Page:Dickens - A Child s History of England, 1900.djvu/685

Rh into the position with a nerve of iron; " and right ain't left. Is it, Gill?"

A few seconds brought me to Sergeant Drooce's hut. He was fast asleep, and being a heavy sleeper, I had to lay my hand upon him to rouse him. The instant I touched him he came rolling out of his hammock, and upon me like a tiger. And a tiger he was, except that he knew what he was up to, in his utmost heat, as well as any man.

I had to struggle with him pretty hard to bring him to his senses, panting all the while (for he gave me a breather). "Sergeant, I am Gill Davis! Treachery! Pirates on the island!"

The last words brought him round, and he took his hands off. "I have seen two of them within this minute," said I. And so I told him what I had told Harry Charker.

His soldierly, though tyrannical, head was clear in an instant. He didn't waste one word, even of surprise. "Order the guard," says he, "to draw off quietly into the fort." (They called the inclosure I have before mentioned, the fort, though it was not much of that.) "Then get you to the fort as quick as you can, rouse up every soul there, and fasten the gate. I will bring in all those who are up at the Signal Hill. If we are surrounded before we can join you, you must make a sally and cut us out if you can. The word among our men is, 'Women and children!'"

He burst away, like fire going before the wind over dry reeds. He roused up the seven men who were off duty, and had them bursting away with him, before they knew they were not asleep. I reported orders to Charker, and ran to the fort, as I have never run at any other time in all my life; no, not even in a dream.

The gate was not fast, and had no good fastening; only a double wooden bar, a poor chain, and a bad lock. Those I secured as well as they could be secured in a few seconds by one pair of hands, and so ran to that part of the building where. Miss Maryon lived. I called to her loudly by her name until she answered. I then called loudly all the names I knew—Mrs. Macey (Miss Maryon's married sister), Mr. Macey, Mrs. Venning, Mr. and Mrs. Fisher, even Mr. and Mrs. Tordage. Then I called out, "All you gentlemen here, get up and defend the place!