THE CHEFE STANDS FAST
It was an hour after midnight when the Headman sent for Ormsgill, who
found him sitting with his overlord beside a little fire that burned
redly in the thin mist. The night was almost chilly, and the Suzerain
crouched close beside the blaze, huddled in his loose garments, with
the uncertain light on his impassive face. It seemed to Ormsgill that
he looked worn and old, and he became conscious for the first time of
a vague pity for him. The task he had undertaken was, the white man
felt, one he could not succeed in. It was merely another futile
protest, for the yoke that was being fastened on his people's necks
could not be flung off that way. Ormsgill stood silent a moment or two
until the old man turned to him.
"You have no cause to love those white men in San Roque," he said.
"Well, I will give you forty boys with rifles. We want leaders who
know how the white men fight."
Ormsgill shook his head. "No," he said, "I can not lead them. This
affair is no concern of mine."
The negro appeared to ponder over his answer, for it was with
difficulty they understood each other, though another man crouching in
the wood smoke flung in a word or two.
"Are you all against us because we are black?" he said. "Those men at
San Roque would shoot you if they could."
"It is very likely," and Ormsgill smiled a little. "Still, I think we
are not all against you--though I can not lead your men. There are
white men among the Portuguese who know that you have wrongs. Some day
they will have justice done."
The negro spread out a dusky hand. "That is what the missionaries tell
us, but we have waited a long time, and there is no sign of it yet. We
can not wait for ever, and very soon all my people will be at work
upon the white men's plantations. They get greedier and greedier. Now
at last we strike."
Once more Ormsgill, standing still in the shadow watching him, was
stirred by a vague compassion. He knew that revolt was useless, and
wondered whether the old belief that there was a ban upon the negro
and that he was made to serve the white man was not, after all,
founded on more than superstition and self-interested sophistry. Other
primitive peoples had, he knew, died off before the white man, but the
Africans had thriven in their bondage, filling Brazil and the West
Indies and the cotton-growing States. They were prolific, cheerful,
adaptable to all conditions, and yet even where liberty had been
offered them they remained a subject people, and made no effort to
shake off the white man's yoke.
"You may sack San Roque," he said. "Still, I think you will never
reach the coast."
The Headman started at this boldness, and there was a vindictive
gleam in his eyes, but his overlord sat silent a space, apparently
brooding heavily, and gazing at the mist. Then he turned to Ormsgill
with a somewhat impressive deliberateness.
"At least," he said, "I go on. You will not lead our men, but you can
not warn the white men at San Roque. When we have sacked the fort I
will send for you again."
Ormsgill made him a little formal inclination before he turned away,
for the attitude of this negro was one he could understand. He had
himself attempted things that could not be done, expecting to be
defeated, but undertaking them because he felt that, at least, was an
obligation laid on him. Nares, and Father Tiebout, and no doubt
countless host of others, had also done the same, and Nares the
optimist had said that though they failed signally the protest of
their futile efforts would be listened to some day. It seemed that the
dusky man crouching beside the fire realized how much there was
against him, but, as he had said, he was going on. Perhaps it is
because men of all creeds and colors have pressed on downwards through
the ages to face ax and stake and firing platoon that there are not
even more of the overburdened in the world to-day. The cost of
progress is heavy, and the upward struggle is very grim and slow.
In the meanwhile Ormsgill went back past the long rows of weary men
lying in the sand to where his comrade was sitting in the clammy mist.
Nares was a little feverish that night.
"Well?" he said.
"I have been offered a command," said Ormsgill. "Naturally, I refused
it. I also ventured to tell our friend that he would fail. It says a
good deal for him that I escaped the usual fate of the prophets. He
did not even ask me for my reasons."
"You have them?"
"Yes," said Ormsgill. "The thing's quite evident in a general way and
to be precise he has to reckon with Dom Clemente. You remember the man
our guide fired at? I can't help thinking he has passed on any
information he may have picked up to the coast by now, and Dom
Clemente is a man who can move to some purpose when it's advisable.
Still, I have no doubt we shall sack San Roque before to-morrow. Our
friend hinted that measures would be taken to prevent us warning the
Chefe."
Nares turned and pointed to several men with rifles who sat half-seen
not very far away. Then he seemed to shiver.
"There was a time when I could have warned them in San Roque, though I
scarcely think they would have listened to me. Now I do not know that
I would do it if I had the opportunity." His voice grew sterner. "They
have brought it upon themselves. There are iniquities which can not be
borne."
His companion said nothing further, but sat down gnawing at an empty
pipe until they started again. The Headman or his Suzerain had drilled
his followers into some kind of order, and Ormsgill found something
impressive in the silent flitting by of half-seen men. They came up
out of the soft darkness with a faint patter of naked feet in sand,
and were lost in it again ahead of him. Now and then there was a
crackle of undergrowth or a clash of arms, but for the most part the
long column went by like a crawling shadow, for these were men
accustomed to flit through dim forests thick with perils noiselessly,
and they did not proclaim their presence as white troops would have
done. When they struck it would be in silence, and Ormsgill fancied
that San Roque was not much more than a league away.
Still, it was rough traveling through loose sand and tangled scrub,
and several hours had passed when the long sinuous column stopped
suddenly. The men in charge of Ormsgill handed him and Nares over to a
few others, who had only flintlock guns, and these led them forward to
a more open space, where they sat down. The night had grown a trifle
clearer, and Ormsgill could see a wide break in the bush in front of
him. A broad belt of mist hung about one side of it, and the gurgle of
sliding water came out of the vapor, against which there rose a
shadowy ridge.
"The stockade," he said. "We have arrived. Dom Erminio has either no
vedettes out, or our vanguard has stalked them and cut their throats."
He broke off, but in another moment or two he spoke again with a
little tension in his voice. "It's curious, and no doubt in one way
unreasonable, but I feel the desire to warn him getting almost too
much for me. I don't know how one could do it, and it certainly
wouldn't be any use, since I believe our friends are ringing the fort
in. Dom Erminio must fight for his life to-night."
The clang of a rifle, a Portuguese rifle, cut him short, and a cry
rose out of the vapor. After that there was silence until a crackling
commenced in the bush, and the two sat still and waited while the
tension grew almost intolerable. Ormsgill, who felt his mouth grow
parched and dry, fancied he could see the stockade a trifle more
plainly, and the forest seemed to be growing blacker, though the mist
was a little thicker than it had been. It was also perceptibly colder.
"It will be daylight in half an hour," he said, and his voice struck
on his companion's ears curiously strained and hoarse.
Then another rifle flashed, there was a sudden shouting, and a
tumultuous patter of naked feet, and a shadowy mass of running figures
hurled themselves at the stockade. A good many of them never reached
it, for the dusky barrier blazed with twinkling points of light, and a
withering volley met them in the face. Then the drifting smoke was
rent by brighter snapping flashes in quick succession, and the jarring
thud of heavier reports broke through the crash of the rifles. This
lasted for perhaps two minutes, and then there was by contrast a
silence that was almost bewildering. It seemed emphasized when once or
twice the ringing of a rifle came out of the streaks of drifting vapor
that hung about the stockade.
"They're going back," said Ormsgill hoarsely. "The Chefe's men will
stand." Then he laughed, a harsh, strained laugh. "They know they
have to. Our friends are not likely to have much consideration for any
of them who fall into their hands."
Nares, who shivered a little, said nothing, and a minute or two later
a crackle of riflery broke out in the bush. It came from the
Suzerain's men, for there was no mistaking the crash of the heavy
Sniders. Once or twice the jarring thud of the machine gun broke in,
and here and there a twinkling flash leapt from the stockade, but with
that exception there was no answer from the fort.
"It seems," said Ormsgill, "Dom Erminio has his men in hand. It's a
little more than I expected from him. Presumably our friend wishes to
keep him occupied while he seizes the canoes. Anyway, his boys will be
considerably more dangerous when they've wasted their ammunition."
The fusillade continued, in all probability, harmlessly, for awhile,
and then Ormsgill rose to his feet. "I think they'll get in this time.
They're trying it again."
Once more vague, shadowy objects flitted out of the bush, and swept
towards the stockade. They ran without order, furiously, while more of
their comrades emerged from the shadows behind them, until the narrow
strip of cleared space was filled with running figures. There appeared
to be swarms of them, and Ormsgill held his breath as he watched. He
saw them plunge into a crawling trail of low lying mist, that seemed
torn apart suddenly when once more the face of the stockade was
streaked with little spurts of flame. It closed on them again until
all was hidden but the intermittent flashing, and the jarring thud of
the machine gun rent the din. One could not tell what was going on,
and it was by a tense effort Ormsgill held himself still with every
nerve in him quivering. How long the tension lasted he did not know,
but at length the ringing of the rifles died away again, and as a
little puff of chilly breeze rolled the haze aside it became evident
that the space before the stockade was once more empty. He could see
the stockade clearly, and the edge of the forest now cut sharply
against the sky.
"The Headman can't afford to fail again," he said. "It is breaking
day."
Then there was silence for a space, while the light grew clearer until
the residency beyond the stockade grew into shape. A smear of pale
color widened in the eastern sky, and as Ormsgill turned his eyes
towards the house a limp bundle of fabric rose slowly up the lofty
staff above it. It blew out once on the faint breeze, and then hung
still again, but as he watched it, Ormsgill felt a little thrill run
through him.
"Rather earlier than usual. Dom Erminio means to fight," he said.
Just then, however, a negro who came up gasping with haste signed to
Nares. "The Headman sends for you," he said. "You are to take a
message to those people yonder."
Ormsgill looked at his comrade, who smiled curiously. "Yes," he said,
"I shall certainly go. Whether I am in any way responsible for all
this I do not know, but I may, perhaps, save a few of them."
He raised himself somewhat stiffly, and turned away, but two negroes
held Ormsgill fast when he would have gone with him. He sat down again
when they relaxed their grasp, and at last saw Nares appear again on
the edge of the bush some distance away. He was alone, and walked
quietly towards the stockade with his wide hat in his hand, and a
figure in white uniform appeared in the notch where the palisades had
been cut down for the quick-firing gun. Just then a ray of brightness
struck along the trampled sand, and Ormsgill saw his comrade stop and
stand still, spare and gaunt and ragged, with the widening sunlight
full upon him. What was said he did not know, but he did not blame Dom
Erminio afterwards for what followed. Perhaps, some black soldier's
over-taxed nerve gave way, or the man had flung off all restraint and
gone back to his primitive savagery, for a rifle flashed behind the
stockade, and Nares staggered, recovered his balance, and collapsed
into a blurred huddle of white garments on the trampled sand.
Then as Ormsgill sprang to his feet the bush rang with a yell, and a
swarm of half-naked negroes poured tumultuously out of it. There was
no firing among them. They ran forward with glinting matchets and
spears and brandished flintlock guns, and Ormsgill knew that now, at
least, they would certainly get in. In another moment he was running
furiously towards them, and so far as he could remember afterwards
none of the men in whose charge he had been troubled themselves about
him. It was some way to the front of the stockade, and when he got
there he was hemmed in by a surging crowd. There was smoke in his
eyes, and a bewildering din through which he heard the thudding of the
quick-firing gun, but where Nares was he did not know. He could only
go forward with the press, and he ran on in a fit of hot vindictive
fury.
Here and there a man about him screamed, and now and then a half-seen
figure collapsed in front of him, but this time no one stopped or
turned. They were all crazed with primitive passion, and were going
in. Ormsgill, pressing onwards with them, saw that he had now a
matchet in his hand, though he had no recollection of how it came
there. Then the thudding of the gun ceased suddenly and the air was
rent by a breathless gasping yell. The stockade rose right over him,
and he went headlong at the gap in it from which there protruded the
muzzle of the gun. Somebody behind him hurled him through the opening,
and he dropped inside. As he scrambled to his feet he saw a swarm of
men running towards the residency, and he went with them, partly
because he wished to get there and also because those who poured
through the gap behind him drove him along. He had afterwards a fancy
that he saw a white man lying not far from the gun, but he could not
be certain, for the negroes were thick about him, and he was not in a
mood to interest himself in anything of that kind just then. He was
possessed by an unreasoning fury, and an overwhelming desire to reach
the men who had treacherously shot his comrade.
They came gasping to the foot of the outer stairway, and by this time
Ormsgill had almost come up with the foremost of his companions. A
glance showed him the barricade of bags and boxes apparently filled
with soil on the veranda, and the black faces and rifle barrels above
them. There seemed to be a good deal of smoke in the air, but he saw
Dom Erminio standing amidst it in white uniform. He had a naked sword
in his hand, and apparently saw Ormsgill, for his drawn face contorted
into a very curious smile. So far as the latter could make out, he had
still a handful of men under his command. Escape was out of the
question. The score he had run up was a long one, and now the
reckoning had come.
Then several rifles flashed among the bags, and the negroes went up
the stairway with a yell. Ormsgill fancied that two or three men went
down about him, and had a vague remembrance of trampling on yielding
bodies, but he went up uninjured, and leapt up upon the barricade. The
veranda was thick with smoke now, but he saw Dom Erminio suddenly lean
forward with the long blade gleaming in his hand, and a black soldier
who crouched close beside his feet tearing at his rifle breech. That,
however, was all he saw, for in another moment he leapt down, and a
swarm of half-naked men with spears and matchets swept into the
veranda. What he did next he knew no more than those about him
probably did, but when at length he reeled out of the smoke-filled
building and down the stairway the matchet was no longer in his hand,
and he wondered vaguely that there was so far as he could discover not
a scratch on him. Still he felt a trifle dazed, and as his head ached
intolerably he sat down gasping.
There was no firing in the residency now, and half-naked men were
pouring out of it, but Ormsgill felt no desire to go back and see what
had become of Dom Erminio and his soldiery. He sat still for several
minutes, and then rising with an effort walked stiffly across the
compound. He had some trouble in climbing the stockade, and when that
was done came upon Nares lying face downwards in the trampled sand. He
raised him a trifle with some difficulty, and saw a little hole in the
breast of his thin jacket. Then laying him gently down again he took
off his shapeless hat. He was still standing beside him vacantly when
one of the Headman's messengers laid a hand on his shoulder. Ormsgill
looked down once more on his comrade, and then turned away and went
with the man.