Helen caught the sound of the oars at the same moment as the doctor, and
he heard her draw a spasmodic breath as she started up in her dread and
seized his arm, clinging to it convulsively.
The doctor rose, and shading his eyes, gazed down the stream, but there
was no prahu as yet in sight; and he then glanced to left and right for
a hiding-place beneath the overhanging trees.
A glance, however, showed him that there was not shelter enough here to
cover a boat of half the size; and in despair as to what he should do,
he turned to the Malays, who evidently read his perplexity, and shook
their heads.
They might have turned the boat and tried to get beyond where they knew
the prahu would stop and turn, but that would have taken hours, and they
must have been either overtaken or seen long before they had reached the
spot.
"Nothing but impudence will do it," thought the doctor, and he turned
sharply to Helen. "Lie down in the boat my dear, and trust to me," he
whispered.
"Doctor," she moaned passionately, "kill me, but don't let me fall again
into that wretch's hands!"
"Is this Helen Perowne?" thought the doctor, as with patient trust she
submitted to him as he laid her back in the bottom of the boat, threw
the great green branches overboard, and covered her loosely with the
waterproof sheet, upon which he tossed his macintosh; and then quickly
changing the cartridges once more, he coolly sat up, watched his
opportunity, after telling the Malays to paddle smoothly, and brought
down a handsome green parrot from a bough overhanging the river.
The beat of the prahu's oars ceased on the instant, and coolly telling
the Malays to make for the fallen bird, the doctor retrieved it, and
threw it carelessly upon the waterproof sheet, full in view for anyone
passing to see.
"Let the boat drift down," he said to the Malays; and then to Helen:
"Don't be alarmed: I am shooting birds."
He had hardly reloaded before another opportunity presented itself, and
he shot a brilliantly-plumaged trogon, which he was in the act of
picking from the water where it had fallen as the stream bore them full
in view of the same large prahu that had passed them when making his way
up the main river.
The doctor took hardly any notice of the prahu but carefully shook the
water from his specimen and smoothed its plumage, giving just a casual
glance at the long row-boat, whose swarthy crew were watching his acts;
and then, as the stream swept them by, he reloaded, and sat with the
butt of his gun upon his knee, apparently looking out for another
specimen.
All the same, though, he had an eye for the prahu, whose crew were
evidently canvassing his presence there; but he seemed to be so occupied
with his old practice of collecting brightly-plumaged birds--a habit for
which he was well known--that no one thought of stopping him, and a bend
in the river soon separated them from the enemy.
The doctor laid down his gun, and after satisfying himself by a glance
that the trees completely shut out all view, he raised the covering from
the half-suffocated girl, who lay pale and panting there.
"The danger has passed," he whispered; then, turning to the boatmen:
"Now," he cried, "row for your lives!"
They needed no further incentive, but bent to their work, sending the
sampan surging through the water; and the stream being rapid here, they
made good way, the prahu having, fortunately for them, thoroughly
loosened the tangled water-weeds that otherwise would have hindered
their flight.
The doctor listened to the beat of the prahu's oars, which seemed to
grow more distant. Then the noise stopped, and recommenced in a
different way, the beat sounding short and choppy.
"What does that mean?" he muttered, thoughtfully; but he smoothed his
brow as he saw that Helen was watching him intently.
Suddenly he started, for he read the meaning of the sounds, which did
not grow more distant.
"They are not satisfied," he said to himself, "and are coming after us.
The prahu cannot turn; the river is too narrow here, and they are
backing water."
He tried to doubt his own words; but as they entered upon a long
straight portion of the river, down which they glided rapidly, he gazed
back, and just as they neared the end of the reach he saw the prahu in
full pursuit.
"Paddle hard," he cried; "they must not overtake us. Quick! get round
out of sight: we shall get on better in the sharp windings, and leave
her more behind."
He was not sure of this, but hoped it would be the case; and he was in
the act of hoping this when--_bang_!--there was a sharp report from a
lelah on board the prahu, and a pound ball came skipping along the
surface of the stream, splashed up the water a few yards away, and then
crashed in amongst the dense jungle-growth to the left.
"Paddle, my lads, paddle away!" shouted the doctor; and the men toiled
on, every muscle seeming to stand out of their bronze arms, and the
veins starting in neck and brow as they obeyed his words, till the boat
seemed as if it were skimming like a bird over the surface of the
stream.
"That's right! Good! good!" he cried, in the Malay tongue. "I never
saw boat worked so well before."
His words seemed to give the men fresh strength, and they forced the
sampan on with renewed force. The water rattled and surged beneath her
bows, and so good was the speed they now made, that in another minute
they would have been out of sight, when a second shot from the prahu's
gun came skipping along, and this time aimed so well, or so cleverly
winged by fate, that it struck the flying boat, cutting a great piece
out of her gunwale.
"Pooh! that's nothing. Never mind the shot!" cried the doctor, coolly.
"I'll wager a new silk sarong, to be fought for by gamecocks, that they
could not do that again. Dip your paddles deep, my lads; paddle away,
and we'll soon leave them far enough behind."
The bend of the river that they had turned gave them some slight chance
of escape, and the men worked better and with less display of nervous
hesitation. Bank and trees shut them now from the sight of the marksmen
on board the prahu, and there is less difficulty in toiling at the
paddle when you know that no one is taking careful aim at your back.
The moment they were out of sight of the prahu's crew the doctor stood
up in the boat, one moment urging on the men, the next searching the
shores for some satisfactory hiding-place--some inlet or opening among
the trees into which the sampan might be thrust with some little chance
of its escaping the keen eyes of their pursuers, who would be pretty
well on the alert for such a trick as this. There were trees
overhanging the stream in plenty, but as far as he could see the foliage
was not sufficiently dense to be trusted at a time like this; and
feeling at last that their only chance of safety was by making for and
reaching the main river, he kept on encouraging the men, and in the
pauses speaking words of comfort to Helen Perowne.
She lay back utterly prostrate, but turned her eyes to the doctor with
an imploring gaze that he read easily enough, interpreting it to
mean--"Save me from these wretches, or shoot me sooner than I shall fall
into their hands!"
"I mean to save you, my dear," he said to himself; but all the same, he
examined the cartridges in his gun, and his fingers played with the
trigger, as he listened intently to the sounds of pursuit.
"I'd give something for this to be the cutter of a frigate, well manned
with jacks and with half a dozen of our red-coats in the stern sheets.
I don't think we should be showing them how fast we could run away at a
time like this. But one must show them a little strategy sometimes."
He looked back, but they were still well out of sight of the prahu, the
heavy beat of whose oars seemed to come from close behind the trees,
though it was still some distance away.
He scanned this bank--the other bank--but now the trees seemed thinner,
and the chances of hiding successfully to grow less; and for a moment
something like despair crept into the doctor's heart.
But he was too well used to emergencies to fail at critical moments;
and, bracing himself up, the momentary despairing feeling was gone.
"Is there no end to this wretched river?" he cried, half aloud; and he
gave his foot an impatient stamp, which started the men afresh just as
they had slackened their efforts, and once more they went on toiling
along the narrow, winding stream, the tortuous way seeming to grow more
intricate minute by minute, and fortunately for them, as their little
boat skimmed round the turns, while the prahu's passage was ponderous
and slow.
But every now and then some straight piece of the river would give the
enemy his chance, and the rowers forced the prahu along, so that she
gained ground.
There was no mistaking it, and the doctor's fingers tightened upon his
gun, as he saw how rapidly his pursuers were gaining; while his own men
were becoming terribly jaded by their tremendous efforts, and moment by
moment their strokes were losing force.
Worse still, as he gazed back, he could see that something was going on
in the bows of the prahu, and he needed no telling what it was--they
were again loading and training their heavy gun; and "if," the doctor
thought, "they wing us now, our chances are gone!"
It was not a pleasant thing to do, to stand there offering himself as it
were for a target to the next shot; but this did not occur to the
doctor, who kept his ground, and the next moment there was a puff of
white smoke from the prahu's side.