All round this they had cleared a wide space , and then the thing was completed by a paling six feet high , without door or opening , too strong to pull down without time and labour and too open to shelter the besiegers . The people in the log-house had them in every way ; they stood quiet in shelter and shot the others like partridges . All they wanted was a good watch and food ; for , short of a complete surprise , they might have held the place against a regiment . What particularly took my fancy was the spring . For though we had a good enough place of it in the cabin of the HISPANIOLA , with plenty of arms and ammunition , and things to eat , and excellent wines , there had been one thing overlooked -- we had no water . I was thinking this over when there came ringing over the island the cry of a man at the point of death . I was not new to violent death -- I have served his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland , and got a wound myself at Fontenoy -- but I know my pulse went dot and carry one . `` Jim Hawkins is gone , '' was my first thought . It is something to have been an old soldier , but more still to have been a doctor . There is no time to dilly-dally in our work . And so now I made up my mind instantly , and with no time lost returned to the shore and jumped on board the jolly-boat . By good fortune Hunter pulled a good oar . We made the water fly , and the boat was soon alongside and I aboard the schooner . I found them all shaken , as was natural . The squire was sitting down , as white as a sheet , thinking of the harm he had led us to , the good soul ! And one of the six forecastle hands was little better . `` There 's a man , '' says Captain Smollett , nodding towards him , `` new to this work . He came nigh-hand fainting , doctor , when he heard the cry . Another touch of the rudder and that man would join us . '' I told my plan to the captain , and between us we settled on the details of its accomplishment .
We put old Redruth in the gallery between the cabin and the XXXXX , with three or four loaded muskets and a mattress for protection .
Cumberland Hunter Smollett fainting first forecastle jolly-boat labour oar partridges