Fitz the Filibuster Part 42

"Oh, Poole Reed, for goodness' sake don't say you think I've killed either of these poor wretches?"

"Any of these poor wretches," corrected Poole gravely, and looking as solemn as he could. Then reading his companion's horror in his face, he continued cheerily, "Nonsense, old chap! You couldn't have killed anybody with those cartridges of swan-shot unless they were close at hand."

"Ah!" gasped Fitz. "And I don't really think--"

"Oh, but you did. It was in the excitement. Every one about you was firing, and you did the same. It would have been rather curious if you had not. Oh, here's my governor coming along with Chips."

"I say," began Fitz excitedly.

"All right; I wasn't going to; but slip in two more cartridges and close the breech."

This was quickly done, and the skipper came up, talking to the carpenter the while.

"Yes, my lad," he was saying, "I'd give something if you had a hammer and a bag of spikes to strengthen all the wood-work here.--Well, Poole,"

he continued, "Don Ramon is in ecstasies. He says this is his first success, and I believe that if I were not here he'd go round and embrace all the lads.--But about those poor wretches lying out there. I'm not an unfeeling brute, my lads," he continued, taking in Fitz with a glance the while, "but all I can do I have done."

"But there are those two men moving out there, sir, that you can't have seen," cried Fitz imploringly, "and it seems so horrid--"

"Yes, my lad; war is horrid," said the skipper. "I saw them when they first went down, and"--he added to himself--"I am afraid I was answerable for one. But, as I was saying, I have done all I could, and that is, insisted upon Don Ramon ordering his men to leave them alone and not fire at every poor wretch who shows a sign of life."

"But," began Fitz, "Poole and I wouldn't mind going out and carrying them under shelter, one at a time."

"No, my lad," said the skipper, smiling sadly, "I know you would not; but I should, and very much indeed. You have both got mothers, and what would they say to me for letting two brave lads go to certain death?"

"Oh, but surely, sir," cried Fitz, "the enemy would not--"

"Those worthy of the name of enemy, my boy, certainly would not; but those fighting against us are most of them the bloodthirsty sc.u.m of a half-savage tropical city, let loose for a riot of murder, plunder, and destruction. Why, my dear boy, the moment you and Poole got outside the shelter of these walls, a hundred rifles would be aimed at you, with their owners burning to take revenge for the little defeat they have just now suffered."

"Are you sure you are right, Captain Reed?"

"Quite, my lad; as sure as I am that it is not all ill that we have done this morning, for San Cristobal and Velova will both be the better for the absence of some of those who are lying dead out there."

He stood gazing out between two boards for some few minutes, before turning back, and glancing round the room he said a few words to the English defenders.

"Splendid, my lads," he said. "Nothing could have been cooler and better. We want no hurry at a time like this."

"Think they'll come again, father?" asked Poole.

"Sure to, my lad, and we shall drive them back again. After that, this Don Villarayo will have his work cut out to get them to come up again, and I don't believe he will succeed."

"Will they retreat then, sir?" asked Fitz.

The skipper smiled.

"I should like to give you a more encouraging reply," he said, "but--Oh, here's Don Ramon. Let's hear what he says."

"Ah, my friend," cried the Don, coming up to grasp the speaker's hands effusively. "And you too, my brave lads, as you English people say. It has been magnificent," and as he shook the boys' hands in turn, Fitz flushed vividly, feeling guilty in the extreme. "Oh, it has been magnificent--grand! Captain Reed, if I can only persuade you to join hands with me here with your men, and make me succeed, I would make you Admiral of my Fleet. Ah, yes, you smile. I know that it would only be a fleet of one, and not that till the gunboat was taken and become my own, but I would not be long before I made it two, and I would work until I made our republic one of which you would be proud."

"Don't let's talk about this, sir," said the skipper quietly, "until we have gained the day. Do you think that the enemy will come on again?"

"The wretches, yes! But Villarayo--the coward!--will keep watching from the rear. He seems to lead a charmed life."

"There, my lads; you hear. But we shall drive them back again, President?"

Don Ramon's eyes flashed at the compliment, and then he shrugged his shoulders and said sadly--

"President! Not yet, my brave captain. There is much yet to do, and fate has been bearing very hard upon me lately."

"It has, sir. But about the enemy; you think they will come on again?"

"Yes, for certain--and go back again like beaten curs. You and your men have done wonders here in strengthening this place."

Poole drove his elbow into the ribs of Chips, and winked at Fitz, who could hardly contain his countenance at the carpenter's peculiar looks, for the big rough sailor seemed as bashful as a girl, and nodded and gesticulated at the lads in turn, while the next moment he looked as if about to bolt, for the skipper suddenly clapped him on the shoulder and exclaimed as he turned him round--

"You must thank this man, President, not me, for he was my engineer-in-chief. Weren't you, Chips?"

"Ah, my friend," cried the Spaniard, "some day, when I get my own, believe me that I will pay you for all that you have done."

"Oh, it's all right, sir. Don't you worry about that. 'Course you see it warn't much of a job."

He took off his straw hat and wiped the great drops from his sun-browned brow with the back of his hand.

"You see, sir, it was like this 'ere. The skipper he puts me on the job, and 'Chips,' he says, 'make the best of it you can by way of offence.' 'Niver another word, sir,' and off he goes, and here was I when the young gents come up, all of a wax; warn't I, Mr Poole, sir? I put it to you, sir. 'Look here, sir,' I says, 'the skipper's put me on this 'ere job with my kit of tools left aboard the schooner, and not a bit of stuff.' Didn't I, sir? Speak out straight, sir. I only asks for the truth."

"You did, Chips," said Poole solemnly, and setting his teeth as he spoke; "didn't he, Burnett?"

"Oh yes," replied the middy, "he did say something like that," and then as he caught Poole's eye he had to turn his back, looking out through the slit in the window and biting his tongue hard the while, while he heard the carpenter maunder on to the President something more about not having a bit of stuff, and every nail to straighten before he could drive it in again.

"Yes, that's right. Winks," said the skipper, bringing the speech to an end, and not before it was time, for the carpenter was beginning to repeat himself again and again. "You did splendidly, and if we had a few hundred feet of battens and boards, we could hold this place for a month.--Well, President," he continued, turning his back on his man, who sighed with relief and whispered to Fitz that that was a good job done, "and after we've driven them back again?"

"Ah! After! Treachery, fire, powder to blow us up! The fighting of cowards. But with your help, my brave, as soon as they are cowering among the trees we must attack in turn."

"No, President," said the skipper, laying his hand upon the other's shoulders; "you are too brave and rash. This is your last stronghold, is it not?"

"Alas, yes!"

"Then you must hold it, sir, and tire the enemy out."

"Yes, yes; you are right. But food--water? What of them?"

"Ah! There we must see what strategy will do. There is the river not far away, and as soon as they grow thirsty, my lads will contrive that we have enough to drink."

"To drink--ah, yes. But the food?"

"Well, perhaps they will contrive that too. Sailors are splendid fellows to forage, sir."

"Yes. If I could only be a President of sailors!" cried the President warmly. "There seems to be nothing that the English sailor cannot do.

But can they make powder-cartridges when their own is fired away?"