canvas set, her flag still flying, her commander and his officers still standing on the lofty after-castle, until that too disappeared beneath the wild waves which dashed over them, and soon even the main truck vanished beneath the surface, leaving a few struggling forms and pieces of wreck, and articles thrown overboard, floating on the spot she had lately occupied.
As they came up we put arms into their hands, and stationed them under the after-castle. To our satisfaction we found that we had as many as we had expected, who all swore to protect us with their lives from the mutineers. Before the expected moment all our arrangements had been made.
I looked up at the peak. The flag was no longer there. On the after-castle lay the captain; he had fallen desperately wounded. Two officers alone remained on their feet, while fore and aft a sickening sight met our view.
It was plain they were making for our ship, and Tob, the captain, would have had me go into the after-castle, and there be secure from their marauding. However, my mind was set. A man can never have too much experience in fighting enemies, whether human or bestial, and the attack of these creatures was new to me, and I was fain to learn its method.
Land ho!" "Where away?" cried a mate, roused out of a forbidden doze by this talk, and blundering up to the roof of the after-castle. "Port bow, sir." "Port bow! The fiend take us! You block! You jolterhead! Where are you fetching us?" "I'm holding her due to the north, sir, as you bade me," faltered the steersman.
"The fiend is in the after-castle, for the pans and the knives and a blunderbuss and two cutlasses that were loose have leaped against the forward panelling and stick there as if rivets were through them. 'Tis wizard's work. Let us pray, all." A sudden commotion was seen among the sailors at that moment.
"He hasn't got the broom aloft," whispered Dick to me, as he stood close to the admiral on the after-castle watching the enemy. "If he had we should soon knock it away." "We shall, I hope, before long knock away his masts," I answered. "But see, he is getting closer; before another minute is over the fight will begin."
Another brave Hollander, Captain Swers, seeing her condition, hastened to her relief; but he came too late, and our ship turning on him, ere long reduced him to the same condition as his countryman. As I stood on our lofty after-castle I could look down on the fight, and saw the brave De Port, though lying on the deck desperately wounded, flourishing his hanger and shouting to his crew to resist.
She lay high and dry, at a distance of about a quarter of a mile from the beach, a dismasted craft of some seven hundred tons burden, built on the lines of the old Spanish galleon, with a low bow and forecastle and a lofty stern and after-castle; the great flat stern embellished with much carving and the remains of a gallery, and surmounted by the iron frames of three big poop lanterns.
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