Never was daylight looked for with greater anxiety than that night on
board the steamer.
With the first flush she was allowed to float lower down, till abreast
of the spot where the two men were taken on board, and then every
available hand was landed, under Bob Roberts' command, to try, by firing
signals and listening for the reply, to reach the place where the
worn-out party were making their last stand.
The two poor fellows who had come on board were in too pitiable a plight
to move, and, even if they had gone, they could not have guided the
relief party, who, only twenty strong, leaped ashore, eager to reach
their friends, and inflict some punishment on the Malays, while the
others retreated towards the ship.
Every man was laden heavily with food and ammunition, Lieutenant
Johnson's difficulty being to keep the brave fellows from taking too
much, and hindering their fighting powers, as, with a hearty cheer, they
plunged in amidst the interlacing canes.
The task was hard, but less so than they expected--resolving itself as
it did into hacking the canes and forcing their way through; for before
they had gone far they could hear firing before them, and it was kept up
so vigorously that there was no occasion to fire a single signal.
Hour after hour did they toil on, till the firing suddenly ceased, and
they were for a moment at fault; but Bob Roberts and Old Dick, who were
leading, suddenly heard voices close at hand, where the forest growth
was thinner; and hacking and chopping away, they had nearly reached the
spot when the firing suddenly began again furiously for a few moments,
and then once more stopped.
The next minute the way was clear, and Bob Roberts, with his twenty
blue-jackets and marines, went in at the double to an opening in the
jungle where the remains of the hunting-party were making a desperate
stand against a strong body of Malay; who, spear against bayonet, were
pressing them home.
The middy took it all in at a glance, and saw that in another minute the
weak helpless wielders of rifle and bayonet would be borne down, and
they, and the sick and wounded lying in the long grass, massacred to a
man.
Major Sandars said afterwards that the oldest colonel in the service
could not have done better; for, with his sun-browned face lighting up
with excitement, and waving his sword, Bob Roberts shouted his orders to
the men, sprang forward, giving point at a great bronze-skinned Malay
who had borne the major down and was about to spear him, while with a
hearty British cheer the marines and blue-jackets dashed up, poured in a
staggering volley amongst the thronging enemy, and followed it up with a
bayonet charge along the beaten-down jungle alley, till, dropping spear
and kris, the Malays fled for their lives.
Others were hurrying up to be present at the massacre; for the news had
spread that the English had fired their last cartridge and were weak
with starvation; but as they met their flying comrades the panic spread.
The reinforcements were magnified a hundred times; and it wanted but
Bob Roberts' quick sharp halt, form in line two deep, and the firing in
of a couple of volleys, to send all to the right-about, a few of the
hindmost getting a prick of the bayonet before they got away.
Pursuit would have been in vain, so Bob left a picket of five men under
Old Dick to keep the narrow path, bidding them fell a tree or two so
that their branches might lie towards and hinder an attack from the
enemy, before hurrying back with fourteen men to the little jungle camp.
He tried hard, but he could not keep back his tears as the gaunt
bleeding remains of a fine body of men gathered round him to grasp his
hands and bless him; while, when one strange-looking little naked object
came up and seized him by the shoulders, he felt almost ready to laugh.
It was hard to believe it was Dr Bolter standing there, in a pair of
ragged trousers reduced in length to knee breeches, and nothing else.
"Bob, my dear boy," he said, "I can't tell you how glad I am; but give
me some rum, biscuits, anything you have, for my poor lads are perishing
for want of food."
The men's wallets were being emptied, and food and ammunition were
rapidly distributed, for not a scrap of provision nor a single cartridge
was left with the major's party.
"Why, you are laughing at me, you dog," cried the doctor, as he came
back for more provisions; "but just you have forty patients, Bob
Roberts, many of them wounded, and not a bandage to use, Bob, my lad!
My handkerchiefs, neck and pocket, went first; then my Norfolk jacket,
and then my shirt. Poor lads! poor brave lads!" he said piteously; "I'd
have taken off my skin if it would have done them good."
"Ah, doctor," said Bob, in a voice full of remorse, "I'm only a boy yet,
and a very thoughtless one. Pray forgive me. I meant no harm."
"God bless you, my lad; I know that," cried the doctor, warmly. "You've
saved us all. Boy, indeed? Well, so you are, Bob; but as long as
England has plenty of such boys as you, we need not trouble ourselves
about the men--they'll all come in time."
It was a pitiful task, but every one worked with a will; and now that
they were refreshed with food, reanimated by the presence of twenty
fresh men, supplied with ammunition, and, above all, supported by the
knowledge that not a mile away, through the newly-cut path, there lay a
haven of rest in the shape of the steamer--men who had been fit to lie
down and die, stood up, flushed, excited, and ready to help bear the
sick and wounded towards the river; while, to make matters better, the
Malays had had such a thrashing in this last engagement that they made
no fresh attack. The consequence was that half-a-dozen weak men under
Major Sandars made a show in the rear, and all the strong devoted
themselves to helping to carry the invalids to the steamer.
More help was afforded too from the steamer itself, as soon as
Lieutenant Johnson found that there was no fear of attack, and in the
end all were got safely on board; and long before night Dr Bolter,
clothed and comfortable, had all his sick men in berths and hammocks,
well tended, already looking better, and he himself walking up and down
the deck chuckling and rubbing his hands.
The losses had been severe, but far less than might have been expected,
owing to the devotion of the men, who had struggled on till they could
get no farther, and would have perished one and all but for the timely
succour brought by the middy, and indirectly by the emissary of Rajah
Gantang, who little thought when he took the steamer, by his clever
ruse, up the solitary river, that he was leading them where it would be
the salvation of the hunting-party, who were doomed to death.
Not a moment had been lost, and as soon as all were on board, the
steamer recommenced her downward course towards the residency, where all
felt that help must be urgently needed, by the little party who had its
defence.