The Red Stockade
[Full Title:The Red Stockade: A Story Told By The Old Coast-guard]We was on the southern part of the China station, when the"George Ranger" was ordered to the Straits of Malacca, to put downthe pirates that had been showing themselves of late. It was inthe forties, when ships was ships, not iron-kettles full of wheels,and other devilments, and there was a chance of hand-to-handfighting - not being blown up in an iron cellar by you don't knowwho. Ships was ships in them days!There had been a lot of throat-cutting and scuttling, for themdevils stopped at nothing. Some of us had been through the straitsbefore, when we was in the "Polly Phemus," seventy-four, going tothe China station, and although we had never come to quarters withthe Malays, we had seen some of their work, and knew what kindthey was. So, when we had left Singapore in the "George Ranger,"for that was our saucy, little thirty-eight-gun frigate, - theplace wasn't in them days what it is now, - many and many 's theyarn was told in the fo'c'sle, and on the watches, of what theyellow devils could do, and had done. Some of us took it one way,and some another, but all, save a few, wanted to get into hand-gripswith the pirates, for all their kreeses, and their stinkpots, andthe devil's engines what they used. There was some that didn't mindcold steel of an ordinary kind, and would have faced cutlasses andboarding-pikes, any day, for a holiday, but that didn't like theidea of those knives like crooked flames, and that sliced a man intwo, and hacked through the bowels of him. Naturally, we didn't takemuch stock of this kind; and many's the joke we had on them, andsome of them cruel enough jokes, too.You may be sure there was good stories, with plenty of cutting,and blood, and tortures in them, told in their watches, and nigh thewhole ship's crew was busy, day and night, remembering and inventingthings that'd make them gasp and grow white. I think that, somehow,the captain and the officers must have known what was goin' on, forthere came tales from the ward-room that was worse nor any of ours.The midshipmen used to delight in them, like the ship's boys did, andone of them, that had a kreese, used to bring it out when he could,and show how the pirates used it when they cut the hearts out of menand women, and ripped them up to the chins. It was a bit cruel, attimes, on them poor, white-livered chaps, - a man can't help hisliver, I suppose, - but, anyhow, there's no place for them in awarship, for they're apt to do more harm by living where there's menof all sorts, than they can do by dying. So there wasn't any mercyfor them, and the captain was worse on them than any. Captain Wynyardwas him that commanded the corvette "Sentinel" on the China station,and was promoted to the "George Ranger" for cutting up a fleet ofjunks that was hammering at the "Rajah," from Canton, racing forSouthampton with the first of the season's tea. He was a man, if youlike, a bulldog full of hellfire, when he was on for fighting; hewouldn't have a white liver at any price. "God hates a coward," hesaid once, "and under Her Britannic Majesty I'm here to carry outGod's will. Trice him up, and give him a dozen!" At least, that's thestory they tell of him when he was round Shanghai, and one of hismen had held back when the time came for boarding a fire-junk thatwas coming down the tide. And with that he went in, and steered heroff with his own hands.Well, the captain knew what work there was before us, and that itweren't no time for kid gloves and hair-oil, much less a bokey inyour buttonhole and a top-hat, and he didn't mean that there shouldbe any funk on his ship. So you take your davy that it wasn't hisfault if things was made too pleasant aboard for men what fearedfallin' into the clutches of the Malays.Now and then he went out of his way to be nasty over such folk,and, boy or man, he never checked his tongue on a hard word when anyone's face was pale before him. There was one old chap on boardthat we called "Old Land's End," for he came from that part, andthat had a boy of his on the "Billy Ruffian," when he sailed on her,and after got lost, one night, in cutting out a Greek sloop atNavarino, in 1827. We used to chaff him when there was trouble withany of the boys, for he used to say that his boy might have beenin that trouble, too. And now, when the chaff was on about bein'afeered of the Malay's, we used to rub it into the old man; but hewould flame up, and answer us that his boy died in his duty, andthat he couldn't be afeered of nought.One night there was a row on among the midshipmen, for they saidthat one of them, Tempest by name, owned up to being afraid of beingkreesed. He was a rare bright little chap of about thirteen, thatwas always in fun and trouble of some kind; but he was soft-hearted,and sometimes the other lads would tease him. He would own uptruthfully to anything he thought, or felt, and now they had drawnhim to own something that none of them would - no matter how trueit might be. Well, they had a rare fight, for the boy was neverbackward with his fists, and by accident it came to the notice ofthe captain. He insisted on being told what it was all about, andwhen young Tempest spoke out, and told him, he stamped on the deck,and called out:"I'll have no cowards in this ship," and was going on, when theboy cut in:"I'm no coward, sir; I'm a gentleman!""Did you say you were afraid? Answer me - yes, or no?""Yes, sir, I did, and it was true! I said I feared the Malaykreeses; but I did not mean to shirk them, for all that. Henry ofNavarre was afraid, but, all the same, he - ""Henry of Navarre be damned," shouted the captain, "and you,too! You said you were afraid, and that, let me tell you, is whatwe call a coward in the Queen's navy. And if you are one, youcan, at least, have the grace to keep it to yourself! No answer tome! To the masthead for the remainder of the day! I want my crewto know what to avoid, and to know it when they see it!" and hewalked away, while the lad, without a word, ran up the maintop.Some way, the men didn't say much about this. The only one thatsaid anything to the point was Old Land's End, and says he:"That may be a coward, but I'd chance it that he was a boyof mine."As we went up the straits and got the sun on us, and the dampheat of that kettle of a place, - Lor' bless ye! ye steam there, allday and all night like a copper at the galley, - we began to lookaround for the pirates, and there wasn't a man that got drowsy onthe watch. We coasted along as we went up north, and took a lookinto the creeks and rivers as we went. It was up these that theMalays hid themselves; for the fevers and such that swept off theirbetters like flies, didn't seem to have any effect on them. Therewas pretty bad bits, I tell you, up some of them rivers through themango groves, where the marshes spread away, mile after mile, asfar as you could see, and where every thing that is noxious, bothbeast, and bird, and fish, and crawling thing, and insect, and tree,and bush, and flower, and creeper, is most at home.But the pirate ships kept ahead of us; or, if they came southagain, passed us by in the night, and so we ran up till about themiddle of the peninsula, where the worst of the piracies hadhappened. There we got up as well as we could to look like a shipin distress; and, sure enough, we deceived the beggars, for twoof them came out one early dawn and began to attack us. They wasugly looking craft, too - long, low hull and lateen - sails, anda double crew twice told in every one of them.But if the crafts was ugly the men was worse, for uglier devilsI never saw. Swarthy, yellow chaps, some of them, and some withshaven crowns and white eyeballs, and others as black as your shoe,with one or two white men, more shame, among them, but all carryingkreeses as long as your arm, and pistols in their belts.They didn't get much change from us, I tell you. We let them getclose, and then gave them a broadside that swept their decks likea hail-storm; but we was unlucky that we didn't grapple them, forthey managed to shift off and ran for it. Our boats was out quick,but we daren't follow them where they ran into a wide creek, withmango swamps on each side as far as the eye could reach. The boatcame back after a bit and reported that they had run up the riverwhich was deep enough but with a winding channel between greatmud-banks, where alligators lay in hundreds. There seemed some sortof fort where the river narrowed, and the pirates ran in behind itand disappeared up the bend of the river.Then the preparations began. We knew that we had got two craft,at any rate, caged in the river, and there was every chance thatwe had found their lair. Our captain wasn't one that let things goasleep, and by daylight the next morning we was ready for an attack.The pinnace and four other boats started out under the firstlieutenant to prospect, and the rest that was left on board waited,as well as they could, till we came back.That was an awful day. I was in the second boat, and we all keptwell together when we began to get into the narrows of the mouthof the river. When we started, we went in a couple of hours afterthe flood-tide, and so all we saw when the light came seemed freshand watery. But as the tide ran out, and the big black mud-banksbegan to show their heads above everywhere, it wasn't nice, I cantell you. It was hardly possible for us to tell the channels, foreverywhere the tide raced quick, and it was only when the boat beganto touch the black slime that you knew that you was on a bank. Twiceour boat was almost caught this way, but by good luck we pulled andpushed off in time into the ebbing tide; and hardly a boat buttouched somewhere. One that was a bit out from the rest of us gotstuck at last in a nasty cut between two mud-banks, and as the waterran away the boat turned over on the slope, despite all hercrewcould do, and we saw the poor fellows thrown out into the slime.More than one of them began to swim toward us, but behind each camea rush of something dark, and though we shouted and made what noisewe could, and fired many shots, the alligators was too close, andwith shriek after shriek they went down to the bottom of the filthand slime. Oh, man! it was a dreadful sight, and none the betterthat it was new to nigh all of us. How it would have taken us if wehad time to think about it, I hardly know, but I doubt that morethan a few would have grown cold over it; but just then there flewamongst us a hail of small shot from a fleet of boats that hadstolen down on us. They drove out from behind a big mud-bank thatrose steeper than the others and that seemed solider, too, for thegravel of it showed, as the scour of the tide washed the mud away.We was not sorry, I tell you, to have men to fight with, instead ofalligators and mud-banks, in an ebbing tide, in a strange tropicalriver.We gave chase at once, and the pinnace fired the twelve-pounderwhich she carried in the bows, in among the huddle of the boats,and the yells arose as the rush of the alligators turned to wherethe Malay heads bobbed up and down in the drift of the tide. Thenthe pirates turned and ran, and we after them as hard as we couldpull, till round a sharp bend of the river we came to a narrowplace, where one side was steep for a bit and then tailed away toa wilderness of marsh, worse than we had seen. The other side wascrowned by a sort of fort, built on the top of a high bank, butguarded by a stockade and a mud-bank which lay at its base. Fromthis there came a rain of bullets, and we saw some guns turnedtoward us. We was hardly strong enough to attack such a positionwithout reconnoitring, and so we drew away; but not quite quickenough, for before we could get out of range of their guns a roundshot carried away the whole of the starboard oars of one of ourboats.It was a dreary pull to the ship, and the tide was agin us, forwe all got thinking of what we had to tell, - one boat and crew lostentirely, and a set of oars shot away, - and no work done.The captain was furious; and, in the ward-room, and in thefo'c'sle that night, there was nothing that wasn't flavored withanger and curses. Even the boys, of all sorts, from the cabin-boysto the midshipmen, was wanting to get at the Malays. However,sharp was the order; and by daylight three boats was up at thestockaded fort, making an accurate survey. I was again in one ofthe boats; and, in spite of what the captain had said to make usall so angry, - and he had a tongue like vitriol, I tell you, - weall felt pretty down and cold when we got again amongst thoseterrible mud-banks and saw the slime that shone on them bubble up,when the gray of the morning let us see anythingWe found that the fort was one that we would have to take if wewanted to follow the pirates up the river, for it barred the waywithout a chance. There was a gut of the river between the two greatridges of gravel, and this was the only channel where there was achance of passing. But it had been staked on both sides, so thatonly the center was left free. Why, from the fort they could havestoned any one in the boats passing there, only that there wasn'tany stone, that we could see, in their whole blasted country!When we got back, with two cases of sunstroke among us, andreported, the captain ordered preparations for an attack on thefort, and the next morning the ball began. It was ugly work.We got close up to the fort, but, as the tide ran out, we had tosheer away somewhat so as not to get stranded. The whole placeswarmed with those grinning devils. They evidently had some wayof getting to and from their boats behind the stockade. They didnot fire a shot at us, - not at first, - and that was the mostaggravating thing that you can imagine. They seemed to knowsomething that we did not, and they only just waited. As the tidesank lower and lower, and the mud-banks grew steeper, and thesun on them began to fizzle, a steam arose that nigh turned ourstomachs. Why, the sight of them alone would make your heart sink!The slime shimmered in all kinds of colors, like the water whenthere's tarring work on hand, and the whole place seemed alivewith all that was horrible. The alligators kept off the boats andthe banks close to us, but the thick water was full of eels andwater-snakes, and the mud was alive with water-worms and leeches,and horrible, gaudy-colored crabs. The very air was filled withpests, - flies of all kinds, and a sort of big-striped insect thatthey call the "tiger mosquito," which comes out in the daytime andbites you like red-hot pincers. It was bad enough, I tell you,for us men with hair on our faces, but some of the boys got verywhite and pale, and they was all pretty silent for a while. All atonce the crowd of Malays behind the stockade began to roll theireyes and wave their kreeses and to shout. We knew that there wassome cause for it, but couldn't make it out, and this exasperatedus more than ever. Then the captain sings out to us to attack thestockade; so out we all jumped into the mud. We knew it couldn'tbe very deep just there, on account of the gravel beneath. We wasknee-deep in a moment, but we struggled, and slipped, and fell overeach other; and, when we got to the top of that bank, we was thequeerest, filthiest-looking crowd you ever see. But the mud hadn'ttook the heart out of us, and the Malays, with their necks cranedover the stockade, and with the nearest thing to a laugh or asmile that the devil lets them have, drew back and fell, one onanother, when they heard our cheer.Between them and us there was a bit of a dip where the water hadbeen running in the ebb-tide, but which seemed now as dry as therest, and the foremost of our men charged down the slope, and thenwe knew why they had kept silent and waited! We was in a regulartrap. The first ranks disappeared at once in the mud and ooze in thehollow, and those next were up to their armpits before they couldstop. Then those Malay devils opened on us, and while we tried topull our chaps out, they mowed us down with every kind of small armthey had - and they had a queer assortment, I tell you.It was all we could do to get back over the slope and to theboats again, - what was left of us, - and, as we hadn't hands enoughleft even to row with full strength, we had to make for the ship asfast as we could, for their boats began to pass out in a cloudthrough the narrow by the stockade. But before we went we saw themdragging the live and dead out of the mud with hooks on the end oflong bamboos; and there was terrible shrieks from some poor fellowswhen the kreeses gashed through them. We daren't wait; but we sawenough to make us swear revenge. When we saw them devils stick thebleeding heads of our comrades on the spikes of the stockade, therewas nigh a mutiny because the captain wouldn't let us go back andhave another try for it. He was cool enough now; and those of usthat knew him and understood what was in his mind, when the smile onhim showed the white teeth in the corners of his mouth, felt thatit was no good day's work that the pirates had done for themselves.When we got back to the ship and told our tale, it wasn't longtill the men was all on fire; and nigh every man took a turn withthe grindstone at his cutlass, till they was all like razors. Thecaptain mustered every one on board, and detailed every man tohis work in the boats, ready for the next time; and we knew that,by daylight, we were to have another slap at the pirates. We gotsix-pounders and twelve-pounders in most of the boats, for we wasto give them a dose of big shot before we came to close quarters.When we got up near the stockade, the tide had turned, and wethought it better to wait till dawn, for it was bad work among themud-banks at the ebb in the dark. So we hung on a while, and thenwhen the sky began to lighten, we made for the fort. When we gotnigh enough to see it, there wasn't a man of us who didn't want tohave some bloody revenge, for there, on the spikes of the stockade,were the heads of all the poor fellows that we had lost the daybefore, with a cloud of mosquitoes and flies already beginning tobuzz around them in the dawn. But beyond that again, they hadpainted the outside of the stockade with blood, so that the wholeplace was a crimson mass. You could smell it as the sun came up!Well, that day was a hard one. We opened fire with our guns,and the Malays returned it, with all they had got. A fleet of boatscame out from beyond the fort, and for a while we had to turn ourattention to these. The small guns served us well, and we made arare havoc among the boats, for our shot went crashing through them,and quite a half of them were sunk. The water was full of bobbingheads; but the tide carried them away from us, and their cries andshrieks came from beyond the fort and then died away. The otherboats recognized their danger, and turned and ran in through thenarrow, and let us alone for hours after. Then we went at the fortagain. We turned our guns at the piles of the stockade, and, ofcourse, every shot told, - but their fire was at too close quarters,and with their rifles and matchlocks, and the rest, they picked usoff too fast, and we had to sheer off where our heavy metal couldtell without our being within their range. Before we sheered off,we could see that the hole we had knocked in the stockade was onlyin the outer work, and that the real fort was within. We had togo down the river, as we couldn't go far enough across withoutdanger from the banks, and this only gave us a side view, and, dowhat we would, we couldn't make an impression, - at least any thatwe could see.That was a long and awful day! The sun was blazing on us likea furnace, and we was nigh mad with heat, and flies, and drouth,and anger. It was that hot that if you touched metal it fairlyburned you. When the tide was near the flood, the captain orderedup the boats in the wide water now opposite the fort; and there,for a while, we got a fair chance, till, when the ebb began, weshould have to sheer off again. By this time our shot was nearlyrun out, and we thought that we should have to give over; but allat once came order to prepare for attack, and in a few minuteswe was working for dear life across the river, straight for thestockade. The men set up a cheer, and the pirates showed over thetop of the stockade and waved their kreeses, and more than one ofthem sliced off pieces of the heads on the spikes, and jeered atus, as much as to say that they would do the same for us in ourturn! When we got close up, every one of them had disappeared,and there was a silence of the grave. We knew that there wassomething up, but what the move was we could not tell, till frombehind the fort came rushing again a fleet of boats. We turnedon them, and, like we did before, we made mincemeat of them. Thistime the tide made for us, and the bobbing heads went by us indozens. Now and then there was a wild yell, as an alligator pulledsome one down into the mud. This went on for a little, and we hadbeaten them off enough to be able to get our grappling - ironsready for climbing the stockade, when the second lieutenant, whowas in the outer boat, called out:"Back with the boats! Back, quick, the tide is falling!" andwith one impulse we began to shove off. Then, in an instant, theplace became alive again with the Malays, and they began firingon us so quickly that before we could get out into the whirl oftide there was many a dead man in our boats.There was no use trying to do any more that day, and after wehad done what could be done for the wounded, and patched up ourboats, for there was plenty of shot-holes to plug, we pulled backto the ship. The alligators had had a good day, and as we wentalong, and the mud-banks grew higher and higher with the fallingof the tide, we could see them lie out lazily, as if they had beengorged. Aye! And there was enough left for the ground-sharks outin the offing; for the men on board told us that every while on theebb something would go along, bobbing up and down in the swell,till presently there would be a swift ripple of a fin, and thenthere was no more pirate.Well! when we got aboard, the rest was mighty anxious to knowwhat had been done; and when we began, with the heads on spikes ofthe red stockade, the men ground their teeth, and Old Land's Endup, and says he:"The Red Stockade! We'll not forget the name! It'll be our turnnext, and then we'll paint it inside this time." And so it was thatwe came to know the place by that name. That night the captain waslike a man that would do murder. His face was like steel, and hiseyes was as red as flames. He didn't seem to have a thought for anyone; and everything he did was as hard as though his heart werebrass. He ordered all that was needful to be done for the wounded,but he added to the doctor: "And, mind you, get them well as soonas you can. We're too shorthanded already!"Up to now, we all had known him treat men as men, but now he onlythought of us as machines for fighting! True enough, he thought thesame of himself. Twice that very night he cut up rough in a new way.Of course, the men was talking of the attack, and there was lots ofbrag and chaff, for all they was so grim earnest, and some of theold fooling went on about blood and tortures. The captain came ondeck, and as he walked along, he saw one of the men that didn't likethe kreeses, and he didn't evidently like the looks of him, for heturned on his heel and said savagely:"Send the doctor here!" So the doctor came, and the captain hesays to him, cold as ice, and as polite as you please:"Dr. Fairbrother, there is a sick man here! look at his paleface. Something wrong with his liver, I suppose. It's the only thingthat makes a seaman's face white when there's fighting ahead. Takehim down to sick bay, and do something for him. I'd like to cut theaccursed white liver out of him altogether!" and with that he wentdown to his cabin.Well if we was hot for fighting before, we was boiling after that,and we all came to know that the next attack on the Red Stockadewould be the last, one way or the other! We had to wait two more daysbefore that could come off, for the boats and tackle had to be madeready, and there wasn't going to be any mistakes made this time.It was just after midnight when we began to get ready. Every manwas to his post. The moon was up, and it was lighter nor a Londonday, and the captain stood by and saw every man to his place, andnothing escaped him. By and by, as No. 6 boat was filling, and beforethe officer in charge of it got in, came the midshipman, youngTempest, and when the captain saw him he called him up and hissedout before all the crew:"Why are you so white? What's wrong with you, anyway? Is yourliver out of order, too?"True enough, the boy was white, but at the flaming insult theblood rushed to his face and we could see it red in the starlight.Then in another moment it passed away and left him paler than ever,and he said with a gentle voice, though standing as straight asa ramrod:"I can't help the blood in my face, sir. If I'm a coward becauseI'm pale, perhaps you are right. But I shall do my duty all thesame!" and with that he pulled himself up, touched his cap, and wentdown into the boat.Old Land's End was behind me in the boat with him, number five tomy six, and he whispered to me through his shut teeth:"Too rough that! He might have thought a bit that he's only achild. And he came all the same, even if he was afeer'd!"We stole away with muffled oars, and dropped silently into theriver on the floodtide. If any man had had any doubts as to whetherwe was in earnest at other times, he had none then, anyhow. It wasa pretty grim time, I tell you, for the most of us felt that whetherwe won or not this time, there would be many empty hammocks thatnight in the "George Ranger;" but we meant to win even if we wentinto the maws of the sharks and crocodiles for it. When we came upclose on the flood we lost no time but went slap at the fort. Atfirst, of course, we had crawled up the river in silence, and Ithink that we took the beggars by surprise, for we was there beforethe time they expected us. Howsomever, they turned out quick enoughand there was soon music on both sides of the stockade. We didn'twant to take any chance on the mud-banks this time, so we ran inclose under the stockade at once and hooked on. We found that theyhad repaired the breach we had made the last time. They fought likedevils, for they knew that we could beat them hand to hand, if wecould once get in, and they sent round the boats to take us on theflank, as they had done each time before. But this time we wasn'tto be drawn away from our attack, and we let our boats outsidetackle them, while we minded our own business closer home.It was a long fight and a bloody one. They was sheltered inside,and they knew that time was with them, for when the tide should havefallen, if we hadn't got in we should have our old trouble with themud-banks all over again. But we knew it, too, and we didn't lose notime. Still, men is only men, after all, and we couldn't fly up overa stockade out of a boat, and them as did get up was sliced aboutdreadful, - they are handy workmen with their kreeses, and no doubt!We was so hot on the job we had on hand that we never took no note oftime at all, and all at once we found the boat fixed tight under us.The tide had fallen and left us on the bank under the RedStockade, and the best half of the boats was cut off from us. Wehad some thirty men left, and we knew we had to fight whether weliked it or not. It didn't much matter, anyhow, for we was gameto go through with it. The captain, when he seen the state ofthings, gave his orders to take the boats out into mid-stream, andshell and shot the fort, whilst we was to do what we could to getin. It was no use trying to bridge over the slobs, for the mastsof an old seventy-four wouldn't have done it. We was in a tightplace, then, I can tell you, between two fires, for the guns in theboats couldn't fire high enough to clear us every time, withoutgoing over the fort altogether, and more than one of our own shotsdid some of us a harm. The cutter came into the game, and begansending the war-rockets from the tubes. The pirates didn't likethat, I tell you, and more betoken, no more did we, for we got asmuch of them as they did, till the captain saw the harm to us, andbade them cease. But he knew his business, and he kept all thefire of the guns on the one side of the stockade, till he knockeda hole that we could get in by. When this was done, the Malays leftthe outer wall and went within the fort proper. This gave us someprotection, since they couldn't fire right down on us, and our gunskept the boats away that would have taken us from the riverside.But it was hot work, and we began dropping away with stray shots,and with the stinkpots and hand-grenades that they kept hurlingover the stockade on to us.So the time came when we found that we must make a dash for thefort, or get picked out, one by one, where we stood. By this timesome of our boats was making for the opening, and there seemed lesslife behind the stockade; some of them was up to some move, andwas sheering off to make up some other devilment. Still, they hadtheir guns in the fort, and there was danger to our boats if theytried to cross the opening between the piles. One did, and wentdown with a hole in her within a minute. So we made a burst insidethe stockade, and found ourselves in a narrow place between thetwo walls of piles. Anyhow, the place was drier, and we felt arelief in getting out of up to our knees in steaming mud. Therewas no time to lose, and the second lieutenant, Webster by name,told us to try to scale the stockade in front.It wasn't high, but it was slimy below and greasy above, and dowhat we would, we couldn't get no nigher. A shot from a pistol wipedout the lieutenant, and for a moment we thought we was without aleader. Young Tempest was with us, silent all the time, with hisface as white as a ghost, though he done his best, like the rest ofus. Suddenly he called out:"Here, lads! take and throw me in. I'm light enough to do it,and I know that when I'm in you'll all follow."Ne'er a man stirred. Then the lad stamped his foot and calledagain, and I remember his young, high voice now:"Seamen to your duty! I command here!"At the word we all stood at attention, just as if we was atquarters. Then Jack Pring, that we called the Giant, for he wassix feet four and as strong as a bullock, spoke out:"It's no duty, sir, to fling an officer into hell!" The ladlooked at him and nodded."Volunteers for dangerous duty!" he called, and every man ofthe crowd stepped out."All right, boys!" says he. "Now take me up and throw me in.We'll get down that flag, anyhow," and he pointed to the black flagthat the pirates flew on the flagstaff in the fort. Then he took thesmall flag of the float and put it on his breast, and says he:"This'll suit better.""Won't I do, sir?" said Jack, and the lad laughed a laugh thatrang again."Oh, my eye!" says he, has any one got a crane to hoist inthe Giant?" The lad told us to catch hold of him, and when Jackhesitated, says he:"We've always been friends, Jack, and I want you to be one ofthe last to touch me!" So Jack laid hold of him by one side, and OldLand's End stepped out and took him by the other. The rest of uswas, by this time, kicking off our shoes and pulling off our shirts,and getting our knives open in our teeth. The two men gave a greatheave together and they sent the boy clean over the top of thestockade. We heard across the river a cheer from our boats, as webegan to scramble. There was a pause within the fort for a fewseconds, and then we saw the lad swarm up the bamboo flagstaff thatswayed under him, and tear down the black flag. He pulled our ownflag from his breast and hung it over the top of the post. And hewaved his hand and cheered, and the cheer was echoed in thunderacross the river. And then a shot fetched him down, and with a wildyell they all went for him, while the cheering from the boats camelike a storm.We never knew quite how we got over that stockade. To this dayI can't even imagine how we done it! But when we leaped down, wesaw something lying at the foot of the flagstaff all red, - and thekreeses was red, too! The devils had done their work! But it wastheir last, for we came at them with our cutlasses, - there wasnever a sound from the lips of any of us, - and we drove them likea hail-storm beats down standing corn! We didn't leave a livingthing within the Red Stockade that day, and we wouldn't if therehad been a million there!It was a while before we heard the shouting again, for the boatswas coming up the river, now that the fort was ours, and the men hadother work for their breath than cheering.Between us, we made a rare clearance of the pirates' nest thatday. We destroyed every boat on the river, and the two ships that wewas looking for, and one other that was careened. We tore down andburned every house, and jetty, and stockade in the place, and therewas no quarter for them we caught. Some of them got away by a paththey knew through the swamp where we couldn't follow them. The sunwas getting low when we pulled back to the ship. It would have beena merry enough home-coming, despite our losses, - all but for onething, and that was covered up with a Union Jack in the captain'sown boat. Poor lad! when they lifted him on deck, and the men cameround to look at him, his face was pale enough now, and, one and all,we felt that it was to make amends, as the captain stooped over andkissed him on the forehead."We'll bury him to-morrow," he said, "but in blue water, asbecomes a gallant seaman."At the dawn, next day, he lay on a grating, sewn in his hammock,with the shot at his feet, and the whole crew was mustered, and thechaplain read the service for the dead. Then he spoke a bit abouthim, - how he had done his duty, and was an example to all, - and hesaid how all loved and honored him. Then the men told off for theduty stood ready to slip the grating and let the gallant boy goplunging down to join the other heroes under the sea; but Old Land'sEnd stepped out and touched his cap to the captain, and asked if hemight say a word."Say on, my man!" said the captain, and he stood, with his cockedhat in his hand, whilst Old Land's End spoke:"Mates! ye've heerd what the chaplain said. The boy done hisduty, and died like the brave gentleman he was! And we wish he washere now. But, for all that, we can't be sorry for him, or for whathe done, though it cost him his life. I had a lad once of my own,and I hoped for him what I never wanted for myself, - that he wouldwin fame and honor, and become an admiral of the fleet, as othershave done before. But, so help me God! I'd rather see him lyingunder the flag as we see that brave boy lie now, and know why hewas there, than I'd see him in his epaulettes on the quarter-deck ofthe flagship! He died for his Queen and country, and for the honorof the flag! And what more would you have him do!"
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