ENEMIES 179 



thought of the chance of working his way aft between decks to 

 the cabin, where there were firearms; and leaving Mr. Gardner 

 and the seamen, he began to force a passage through the space 

 between the forehatch and the steerage, which was filled with 

 casks, barrels, and lumber. It was the last time he saw his 

 firm friend, the first officer, alive, for a few moments later Mr. 

 Gardner died in the fore hatchway with a deep gash in his chest. 

 In the steerage he found the blacksmith, who, being sick and off 

 duty, had been able only to guess at the meaning of the uproar 

 above. Together the two broke down a door and burst into the 

 deserted cabin. 



From his chest, Mr. Jones got a few charges of ammunition — 

 all he had — and a pair of pistols which he loaded. Placing the 

 blacksmith with the loaded pistols on guard at the foot of the 

 companionway, he then hunted until he found a bag of buckshot 

 and a tin coffeepot full of powder with which he loaded the 

 cabin muskets. This done, he returned to the companionway, 

 where he found on guard instead of the blacksmith a Negro boy, 

 Charles, who had come aft from the fore hold by the way Mr. 

 Jones himself had broken out. The blacksmith, it seemed, had 

 given Charley the pistols as soon as he entered the cabin, and 

 had then, with more discretion than courage, gone back between 

 decks. 



On the quarter-deck the natives were making such a racket 

 to celebrate their victory that the two young fellows in the cabin 

 thought they were scuttling the deck; also, having discovered 

 the two in the cabin, a group of five or six were standing in front 

 of the gangway, spades in hand, to receive them when they 

 should venture out. But the wild yells came to a sudden 

 end when Mr. Jones fired a musket into the group. "If they 

 had all been struck by lightning from heaven," he says, "they 

 could not have ceased their noise quicker than they did." 



Another boy, John Parker, hearing the report of the musket, 

 came aft from the forehold, and while the two boys loaded 

 muskets and fired according to Mr. Jones's orders, the three 

 sent up shot after shot at the savages, who hurled back at 

 them spades and harpoons, and even a spy-glass. The 



