Captain Smollett stared at Long John and his companion until they disappeared, and then he came inside.
"I made Silver angry," he said, "so I think that before the hour is over, they'll attack.
We're outnumbered, I know, but this shelter gives us an advantage. We can defeat them.
Doctor, you'll take the door and shoot through the porch."
"Yes, Captain," said Dr. Livesey.
"Hunter, take the east side," Smollett continued, "and Joyce, you stand on the west side.
Mr. Trelawney—you're the best marksman—you and Gray take this long side, with the five musket holes.
Don't let the pirates get close enough to shoot us through our own holes, or things will turn very bad for us."
Finally, the captain turned to me. "Hawkins, you and I don't shoot well, so we'll reload muskets.
Lay out the cutlasses on top of the firewood so they'll be ready to use."
The sun climbed through the trees and burned away the morning fog.
We flung aside our coats and rolled up our sleeves.
Then we stood at our posts, in a fever of heat and anxiety.
"Excuse me, sir," said Joyce shyly. "Should I fire if I see anyone?"
"Of course!" the captain bellowed.
"Thank you, sir," Joyce replied in a quiet voice.
All of us were on the alert, straining our ears and eyes as an hour slowly passed.
Suddenly Joyce pulled up his musket and fired.
The noise scarcely died away before it was repeated, shot after shot, from every side.
Several bullets struck the log house, but none entered.
When the smoke cleared away, the stockade and the woods around it looked as quiet and empty as before.
"Did you hit anyone?" the captain asked.
"No, sir," Joyce said. "I don't think so, sir. I'm sorry."
"You're doing your best, lad," Captain Smollett said. "Load his gun, Hawkins."
Then the captain addressed us all. "It sounded to me as if most of the shots came from the north, so that's where the pirates will come from.
Stay at your posts, men. If the mutineers cross that fence, they'll take any unprotected musket hole and shoot us down like rats in our own stronghold."
Suddenly, with a loud cry, some pirates leapt from the woods on the north side and ran straight for the stockade.
At the same moment, gunfire came from the woods, and a rifle ball whistled through the doorway, blasting the doctor's musket into bits.
The pirates swarmed over the fence like monkeys as the squire and Gray fired again and again.
Three pirates fell, but one was more scared than hurt, and he climbed back over the fence and disappeared among the trees.
Meanwhile, from the woods, eight pirates kept up a hot burst of fire on the log house.
Shouting to each other for encouragement, four more pirates got over the fence, swarmed up the mound, and were immediately upon us.
Suddenly the head of Job Anderson appeared at the middle musket hole.
"Get them, men!" Job roared.
At the same time, another pirate grabbed Hunter's musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands through the hole,
and with one stunning blow, rammed it through and bashed the poor fellow senseless on the floor.
Meanwhile a third, running south to the porch, appeared in the doorway and attacked the doctor with his cutlass.
In an instant, our position was utterly reversed.
A moment ago, we were firing, under cover, at an exposed enemy.
Now it was we who were vulnerable.
The log house was full of gun smoke, cries, confusion, and the flashes and noise of pistol shots, when one loud voice rang in my ears.
"Out, lads! Fight them in the open! Cutlasses!" shouted the captain.
I snatched a cutlass from the pile and dashed out into the clear sunlight with someone close behind.
Before me, I saw the doctor pursue his attacker down the hill and then send him tumbling backward with a great slash across the face.
"Go around the house, lads!" Captain Smollett cried.
With my cutlass raised, I ran around the house as one pirate was shot dead by someone inside.
Then suddenly I was face to face with Job Anderson.
He roared and raised his cutlass above his head, where it flashed in the sunlight.
With no time to be afraid, I leapt aside, lost my footing, and rolled down the slope as the doctor shot another pirate.
By the time I got to my feet again, a man with a red nightcap and a cutlass between his teeth was halfway over the fence,
and another man was showing his head above the top.
Then, behind me, Gray shouted, "I've got him!" and killed Job Anderson.
The two men on the fence hesitated.
"Let's get out of here!" one pirate cried.
And the two of them clambered back over the fence and disappeared into the woods.
"Get back inside!" yelled the doctor. "Shoot from the house!"
The doctor, Gray, and I ran for the house, which was by this time somewhat cleared of smoke.
Hunter lay beside his musket hole, stunned though still alive, but Joyce was shot through the head, never to move again.
"The captain's wounded," Mr. Trelawney said, supporting Smollett under the shoulder.
"Have they run away?" asked the captain.
"All that could," the doctor said, "but five of them will never run again."
"They lost five!" exclaimed the captain. "Now it's four of us against nine of them. That's better than when we started."
The pirates were soon only eight in number, though, for the man shot by Mr. Trelawney on board the ship died that same evening of his wound.
But we didn't know that until much later.