The Frontier, May 1926 — page 35: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“Let me relieve you there!” cried my uncle. “It’s only fair we should all take a turn at watching.” “Not till I say de vord, sir,” said the skipper, with simple dignity. “I am captain; I keep de vatch.” More musket shots struck the bar- ricade or whistled through the open- ing; and Johannsen explained the sit- uation to me. The buccaneers had landed a party somewhere to north- ward of the open space, and these men were now firing from the woods flush- ing the northern side of the slope. “They can’t get. atop this here hill, and come down on us sudden,” he said, “account of that there bluff face. Raises fifty feet or more right above the mouth. What they hopes to do is bash in that there barricade; then, I take it, they’ll board.” The captain, who was_ evidently watching the match flare, dodged aside; — and another report sounded aboard ship, while a great shower of dirt was thrown up over the barricade. “A leedle closer,” the skipper com- mented, “Vell, now, he gets a hit pretty soon, dot’s sure. Den ve see if der barricade holds.” According to his estimate, there were not over a dozen buccaneers in the land party, as he had counted but four men firing the gun on board. “Dey t’ink ve still half nine,” he said, “tnd dey von’t gome up der slope unless dey knock ofer der prestvorks.” “Ah!” croaked the seaman, Suggs. “If she holds!” The man was plainly fearful of those screaming projectiles; and I must confess that I, too, was keyed to 2a high pitch by now. Nor was I Suggs’ only companion in this. Nota man was smiling; even Uncle George was gripping the stock of his musket till his knuckles gleamed white; O’Donnell was spitting nervously and muttering under his breath, “T’ll stake my reputation she holds!’ declared the judge, at this juncture. Thereupon he launched into a dis- course on ballistics, angles of fire, foot- poundage-at-impact, errors in depth and dispersion, airing a knowledge of attillery fire which he had gained while serving as an officer during the Revo- lution. He had given many helpful suggestions while we were building the barricade, so that we had thrown up four layers of logs, with a cushion of dirt between each layer, or wall, and another thick cushion of earth against the outer side. He contended that the chances for direct hits were hardly THE DEVIL’S CALDRON one in five, since the ship would rock a little with the recoil, and there was also an angle of elevation to take imto account; and he declared that the shots would penetrate the stiff, brittle sides of a ship more easily than this cush- ioned breastwork. “Now,” he was. saying, “we must remember that an unsettled gun 2 But just here the long nme roared again; and the roundshot, with a ter- rifying screech, landed with a terrific crush fair in the center of the barri- cade! For one horrible instant I thought that at least half my friends had been . S\\ Vv Pa — | Ae {Ss ; 4 The round shot landed fair killed. All the front of the cavern was choked with a cloud of dust. Cries and confusion reigned within; and simultaneously the buccaneers be- low us yelled in triumph and a half dozen musketballs came _ singing through the opening. Then, to add to our temporary panic, the three remain- ing guns on the starboard side were touched off, one after the other. One shot struck the bluff overhead, bring- ing down a shower of rock; the second threw up a cloud of sand from the slope into our very faces; and the third struck a top log, and ricochetted against the roof, thence down again into the brook, where it sizzled and steamed like an angry devil. On top of all this, there came a sud- den command from the skipper. He had been fanning the dust away with his hat and peering sharply over one end of the breastwork ; now he ordered all of us into position. “But with heads down!” he stipu lated. “TI tell you ven to get up.” 25 "| AD WE obeyed him | to the letter, things might have gone differently; but in theexcitement most of us thrust up our heads, and fanned frantically at the dust with our hats, for all heard another wild hurrah from the buccan- eers on shore. Through the dust cloud I saw Gentry, with his cheek covered with court-plaster, come running out of the woods at the head of a dozen pirates; others caught sight of them at the same time; and, though the captain roared like an angry bull, Suggs thrust his musket forward and fired. This was like setting a torch to a magazine. On the instant all of us were firing— not merely the one musket, but all the others, as fast as we could pick them ° up, till the whole cavern mouth, and our front as well, was filled with acrid smoke. “Cutlases, you fools!” roared the captain, then. Most of us serambled to obey the order. “They’ve turned tail, the swabs!” Johannsen yelled. Back we plunged to the breastwork, fanning at the smoke for a better view. Then ali yelled triumphantly as we verified Johannsen’s report. The buccaneers were running back into the trees, leaving one man prone | on the ground. “Back, und Joat dem muskets!” roared the skipper. His voice fairly shook with rage, and we hurried to obey him. When the smoke cleared away he stood looking at us, his large, fat face a fiery red. All of us—even my uncle —avoided his glaring eye. “You know vot you done it?” he ex- ploded at last. “Dem swahs vas fooled py dot hit. Dey t’inks maype half is gone here. But do you shtay down like vot I tolt you? Ne. Und do you vait til I gifs de vort, und knock ’em ofer like pitchins, close in? Nein. Nacherally, so soon he sées vot he haf to oxpect, Chentry orters dem back. Und you shoots avay all dot powder und bag yoost vun man— yoost vun.” Not a man answered him; not a man raised his head. “Vell, now,” he went on, when we had finished reloading the guns, “you see how it is. The chudge vas right. Only vun log displaced a little, und der center buckled. Dey can’t get hits so fast ve can’t fix ’im between times, Gomicbooksacom