The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-08-27

And a wailing voice cried over and
over again
"Here be Tom Morphew n his
bloody back, mates"
The firing sputtered and dwindled |
and was succeeded by prodigious
scuffiing and clatter of cutlasses.
"We1l do zee no harm, Jameses"
And now recognized Silver's voice.
Strike arms, Jameses r.
Three men, one of them with bro
ken arm, raced up to US.
'Long Johns In" sobbed one.
"Tom Morphew let 'em In" painted
a second.
"Excellently planned drawled Muir
ray.
/ heard the click of his snuffbox.
"Yet observe how fate hath tricked
our opponents" he went on. "They
timed their second attack to catch me
on the southern side of the stockade,
whereas it happens am strategically
disposed to exploit the disorder which
attends their success. 1 think we
shall teach the clever Master Silver a
lesson"
"Yes, If your men are loyal" 1 said
angrily.
"Any crew are loyal in victory, Rob-
ert," he answered.
"Ja," spoke Peter. "but you better
not let dot Teller talk about his bloody
back"
"You are squeamish, 1t seems, Pc
ter" murmured my great-uncle. swell,
shall even seek to humor you. Cou-
peau!"
His voice hardened.
"Oui, m'sieu."
The gunner stepped from the hud-
died ranks of the afterguard
"We attack"
But indeed the attack was made
, upon us. We had not advanced four
PAGES from the shelter of the block
house when fifty of the invaders
| stormed out of the night, bowling and
| waving their cutlasses. We fired one
smashing volley that dropped fourth
of them, and charged. A few pistol
| shots met us, but most of the Walrus'
men had discarded their muskets,, pre-
ferring to fight sailor-fashion with the
cutlass, and they were utterly disheart-
ened by the unexpectedness of the re-
ception we gave them.
| Murray's slender crossword was a
| bodkin of death which pricked path
through the densest ranks. On one
! side Of him Peter swung dubbed
! musket which shattered heads and
limbs at every step. On his other side
| Coupeau welded cutlass with equal
effect.
A yellow crescent moon was riding
over the treetops, and we halted in
the gap the attackers had torn in the
stockade to survey our situation by its
light Halfway down the hill a group
of the Walrus' men rallied and com
| menced to fire up at us; and Coupeau
was for pushing after them, but my
great-uncle checked him.
"No, no, Coupeaui Yonder Is John
Silver, astraddle of the stockade. See
he is helping up another fellow. They
have been cut off by our charge, and
If you please, we'll deal with them
first"
/ will admit pang Of sympathy for
Silver. He was not more than twenty
! yards from us and by dint of well
nigh incredible efforts with the other
man to boost him, he had succeeded
In scaling the stockade and was sit
, ting there, with his one leg dangling
inside. When we discovered him he
started to swing his leg over the top
evidently intending to abandon hi.
. companion. But whether because o.
, something the other man said or be
, cause he feared he must injure him
, self In dropping the eight feet to the
ground without anyone to check hi
, fall, he abruptly changed his min,
and faced about toward us very reso
luteIy, Selling hold of the crutch which
hung from his neck by its thong.
The man at the foot of the stockad
, gathered himself together like a coil
ing serpent and plucked long knit
from his belt. He had been In tn
, shadow until then, but now the moon
. light shOne over his torso and we rec
ognized him for the blind man, Pew
He had lost his green eye-shade an
his pock-marked face was cadaverou
: in the yellow glow. His eyes wer
open, and they seemed to smolde
DULY as they strained at us. Hi
knife glinted In his hand.
"Will you be assisted down and b
hanged whole, or must we cut 20
down, Silver?" hailed Murray.
He, like the rest of us, ignored tn
blind man. Our attention was fxe
upon Silver, his broad face very cali
!, in the moonlight.