Pieces Of Eight Page 7

  "Rum!" cried Bentham now. "And lay out the chart!" The crew cheered, and with much good humour kegs of spirits were brought up from below decks. A big empty cask was then up-ended by the landward quarterdeck rail to serve as a table, and as the shipmasters and their leading men gathered around it, all hands pressed forward, as befitted their status as equals under the articles they'd signed.

  "So," said Bentham, one finger on the chart and one pointing towards land, three miles to the north. "That there's Isabel Bay, into which the River Ferdinand runs. The bay's a thousand yards wide at the mouth, between Cape Castille and Cape Aragon, with a great anchorage within, and Isabel Island sits between the two capes, like a sausage in a dog's jaws."

  "So where's the fort?" said Captain Parry.

  "And the dollars!" said Captain Nichols.

  "See here -" said Bentham, studying the chart "- to the east of Isabel Island is sandbanks and shoals. The safe channel lies to the west, between the island and Cape Aragon, past the fort, which is down here at the southernmost tip of the island."

  Nichols took off his hat and fanned himself against the heat.

  "If we take the channel," he said, "we'll be under fire from the fort all the way in. An' it'll be eighteen-pounders at least, and maybe twenty-fours."

  "It's twenty-four-pounders," said Bentham, "but we'll go in at sunset with the light in the gunners' eyes, and them having to split their fire between three ships, and ourselves firing back to hide us with smoke."

  "Hmm…" they said.

  "And," said Bentham, "the fort's got emplacements for thirty guns, but there's only a dozen pieces within the walls."

  "Aye," said Parry, nodding, "that's often the way of it. No bugger'll pay for the full set! Not King George, King Louis, nor the King o' the Dagoes."

  "A dozen twenty-four-pounders?" said Nichols. "That's still enough to sink the three of us, even with the sun in their eyes."

  "Not if they're spread round the fort, so as to cover an attack from any side," said Bentham. "There's only five guns facing the channel, and the guns aren't exercised more than once in three months!"

  "How d'you know that?" said Nichols.

  "Same way as I know that an' more," said Bentham. "The fort's a slaving station - blacks is offloaded there from the middle passage, and paid for from a chest of dollars in the fort's strong room - an' there's never less than twenty thousand dollars in the chest!"

  "Ahhh!" they said.

  "But how'd you know?" said Nichols.

  "Ask him -" Bentham winked confidentially at O'Byrne "- he's the boy for secrets!"

  O'Byrne stepped forward, cheered by the merry recollection he was about to share.

  "We know," he said, "'cos we took a Dago slaver in June. And when we'd done pluckin' 'em, we hung the crew by the ankles and I beat their bollocks with a belaying pin until they told us all they knew."

  "Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Danny Bentham, holding his crotch with both hands and staggering bandy-legged as if in agony. That drew a great laugh, for men followed where Bentham led. He had that gift. He cut a fine figure - and was respected for being big and dangerous; especially dangerous, for Bentham could turn nasty over a wrong word or a sour look, and then God help any man within reach of his long arm and his Spanish sword.

  So they laughed, Nichols, Parry and the rest, and they nudged one another and were impressed. And when Danny Bentham explained his plan for taking the fort, they cheered from the bottom of their hearts. Across the water, Sweet Anne's, and Favourite's people cheered along with them, for they caught the merry mood even if they didn't know what was afoot.

  As the sun set, Sweet Anne and Favourite formed line astern on Hercules, and the three came up the Ferdinand River with the flaming sun to larboard and the guns of the fort booming and thudding ineffectually on their starboard beams. Just as Bentham had predicted, they came through unscathed, and in the great anchorage to the north of Isabel Island they found five slavers that duly lowered their colours, and cringed in fright, and begged only to be left alone.

  At dawn the three ships, now double-anchored, hoisted out their longboats. Loaded with armed men, they pulled for the northern end of Isabel Island, each with a ship's captain at the helm: Bentham leading, followed by Parry, followed by Nichols.

  "Give a song, you men!" cried Bentham, leading off with the first line:

  "Farewell an' adieu to you fair Spanish ladies…"

  "Farewell an' adieu for 'tis parted we'll be!" they sang.

  "For we have our orders to sail home to Eng-er-land…"

  "And t'will be a sad time till we shall see thee!"

  And thus, with a great deal of noise, and much waving of blades and firing off of pistols, the three boats crossed the anchorage to their chosen destination, which was thickly wooded and the only part of their journey that was not under plain sight from the fort at the other end of the island.

  In due course, the three longboats emerged from the cover of the trees, and only the oarsmen and helmsmen could be seen as the boats returned to their squadron, passing out of view behind the flagship. Then came more roaring and carousing and the boats emerged, dense-packed again, pulling strongly for the shore. As before, they returned with just oarsmen and helmsmen to take on yet another load of armed men. And so it continued, to and fro.

  These activities were studied with interest by a group of gentlemen peering through telescopes on the northern ramparts of the fort. They wore the cocked hats of sea-service officers, and their blue coats and red vests marked them out as men of the Real Armada Española: the Spanish Royal Navy.

  Their commander, Capitan de Navio Frederico Alberto Zorita, turned from his telescope to smile at his subordinates.

  "And so they spoil a good plan!" he said.

  * * *

  Chapter 10

  Dawn, 2nd October 1752

  The southern anchorage

  The island

  "All hands mustered and ready for to march, Mr Gunner!" "Very good, Mr Joe," said Israel Hands, and did his best to look over the men as Long John would have done.

  There were a dozen of them, paraded on the beach, with muskets, water canteens, and big hats constructed of sliced and plaited palm-leaves for protection against the sun. They stood grinning and yarning, some of them chewing tobacco, but they were cheerful and ready, and Israel walked up and down the line, making sure that each one had a good pair of shoes, and water in his canteen rather than rum, and that no lubber had primed his firelock without orders.

  "You! And you!" cried Israel Hands, picking two of the nimblest. "You're the advance guard, which shall march ahead as lookouts." Then he picked the two biggest: "You two shall follow on behind, a-walloping and a-belting of them as won't keep up!" The men laughed.

  "And the rest shall proceed in line astern of myself and Mr Joe, and shall attend to my signals -" He put a bosun's call to his lips and blew a single sharp note. "Well?" he said.

  "Forward!" they cried.

  "And this?" he said, blowing a sharp double-note.

  "'Vast heaving!" cried some.

  "Belay!" cried others.

  "Stop!" said Israel Hands. "That'n means stop!"

  "Stop!" they said, nodding.

  "And this?" A long trembling call.

  "Enemy in sight!" they roared.

  There were a few more simple signals: easily understood, and a credit to Israel Hands's capacity to innovate, since never before had he led men through a forest.

  "Stand by!" cried Israel Hands.

  "Huzzah!" cried the men.

  "Forward!" cried Israel Hands.

  In single file, they set off up the beach towards the palms, leaving the tented encampment almost empty. "Camp Silver" they were calling it now. A few men were still working on the wreck of Lion, while most of the others had already left - on Long John's orders - on expeditions led by Black Dog and Sarney Sawyer.

  There was also a small guard of ten men left to defend the camp with a quartet of four-pounders charged with cani
ster and mounted in their carriages on firing platforms of ships timbers, the better to load and train in case of attack. These men were also responsible for Long John's parrot, who'd never go willingly into a boat - even with him - and awaited its master's return here, with its own perch and a supply of food and drink, and a bit of shade rigged over it.

  The bird squawked at Israel Hands as he scrunched past, ankle deep in sand, bobbing its head in greeting.

  "Ahoy there!" it cried, and Israel Hands grinned, knowing himself favoured, and he plodded on.

  He smiled again as he looked at Mr Joe marching ahead, a heavy Jamaican cane-cutlass in his belt, ready to clear a path if need be. The lad was a slim, wiry black who'd grown up with such a quick temper that he failed to see the joke when an overseer, finding Joe bent over to cut cane, had merrily cracked his arse with a whip. Thus Joe replied with a cutlass slash that removed a diagonal quarter of the overseer's head, plus all hope of promotion for Joe in his career as a plantation slave, obliging him to seek advancement elsewhere.

  Israel Hands grinned at the thought. Joe was quick and intelligent, and under Hands's instruction he was speedily learning his letters and his numbers, to the point that he was now rated gunner's mate, and addressed as Mr Joe by all hands, even Long John himself.

  Joe had his little faults, of course. He could not stand to be teased, and he was dreadfully afraid of the dark, since as a child he'd been told by his mother that, if he didn't behave, at midnight the Jumba-Jumba man would come in his big black hat and fetch Joe away in a sack. Even at nineteen years of age, Joe was still looking out for him, but Israel Hands thought no worse of the lad for that, since all sailormen believed such things: Mr Hands himself - when alone - would never look over the side at night for fear of seeing Davy Jones, the hideous fiend that lay in wait for the souls of drowned men.

  A day's marching, with stops for meals and the heat of noon, had taken Israel Hands's team clear of the palms and sweltering jungle that lined the island's southern shores. Steering by a small brass compass, they had moved steadily north into a terrain of sandy hills interspersed with small, open clearings surrounded by broadleaf trees: mainly live- oaks, but with an increasing number of pines, and all with dense foliage at their bases. With night falling, they set about making camp - and made their first discovery.

  "Look, Mr Hands," said Joe. "You see them stumps there?"

  "Aye, lad," said Israel Hands. The spot they'd chosen was a clearing that the forest was slowly reclaiming. About a dozen big trees, all pines, had been felled many years ago, leaving stumps which were now so heavily overgrown with moss and fungus, and so surrounded by undergrowth and young trees, that it was hard to spot them. But they were there if you looked; proof that men had been this way before.

  "Looks like this island ain't so secret as some would believe!" said Israel Hands.

  "Aye, Mr Hands," said Joe, peering into the darkness between the standing trees. "Now we get back with the others, eh? And we make the fire?"

  "Aye," said Israel Hands, smiling, for the others were only a few steps away.

  That night Joe had the horrors and no mistake. He woke constantly. He heard noises in the night. He got up and paced about, and repeatedly told the sentries to keep a sharp lookout.

  "Yes, Mr Joe! No, Mr Joe!" they said, levelling their muskets at nothing, just to keep him quiet.

  They all thought him a bloody fool, until early next morning when the expedition made its second discovery. As the sun came up, those on guard duty saw a figure peering at them from behind a tree: looking, but afraid to come forward.

  "There he is, Mr Hands!" said one of the sentries. "It's a white man, not a savage. Miserable-looking sod, though." He cocked his musket. "Shall I take a pop?"

  "No!" said Israel Hands, as the camp stirred and men gathered around him. "I think I know who that is!" He stepped forward and called out:

  "Ahoy there! Come alongside! We're all friends here. Friends and jolly companions."

  There was a stir of surprise as the bedraggled figure left the cover of his tree, and - with utmost nervousness - crept forward, hunched over in humble supplication, with fearful eyes staring out of a simple, pleasant face. He was bareheaded, bare-chested and barefoot, deeply sunburnt with a sprouting beard and hair like broken straw. All that he had in the world was a pair of breeches, an old belt, and a sailor's knife in a sheath. But the thing that drew gasps of surprise was the creature holding his hand like a child and scampering along beside him: a large and most beautiful monkey.

  The ape was handsomely marked, with thick fur - mostly dark brown, apart from its creamy breast, arms and face - and a shock of black, upstanding hair on top of its head. It had the most appealing and intelligent face and came forward entirely without fear.

  When the man thought he was close enough, he stopped, and began to speak in a self-pitying whine.

  "I'm Benn Gunn, I am," he said, shaking off the monkey and clapping his hands together as if in prayer. "Poor Benn Gunn, what's lived alone for weeks with not a bite of Christian food, nor what's not spoke to a Christian soul."

  "Step up, Ben Gunn!" said Israel Hands. "You know me, don't you?"

  "That I do, Mr Hands," said Ben Gunn. "An' you knows me, for I'm Ben Gunn what was blown clear o' the old Walrus in the battle, and what clung to a shattered timber and what floated ashore and what's lived on fruits and roots these past weeks and never a taste of pork nor cheese… especially cheese."

  Ben Gunn was duly fed and watered, and the monkey became an instant favourite for its friendliness and cleverness. Jumping from man to man, it took the bits of fruit they offered, and looked its benefactors in the eye with the most charming expression.

  "Bugger's almost human!"

  "Ain't he a jolly little bleeder!"

  "Look at the little face on him - he's laughing!"

  "Chk-chk-chk!" said the monkey, climbing into Mr Joe's arms and reaching its small, inquisitive hand towards one of the pistols hooked to his belt.

  "Belay!" said Joe, laughing. "Don't touch that, child, else you be blowin' me bollocks off me!" And the men laughed.

  But always the creature ran back to Ben Gunn.

  "Followed me, he did," said Ben Gunn, stroking its head. "There's a whole tribe of 'em in the trees, up that way -" he pointed vaguely into the forest. "Don't reckon they ain't never seen men before, and they's tame as pussy-cats… ain't you, matey?"

  "Chk-chk-chk!" said the monkey.

  The rest of Israel Hands's expedition was uneventful, except that it took nearly five days to reach the far north of the island and return to Camp Silver in the southern anchorage, not the two days they'd expected. Sarney Sawyer and Black Dog told the same tale on their return - the island was at least twice the size they'd supposed it to be, based on what Flint had told them.

  There was just one further discovery to be made, which awaited Israel Hands on his return.

  "Look, Mr Gunner," said one of those who'd been guarding the camp. He was holding out the remains of a small, broken egg. "Long John's parrot laid it. It's a she!"

  "Well bugger me tight!" said Israel Hands. He looked at the big green bird, rocking on its perch nearby. "That'll tickle Long John when he gets back!" Hands halfway reached out to stroke the bird, but then recalled Black Dog's missing fingers and thought better of it.

  "Bugger me tight!" said the parrot.

  Silver's voyage round the island, taking bearings and soundings, took a week. The morning after the jolly-boat had finally grounded in the shallows of the southern anchorage, he called a council of his leading men in his tent - the biggest in the camp - where there was a table and some chairs saved out of Lion.

  First on the agenda was the matter of Ben Gunn. With his monkey trailing along behind him, Gunn was brought before them. He stood outside the big tent, in the cool of the early morning, awaiting their judgement.

  "Well, Ben Gunn," said Silver, "it appears you've been Flint's man. So, whose man are you now?"

 
; Ben Gunn blinked in fright. He shuffled his bare feet in the sand, and looked up at the tall figure of John Silver in his blue coat. He marvelled at the sight of Captain Flint's parrot on Silver's shoulder, nuzzling his ear as once it had Flint's. Ben Gunn was further puzzled by the presence of Mr Billy Bones, standing alongside Israel Hands, Black Dog and Sarney Sawyer. The latter three, he knew to be Silver's men… But Billy Bones was Flint's to death and beyond… or so Ben Gunn believed.

  "Mr Gunn's been living wild," said Israel Hands. "He's more than half witless and he was frightened to come near us. He was starving when we found him, weren't you, Ben Gunn?"

  "Aye," said Ben Gunn. "Mr Hands gave me some cheese!" He smiled. "He likes cheese, does poor Ben Gunn!" The smile died. "An' he don't like bein' hungry, an' he don't like bein' lonely, an' he stands ready now to sign articles and do his duty… if only he might have permission to come aboard." And with that he raised a dirty finger to his dirty brow, and held it there, mouth open, awaiting Silver's decision.

  "Huh!" said Silver. "Come aboard, Benn Gunn! There's work to do, and a need for hands to do it. You shall sign articles, and be judged afresh." He pointed to a gang of men standing ready with their tools for the day's work clearing the final remains of Lion. "You join them there. At the double now!"

  "Aye-aye, sir!" said Ben Gunn joyfully, and he skipped off at great speed before Silver should change his mind.

  "Poor sod!" said Sarney Sawyer.

  "He were a good man once, Mr Bosun," said Israel Hands. "He were a prime seaman, till he got flogged and it turned his mind."

  "Flint's work?" said Sawyer.

  "No," said Billy Bones stoutly, "Cap'n Springer's! That no- seaman swab as ran the Elizabeth aground. Ben Gunn was at the helm, and Springer flogged him for it, though it were Springer's fault, as all hands knew!"

  "Aye," said Black Dog and Israel Hands.

  "Flint warned him!" said Billy Bones. "Flint wanted a boat ahead taking soundings, but Springer wouldn't have it. Flint had the right of it all the while."