Skull and Bones

Chapter 40

"John!" said Selena, "It's nearly night. The battery can't see us. We can work the ship out of reach of it, before daylight!" She looked over the quarterdeck rail at the line of heavy timbers, driven into the Savannah river bed, each with a heavy ringbolt secured at its cap: the dolphins present in any civilised anchorage to enable ships to move against the wind. "Even I know how it's done," she said. "Secure a line to one of them, and all hands haul on the line, and pull her from one to the next!"

"Aye, lass," he said. "And a proper little sea-madame you are, an' all!" and he sighed and reached out to stroke her cheek. She still had on the taffeta dress, and he was pierced to the heart with the loveliness of her. The two of them were alone on the quarterdeck, with all the Spaniards gone and a mass of the ship's people in the waist, making ready for what the council had agreed.

"Then why must you go ashore?" she said, and looked up to where the town lay uneasy in the dark, with the red glow of fires and occasional gunshots in the streets. "We could be gone from all that!" she said.

But Silver shook his head.

"I got to go, lass," he said, "for Flint — "

"And his half of the papers?"

"Aye," he said. "I do want them, and no mistake… but I'm going mainly for himself!" He sighed. "See here, lass… if we sail away from here, we'd never be safe! We'd forever be waiting for him — and by God and the Devil he'd come, and nothing'd stop him! For the bugger ain't human and he ain't holy, and we'll have no peace till he's dead!"

She fell silent. It was true… And in any case, all hands had voted to follow John Silver's plan. For when it came to hard choices, most wanted a share of Flint's treasure, and the rest had been won round by Silver, Israel Hands and by Blind Pew, who as always was listened to with respect, and who wanted the gold as a pension for his sightless future, when at last he should be cast up on dry land.

So Silver went over the side into Walrus's launch, with a dozen men who weren't the best in the ship by a long way, for there'd been suspicion among the hands as to what others might do, once they'd got their hands on both halves of Flint's papers! And suspicion became distrust, until Blind Pew proposed that those who went with Silver should be chosen by lot. Thus Silver sighed as he sat in the stern sheets, for he was facing Tom Morgan, who was stroke oar, and whose head was thick as teak, and beside him was Darby McGraw, an idle swab who was drunk more often than sober, and a precious pair they made for such a task!

But Mr Joe sat beside Silver, and was rated coxswain, and there were others who were near as good as him.

"Give way!" said Mr Joe, and the hands pulled muffled oars, sending the launch out into the dark: for all was deep shadow on the river with its up-rearing banks that left it deep in gloom.

Silver couldn't land at Savannah stairs, for the Spaniards might be there, but knowing the river as he did, he steered upstream, just past the town, to a muddy shoreline beneath the river banks. Here they landed and faced a near-vertical cliff of mud that would have left landmen helpless and dismayed. Landmen but not seamen. A grapnel was swung round on its line and heaved upward to take hold of the scrubby trees above. Then the nimblest man swarmed up the thin line carrying a block and a one-inch rope, and secured the block to a tree-trunk so those below could heave up the next man in a bowline, until enough were on the bank to haul directly on the line to lift their mates — by which means John Silver came last and rose like a soaring bird.

"Now then, lads," he said, "gather round, for there must be no noise."

"Aye!" they said: a ring of dark faces and pale eyes.

"We must march around the fort and enter the town from the land side."

"Aye!"

"It'll take some hours, for we must keep away from all that…"

They glanced towards the town, with its fires and gunshots, and nodded.

"We'll let them buggers fight, and we'll steer clear! For it ain't no matter of ours!"

"Aye!"

"Our course is to Jimmy Chester's house, the which I knows well."

"Will Flint be there, Cap'n?" said Mr Joe.

"Huh!" said Silver, and spat at the ground beneath his feet. "You bet your dick on it, my son! I've seen the swab, so I knows he's here! And he's seen Walrus, so he knows I'm here!" Silver nodded. "Oh, he's as sweet to see me as I am to see him… and the place agreed between us is Chester's house!"

They nodded, they growled in anticipation of the fight. They gripped their muskets, their pistols and blades.

"All hands together!" said Silver, and took a sight on the stars, and led them off into the night.

"So! What's afoot?" said Flint to Lazy Joe, with his fringed shirt and long gun, who'd crept into Jimmy Chester's grog shop with its shuttered windows and one candle burning. Lazy Joe was one of many who'd gathered, at Flint's orders, and who now sat together, stinking and sweating in a malodorous group, gulping and jumping at the gunfire outside, and feeling for their weapons.

Lazy Joe was given a chair at the table, with its solitary light, where Joe Flint sat with Billy Bones, Black Dog, and Jimmy Chester himself. A pewter mug of drink was shoved across the table and the wild man swallowed half and wiped his lips.

"They've fought 'emselves out, Cap'n," he said.

"What do you mean?" said Flint.

"Our'ns and the Spanish'ns. They fought to equal parts."

"Yes — go on."

"They fired volleys, with drums and flags an' all, and killed a lot of each other, and when they'd had enough, then our'ns fell back on the fort, and their'ns fell back on the town. But our woodsmen are out making trouble in the dark!"

"So that's the firing?"

"Aye!"

"But neither side has the advantage?"

"No."

"Good!" said Flint. "Here — " he held out a silver dollar.

"Thank you right kindly, Cap'n, sir!"

"Now, join your fellows!" said Flint, and Lazy Joe got up. As soon as he'd gone, Flint turned to Jimmy Chester. "This is excellent!" he said.

"Is it?" said Chester, plainly terrified.

"Aye," said Billy Bones.

"Aye," said Black Dog, but…

B-b-b-bang! went a whole volley of musketry outside.

"Uhhhhhh!" cried the malodorous ensemble, jumping to their feet.

"SIT DOWN!" roared Flint. "Or you'll bring them in among us!"

Silence. The room sat down.

"Good!" said Flint, and went back to his whispering: "Jimmy, we've done well! There's hundreds of them out there: redcoats and whitecoats, bogged down, each side afraid to advance in the dark — leaving room for us to manoeuvre. And meanwhile the dull and the slow of Savannah have run to the fort!"

"Where I should've gone," wept Chester, wringing his hands.

"And lose your share of eight hundred thousand?" said Flint.

"Mhhhh…" said Chester, whimpering like a child. He clutched at Flint's sleeve. "I can't do this," he whispered. "I'm a merchant, not a pirate!" And he groaned so loud that the room began to groan in company.

"Bah!" said Flint, losing patience. "Mr Bones!"

"Cap'n?"

"Take this swab and lock him in his cellar. And if he squeaks you may silence him by any means you please!"

"Ohhhhh…" said Chester as Billy Bones loomed over him in the candlelight and, seizing him by the collar, dragged him away. "Ohhhhh…"

Then clump went Billy's fist and all was peaceful except for a limp slithering, and Billy Bones's puffing and blowing, which faded as he left the room.

Flint stood up to speak.

"Now my roaring boys!" he said, turning on his tremendous charm. "Who's for a share of the greatest treasure — in gold, dollars and diamonds — that ever was brought together in one place?"

"Ah!" they said, and the mood in the room went up like a rocket that burst in joy, and Flint had them in his hands from that instant, and he gave them their orders and divided them into teams, each to separate duties. "There will be fighting," he said, "but such merry fellows as yourselves think nought of that!" And they grinned back at him, dazzled by Flint and dazzled by treasure, in their broken-nosed, foetid, animal squalor.

Huh! thought Flint. You'll fight, my little weevils… sufficient for the purpose!

And soon, led by Flint, the whole crowd of them left the grog shop and made their way towards the river…

"How long have they been gone?" said Selena.

"Over an hour, by the sandglass," said Cowdray.

The two peered out into the dark of dark of the river, with all those left aboard Walrus, mustered under Mr Warrington, to guard the ship while her captain was away. The only light in the ship came from a few dim lanterns placed so that men shouldn't go arse-over-tit; for down here on the river bed Blind Pew was as good as any other man, it being so dark what with the river's deep banks blocking out the moon and stars, that a blind man's sharp ears were better than eyes.

"Lis-ten!" he cried. "Something's com-ing!" And he cocked his head to one side, and stood with his green eye-shade and his corpse face, and a boat cloak wrapped round him, who always felt the cold of the night, such that men shuddered at the weird figure that he made. But he was right.

"Aye!" cried Warrington. "Stand by, all hands!"

"Aye-aye!" they cried.

"A boat," said Selena.

"Where is it, Mr Pew?" said Cowdray.

"There — " said Pew, thrusting out a bony finger.

Everyone looked.

"Fine on the larboard bow," said Warrington.

Clunk-clank! Clunk-clank! came the distant sound of oars against pins.

Then they gasped as a light shone: a lantern waving in the dark, dimly revealing the outline of a man standing in the bows of an oncoming boat.

"Walrus ahoy!" cried a voice, and the oar-beat sounded louder.

"I know that voice," said Selena.

"Walrus ahoy!"

"Boat ahoy!" cried Warrington. "Who comes?"

"It's Billy Bones!" said Selena. "That's his voice!"

"Is that you, Mr Bones?" cried Warrington.

"Aye-aye! 'Tis William Bones, Cap'n, sir, aksing to come aboard."

Selena seized Warrington's arm, and shook it. "Where's Flint?" she said. "Billy Bones went off together with Flint!"

"He's Flint's man to death and beyond," said Cowdray.

"Aye," said the crew.

"Make ready, lads," said Warrington. "Be wary!"

Click-click-click-click! said the firelocks.

"Who's aboard, Mr Bones?"

"Myself, Black Dog, and the boatmen."

Clunk-clank! Clunk-clank! Clunk-clank!

"Where's Flint? Is he aboard?"

"Cap'n Flint, God bless him… is dead!"

All aboard Walrus gasped and stared down at Billy Bones, now plainly visible in the light of his lantern as the boat backed oars and came to rest under Walrus's larboard quarter. They leaned over the side and looked down into the boat — a small one — that did indeed contain only Black Dog and a pair of oarsmen, apart from Billy Bones, who stood looking up, holding the lantern, with a mournful look on his face.

"What happened to Flint?" cried Selena. "Billy! What happened?"

"It were them Indians, ma'am," said Billy Bones. "In the forest."

"What Indians? What forest?" said Selena.

"Well, Miss Selena, ma'am, it were dreadful hard. It were shocking bad."

"What do you mean?"

"Well… ah… it were dreadful, ma'am…"

Billy Bones blathered. He dithered. He spouted nonsense. He ran out of words.

Cowdray spotted it first.

"It's a trick!" he cried. "This man is Flint's dog! He worship's Flint's shadow! If Flint were dead he'd have every detail in the front of his mind!"

"All hands take aim at that boat!" cried Warrington, and there was a surging forward and a great levelling of pistols, muskets and carbines over the larboard rail and the light shook in Billy Bones's hand. "Tell me plainly now, Mr Bones," said Warrington, "where is Flint?"

Billy Bones gulped and swallowed… and said nothing.

"I shall count to three," said Warrington, "before I fire…"

"Don't do that!" said Billy Bones. "Not that!"

"One…" said Warrington, and dozens of firelocks trembled as their owners began to squeeze the triggers, and Billy Bones looked up at certain death. "Two…" said Warrington.

"No! Don't… please don't… please…" said Billy Bones in a tiny trembling voice, as his sins rose before him and the Devil's breath fell hot upon his neck and Hell reached out for his soul.

"Last time, Billy Bones," said Warrington. "Where's Flint?"

"Here, Mr Warrington!" said a voice behind him — a voice that struggled to contain its fathomless mirth, its vicious glee, and its overpowering desire to laugh. "Fire!" it added, and a thunder of gunfire lit the night and deafened the ears, delivered point-blank by the dark body of men who'd pulled alongside Walrus with muffled oars, but on the starboard side, and swarmed over her starboard rail, while her people were busy elsewhere.

A dozen of Walrus's crew went down in that single volley, then the half-breeds were screaming forward, Indian style, with hatchets and knives, driving Walrus's people before them like sheep… at first…

Two Spanish officers stood at the intersection of four wide, earthy streets in the small quarter of Savannah that was theirs to occupy and hold. Some of the houses were on fire and cast a dull light. Smoke was everywhere and the two men were strung high with nerves at this fighting among houses from which an ambush might fall at any second. They jumped as gunfire came, not from the town, but from the direction of the river.

"What's that?" said Capitán Herrera.

"Firing, Señor Capitán!" said Teniente Lopez-Ortega.

"Yes, but from the ships?" said Herrera.

"From the ships?" repeated Lopez-Ortega, and they looked at each other, for the battle with the English had not gone well. Their company had suffered heavy losses… and the ships were their way out if things got worse. Which they soon would, for Herrera and Lopez-Ortega were standing in front of a dozen men, paraded in arms in case of emergencies, while the rest of the company tried to sleep, wrapped in their ammunition blankets, around pyramids of stacked muskets with the many wounded groaning and rolling in the mud.

Crack! A musket flashed orange in the dark from the corner of a nearby house, and a ball whizzed audibly — tangibly — between Herrera and Lopez-Ortega and killed a man behind them, who coughed and stumbled, struck fair in the middle of his chest.

"Stand to arms!" cried the sargentos, and the whole company were up on their feet, seizing their muskets and looking for targets, of which there were none. The two officers ran among them, followed by the sargentos, and together regained control of their men, who were nervous, exhausted… and on the point of breaking.

It was the same all across Savannah. The battle of volleys might have been a draw, but the woodsmen were wearing down the Spanish will to fight.

"This place is unsafe," said Capitán Herrera. "We must move the men at once to a better position!"

Flint's boat pulled steadily downriver through the black night, with himself at the tiller steering by compass and lantern, and Billy Bones alongside him, Black Dog pulling an oar beside the half-dozen surviving half-breeds, and an item of cargo in a sack in the bottom of the boat.

"We lost the ship, Cap'n," said Billy Bones miserably.

"It doesn't matter," said Flint.

"Hard bastards, them Walruses. They came back striking left and right!"

"Yes," said Flint cynically. "It makes you proud, doesn't it?"

"And they killed all the rest."

"They don't matter," said Flint softly, then raised his voice: "All the bigger shares for those that survive!" And the oarsmen grinned.

"But Silver weren't there!"

"Did you expect him to be?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, Billy! He'll have seen me up on the river bank."

"Yes?"

"So? Did you think he'd sit and wait for me to come?" "Oh…"

"No, Billy-my-chicken — " Flint peered around in the dark "- he'll be out there somewhere, trying to get to Chester's house, which is where we're going now, to meet him!"

"Will he do that?"

"Yes! Now be silent."

Billy Bones sat still until the boat nosed up against the pier of Jimmy Chester's private landing where lights shone for Flint to find it again… Flint who was hugging himself in glee for what he'd done. Flint who relished and rolled in the success of it, and in the completeness of his victory, and he chuckled in the joy of it, for his mind was running down channels that were different and new… even for him.

Something had changed. He knew it! He recognised it! It wasn't just the treasure any more. No! Flint had looked into the caverns of his self and seen that… yes, he'd have the treasure, if he could, and certainly he wouldn't let any other man have it. But that wasn't what he really wanted. That wasn't what he ached and longed for. That wasn't what brought the froth to his lips and the white around his eyes when he feared it was in danger. And it certainly wasn't what he'd gone after on this night's expedition.

Meanwhile Billy Bones reached down for the cargo, in its big sack, and heaved it up over his shoulder with a gasp and a grunt, like a load of coals.

"Take care! " shrieked Flint. "Take care, you…"

And Billy Bones gaped as a venomous eruption of filth poured forth from Flint, who never cussed and never swore, and never blasphemed, leaving Billy Bones standing with the sack over his shoulder and its contents wriggling, and himself trembling in the face of Flint's deranged wrath.

"Don't bump her!" said Flint. "Don't knock her! And don't ever, ever hurt her… or I'll dig out your eyes and make you eat 'em raw!"