Briefly stated, the news which the scout had brought from the mainland
was to the effect that King Kara-Kara, who held the white men at his
court as slaves, having heard of the prosperity and wealth of the king
of the hundred isles, and that he also owned a white slave, had
determined to invade the island territory.
From the hill-top, at a safe distance, this scout had beheld Kara-Kara's
camp with his own eyes, and he assured King Googagoo that the army was a
well-armed and a vast one, and that they were already busily engaged in
cutting down trees and making dug-outs. [Note 1.]
"So," said Harry, "the tables are turned. Instead of our making war on
Kara-Kara, Kara-Kara is going to make war upon us."
"Let them come," replied Googagoo, "I care not; you have taught me to
put my trust in Heaven. I do so, and feel sure that the Great Eye which
looks upon us from beyond the clouds, will keep us safe and give us the
victory."
Although there were now thunderstorms and rain almost every day, Harry
made himself busier with his little army than ever.
He picked out the best, quickest, and boldest men for officers--and I
need hardly say that both Walda and Somali Jack had high appointments--
and he kept drilling the men and amazons from morning till night.
Nor did he forget the commissariat This was to be very simple--little
else, in fact, save dates and rice and water.
Often now of a night great fires could be seen gleaming among the wooded
hills on the distant horizon, showing plainly enough that King
Kara-Kara's men were far from idle.
So the time wore on, and the wet season passed; the lake was no longer
lashed into foam by driving squalls, but slept as peacefully under the
blue sky as if waves had never yet been invented.
Harry was now wholly ready for action, and he had almost made up his
mind to carry the war into the enemy's country before he had time to
attack the islands.
The king and he had a long palaver over the particulars of this plan.
His majesty had very great faith in his navy.
"My boys," he said, "can fight as well on the water as they and my brave
amazons can do on shore. Let them come. We will cripple them, sink
them, then the work of utterly destroying them on their own shore will
be easy indeed."
Harry, on second thoughts, would have preferred surprising Kara-Kara by
night, but he acquiesced in the king's wishes.
They would be ready, therefore, and wait. How or when would the enemy
come? By night or by day? and in what formation?
Tall signal-posts were built on every island, to give warning of the
approach of the foe, and round every isle sentinels were stationed day
and night, with great fires built and ready to light.
For there was no saying from what direction the attack might be made.
In all probability they would steal round the lake under the shadow of
the land, and under the cover of the darkness, and attack Googagoo at
the place where he was most vulnerable.
More than once, in the starlight, small canoes had been detected gliding
about at night, but were speedily chased and put to flight. They were
spies without a doubt.
The island fleet had been by no means a first-class one, consisting for
the most part of large dug-outs with outriggers, like great gates at
each side This last certainly gave them extra stability and prevented
their turning over, but it greatly lessened their speed.
Even the flagship, which the king's barge might well be called, was
rather an unwieldy craft. She was the only one that had sailing power,
and that was merely a clumsy square sail, on one centre mast.
But Harry had gone in for naval reform--as far as practicable, and with
all the enthusiasm of a British sailor.
He had the men--for every one of these islanders was amphibious in a
manner of speaking--what he wanted was the ships.
Some new boats were accordingly made of a light wood that had been cut
down years ago. He made these broader in the beam, so that he managed
to dispense with the abominable way-stopping outriggers. Seven in all
of these were constructed, the bottoms being made shapely and smooth,
the sides light and thin, and the whole arrangement capable of double
the speed.
These new boats were to contain a crew of picked archers, the very best
shots in his little army, which consisted of eight thousand men all
told. There were also one thousand amazons.
Harry, in the forthcoming expedition to the mainland, wanted to leave
these women folks--"leave the ladies"--that is how he politely worded
it--at home. But the king, who was to command in person, would not hear
of such a thing. They were his body-guard, and so go they must.
Attention was now turned to the royal barge, and she lay bottom upwards
for a week to be strengthened by skin and pieces of thin iron, so that
when she was again launched, she looked a sturdy, useful craft indeed.
Extra oars or paddles were placed in every war-boat, and spears and
daggers innumerable.
Between a few of the islands, and quite out of view of the enemy, a
great naval review was held, and everything passed off in a most
satisfactory way.
Still, by taking away the outriggers Harry had considerably increased
the risk of capsizing in his boats. So he took the matter into still
more serious consideration, the result of which was that he constructed
a small fleet of special war-boats, each one consisting of two of the
ordinary dug-outs lashed together side by side, and he found to his
great joy that even these had as much speed in them as the clumsy
outrigger canoes.
The islanders were now ready for battle either by land or water.
Scouts were sent to the hills to spy out the doings of the enemy.
They returned with tidings to the effect that they had over two hundred
large dug-outs afloat, and that each of these had outriggers. That
their army consisted of nearly 20,000 warriors, armed with spears, and
clubs, and broad knives.
It was only a question now of time, so Harry waited. He himself was to
command in the naval engagement, the king would be otherwise engaged as
we shall presently see.
Whether it was that King Kara-Kara did not possess much ingenuity, or
was a staunch Conservative of the old school, or trusted entirely to his
great numbers and power, I know not; certain it is, however, that he
chose to make the attack upon the islanders in the simplest fashion
possible.
He put to sea one morning early with all his fleet of over one hundred
and fifty large boats, each containing about twenty oarsmen and
warriors, and in three extended lines began slowly pulling towards
Googagoo's private island.
Harry saw through his tactics at once, for after all war is very much
like a game of draughts, and skill goes a long way, while the more you
can guess your opponent's thoughts the surer you are of victory: so
Harry rightly guessed that Kara-Kara's plan of action was first to
capture the island king's palace and stronghold, king and all, then take
the other islands one by one.
"It is a very pretty arrangement," said Harry to his host, "if it can be
successfully carried out."
"Let them try," cried the king, who was dressed in his war clothes, with
spear, and sword, and short stout battle-axe, and really looked
imposing.
"Let them come on; I am now burning for the fight."
"So am I," cried Harry, laughing and spitting in his hand--the hand that
held a drawn ship's cutlass.
"I go away into my tent now to pray," continued the king. "Then I make
my army kneel and pray. Oh, I do not fear. See, the clouds are rolling
up and hiding the sun. The sun fears to look on the battle: but the
Eye, the Eye that will guide us to victory, is far beyond the sun. Your
Book tells me so."
"It is," said Harry, solemnly. "Good-bye."
Then he shook hands with the king and hurried away to action.
He had had a skiff of great speed built expressly for this great day.
His oarsmen were two, with a child to steer, and Somali Jack with the
rifles in the stern sheets.
There were only fifty cartridges left!
On came Kara's great fleet.
They had three miles and over to row, and they were allowed to do more
than two-thirds of the distance before ever Harry ordered his boats to
shove off to meet them.
Greatly to his surprise and joy he noticed that the enemy's boats were
far too much crowded to permit anything like freedom of action among the
men.
"That scores one for us," he said to himself.
The swift boats were now ordered off. These--as already stated--were
manned with archers, and were now told to meet and harass the foe with
clouds of arrows, but on no condition to close with them.
They were to hang on both flanks of the approaching fleet, and fire low,
well, and steadily. These were in command of Walda.
The king's barge was next ordered out. She was manned by thirty of the
bravest and biggest of the islanders, and each had, in addition to a
spear, a ponderous battle-axe.
Her duty was to capsize the enemy's boats by seizing the outriggers, or
at least to try to do so.
Away sped the archery boats with just one wild hurrah! and to see the
swiftness with which they bounded along to meet Kara-Kara's fleet
considerably astonished its sailors. They were still more astonished
however, when, while still about two hundred yards distant, the archery
boats divided into two lines, one skimming along each flank and pouring
in a murderous fire of arrows.
It was evident the foe was taken aback. Men were being pierced through
body and head, and falling dead in all quarters.
A side movement was made by the enemy with the view of crushing the
venomous little archery boats. But Walda's voice was now heard
shouting, "Boro! Boro!" (back! back!) high over the din of the battle.
The enemy now saw the inutility of any flank movement, and once more
advanced in lines, redoubling their efforts to reach the island.
King Googagoo's barge got round and advanced in the rear, and then out
came Harry with his fleet.
He took his time.
There was no need for hurry, it was to be a hand-to-hand engagement, and
the longer that cloud of arrows fell on the foe the better. The more
fatigued the enemy the more chance would Googagoo's fleet have of coming
off triumphant.
At last the hostile canoes met with a terrible rush.
By Harry's orders the outriggers were to be cut away from Kara-Kara's
boats as soon as possible, and every effort made to capsize them. But
above all were they to beware of getting their own double boats boarded
and carried by storm.
The battle now raged with terrible fury. Boat after boat of the enemy
had her outriggers hacked away and got capsized.
Harry was here, there, and everywhere, shouting orders, guiding and
encouraging his fleet.
He was a fleet in himself--the very genius of the battle.
The commander of the hostile canoes was a huge savage, who stood in the
bows of a large canoe and shouted his orders in a voice so sonorous that
it was heard everywhere. He seemed to bear a charmed life, for again
and again Somali Jack fired at him, but no bullet found a billet in that
fierce giant's body.
But canoe after canoe--by this captain's orders--was detached to attack
Harry's boat, for well the fellow knew that could he but silence our
hero the battle would soon be won.
Each and all of the boats sent on this detached duty came to grief. In
vain spears were hurled towards the skiff, for Jack's rifle instantly
came into deadly play, and at close quarters he liberally drilled them
by twos.
On the other hand, the archers were not idle, and any boat that got out
of line was their particular prey.
The fiercest fighting of all raged around the king's bark with its giant
seamen. Its captain was a man of herculean strength and all a savage's
wild ferocity. Wielding aloft a mighty battle-axe he dealt death and
destruction around him wherever he went. Many a canoe the barge
capsized. Many were the attempts made to board her, not only from the
warlike canoes, but by the drowning wretches in the lake; the latter
were ruthlessly hacked down, the former hurled back bleeding into the
water or into their dug-outs.
At last the barge found itself inside the enemy's line, and alongside
the stalwart commander's big canoe.
In a moment the outriggers at one side were broken into splinters, then
the giants found themselves face to face, Kara-Kara's naval commander
having leaped, panther-fashion, on board the barge and closed with its
captain.
It was a fearful tussle while it lasted, but soon the giant rose
bleeding but triumphant, and Kara-Kara's chief lay dead with his head
hanging over the gunnel of the boat.
Then the barge fought its way back into the open water, and the battle
was continued boat to boat and breast to breast.
But it was soon evident to Harry that, deprived of their captain, the
enemy were getting the worst of it and giving way.
Presently oars were seized by the foe, their dead and even their wounded
were pitched into the lake, and the retreat began.
Harry at once called off his men. He meant to cripple, if not destroy,
the foe in a way that would save the lives of his own fellows. The
double boats fell back at once, and the enemy, or what remained of
them--for at least five hundred must have fallen in this terrible
_melee_--commenced pulling away with might and main towards their own
camp on the distant shore.
"Follow and harass them halfway to their own shore."
This was the order given to the archers.