Bart gripped him savagely by the arm, and he yielded, crept slowly to
the hole, went down upon his breast, and softly thrust his head through
into the dank night air, to hear plainly the sighing and croaking of the
reptiles in the swamp, and see before him the sparkling scintillations
of the myriad fireflies darting from bush to bush.
He wormed himself on, and was about to draw forth one hand and arm, but
always moving as silently as some nocturnal beast of prey, when it
suddenly occurred to him that the glow of one of the fireflies was
unusually large; and before he had well grasped this idea there was the
regular tramp of feet, and he knew that it was the lantern of the guard
moving across to the prison barrack, and that they must come right past
where he lay.
He must creep back and wait; and as the steps steadily approached and
the tramp grew plainer he began to wriggle himself through, getting his
arm well in and his shoulders beginning to follow till only his head was
outside, and the dull light of the lantern seeming to show it plainly,
when to his horror he found that some portion of his garment had caught
upon a rough projection and he was fast.
He made a tremendous effort, but could not drag it free, for his arms
were pressed close to his sides and he was helpless. If Bart had known
and passed a hand through, he might have freed him, but he could not
explain his position; and all the time the guard was coming nearer and
nearer, the lantern-light dancing upon the rough path, until it would be
hardly possible for the nearest soldier to pass him without stumbling
against his head.
Discovery, extra labour, the lash, more irons, and the chance of evasion
gone; all those displayed, as it were, before Abel Dell's gaze as he
thought of his sister waiting for them with that boat all plainly seen
by the gleaming light of that lantern as the soldiers came steadily on.
It was absolutely impossible that the sergeant and his four men, whom
the light had revealed quite plainly to Abel Dell, could pass him
without something unusual occurred. The sergeant was carrying his
lantern swinging at arm's length, on his left side, and the bottom as he
passed would only be a few inches above the prisoner's head.
Abel knew all this as he pressed his teeth together to keep down the
agonising feeling of despair he felt already as the men came on in
regular pace, with the barrels of the muskets and their bayonets
gleaming, and he expected to hear an exclamation of astonishment with
the command "Halt!"--when something unusual did happen.
For all at once, just as the back of Abel's head must have loomed up
like a black stone close by the sergeant's path, and the rays of light
glistened on his short, crisp, black hair, there came a loud croaking
bellow from down in the swamp by the crook, and Dinny exclaimed aloud:
"Hark at that now!"
"Silence in the ranks!" cried the sergeant fiercely; and then, as if the
Irishman's words were contagious, he, turning his head as did his men
towards the spot whence the sound proceeded, exclaimed, "What was it?"
"One of them lovely crockidills, sergeant dear--the swate craytures,
with that plisant smile they have o' their own. Hark at him again!"
The same croaking roar arose, but more distant, as if it were the
response to a challenge.
"Don't it carry you home again sergeant, dear?"
"Silence in the--How, Dinny?" said the sergeant, good-humouredly, for
the men were laughing.
"Why, my mother had a cow--a Kerry cow, the darlint--and Farmer Magee,
half a mile across the bog, had a bull, and you could hear him making
love to her at toimes just like that, and moighty plisant it was."
"And used he to come across the bog," said the sergeant, "to court her?"
"And did he come across the bog to court her!" said Dinny, with a
contemptuous tone in his voice. "And could you go across the bog
courting if Farmer Magee had put a ring through your nose, and tied you
up to a post, sergeant dear? Oh, no! The farmer was moighty particular
about that bull's morals, and niver let him out of a night."
"Silence in the ranks! 'Tention!" said the serjeant. "Half left!"
_Tramp! tramp! tramp! tramp_, and the men passed round the end of the
building just as the alligator bellowed again.
Abel drew a long breath and rapidly drew himself through the hole--no
easy task and Bart began follow, but only to stick before he was
half-way through.
"I'm at it again," he whispered. "Natur' made me crooked o' purpose to
go wrong at times like this."
Abel seized his hands, as he recalled the incident at the cottage.
"Now," he whispered, "both together--hard!"
Bart gave himself a wrench as his companion tugged tremendously, and the
resistance was overcome.
"Half my skin," growled Bart, as he struggled to his feet and stood by
his companion. "Now, lad, this way."
"No, no; that's the way the soldiers have gone."
"It's the only way, lad. The dogs are yonder, and we couldn't get over
the palisade. Now!"
They crept on in silence, seeing from time to time glints of the
lantern, and in the midst of the still darkness matters seemed to be
going so easily for them that Abel's heart grew more regular in its
pulsation, and he was just asking himself why he had not had invention
enough to contrive this evasion, when a clear and familiar voice cried,
"Shtand!" and there was the click of a musket-lock.
What followed was almost momentary.
Bart struck aside the bayonet levelled at his breast, and leaped upon
the sentry before him, driving him backward and clapping his hand upon
his mouth as he knelt upon his chest; while, ably seconding him, his
companion wrested the musket from the man's hand, twisted the bayonet
from the end of the barrel, and, holding it daggerwise, pressed it
against the man's throat.
"Hold aside, Bart," whispered Abel, savagely.
"No, no," growled Bart. "No blood, lad."
"'Tis for our lives and liberty!" whispered Abel, fiercely.
"Ay, but--" growled Bart. "Lie still, will you!" he muttered, as
fiercely as his companion, for the sentry had given a violent heave and
wrested his mouth free.
"Sure, an' ye won't kill a poor boy that how, gintlemen," he whispered,
piteously.
"Another word, and it's your last!" hissed Abel.
"Sure, and I'll be as silent as Pater Mulloney's grave, sor," whispered
the sentry; "but it's a mother I have over in the owld country, and ye'd
break her heart if ye killed me."
"Hold your tongue!" whispered Bart.
"Sure, and I will, sor. It's not meself as would stop a couple of
gintlemen from escaping. There's the gate, gintlemen. Ye've got my
mushket, and I can't stop you."
"Yes, come along," whispered Bart.
"What! and leave him to give the alarm?" said Abel. "We're wasting
time, man. 'Tis his life or ours."
"Not at all, sor," whispered the sentry, pleadingly. "I won't give the
alarm, on my hanner; and you can't kill a boy widout letting him just
say, `How d'ye do?' and `Which is the way yander?' to the praste."
"Shall we trust him?" said Bart, in a low growl.
"No!"
"Then take me wid ye, gintlemen. Faix, ye might force me to go, for the
divil a bit do I want to shtay here."
"Look here," whispered Bart; "it's neck or nothing, my lad. If you give
the alarm, it will be with that bayonet struck through you."
"And would a Kelly give the alarm, afther he said on his hanner? Sure,
you might thrust me."
"Over with you, then, Bart," whispered Abel; "I'll stand over him here.
Take the gun."
Bart obeyed, and Abel stood with one hand upon the sentry's shoulder,
and the bayonet close to his throat.
"An' is that the way you thrust a gintleman?" said Dinny,
contemptuously, as Bart, with all a sailor's and rock-climber's
activity, drew himself up, and dropped from the top of the wall at the
side.
"Now, you over," whispered Abel. "We shall take you with us till we're
safe; but so sure as you give warning of our escape, you lose your
life!"
"Ah! ye may thrust me," said the sentry, quickly. "Is it over wid me?"
"Yes; quick!"
The man scaled the gate as easily as Bart had done before him, and then
Abel followed; but as he reached the top and shuffled sidewise to the
wall, which he bestrode, there was the sound of a shot, followed by
another, and another, and the fierce baying of dogs.
"Bedad, they've seen ye," said the sentry, as Abel dropped down.
"They've been in the barrack," whispered Bart.
"To be sure they have, sor; the sergeant was going round."
"Quick, take his hand!" said Bart.
"No!" whispered Abel, levelling the bayonet.
"No, no; for my mother's sake, sor!" cried the sentry, piteously. "She
has only six of us, and I'm one."
"Put away that bagnet!" said Bart, hoarsely. "Take his hand, and run!"
"That's it, sor, at the double," said the sentry, rising from his knees,
where he had flung himself. "I'm wid ye to the end of the world. It's
a place I know, and--"
"Silence!" hissed Abel, as there was the loud clanging of a bell with
the fierce yelping of dogs, and they dashed off, hand joined in hand,
for the coffee-plantation, away down by the cane-brake and the swamp.