Round the house ! '' cried the captain ; and even in the hurly-burly , I perceived a change in his voice . Mechanically , I obeyed , turned eastwards , and with my cutlass raised , ran round the corner of the house . Next moment I was face to face with Anderson . He roared aloud , and his hanger went up above his head , flashing in the sunlight . I had not time to be afraid , but as the blow still hung impending , leaped in a trice upon one side , and missing my foot in the soft sand , rolled headlong down the slope . When I had first sallied from the door , the other mutineers had been already swarming up the palisade to make an end of us . One man , in a red night-cap , with his cutlass in his mouth , had even got upon the top and thrown a leg across . Well , so short had been the interval that when I found my feet again all was in the same posture , the fellow with the red night-cap still half-way over , another still just showing his head above the top of the stockade . And yet , in this breath of time , the fight was over and the victory was ours . Gray , following close behind me , had cut down the big boatswain ere he had time to recover from his last blow . Another had been shot at a loophole in the very act of firing into the house and now lay in agony , the pistol still smoking in his hand . A third , as I had seen , the doctor had disposed of at a blow . Of the four who had scaled the palisade , one only remained unaccounted for , and he , having left his cutlass on the field , was now clambering out again with the fear of death upon him . `` Fire -- fire from the house ! '' cried the doctor . `` And you , lads , back into cover . '' But his words were unheeded , no shot was fired , and the last boarder made good his escape and disappeared with the rest into the wood . In three seconds nothing remained of the attacking party but the five who had fallen , four on the inside and one on the outside of the palisade . The doctor and Gray and I ran full speed for shelter .
The survivors would soon be back where they had XXXXX their muskets , and at any moment the fire might recommence .
Anderson Gray eastwards escape fire hanger left mutineers night-cap third