Treasure Island: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

When Smollett turns back inside, only Gray is still at his post, and while he’s pleased with Gray, he’s furious with the others. The captain is silent for a while, and then says that within an hour they’ll be bombarded: they’re outnumbered, but are better located defensively.

Captain Smollett tells Jim to eat his breakfast, and everyone to have some brandy. He directs each person to a specific task for the battle. As the sun rises, it becomes almost unbearably hot. An hour passes. Suddenly they hear a whistle, suggesting the attack is about to begin. Then several bullets strike the log-house, though none of them enter—Joyce returns a few shots, and then silence returns.

Suddenly, with a roar, a group of pirates races out of the woods and towards the stockade. They hurl themselves over the fence, and as the squire and Gray fire, three of them fall (though one soon rises and flees). Then they see Job Anderson, the boatswain, who has snuck up to the entrance. He and two others race into the log-house, and cries of confusion ring out. Smollett cries that they should go out and fight in the open. Jim grabs a knife, receives a cut across the knuckles, and races outside, seeing the doctor pursuing a pirate down the hill and managing to stab him.

Jim is suddenly face to face with Anderson, who roars and raises his knife: Jim leaps to the side, but slips and rolls down the hill. By the time he stands up, it’s only been a moment, but his side has won victory: Gray had stabbed Anderson, and two others had been struck down too. Only one remains alive, and he clambers up and flees, managing to escape. The doctor, Gray, and Jim race back inside.

Hunter is motionless, stunned; Joyce is dead, shot through the head; and Smollett is wounded. But the captain rejoices to hear that five of the enemy have been cut down; the new odds are four to nine, having so recently been seven to nineteen.