Bram Stoker: The Red Stockade

We was on the southern part of the China station, when the "George Ranger" was ordered to the Straits of Malacca, to put down the pirates that had been showing themselves of late. It was in the forties, when ships was ships, not iron-kettles full of wheels, and other devilments, and there was a chance of hand-to-hand fighting - not being blown up in an iron cellar by you don't know who. Ships was ships in them days!

There had been a lot of throat-cutting and scuttling, for them devils stopped at nothing. Some of us had been through the straits before, when we was in the "Polly Phemus," seventy-four, going to the China station, and although we had never come to quarters with the Malays, we had seen some of their work, and knew what kind they was. So, when we had left Singapore in the "George Ranger," for that was our saucy, little thirty-eight-gun frigate, - the place wasn't in them days what it is now, - many and many 's the yarn was told in the fo'c'sle, and on the watches, of what the yellow 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-grips with the pirates, for all their kreeses, and their stinkpots, and the devil's engines what they used. There was some that didn't mind cold steel of an ordinary kind, and would have faced cutlasses and boarding-pikes, any day, for a holiday, but that didn't like the idea of those knives like crooked flames, and that sliced a man in two, and hacked through the bowels of him. Naturally, we didn't take much stock of this kind; and many's the joke we had on them, and some 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 the whole ship's crew was busy, day and night, remembering and inventing things that'd make them gasp and grow white. I think that, somehow, the captain and the officers must have known what was goin' on, for there 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, and one 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 men and women, and ripped them up to the chins. It was a bit cruel, at times, on them poor, white-livered chaps, - a man can't help his liver, I suppose, - but, anyhow, there's no place for them in a warship, for they're apt to do more harm by living where there's men of all sorts, than they can do by dying. So there wasn't any mercy for them, and the captain was worse on them than any. Captain Wynyard was him that commanded the corvette "Sentinel" on the China station, and was promoted to the "George Ranger" for cutting up a fleet of junks that was hammering at the "Rajah," from Canton, racing for Southampton with the first of the season's tea. He was a man, if you like, a bulldog full of hellfire, when he was on for fighting; he wouldn't have a white liver at any price. "God hates a coward," he said once, "and under Her Britannic Majesty I'm here to carry out God's will. Trice him up, and give him a dozen!" At least, that's the story they tell of him when he was round Shanghai, and one of his men had held back when the time came for boarding a fire-junk that was coming down the tide. And with that he went in, and steered her off with his own hands.

Well, the captain knew what work there was before us, and that it weren't no time for kid gloves and hair-oil, much less a bokey in your buttonhole and a top-hat, and he didn't mean that there should be any funk on his ship. So you take your davy that it wasn't his fault if things was made too pleasant aboard for men what feared fallin' 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 any one's face was pale before him. There was one old chap on board that we called "Old Land's End," for he came from that part, and that 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 at Navarino, in 1827. We used to chaff him when there was trouble with any of the boys, for he used to say that his boy might have been in 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 he would flame up, and answer us that his boy died in his duty, and that he couldn't be afeered of nought.

One night there was a row on among the midshipmen, for they said

that one of them, Tempest by name, owned up to being afraid of being

kreesed. He was a rare bright little chap of about thirteen, that

was always in fun and trouble of some kind; but he was soft-hearted,

and sometimes the other lads would tease him. He would own up

truthfully to anything he thought, or felt, and now they had drawn

him to own something that none of them would - no matter how true

it might be. Well, they had a rare fight, for the boy was never

backward with his fists, and by accident it came to the notice of

the captain. He insisted on being told what it was all about, and

when 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 the

boy 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 Malay

kreeses; but I did not mean to shirk them, for all that. Henry of

Navarre 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 what

we call a coward in the Queen's navy. And if you are one, you

can, at least, have the grace to keep it to yourself! No answer to

me! To the masthead for the remainder of the day! I want my crew

to know what to avoid, and to know it when they see it!" and he

walked away, while the lad, without a word, ran up the maintop.

Some way, the men didn't say much about this. The only one that

said 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 boy

of mine."

As we went up the straits and got the sun on us, and the damp

heat of that kettle of a place, - Lor' bless ye! ye steam there, all

day and all night like a copper at the galley, - we began to look

around for the pirates, and there wasn't a man that got drowsy on

the watch. We coasted along as we went up north, and took a look

into the creeks and rivers as we went. It was up these that the

Malays hid themselves; for the fevers and such that swept off their

betters like flies, didn't seem to have any effect on them. There

was pretty bad bits, I tell you, up some of them rivers through the

mango groves, where the marshes spread away, mile after mile, as

far as you could see, and where every thing that is noxious, both

beast, 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 south

again, passed us by in the night, and so we ran up till about the

middle of the peninsula, where the worst of the piracies had

happened. There we got up as well as we could to look like a ship

in distress; and, sure enough, we deceived the beggars, for two

of them came out one early dawn and began to attack us. They was

ugly looking craft, too - long, low hull and lateen - sails, and

a double crew twice told in every one of them.

But if the crafts was ugly the men was worse, for uglier devils

I never saw. Swarthy, yellow chaps, some of them, and some with

shaven crowns and white eyeballs, and others as black as your shoe,

with one or two white men, more shame, among them, but all carrying

kreeses as long as your arm, and pistols in their belts.

They didn't get much change from us, I tell you. We let them get

close, and then gave them a broadside that swept their decks like

a hail-storm; but we was unlucky that we didn't grapple them, for

they 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, with

mango swamps on each side as far as the eye could reach. The boat

came back after a bit and reported that they had run up the river

which was deep enough but with a winding channel between great

mud-banks, where alligators lay in hundreds. There seemed some sort

of fort where the river narrowed, and the pirates ran in behind it

and 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 that

we had found their lair. Our captain wasn't one that let things go

asleep, and by daylight the next morning we was ready for an attack.

The pinnace and four other boats started out under the first

lieutenant 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 kept

well together when we began to get into the narrows of the mouth

of the river. When we started, we went in a couple of hours after

the flood-tide, and so all we saw when the light came seemed fresh

and watery. But as the tide ran out, and the big black mud-banks

began to show their heads above everywhere, it wasn't nice, I can

tell you. It was hardly possible for us to tell the channels, for

everywhere the tide raced quick, and it was only when the boat began

to touch the black slime that you knew that you was on a bank. Twice

our boat was almost caught this way, but by good luck we pulled and

pushed off in time into the ebbing tide; and hardly a boat but

touched somewhere. One that was a bit out from the rest of us got

stuck at last in a nasty cut between two mud-banks, and as the water

ran away the boat turned over on the slope, despite all hercrew

could 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 came

a rush of something dark, and though we shouted and made what noise

we could, and fired many shots, the alligators was too close, and

with shriek after shriek they went down to the bottom of the filth

and slime. Oh, man! it was a dreadful sight, and none the better

that it was new to nigh all of us. How it would have taken us if we

had time to think about it, I hardly know, but I doubt that more

than a few would have grown cold over it; but just then there flew

amongst us a hail of small shot from a fleet of boats that had

stolen down on us. They drove out from behind a big mud-bank that

rose steeper than the others and that seemed solider, too, for the

gravel 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 of

alligators and mud-banks, in an ebbing tide, in a strange tropical

river.

We gave chase at once, and the pinnace fired the twelve-pounder

which she carried in the bows, in among the huddle of the boats,

and the yells arose as the rush of the alligators turned to where

the Malay heads bobbed up and down in the drift of the tide. Then

the pirates turned and ran, and we after them as hard as we could

pull, till round a sharp bend of the river we came to a narrow

place, where one side was steep for a bit and then tailed away to

a wilderness of marsh, worse than we had seen. The other side was

crowned by a sort of fort, built on the top of a high bank, but

guarded by a stockade and a mud-bank which lay at its base. From

this there came a rain of bullets, and we saw some guns turned

toward us. We was hardly strong enough to attack such a position

without reconnoitring, and so we drew away; but not quite quick

enough, for before we could get out of range of their guns a round

shot carried away the whole of the starboard oars of one of our

boats.

It was a dreary pull to the ship, and the tide was agin us, for

we all got thinking of what we had to tell, - one boat and crew lost

entirely, and a set of oars shot away, - and no work done.

The captain was furious; and, in the ward-room, and in the

fo'c'sle that night, there was nothing that wasn't flavored with

anger and curses. Even the boys, of all sorts, from the cabin-boys

to the midshipmen, was wanting to get at the Malays. However,

sharp was the order; and by daylight three boats was up at the

stockaded fort, making an accurate survey. I was again in one of

the boats; and, in spite of what the captain had said to make us

all so angry, - and he had a tongue like vitriol, I tell you, - we

all felt pretty down and cold when we got again amongst those

terrible mud-banks and saw the slime that shone on them bubble up,

when the gray of the morning let us see anything

We found that the fort was one that we would have to take if we

wanted to follow the pirates up the river, for it barred the way

without a chance. There was a gut of the river between the two great

ridges of gravel, and this was the only channel where there was a

chance of passing. But it had been staked on both sides, so that

only the center was left free. Why, from the fort they could have

stoned any one in the boats passing there, only that there wasn't

any stone, that we could see, in their whole blasted country!

When we got back, with two cases of sunstroke among us, and

reported, the captain ordered preparations for an attack on the

fort, 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 to

sheer away somewhat so as not to get stranded. The whole place

swarmed with those grinning devils. They evidently had some way

of getting to and from their boats behind the stockade. They did

not fire a shot at us, - not at first, - and that was the most

aggravating thing that you can imagine. They seemed to know

something that we did not, and they only just waited. As the tide

sank lower and lower, and the mud-banks grew steeper, and the

sun on them began to fizzle, a steam arose that nigh turned our

stomachs. Why, the sight of them alone would make your heart sink!

The slime shimmered in all kinds of colors, like the water when

there's tarring work on hand, and the whole place seemed alive

with all that was horrible. The alligators kept off the boats and

the banks close to us, but the thick water was full of eels and

water-snakes, and the mud was alive with water-worms and leeches,

and horrible, gaudy-colored crabs. The very air was filled with

pests, - flies of all kinds, and a sort of big-striped insect that

they call the "tiger mosquito," which comes out in the daytime and

bites 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 very

white and pale, and they was all pretty silent for a while. All at

once the crowd of Malays behind the stockade began to roll their

eyes and wave their kreeses and to shout. We knew that there was

some cause for it, but couldn't make it out, and this exasperated

us more than ever. Then the captain sings out to us to attack the

stockade; so out we all jumped into the mud. We knew it couldn't

be very deep just there, on account of the gravel beneath. We was

knee-deep in a moment, but we struggled, and slipped, and fell over

each other; and, when we got to the top of that bank, we was the

queerest, filthiest-looking crowd you ever see. But the mud hadn't

took the heart out of us, and the Malays, with their necks craned

over the stockade, and with the nearest thing to a laugh or a

smile that the devil lets them have, drew back and fell, one on

another, when they heard our cheer.

Between them and us there was a bit of a dip where the water had

been running in the ebb-tide, but which seemed now as dry as the

rest, and the foremost of our men charged down the slope, and then

we knew why they had kept silent and waited! We was in a regular

trap. The first ranks disappeared at once in the mud and ooze in the

hollow, and those next were up to their armpits before they could

stop. Then those Malay devils opened on us, and while we tried to

pull our chaps out, they mowed us down with every kind of small arm

they had - and they had a queer assortment, I tell you.

It was all we could do to get back over the slope and to the

boats again, - what was left of us, - and, as we hadn't hands enough

left even to row with full strength, we had to make for the ship as

fast as we could, for their boats began to pass out in a cloud

through the narrow by the stockade. But before we went we saw them

dragging the live and dead out of the mud with hooks on the end of

long bamboos; and there was terrible shrieks from some poor fellows

when the kreeses gashed through them. We daren't wait; but we saw

enough to make us swear revenge. When we saw them devils stick the

bleeding heads of our comrades on the spikes of the stockade, there

was nigh a mutiny because the captain wouldn't let us go back and

have another try for it. He was cool enough now; and those of us

that knew him and understood what was in his mind, when the smile on

him showed the white teeth in the corners of his mouth, felt that

it 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 long

till the men was all on fire; and nigh every man took a turn with

the grindstone at his cutlass, till they was all like razors. The

captain mustered every one on board, and detailed every man to

his 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 got

six-pounders and twelve-pounders in most of the boats, for we was

to 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 we

thought it better to wait till dawn, for it was bad work among the

mud-banks at the ebb in the dark. So we hung on a while, and then

when the sky began to lighten, we made for the fort. When we got

nigh enough to see it, there wasn't a man of us who didn't want to

have some bloody revenge, for there, on the spikes of the stockade,

were the heads of all the poor fellows that we had lost the day

before, with a cloud of mosquitoes and flies already beginning to

buzz around them in the dawn. But beyond that again, they had

painted the outside of the stockade with blood, so that the whole

place 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 boats

came out from beyond the fort, and for a while we had to turn our

attention to these. The small guns served us well, and we made a

rare havoc among the boats, for our shot went crashing through them,

and quite a half of them were sunk. The water was full of bobbing

heads; but the tide carried them away from us, and their cries and

shrieks came from beyond the fort and then died away. The other

boats recognized their danger, and turned and ran in through the

narrow, and let us alone for hours after. Then we went at the fort

again. We turned our guns at the piles of the stockade, and, of

course, every shot told, - but their fire was at too close quarters,

and with their rifles and matchlocks, and the rest, they picked us

off too fast, and we had to sheer off where our heavy metal could

tell without our being within their range. Before we sheered off,

we could see that the hole we had knocked in the stockade was only

in the outer work, and that the real fort was within. We had to

go down the river, as we couldn't go far enough across without

danger from the banks, and this only gave us a side view, and, do

what we would, we couldn't make an impression, - at least any that

we could see.

That was a long and awful day! The sun was blazing on us like

a furnace, and we was nigh mad with heat, and flies, and drouth,

and anger. It was that hot that if you touched metal it fairly

burned you. When the tide was near the flood, the captain ordered

up 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, we

should have to sheer off again. By this time our shot was nearly

run out, and we thought that we should have to give over; but all

at once came order to prepare for attack, and in a few minutes

we was working for dear life across the river, straight for the

stockade. The men set up a cheer, and the pirates showed over the

top of the stockade and waved their kreeses, and more than one of

them sliced off pieces of the heads on the spikes, and jeered at

us, as much as to say that they would do the same for us in our

turn! When we got close up, every one of them had disappeared,

and there was a silence of the grave. We knew that there was

something up, but what the move was we could not tell, till from

behind the fort came rushing again a fleet of boats. We turned

on them, and, like we did before, we made mincemeat of them. This

time the tide made for us, and the bobbing heads went by us in

dozens. Now and then there was a wild yell, as an alligator pulled

some one down into the mud. This went on for a little, and we had

beaten them off enough to be able to get our grappling - irons

ready for climbing the stockade, when the second lieutenant, who

was in the outer boat, called out:

"Back with the boats! Back, quick, the tide is falling!" and

with one impulse we began to shove off. Then, in an instant, the

place became alive again with the Malays, and they began firing

on us so quickly that before we could get out into the whirl of

tide there was many a dead man in our boats.

There was no use trying to do any more that day, and after we

had done what could be done for the wounded, and patched up our

boats, for there was plenty of shot-holes to plug, we pulled back

to the ship. The alligators had had a good day, and as we went

along, and the mud-banks grew higher and higher with the falling

of the tide, we could see them lie out lazily, as if they had been

gorged. Aye! And there was enough left for the ground-sharks out

in the offing; for the men on board told us that every while on the

ebb something would go along, bobbing up and down in the swell,

till presently there would be a swift ripple of a fin, and then

there was no more pirate.

Well! when we got aboard, the rest was mighty anxious to know

what had been done; and when we began, with the heads on spikes of

the red stockade, the men ground their teeth, and Old Land's End

up, and says he:

"The Red Stockade! We'll not forget the name! It'll be our turn

next, and then we'll paint it inside this time." And so it was that

we came to know the place by that name. That night the captain was

like a man that would do murder. His face was like steel, and his

eyes was as red as flames. He didn't seem to have a thought for any

one; and everything he did was as hard as though his heart were

brass. 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 soon

as you can. We're too shorthanded already!"

Up to now, we all had known him treat men as men, but now he only

thought of us as machines for fighting! True enough, he thought the

same 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 of

brag and chaff, for all they was so grim earnest, and some of the

old fooling went on about blood and tortures. The captain came on

deck, and as he walked along, he saw one of the men that didn't like

the kreeses, and he didn't evidently like the looks of him, for he

turned on his heel and said savagely:

"Send the doctor here!" So the doctor came, and the captain he

says to him, cold as ice, and as polite as you please:

"Dr. Fairbrother, there is a sick man here! look at his pale

face. Something wrong with his liver, I suppose. It's the only thing

that makes a seaman's face white when there's fighting ahead. Take

him down to sick bay, and do something for him. I'd like to cut the

accursed white liver out of him altogether!" and with that he went

down 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 Stockade

would be the last, one way or the other! We had to wait two more days

before that could come off, for the boats and tackle had to be made

ready, and there wasn't going to be any mistakes made this time.

It was just after midnight when we began to get ready. Every man

was to his post. The moon was up, and it was lighter nor a London

day, and the captain stood by and saw every man to his place, and

nothing escaped him. By and by, as No. 6 boat was filling, and before

the officer in charge of it got in, came the midshipman, young

Tempest, and when the captain saw him he called him up and hissed

out before all the crew:

"Why are you so white? What's wrong with you, anyway? Is your

liver out of order, too?"

True enough, the boy was white, but at the flaming insult the

blood 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 as

a ramrod:

"I can't help the blood in my face, sir. If I'm a coward because

I'm pale, perhaps you are right. But I shall do my duty all the

same!" and with that he pulled himself up, touched his cap, and went

down into the boat.

Old Land's End was behind me in the boat with him, number five to

my six, and he whispered to me through his shut teeth:

"Too rough that! He might have thought a bit that he's only a

child. And he came all the same, even if he was afeer'd!"

We stole away with muffled oars, and dropped silently into the

river on the floodtide. If any man had had any doubts as to whether

we was in earnest at other times, he had none then, anyhow. It was

a pretty grim time, I tell you, for the most of us felt that whether

we won or not this time, there would be many empty hammocks that

night in the "George Ranger;" but we meant to win even if we went

into the maws of the sharks and crocodiles for it. When we came up

close on the flood we lost no time but went slap at the fort. At

first, of course, we had crawled up the river in silence, and I

think that we took the beggars by surprise, for we was there before

the time they expected us. Howsomever, they turned out quick enough

and there was soon music on both sides of the stockade. We didn't

want to take any chance on the mud-banks this time, so we ran in

close under the stockade at once and hooked on. We found that they

had repaired the breach we had made the last time. They fought like

devils, for they knew that we could beat them hand to hand, if we

could once get in, and they sent round the boats to take us on the

flank, as they had done each time before. But this time we wasn't

to be drawn away from our attack, and we let our boats outside

tackle 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 have

fallen, if we hadn't got in we should have our old trouble with the

mud-banks all over again. But we knew it, too, and we didn't lose no

time. Still, men is only men, after all, and we couldn't fly up over

a stockade out of a boat, and them as did get up was sliced about

dreadful, - 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 of

time 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 Red

Stockade, and the best half of the boats was cut off from us. We

had some thirty men left, and we knew we had to fight whether we

liked it or not. It didn't much matter, anyhow, for we was game

to go through with it. The captain, when he seen the state of

things, gave his orders to take the boats out into mid-stream, and

shell and shot the fort, whilst we was to do what we could to get

in. It was no use trying to bridge over the slobs, for the masts

of an old seventy-four wouldn't have done it. We was in a tight

place, then, I can tell you, between two fires, for the guns in the

boats couldn't fire high enough to clear us every time, without

going over the fort altogether, and more than one of our own shots

did some of us a harm. The cutter came into the game, and began

sending the war-rockets from the tubes. The pirates didn't like

that, I tell you, and more betoken, no more did we, for we got as

much of them as they did, till the captain saw the harm to us, and

bade them cease. But he knew his business, and he kept all the

fire of the guns on the one side of the stockade, till he knocked

a hole that we could get in by. When this was done, the Malays left

the outer wall and went within the fort proper. This gave us some

protection, since they couldn't fire right down on us, and our guns

kept 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 hurling

over the stockade on to us.

So the time came when we found that we must make a dash for the

fort, or get picked out, one by one, where we stood. By this time

some of our boats was making for the opening, and there seemed less

life behind the stockade; some of them was up to some move, and

was sheering off to make up some other devilment. Still, they had

their guns in the fort, and there was danger to our boats if they

tried to cross the opening between the piles. One did, and went

down with a hole in her within a minute. So we made a burst inside

the stockade, and found ourselves in a narrow place between the

two walls of piles. Anyhow, the place was drier, and we felt a

relief in getting out of up to our knees in steaming mud. There

was 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 do

what we would, we couldn't get no nigher. A shot from a pistol wiped

out the lieutenant, and for a moment we thought we was without a

leader. Young Tempest was with us, silent all the time, with his

face as white as a ghost, though he done his best, like the rest of

us. 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 called

again, 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 at

quarters. Then Jack Pring, that we called the Giant, for he was

six feet four and as strong as a bullock, spoke out:

"It's no duty, sir, to fling an officer into hell!" The lad

looked at him and nodded.

"Volunteers for dangerous duty!" he called, and every man of

the 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 flag

that the pirates flew on the flagstaff in the fort. Then he took the

small 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 that

rang again.

"Oh, my eye!" says he, has any one got a crane to hoist in

the Giant?" The lad told us to catch hold of him, and when Jack

hesitated, says he:

"We've always been friends, Jack, and I want you to be one of

the last to touch me!" So Jack laid hold of him by one side, and Old

Land's End stepped out and took him by the other. The rest of us

was, 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 great

heave together and they sent the boy clean over the top of the

stockade. We heard across the river a cheer from our boats, as we

began to scramble. There was a pause within the fort for a few

seconds, and then we saw the lad swarm up the bamboo flagstaff that

swayed under him, and tear down the black flag. He pulled our own

flag from his breast and hung it over the top of the post. And he

waved his hand and cheered, and the cheer was echoed in thunder

across the river. And then a shot fetched him down, and with a wild

yell they all went for him, while the cheering from the boats came

like a storm.

We never knew quite how we got over that stockade. To this day

I can't even imagine how we done it! But when we leaped down, we

saw something lying at the foot of the flagstaff all red, - and the

kreeses was red, too! The devils had done their work! But it was

their last, for we came at them with our cutlasses, - there was

never a sound from the lips of any of us, - and we drove them like

a hail-storm beats down standing corn! We didn't leave a living

thing within the Red Stockade that day, and we wouldn't if there

had been a million there!

It was a while before we heard the shouting again, for the boats

was coming up the river, now that the fort was ours, and the men had

other work for their breath than cheering.

Between us, we made a rare clearance of the pirates' nest that

day. We destroyed every boat on the river, and the two ships that we

was looking for, and one other that was careened. We tore down and

burned every house, and jetty, and stockade in the place, and there

was no quarter for them we caught. Some of them got away by a path

they knew through the swamp where we couldn't follow them. The sun

was getting low when we pulled back to the ship. It would have been

a merry enough home-coming, despite our losses, - all but for one

thing, and that was covered up with a Union Jack in the captain's

own boat. Poor lad! when they lifted him on deck, and the men came

round 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 and

kissed him on the forehead.

"We'll bury him to-morrow," he said, "but in blue water, as

becomes 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 the

chaplain read the service for the dead. Then he spoke a bit about

him, - how he had done his duty, and was an example to all, - and he

said how all loved and honored him. Then the men told off for the

duty stood ready to slip the grating and let the gallant boy go

plunging down to join the other heroes under the sea; but Old Land's

End stepped out and touched his cap to the captain, and asked if he

might say a word.

"Say on, my man!" said the captain, and he stood, with his cocked

hat in his hand, whilst Old Land's End spoke:

"Mates! ye've heerd what the chaplain said. The boy done his

duty, and died like the brave gentleman he was! And we wish he was

here now. But, for all that, we can't be sorry for him, or for what

he 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 would

win fame and honor, and become an admiral of the fleet, as others

have done before. But, so help me God! I'd rather see him lying

under the flag as we see that brave boy lie now, and know why he

was there, than I'd see him in his epaulettes on the quarter-deck of

the flagship! He died for his Queen and country, and for the honor

of the flag! And what more would you have him do!"