THE SECOND ASSAULT
Sure-dart was still on the wall, and here he was now joined by
Hop-foot, who was yelping and snorting like some wild animal, which,
in fact, we might almost say he was. As he saw the retreating company
he set up so high and piercing a screech of triumph that it sounded
above every other noise, and made the rear men of the retreating crowd
look around. Sure-dart laughed, and slapped the little fellow on the
shoulder. There was a shiver of joyful excitement in the laugh that
seemed almost like a suggestion of nervous tears.
And now the question was,--What would the sullen and disappointed
pack do next? On the face of it they had got such a rebuff that
there was no encouragement to try again, but this was merely a first
hasty impression. Cool and far-sighted men like Big-axe were of
another opinion, and were not ready for any pleasant and rose-colored
prophecies. It seemed to the chief that more was to come, though, to be
sure, it might come in a different way, but one that might well be more
dangerous to the little garrison than the other. There was still to
be tried a siege, with all its dangers, and the horrors of hunger and
thirst, the thirst intensified by the terrible downpour of the sun on
the naked face of the cliff.
It was perhaps from thinking of this that Big-axe, as at last he went
down among the company, met the exclamations of joy and relief, and
the clamorous boasting of some, with hardly a smile, while his face
darkened again, when nobody was looking, with something of the old
shadow.
However, the camp in general did not appear to notice, and three out
of four seemed to believe that the worst was over, and that Long-spear
and his allies would never be able to muster spirit enough even for
one more really earnest assault. But Sure-dart, always quick to
observe,--he had learned to study the chief’s face,--was one of the
few who could not bring themselves to such a happy conclusion; his
rejoicings were therefore tempered by the thought of what might yet be
in store. Nevertheless, following the example of Big-axe, and with a
manliness beyond his years, but which his harsh training had helped to
bring out, he kept his suspicions to himself, and managed to put on a
look as hopeful as he had worn at first.
The retreating party crossed the open again to the shelter of the
trees, and Sure-dart and the others could see them lay some of
their wounded down, and drag the dead back out of sight. There was
a gathering together of the leaders soon afterwards, including
Long-spear, but of course the watchers could not tell what they said.
The man who seemed to be the chief of the Islanders, and who was a
short, squat, oldish savage, apparently of great strength, was seen to
flourish his arms about a good deal; several times he stooped, and
seemed to illustrate what he said by drawing something on the ground,
but this, too, was all “Greek” to the observers. Not long after this
the little council broke up, and the leaders, like the others, withdrew
into the shade.
As nearly as the Rock-people could tell, this first battle left the
respective forces without any great relative change. Only two men
of the garrison had been killed, but two had been severely wounded,
one, however,--the man thrust through the leg,--being still able to
perform some kinds of service. It appeared that there was no poison
in the wound, and it had not bled very much, so that he could hobble
about, and manage to use a spear, or darts. The other man was entirely
disabled. Several others had slight hurts, including the chief, but
nothing, for such hardy barbarians, worth mentioning. There were,
therefore, fifteen men still in good condition, the warrior with the
wounded leg, and half a score of boys. To these could be added, on a
pinch, the little band of picked women.
As for the enemy, Big-axe and the others at the barricade thought the
total loss, in killed and disabled, must reach ten or twelve. However,
this was guesswork, since not even a dead body had been left on the
field. In thus taking pains to carry off their dead and wounded, the
Fishers and their allies had acted as our modern American savages
usually did, though perhaps not wholly from the same motives.
The sun was now getting a good sweep at the little fort, and
everybody, save only a small guard, got as far as possible under cover.
Even the guard managed to put up a little awning of lizard skin. There
would be no further attack for a while, as even Big-axe felt sure.
The afternoon slowly ran its course, and the light began to fall at
a noticeable slant, the heat at the same time losing a little of its
disagreeable power. Luckily, the shelf where the garrison was did not
face the west, but nearly the south, so that the sky battery of heat
did not play upon them broadside on, so to speak. Yet it did reach them
in a way to make them decidedly uncomfortable, and cause them to creep
under their penthouses of overhanging rock, and the bit of covered way.
Everybody was thirsty, and Big-axe was obliged to put a guard over the
water supply, for it must be economized, there being no certainty how
long the siege would last. At the same time, he did not forget that he
must keep up the strength of his fighting men, and that this called for
a fair supply of water.
At last, as the west was reddening, and the blue of the distant
mountains was darkening almost to black, the human tigers on the
hill-slopes began again to show themselves. A few minutes later nearly
the whole of both companies were in groups in the open.
“Now,” said Big-axe, speaking to those about him, “we have a chance
to make a really hopeful fight. I was afraid that they might content
themselves with a long siege, and not make another general assault,
and that would have been very bad for us. Our food and water could not
last beyond a limited time, and after that we should have had to go
out, which would of course have meant the end. As it is, they seem to
be on the point of making the kind of fight we want. We can do better
against spears and axes than against hunger and thirst.”
It is likely that Big-axe put fully as much encouragement into his
speech as he felt, but it did really seem as if the assailants were
meaning to repeat their assault, which Big-axe was sincere in saying
was less dangerous to his little force than a long siege. That
Long-spear and his allies could not see this was apparently a little
strange, but it was not wholly so to Big-axe, and will not be to us, if
we consider a few important facts. One is that savages, the world over,
lack the patience and self-restraint of civilized peoples, and if they
cannot win their fights in a few dashes they become discouraged, and
refuse to try further. Or, if the chiefs are more resolute, and wish to
keep on, they usually cannot hold their men; the weaker go, and this
leads to the breaking up of the whole force. There are no restraints
of discipline and penalties, as with us. In the present case there was
an added difficulty, for the assailants were not all of one tribe and
under one head, but were alien one to the other, and under divided
commands, each chief thinking only of gaining all he could for himself
and his band, and entirely indifferent to the ultimate fate of the
others.
The shrewd Big-axe, then, understanding the situation, was ready to
believe that another assault, with all its risks to the storming party,
was really meant, and that perhaps it was virtually forced on the
two chiefs by the circumstances. It might, to be sure, merely precede
a regular siege, but even if so there was a little hope in it, for
another repulse--which Big-axe believed his desperate and now hopeful
little band was equal to--must be a most discouraging set-back, and at
least would make any spirited after-movement less probable. The great
danger, and the one he had all along mainly dreaded, was the effect
of the double attack he had spoken of,--one up the path, as before,
and one from the top of the hill. Yet he had gradually come to believe
that he and his little band could meet even this, and he thought so the
more from the look on the men’s faces now. Instead of a kind of sullen
desperation, were confidence and an eagerness to be at work. Such a
change takes the wooden feeling out of legs and arms, puts power into
blows, and makes wounds seem trifles.
It was very soon clear that Long-spear and the other chief were
intending to make at least what military men now call a demonstration
in force. Nearly, if not quite, all the men had come out, and were
standing as if ready to start, and the two chiefs were a little way in
the fore, by their gestures giving some last orders. Big-axe believed
that they were in earnest and meant serious work, and not merely a
little harrying affair, intended to worry and take the spirit and
strength out of the garrison. Not only that, but he looked to see his
other surmise verified, and the assault made from two points at the
same time.
The truth as to this was not left long in doubt. The two chiefs quickly
finished the little they had to say, and the whole pack began to move.
They did not come on quite so fast as before, but there was no halting,
and they trotted down the hill-slopes, across the open, and to the
little flat at the foot of the path itself. Here Long-spear and the
Fishers halted, but the Islanders, with their squat chief at their
head, pushed on around the foot of the hill, toward the easy northerly
ascent. There was no need of further guessing, for it was plain enough
what was going on. The double assault was on!
It did not take the Islanders very long to reach their position, for it
was only a few minutes later that Sure-dart looked up and saw five or
six mop-crested heads peeping over the edge of the rock.
“Are you ready, Stone-arm?” asked Big-axe, just then coming up.
“Remember, no darts are to be thrown, or anything else done, till those
fellows are within sure range. Even then trust rather to your spears
and axes. They will be more certain, and we have no darts to spare.”
“I have it all clear in my mind,” said Stone-arm, promptly and
confidently.
Big-axe then turned to Sure-dart.
“Stay here with him. You can be of more use, for you will have a better
chance to use your darts. At the wall it will be mainly heavy work.”
The chief then climbed the barricade and took his old station. He could
do no more at present for the little band he had left behind him. They
must depend on themselves, feeling what that meant,--very likely the
safety, or the ruin, of every man, woman, and child on the rock.
It was but a few minutes after this that the mop-headed fellows at
the top of the cliff waved their hands at the Fishers below, and this
proved to be a signal. Long-spear stood to one side, gave one of his
unearthly screeches, and in a twinkling his part of the pack was
swarming up the path.
Sure-dart heard somebody say:
“They are not crowding one another so much this time, so they will have
a better chance to use their darts”; but this was all he knew about
that part of the work at the time.
The topknots above were showing higher, for the fellows were now
standing and were evidently about to try their daring slide down; and
back of the first men were gathering others. Several of these were
bending over, as if they were lugging heavy loads. They were evidently
doing the artillery work, and getting ready to prepare the way for the
assault by a storm of rocks. This was somewhat in the nature of our
modern warfare, where artillery often paves the way for an infantry or
cavalry charge.
But Stone-arm and his little band merely waited till the men with the
rocks had tugged them to the verge, and began to tumble them down, and
then quietly slipped under the covered way cut in the face of the rock.
The women, children, and other non-combatants had already taken refuge
there, except a few women who formed what might be called the reserve.
These now sought shelter with the fighting force. As for the defenders
on the wall, they were not greatly exposed, owing to the fact that the
cliff at that point receded a little, so that great stones could not
be cast far enough out to reach them, and small ones, for the present,
could pretty well be guarded against by the shields. As soon as the
assault became close, it would be impracticable to continue even the
light discharge, as the assaulting party would then be nearly blended
with the defenders.
Stone-arm and the others had waited till the last moment, but all got
under cover in safety. Another storm, probably as a scare, followed,
and then some small stones and gravel rattled down; and Stone-arm and
the rest heard some rapping noises, as if made by poles or staves,
against the face of the rock. The defenders of course knew what this
meant: the storming party was coming down, and some were steadying
themselves by their spears.
But the orders were to lie close till the last moment. Otherwise the
men left above would doubtless throw stones over the heads of their
friends down upon those on the shelf. Sure-dart, who was next to
Stone-arm, heard the old fighter fetch an impatient sniff, but still
hold back, and with hardly less difficulty he controlled himself, and
waited for the right moment.
It came when a lanky, mop-haired fellow dropped with a slap of
bare feet down into the path, jumping from what must have been a
considerable height. He almost lurched off over the edge, with the
effort he made to keep his balance.
“Now!” roared Stone-arm, and with a scramble he was out, and his whole
party after him.
The fellow who came first never got his face around to the cliff again.
While he still staggered, a Rock-man drove a foot into the hollow of
his back, and with a scream and a useless flinging out of arms, he kept
on as he had started, and went off over the cliff.
That was easy enough, but not so what followed. As Sure-dart looked
up, the whole face of the cliff seemed to be covered with sliding and
hopping men! They lay flat, and boldly slid down long rock-faces,
trusting to digs of their spears to keep them from going too far, or
daringly jumped short distances, where there were bigger breaks in the
ledge, or turned back about, and climbed cautiously down where the rock
was almost perpendicular, yet where there were small chinks, and hand
or toe holds.
Sure-dart drew back his arm, marking one active fellow who was sliding
down directly toward him. The man was trying to check his speed with
the butt-end of his spear, and was lying as flat as he could on his
back while doing it. By the rather wild look in his face, when he
raised his head to see where he was going, he was thinking more about
the peril of the passage than of the danger when he should land. It
seemed almost cowardly to take advantage of his helplessness; but on
the other hand, it would not do to let him land, and give him an even
fighting chance. It was not a business of chivalry, but of life or
death, and a terrible death at that. Moreover, some such advantage was
needed, even as a matter of nice chivalry, to balance the terrible
disadvantage in numbers. Sure-dart did not hesitate, then, but, as the
fellow was shoving down with his spear to get a final steadying point,
he stepped forward, and with the man’s raised head for a target let
drive a dart.
His aim, as usual, was true, and the dart seemed to go in at the
fellow’s half-open mouth. There was a wild flinging up of arms, the
spear came clattering down, and the man’s body followed, striking like
a weighted sack across the little outer wall or parapet.
Meanwhile, there was a bustling time at the other points, and out of
the corner of his eye, so to speak, Sure-dart saw others of the company
trying to do what he had just done. Some, however, including Stone-arm
himself, were coolly waiting till the slider or jumper was within reach
of a striking weapon. As well as Sure-dart was able to tell, not an
Islander had thus far effected lodgement on the shelf. There was no
time to see what was going on at the barricade, but there was no lack
of noise there, including human yells and shouts, and the clattering
and thudding of spears and axes on shields. One thing was cheering amid
the uncertainties, and that was the great roaring shout of Bull-head.
It was peculiar as well as loud, and carried with it a note of fury
mingled with taunting and derision, such as no other man in the camp
was capable of. Sure-dart heard it now, in the little gap of time
following the tumble of the Islander.
But as the boy whipped out another dart, and looked up to meet the
next slider, he was checked and--it may seem absurd to say it, but
it is true--he was almost made to laugh at what he beheld. A somewhat
portly but powerful Islander was working his way cautiously down a long
rock-face, and in doing so had turned about, so that he was on his
stomach, and was clawing and scrambling along, getting the best hold he
could with his hands and bare feet. He had thrown away his spear, but
his axe was slung over his back. Just as Sure-dart looked, the man got
to a small projection of rock, where he checked himself, and cautiously
turned to look down. Sure-dart was not within reach, but little
Hop-foot, who had evidently concluded that the pace was hot enough to
require his help, was near, and he proceeded with promptness and great
energy to act. He caught up the spear that the Islander had dropped,
and began to use it with great vigor on the only target that was at the
moment within reach. He jabbed with such vigor and effectiveness that
the man yelled, for the moment forgetting about the need of keeping his
balance. Down he came, with a wild flop and a jump, and landed on the
shelf. There Hop-foot fell upon him, this time with shortened spear,
and another thrust settled the whole matter.
“I’ll never be a dinner for you, anyhow,” triumphantly snarled the boy,
as he drew the spear back.
It was perhaps five minutes since the first Islander came down the
rocks, but in that little time a great deal had been done. So helpless
had the sliders and hoppers proved, after they had once launched
themselves to come down, that not a single one had yet landed in
safety on the shelf. Nor had any of the defenders been hurt; the only
harm that the little band had suffered was from a few stones thrown
almost at random from above. By them one Rock-man was knocked down and
stunned, and another had been gashed across the back, but not so as
to disable him. Sure-dart, turning to look after the next convenient
slider, saw how it was, and though he was usually quiet, like Big-axe,
he gave a really savage whoop of triumph.
It had a much louder echo, which came from Stone-arm and the rest, for
at this moment the other fellows on the faces of the rocks and ledges
drove in their spear-butts, braced with their feet, and came to a full
stop. They plainly had had enough, and were not coming any farther.
A moment more of the delay, and some began to jabber at the others;
this was followed by a shouting up at those above, and then by a
general facing about, and a desperate scrambling upward.
Again the defenders whooped and yelled, and several wildly danced.
But by this time they were reminded of the stress there might be
elsewhere, and Stone-arm hastily ordered Sure-dart and Hop-foot to
watch the climbers, and report instantly if any started to come back;
then, with the rest of the company, he rushed off to the barricade.
Sure-dart looking upward at the climbers saw that several had edged
together, leaving some openings down the face of the rocks.
“Quick, under cover!” he cried to Hop-foot; “they are going to roll
down more stones!”
His watchfulness probably saved Hop-foot’s life, for just then the
men left at the top dislodged several great stones, and sent them
thundering down. But the two boys were safe under the firm penthouses
of the rock. One great stone struck the middle part of the roof of
trees and brush that the chief and his son had built across the path,
and in spite of the strength of the wood, and the sloping way in which
the roof had been laid, it broke it in. One old woman had taken the
notion to shelter herself inside, and as the wood cracked she sent up
a wild shriek; but, after all, she was not harmed; the roof had rather
slowly yielded, and at the last moment she had wriggled to another
place.
Stone-arm and his company were none too quick in getting to the
barricade. The assailants, fighting even more desperately than the day
before, and using better judgment--not crowding, this time, but giving
room for dart and spear throwing--had twice placed several men on the
wall, and now, after a furious assault, were maintaining five men
there. The others were crowding fast after.
Big-axe, in this emergency again throwing aside everything but his
axe, called to Bull-head, who dropped all but his club, and the two
rushed like furious bulls on the five Fishers, smashing down two, and
terrifying the others into jumping off.
But this supreme effort, following the other tremendous exertions, had
almost exhausted the two champions, and they were near to staggering
as they turned to pick up their shields. Both, too, were wounded,
and though the wounds were not disabling, they were letting out a
considerable quantity of blood. It was possible, also, that the
missiles that had made them were poisoned.
“Give us room!” thundered the gallant old Stone-arm, as like a boy he
leaped from rock to rock till he stood on the top of the wall. His
followers were close behind. “You two back and rest,” he went on. “We
are the same as fresh.”
As if to prove this he made an agile jump, and with his ponderous stone
weapon split the shield of a climbing Fisher, and shivered as if it
were of glass the arm that held it.
All alone though he was, the Fishers nearest him shrank back, and two
that had been climbing up, and already had their knees on the top,
turned and jumped down. Even a small reinforcement at a critical time
in a battle often turns the scale, and it was so now. For a few moments
the pack below raged and blustered, and some made motions as for
another assault, but not a man finally raised himself on the wall.
“Come on! Come on!” panted Bull-head, using the first good breath he
could get for one of his taunts. “It seems as if we should never have
you with us as our guests!”
But again the heart was out of the pack. They had already seen their
allies, well-nigh in a panic, scrambling back up the cliff, and now the
desperate fellows on the wall were strengthened by this veritable old
fighting machine and his nearly fresh men. It was too much, and slowly
and sullenly, as on the previous day, they drew back, wheeled, and
marched off toward the woods. They did not seem to pay any attention to
their allies, and it could not be seen that a man turned his head to
look back.
Again the little garrison gave itself up to the greatest noise it could
make. This meant something where there were so many strong lungs, and
sound and seasoned throats. Sure-dart was shouting with the rest,
when Big-axe, coming from the wall, stopped beside him. The chief was
smiling, but it was easy to see that he still had his worriments, and
that they were not light ones.
“Sure-dart,” the chief said, “we must take advantage of this little
breathing-spell. Do you and some of the other young and active men go
down and get water. Take the largest skins, and fetch all you can.
Wait, of course, till the gang is down from the hill, and the whole
pack is beyond the open, but be ready.”
It made Sure-dart feel a bit large thus to be spoken of as a “man,” and
he was besides proud that he should be one of those chosen for what was
really a dangerous bit of work. He answered with alacrity that he was
ready, and asked whether he was to pick out those who were to go with
him.
“Yes,” answered the chief; “I leave that to you.”
“You think, then,” Sure-dart said, his look growing more serious, “that
we are not done with these fellows? I thought they had had enough of
it.”
“I don’t want to do or say anything to dampen the good feeling,”
answered the chief, and he dropped his voice, “but I will say to
you--and you have more sense than most grown-up men--that I certainly
think we are not done with them. But they will not, I believe, try any
more assaults. What I think they will try is a siege. If we can stand
that”--his look grew very grave--“but never mind now. Be ready to start
after the water.”
Sure-dart sighed, but with an effort such as he had already learned
to make, he hid his feelings, and with a brisk air, and what seemed a
cheerful face, went about preparing for his little excursion.