Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-07-10
I'd, lie air. after the hca- OF the


day, chilled me through my jacket.
The "IIispaniola" still lay where she
had anchored; but, sure enough, there
was the Jolly Rogcr-the black flag of
piracy-fying from her peak. Even as
/ looked there came another red flash
| and another report, that sent the
echoes Gathering. and one more round
shot whistled through the air. 1t was
the last of the cannonade.
l lay for some time, watching the
hustle which succeeded the attack
Men were demolishing something with
nxes on the beach near the stockade;
the poor jolly-boat l afterward dis
covered. Away, near the mouth of tie
river, a great fire was glowing among
the trees. and between that point and
the ship one of the gigs kept coming
and going. the men, whom l had seen
SO gloomy, shouting at the oars like
children. But there was sound In
their voices which suggested rum.
At length thought 1 might return
toward the stockade. Twas pretty far
down on the low, sandy spit that in.
closes the anchorage to the east, and is
Joined a half-water to Skeleton island;
and now, as I rose to my feet, saw,
some distance further down the spit.
and rising from among low bushes, an
isolated rock pretty high, and peculiar
ly white in color. It occurred to me
that this might be the white rock of
which Ben Gum had spoken. and that
l L..
wanted, and I should know where to
look for one.
Then l skirted among the woods until
l had regained the rear. or shoreward
side. of the stockade, and was soon
warmly welcomed by the faithful
party.
l had soon told my story, and began
made Of unsquared trunks of pine
roof, walls and floor. The latter stood
in several places as much as u foot or a
foot and half above the surface of the
sand. There was a porch at the door,
and under this porch the little spring
welled up into an artificial basin of
rather odd kind-no other tina o a great
ships kettle of iron, with the bottom
knocked out, and sunk ito her bear
iDgs," as the captain said, among the
sand.
Little had been left beside the frame
work of the house; but in one corner
there was a stone slab laid down by
way of hearth, and an old rusty iron
basket to contain the fire.
The slopes of the knoll and all the
inside Of the stockade had been cleared
of timber to build the house. and we
could see by the stumps what fine
and lofty grove had been destroyed.
Most of the soil had been washed
away or buried in drift after the re-
moval of the trees; only where the
streanlet ran down from the kettle a
thick bed of moss and some ferns and
little creeping bushes We're still green
among the sand. Very close around the
stockade-too close for defense, they
said-the wood still nourished high and
dense, all OF fir on the land side. but
toward the sea with large admixture
of live oaks.
The cold evening breeze, of which
have spoken, whistied through every
chinlS of the rude building, and
BprinlSled the floor with a continual
rain of fine sand. There was sand in
our eyes, sand in our teeth, sand in our
suppers, sand dancing in the spring a t
the bottom Of the kettle, for all the
world like porridge beginning to boil.
Our chimney was 4 square hole in the
roof; it was but little part of the
smoke that found its way out. and the
rest eddied about the house, and kept
us coughing and piping the eye.
Add to this that Gray. the new man,
had his face tied up in bandage for a
cut he had got in breaking away from
the nutineers; and that poor old Tom
Redruth, still unburied, lay along the
wall, stiff and stark. under the Union
Jack.
If we had been allowed to sit idle,
we should all have fallen in the blues,
but Capt. Smollett was never the man
for that. All hands were called up be-
fore him, and he divided us into
watches. The doctor, and Gray, and l,
O., 10