The reason for Wahika's last halt was plainly enough marked now that day
had dawned. They were in a _cul-de-sac_--a natural fortress, which it
must now be their aim to defend against attack. Assault could come but
from below, along the narrow winding way of the bed of the stream, up
which their assailants, should they trace the little party, would have
to climb slowly and arduously, exposed to their fire; and would their
ammunition but hold out, Murray felt that those would indeed be daring
foes who would force their way up, step by step, along the narrow path.
Could Bray have been trusted, Murray would have felt comparatively safe;
but he could not avoid recalling the night of the fire, the cruel blow
so treacherously dealt; and it was but rarely that the eyes of the young
men met.
Bray, too, had his thoughts upon their position. In spite of his rage,
he knew that he would fight to the death in Katie's defence; but it was
gall and bitterness to him to see the gentle care she bestowed upon his
rival; and more than once, with a vengeful curse, he turned from them to
make his way lower down the gully, and sit there brooding over his
wrongs.
No sunshine fell where the fugitives sat; but the heights around grew
radiant; and poor Katie shuddered as they reminded her of her bright and
peaceful home, over which so fearful a change had been brought.
Feeling the impossibility of making farther progress, Murray was
surprised to see Wahika, after a little reconnoitring, begin to climb
the face of the precipice, finding foothold in tiny crevices, and
grasping at tufts of grass, till he had surmounted an almost
perpendicular portion of the face of the rock. But his object soon
became plain: some thirty feet up there appeared to be a shelf and a
dark opening, but so full of verdure that it was impossible to make out
its extent; and here, it seemed, that the savage intended to make his
stronghold, for, having reached the shelf, he drew out his knife, and,
in a very short time, from the hanging creepers had woven a kind of
rough rope, sufficiently strong to bear the weight of his companions;
and this he at length let down.
Katie shrank from it at first; but a whisper from Murray sufficed. The
loop made was passed over her, so that she was seated within it; a
couple of handkerchiefs bound her securely, lest her courage should
fail; and then the young men watched her, trembling, as Wahika stood
striding on the crag above, his brow knit, and the muscles upon his arms
standing out like knotted cords, as he, by sheer strength,
hand-over-hand, drew up the frightened girl.
Twice Murray, his heart beating rapidly, stood with outstretched hands
to break her fall; for it seemed that Wahika had over-rated his powers,
and that he must be drawn over the edge. But slowly and steadily he
hauled up his rough cord, Katie swinging to and fro, and clinging with
closed eyes the while, till by an effort the savage drew her to the
edge; and the next instant she was in safety.
In a few minutes the rope was lowered; and Murray tied to it the guns
and such provisions as still remained; and when, once more, the rope
descended, Bray seized it, and half drawn, half climbing, reached the
top, just as a shout from below told that not only had the gully been
discovered, but that he had been seen.
The next instant a bullet flattened itself against the stone, a little
below the edge, and fell at Murray's feet, while the rocks above echoed
and re-echoed the report with a roll as of thunder.
Wahika would have lowered the line again; but Bray held to it, and kept
him back; for the temptation was strong upon him to leave Murray to his
fate. They had there, where he was, the arms and provisions; and it was
impossible for the convicts to reach them. Help must come sooner or
later; and then there was the future. Should he not be successful in
winning Katie, he would be revenged, and he would not have the agony of
seeing her in his rival's arms. The temptation was strong, and he
yielded to it. Murray might die. But Wahika, too, was strong, and
heedless of a couple more shots fired, he struggled hard for the rope,
sending Bray back upon the precipice, so that it seemed that both must
fall; but by an effort Bray recovered himself, and the savage was forced
back; when, with a harsh cry, he loosened his hold of the rope, and
darted to Katie, whose agitation had alarmed him, for she had seemed as
if about to leap down to her lover.
But if such had been her intention, Wahika restrained her, pulling her
down into shelter; and, seizing his gun, he took rapid aim, fired; and
one of the convicts who was about to fire at Murray bounded into the
air, and then fell into the little trickling stream.
Imitating his example, Bray too fired; and another man sank into a
sitting posture, and then crawled into the shelter of the rocks; while
half-a-dozen shots fired at the defenders of the gully flattened
themselves on the rock, or dislodged little clouds of dust and stones.
Knowing his peril, Murray sank at the first discharge, and behind a mass
of rock crouched with anxious heart, waiting for the coming of his
executioners. For it seemed to him that, sooner or later, they would
dash on, ignorant of the inaccessible mass of rock, and then, in their
rage and disappointment, kill him upon the spot.
He smiled bitterly as he thought of this new act of treachery; and as he
watched the barrels protruded above his head, he would have felt little
surprise had that of Bray covered him; and a thrill of rage ran through
him as he thought of his helpless position--weak and unarmed, and
waiting for his end.
But would not aid come? The news of such an outrage, as spread by Mr
Meadows, must bring the settlers of the whole district down to the
destruction of the villainous crew. But would the aid come in time to
save Katie?
As for Bray, he lay there watching the coming on of the convicts, as
they now grew more cautious, and darted from stone to stone for
protection. Twice he withheld his hand when he might have slain an
enemy; for he told himself savagely that it was not for him to stay them
from reaching his rival. And then as to Wahika--what was he, that he
should oppose his will? There was his home in ruins; but he could build
another; his cattle and sheep were uninjured; and here, miles away from
another station, and with her friends cut off, Katie must gladly accept
of his protection and become his wife; and the past would soon be
forgotten. He knew nothing of Mrs Lee's escape, nor of the sought-for
aid; and silent and thoughtful he lay there, almost a spectator of the
little siege.
Twice his barrel covered Murray, and he took deadly aim at the young
man; but the blenching was not on the sailor's side. He saw his peril;
but he trembled not, but gazed full up at his rival with a calm
untroubled mien, almost a smile of contempt upon his lip, when the
fierce eyes of his enemy were withdrawn, the barrel of the gun pointed
in another direction, and Bray's conscience told him that he dared not
fire.
Meanwhile precipice and crag sent thundering back the echoes of the
discharged guns; for every time Wahika, from his more exposed position,
showed hand or head, bullet after bullet was sent whistling through the
air; but except being struck and bleeding from the rocky splinters, he
was but little injured. Not so, though, his enemies; for more than one
poor wretch, on rising to fire, from what he conceived to be a place of
safety, received his death wound, and staggered down the gully, to fall
with a crash over some fragment of rock, and then dye the streamlet with
his heart's blood. Now the strife would seem to cease, and attacker and
defender would remain in concealment; but only for the convicts to renew
their assault, coming in their rage nearer and nearer, until, but for
Wahika's well-plied gun, they must have reached the spot where Murray
lay sheltered by the rock.
He did not want for food; for there was a portion of the provision
dropped at his feet; but while the stream trickled close by where he
sat, and he could quench his thirst and lave his heated brow, those
above him on the rock suffered severely from want of water, as the sun
beat down upon their heads, and the stone grew hotter and hotter, till
the verdure around them flagged and drooped.
The times of cessation were, if possible, more trying than those of the
active firing; for when the enemy was invisible, the dread was always
great that they had scaled the sides of the gorge, and would before long
reach them by some side-path, or, climbing far above where they lay hid,
would hurl down huge stones and crush them as they sought in vain to
avoid each ponderous mass. But no such thoughts seemed to trouble
Wahika, who, with his gun-barrel commanding the pass, lay there watchful
and patient, the barrel at times growing so hot that it seemed within
the range of probability that the charge might explode. In his rough
way he comprehended to a great extent the cause of the enmity between
the young men, and placing Katie in a rift, half chasm, half cavern,
behind where he knelt, he kept a double watch, and waited patiently for
the help that he, too, felt must soon come. As the heat grew more
intense, reflected back as it was from the rocks, but never reaching the
hollow where Murray was concealed, the savage picked and chewed leaves
to allay his thirst, offering some, too, to the trembling girl behind
him.
The shades of evening began at last to fall, and to Murray it was an
anxious time, for he rightly guessed that the convicts would take
advantage of the obscurity to close up and attack their enemies hand to
hand; for since daylight had enabled them to discover the gully by which
the fugitives had escaped, every check received had tended to madden
them and make them reckless of consequences. Not that they dreaded
attack themselves--the country had seemed too sparsely inhabited;
therefore as each man fell, his comrades had sworn the most binding oath
each to avenge him; and as soon as darkness closed in, they began to
creep cautiously from rock to rock, higher up the gully. In spite of
their caution, though, they had not made much progress, when a heavy
stone was dislodged, and, as if in consequence, a gun was seen to send
forth its messenger of death, and the convicts once more halted.
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