Chapter 21: The Attack
Battle is inevitable at this point. Ordering a round of brandy poured for each man, Captain Smollett lays out his plan for defense: a gunner on each side of the cabin, and two along the back. The small peephole windows spaced regularly along each wall were purpose-built to allow rifles to be fired from relative safety, but if the pirates are able to reach these windows themselves, the defenders will be sitting ducks inside. Maintaining constant fire on all fronts is crucial. Jim will be helping pass and reload muskets, as will Smollett, who somehow judges himself a worse shot than the guy who only exists to brush Trelawney’s suit. A table of cutlasses sits in the center, should it come to that.
The group takes position, steeling themselves for the imminent attack.
…And they keep waiting. Silver’s promised hour passes. Smollett grumps at their tardiness.
Suddenly, the suit-brusher pulls his musket up and shoots; it’s a miss. A volley of returning fire from the woods hits all sides of the cabin, but the defenders remain safely tucked away inside.
Then, the fight starts in earnest. With a battle cry, seven pirates scale the stockade wall while another burst of fire from the treeline covers their advance; one shot shatters Livesey’s musket. Trelawney and the honest sailor fire back, killing two and scaring away a third, but four more are still on their feet and rushing the cabin. They’re at the walls impossibly fast; Trelawney’s other manservant is struck with a rifle after it’s yanked out of his hands, and a pirate threatens Livesey with a cutlass at the front door. Their saving grace is that the cabin has filled with powder smoke from the gunfire, reducing all visibility. The back of Jim’s hand is slashed in the confusion.
Smollett calls for cutlasses and orders them to take the fight outside, where at least they won’t be boxed in. Livesey chases his attacker down the hill and slices him across the face; meanwhile, the captain directs everyone else to charge around the side of the cabin. One of the pirates swings a blow at Jim, who tries to dodge but loses his footing and falls; the honest sailor jumps in and uses the opening to cut the opposing man down, which is a cool move and makes me wish I’d been calling this guy by name.
The rest of the pirates begin to climb over the wall at this point to join the others. They don’t make it very far; another from the first wave is shot at one of the windows, and only foe remaining in the melee drops his sword and flees in terror. With their numbers now reduced by five, and two more on the run, the pirates abandon their effort and retreat.
The few defenders who made it outside return to the cabin. Trelawney’s manservant is still unconscious from the blow he received, and Smollett is wounded. We don’t know the nature of the wound whatsoever; it’s implied to be bad, but Stevenson can’t be bothered to share that sort of information I guess, even though he doesn’t seem to mind telling us that the unfortunate suit-brusher was shot in the head. Rest in peace, you sweet prince.
Whatever injury befell him, Smollett is at least well enough to do some quick mental math, because he’s recalculating the odds the moment he learns the number of dead pirates. Their party lost three able bodies (again, apparently; a whole two of these are injuries of uncertain concern), but the pirates have been reduced by five, leaving the remaining tally at four versus nine. These numbers make the captain quite happy, especially since nobody who died has been particularly important.
He’d be even happier to learn that the guy at the cannon Trelawney shot during their escape yesterday succumbed to the wound, but we’re only learning this thanks to a footnote. I guess there’s no way to gracefully communicate this sort of information to the reader; you’d have to be a skilled writer or something to pull that off.