The men ceased rowing, and Jack sat with his heart beating painfully,
his mind full of memories of accounts he had read concerning encounters
with savages, and wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows and spears.
As he sat in the intense darkness, watching the brilliant star-like
lamp, it all seemed to be dreamlike and impossible that he should be
there--he who so short a time before was leading that quiet student life
in the study or library at home.
But there was the black canoe gliding by the light, and like so many
silhouettes the dark, clearly-defined figures of the savages busy
paddling.
No, it could not be the canoe he had seen first, it must be another, and
the next minute he had proof thereof, in this canoe passing across the
disk of radiant light, leaving it for a few moments clear, and then
another appeared, and he watched the little black silhouettes steadily
moving as they paddled, till the long boat had gone by, when another
appeared and passed.
"Give way!" came in a whisper; then the oars dipped silently, and they
began to move onward.
"We must make a dash for it, or they will surprise the yacht," whispered
the mate. Then he leaned over backward, and the exciting words
came--"Astern there. Guns ready and load."
A faint whisper or two from the mate's boat told that the men not rowing
had received a similar command, and Jack, as he thrust a couple of
cartridges into the breech of his gun, felt that the canoes would be
paddling round the yacht, and have reached the other side by the time
they were alongside.
"Are we not going to shout and alarm Captain Bradleigh?" whispered Jack
to the doctor.
"No; sit still," said that gentleman sternly. "He and your father are
the leaders. We have only to obey. Don't fire till you receive
orders."
A low deep sigh came from Ned, but it was accompanied by a faint
"click--click; click--click."
"Both barrels at full cock," thought the lad. "But how horrible to have
to fire at any one, even if he is black."
But all the same, horrible or no, the lad cocked both locks of his own
piece, and felt the flap of his cartridge satchel to try whether
everything was handy if he had to reload; and just then, as they glided
silently along in the full glare of the great artificial star, a feeling
of angry resentment ran through him, and he said half aloud--
"Serve them right. Why can't they leave us alone?"
"And so say all of us, Mr Jack," whispered Ned, startling him he
addressed, for he was not aware that his words were heard.
The only sounds to be heard now were the regular heavy boom of the
breakers on the reef--a sound so deep and constant that it had already
begun to count as nothing, and curiously enough did not seem to
interfere with their hearing anything else, acting as it did like the
deep bass in an orchestra or great organ, and making the lighter,
higher-pitched notes more clear--and the light soft dip of the boat's
oars as the men silently pulled home.
Then, all at once, as Jack strained his ears to catch the paddling of
the canoes, the deep voice of Captain Bradleigh rang out as if from the
other side of the yacht.
"Ahoy! What boat's that?"
Then in the midst of a dead silence there was a quick flash, and Jack
held his breath, expecting to hear the report of a gun, but his eyes
conveyed the meaning of the flash, not his ears.
The darkness was profound, for the light from the great star had been
shut off in their direction, and directly after the shape of the
graceful yacht stood out clearly, every spar and rope defined against a
softly diffused halo as the star was made to perform the duties of a
search-light, sweeping the lagoon beyond and showing plainly the long
low shapes of four great canoes, each with its row of men, and about a
quarter of a mile away.
Then all was black as pitch.
"Now for it, my lads," whispered the mate. "Pull with all your might."
The men made the water hiss as they drew hard at the long tough ash
blades, and above this sound they could hear the hurry and rattle of
something going on aboard the yacht. Quick short orders were issued;
then Captain Bradleigh's voice was heard again.
"Ahoy there! Sir John!"
"Right. Here we are."
What the captain said in reply was confined to the word "Thank--" The
rest was smothered by a sharp crash, and a check which took the small
boat in which Jack sat sharply up against the other's stern.
The crash was followed by a savage yelling and splashing; and as they
went on again directly, the men pulling with all their might. Jack was
conscious of struggling and blows, and he grasped the fact that they had
rowed at full speed against the stern or bows of another canoe which had
been invisible in the darkness, and that some of her occupants had
seized the men's oars on the port side. The blows, he found, were
delivered by their men to shake off their adversaries, some of whom he
dimly saw struggling in the water as the boat passed on; and, unable to
control himself, Jack leaned over and caught at a hand just within his
reach, the fingers closing upon his in a fierce grasp and nearly jerking
him out of the boat, a fate from which he was saved by Ned, who seized
him round the middle and dragged him back.
"Got him?" cried the doctor excitedly.
"You should have said `Got it,' sir," grumbled the man, with a
drawing-in of his breath as if in pain. "But he's all right. I wish I
was."
"What's the manner, man?"
"Him a-holding his gun like that. Oh, my crikey! What a whack I got on
the cheek!"
"What an escape, Jack!" cried the doctor.
"But the poor wretch was drowning. Hark! their canoe must be sinking--
men struggling in the water."
"Never mind: let them," said the doctor. "They can swim like seals, and
their canoe will float like a log."
"But the sharks!" panted Jack.
"We can't stop to think of them," said the doctor.--"Are you all right
there?"
"Yes, and alongside," cried the mate, and there was the rattle of the
oars being laid in.
"Thank heaven!" cried the captain from the deck, as both boats ground
against the yacht's side. "Quick, all aboard! Now then, hook on those
falls and up with the boats."
The boats were run up to the davits in regular man-o'-war fashion, the
gangway was closed, and the men who were busy went on rigging up a stout
net about six feet wide along from stanchion to stanchion, and shroud to
shroud, while, after a word or two of congratulation upon their safe
return, the captain went on giving his orders.
"Nearly surprised us, Sir John," he said; "and it would have been
awkward with us so weak-handed. All go to your stations; they may try
to board at any time. Here, Mr Jack, you'd better go below."
"What for?" said Jack quietly.
"To be out of danger, sir," said the captain angrily. "Quick, sir, I
have no time to be polite."
"Are you going below, father?" said the lad.
"I? No, my boy. I shall stay."
"So shall I," said Jack; and a voice whispered at his ear--
"That's it, Mr Jack. You stop; we don't want to be out of the fun."
Sir John was silent, and stood behind the captain, who looked out ahead
at the canoes, shown up clearly by the search-light as four lay in a
cluster together, their occupants watching the light as if puzzled.
The next moment the light was sent sweeping round to the other side; and
there, plainly seen, was the fifth canoe, its gunwale level with the
surface, and only its high stem and prow standing well above the water.
And there clinging to her on either side were her crew, paddling away by
striking the water, and sending the injured vessel slowly along, so as
to cross the yacht's stem, and take her to where the rest lay waiting,
as if their leaders were uncertain what to do.
"There, you see, Jack," said the doctor. "But what a crash! our speed
saved us from being stove in, just as the tallow candle is said to pass
through a deal board when fired from a gun."
"Do you think they are all there?" said Jack.
"Oh yes, they would help one another; but I don't think we should have
been all here if they had had their way with us."
They stood watching the damaged canoe till it had passed the yacht, and
then the light was suddenly turned so that it lit up the four canoes, in
which there might have been close upon a couple of hundred men; and to
Jack's horror he saw that they had altered their position, and were prow
toward them in regular battle array, and only about forty or fifty feet
apart.
"Does that mean coming on?" said Jack, and he thought of their own
weakness.
"I expect so," replied the doctor; "but I dare say a few volleys of
small shot will give them such a sickening of the white man's magic that
they will turn tail. Why look at that."
The light was now turned on to its full power, and the man who managed
it kept on changing its position so that it blazed right upon each canoe
in turn, with a singular result, each doing the same. For, as if
startled by the light, the occupants began to paddle backward in a
hurried way, till the beam was shifted, when they ceased.
"Why they're regularly scared at the lamp, captain," cried Doctor
Instow.
"Yes, that's so, sir," replied the captain; "and it looks as if they
knew that their deeds were evil, shunning the light in this fashion; but
it can't last. They'll soon get used to it; and if they can only be
scared until I get the steam up I don't mind."
"Are you getting the steam up, captain?" asked Jack eagerly.
"Yes; can't you hear the fires going?"
Jack had been too much excited to notice any one special thing in the
preparations to resist an attack, but he was now conscious of a dull
humming sound which he knew was the softened roar of the furnaces.
"The yacht's like a useless log lying here becalmed," continued the
captain; "but once I have a good head of steam on she becomes a living
creature, and I can do anything with her--and with them if they don't
behave themselves. I don't want to run down and drown any of the poor
wretches; but if they attack us they must take the consequences."
"Poor ignorant creatures!" said Sir John. "I suppose they don't know
our power."
"That's it," replied Captain Bradleigh. "The more savage a man is,
according to my experience, the more vain and conceited he seems. He
believes in himself thoroughly, for he is generally vigorous and active
as a wild beast, and looks down on an ordinary white man with a kind of
scorn. You would be surprised, Mr Jack, what a number of lessons have
to be given him before he will believe in our machinery and weapons of
war, unless you can appeal to his brain by making him believe that they
are what the Scotchman calls uncanny. If you once find him thinking
that steam, or the gun which kills a man a couple of hundred yards away,
is the result of fetish or the bunyip, or a diabolical spirit, he's the
greatest coward under the sun. Give them another brush over with the
light, my lad."
The man in charge of the great star sent the rays sweeping over the sea,
once more making the dazzling beam play here and there at his will, upon
first one and then another of the blacks in the canoes, with the result
that they were all thrown into a state of confusion, each as the light
dazzled his eyes ducking down right into the bottom of his vessel, or
trying to bend behind his neighbour and to escape from the terrible
blazing eye, which seemed to go through him.
"That's right," said Sir John.
"Now if we can only keep them off for an hour longer I don't care. Give
me that time and I'll chase them all out to sea before they know where
they are, or send them to the bottom if they don't mind."
The suppressed excitement on board the yacht was tremendous, but the men
worked without a word. The thick net was strongly fixed so as to act as
a barrier to the enemy who might try to climb on board. The yacht's
guns were cast loose, well shotted with small grape, and cartridges were
ready for use. The men whose duty it was to repel attempts at boarding
stood ready with their sword-bayonets at the ends of their rifles, and
the engineer and firemen were below doing their best to get up steam,
the humming noise going merrily on the while.
The captain paced the deck very calmly and quietly, night-glass in hand,
with which he watched the movements of the savages, and handed it more
than once to Jack to take a look through at the enemy, making remarks
the while about their bows and arrows, spears and war-clubs, while the
doctor and Sir John stood aft, well-armed and ready for any emergency,
Sir John's servant being close at hand.
"Don't seem quite the thing, Jack," said the doctor, as the lad came
along the dark deck to where they stood.
"What doesn't seem quite the right thing?" said the boy, glad to have an
opportunity to talk and have some cessation of the terrible strain which
kept his excited nerves at the highest pitch of tension.
"Why, the standing here with a double gun loaded with slugs, ready to
pepper the niggers. I'm a curer, not a killer."
"We must defend ourselves," said Jack.
"You must. I ought to be below turning the cabin or the steward's place
into an operating room, getting my instruments, tourniquets, silk, and
bandages ready."
"Oh, don't talk like that!" cried the lad with a shudder.
"Why not? Doctors must prepare for the worst."
"Hope we shall have no worst, Doctor Instow," said the captain, coming
up. "If I could only get the signal that steam was ready! We are just
swinging by the head to the buoyed cable, so that I can slip at any
moment. Halloo! What's going on now?" He ran forward, gave a word to
the man in charge, and the beam of light swept round the yacht and back;
but there was no fresh danger coming up, and the shouting and yelling
which had taken the captain forward evidently proceeded from the two
central canoes.
"Why, where's the sunken one?" said Jack, as he shaded his eyes and
peered forward.
"They've floated her right astern of them," replied the captain,
"half-an-hour ago, and the crew are distributed amongst the four. But I
don't quite make out what they were shouting about. Why--Steady there,
my lads. You at the guns, be ready. The canoes are coming on. Oh!" he
added to himself, "if there were only a capful of wind!"
But there was not a breath of air, as a loud yell from one voice was
heard, and followed by a burst from the whole party. Then the paddles
were plunged into the water on both sides, making it foam and sparkle in
the bright light of the star, the canoes began to move very slowly, and
Captain Bradleigh turned to the yacht's owner--
"They mean mischief, sir. I'm afraid we must fire."
"Only as a last resource," said Sir John.
"If we wait for a last resource, sir," said the captain sternly, "it may
be too late. My lads could sink one of the canoes now, and that might
check the advance. The guns are useless if we let them come to close
quarters."
"But I am dreadfully averse to what may prove wholesale slaughter," said
Sir John.
"So am I, sir," said the captain dryly. "It is for you to decide."
Jack stood quivering with excitement, and wondered what Sir John would
say. But he said nothing, for all at once, as the canoes were coming on
faster and faster in the bright light shed by the star, and the little
crews of the two bright guns laid them ready for the shots they expected
to hear ordered from moment to moment, the strange silence on board was
broken by the clear loud _ting_ of a hammer upon a gong close to where
the principals stood.
"At last!" cried the captain; and before Jack could utter the question
upon his lips as to what that stroke meant, order after order was
delivered in quick succession.
At the first the cable was slipped. At the second, the star, which was
vividly lighting up the approaching canoes, suddenly went out, leaving
everything in darkness, for there was not another light visible on
board. And at the third, a peculiar vibration made the slight yacht
quiver from stem to stern, for the engine was in motion under a good
head of steam, and the propeller revolved slowly in reverse, so that the
yacht moved astern as fast as the canoes approached.
This went on for a few minutes, with captain and mate standing by the
wheel, and the former suddenly turned to Sir John.
"I can't keep this up in the dark, sir," he said. "Perhaps we had
better give them a shot or two."
"Why not keep on retreating?"
"Because at any moment we may retreat on to a sharp coral rock, and be
at their mercy."
"Try everything first."
"I will, sir," said the captain; and suddenly changing his tactics, the
order was given, the light flashed out again, and the canoes were made
out four times the distance away, the men paddling with all their might,
but stopping instantly in utter astonishment, for they were in perfect
ignorance of the distance having been put between them, all being
invisible in the darkness which followed the shutting off of the light.
There was another yell now, and plunging their paddles in again, the
water once more flashed and foamed in the brilliant light.
Then there was a stroke on the engine-room gong down below, and the
propeller began to revolve; two more strokes, directly after, another
three, and the yacht gathered more and more way till she was rushing on
full speed ahead, her light, like a brilliant star, hiding everything
behind her, and apparently just above the surface of the water, bearing
rapidly down for the centre of the little fleet of canoes.
On she went, and as she neared the rate at which the paddles were used
increased in speed too, but it was to get out of the way, for the
steersmen turned off to starboard and port, and though the slightest
turn of the wheel would have sent the _Silver Star_ crashing through
either of the canoes the captain had chosen to select, she was steered
straight through the little fleet till she was three or four hundred
yards astern, and the canoes were invisible in the darkness. Then by a
clever manoeuvre she was swung round in very little more than her own
length, the light which had been shut off as soon as they passed being
opened upon the enemy again, and the occupants of the deck saw the two
pairs of canoes now lying waiting as if undecided.
Once more the order to go on full speed rang out, and the yacht was
steered for the nearest canoe.
No movement was made at first, but the moment the enemy made out that
the light was rushing silently at them again, they uttered a wild shout
of horror and dismay and began to paddle as hard as they could for the
opening in the reef, to escape from the fiery star that had dropped from
the heavens and was now chasing them to burn them up.
Ignorance and fear went hand in hand, for there was the dazzling star
but nothing more to be seen. There might have been no yacht in
existence for all they could tell. It was enough that the fiery light
like a great eye was fixed upon them in full pursuit, and away they
went, faster probably than canoes ever travelled before, till the dark
portion was reached where there were no breakers, and the leading canoe
rushed out, followed by the others, and away to sea, horror-stricken at
the great mystery they had seen, and in no wise lightened by the fact
that the star suddenly disappeared as the last canoe dashed out from the
lagoon.
"I think that has startled them," said the captain, as he had the light
shut off and gave the order for the yacht to go slowly astern, as he
made, as well as the darkness would allow, for their old quarters, but
did not reach them, it being more prudent to drop another anchor at
once.
No lights were shown and the strictest watch was kept, when the
gentlemen went below to their late dinner, and discussed over it the
probabilities of a return of the enemy.
"No, you won't receive another visit from them in the dark, gentlemen,"
said Captain Bradleigh merrily. "The star they saw will be talked about
among them for years. That big light must have been a scare; but I
expect we shall have them again by daylight, for this yacht would be a
prize worth having. But we shall see."
"Well," said the doctor, "I should think that the maker of that light
would be surprised if he knew to what purpose it was put."
"Yes," said the captain, "I should say it is the first time an
illuminated figure-head was used to scare a war-party of blacks."
"What about to-night, Captain Bradleigh?" said Jack anxiously.
"Well, if I were you, sir, I should go to bed and have a good long
sleep."
"Oh, impossible," cried the lad; "I could not close my eyes for feeling
that the blacks were come back."
"Try, sir," said the captain; and when the others went to lie down, on
the captain's assurance that steam would be still on and the strictest
watch would be kept, Jack lay down to try.
But he did not try, he had no time. Wearied out with the dangers of the
day, he laid his head on his pillow, after placing a double gun and
loaded revolver close to the bed's head, and just closed his eyes.
They did not open again till Ned stood there and announced that it was
"some bells," and that it was time to rise.
"How many, Ned?" said Jack sleepily.
"Oh, I dunno, sir, only that it answers to seven o'clock."
"And the savages?" cried Jack excitedly.
"Nowhere in sight, sir; but they've left the broken canoe as a present
for you. It's floating close in to the sands where we made our start
the day before yesterday. Lovely morning, sir, but I wish the
neighbours hadn't been quite so friendly and wanted to come and see how
we were getting on."