Page 350 - robinson-crusoe

ly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket ball,
which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men,
but killed nobody. The mate, calling for help, rushed, how-
ever, into the round-house, wounded as he was, and, with
his pistol, shot the new captain through the head, the bul-
let entering at his mouth, and came out again behind one of
his ears, so that he never spoke a word more: upon which
the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, without
any more lives lost.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain or-
dered seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed
upon with me to give me notice of his success, which, you
may be sure, I was very glad to hear, having sat watching
upon the shore for it till near two o’clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it
having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound,
till I was surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently
starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of ‘Gov-
ernor! Governor!’ and presently I knew the captain’s voice;
when, climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and,
pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms, ‘My dear
friend and deliverer,’ says he, ‘there’s your ship; for she is all
yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her.’ I cast my
eyes to the ship, and there she rode, within little more than
half a mile of the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as
soon as they were masters of her, and, the weather being fair,
had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the
little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought
the pinnace in near the place where I had first landed my