The hue and cry rose louder and louder as the fugitives ran laboriously
toward the jungle brake. Lights could be seen; a signal-gun was fired,
and the little colony was up in arms, ready to hunt down the escaped
criminals, lest they should take to the forest, from whence, after a
time, they would issue forth as wild beasts. But in the darkness of
that tropic night there would have been little danger of recapture but
for those sounds which told the evading men that their greatest enemies
were now afoot--those who could hunt them down without light or sight,
but would track them by scent with the greatest ease.
"Hark at that, now!" said the Irishman, as he ran on, step by step with
the escaping prisoners. "D'ye hear the dogs giving tongue? They
haven't got the scent right yet, me boys; but they'll have it soon.
G'long; ye don't half run."
He ceased speaking for a few moments, and then continued
apologetically--
"Faix, and it's meself forgot. Ye've got the bilboes an, and they make
it bad running. There, d'ye hear the dogs? It's like having the hounds
back at home, before I 'listed for a soger, and got sent out here. Run,
ye divils, run! But, I say: if we're tuk, and it comes to a thrial--
court martial, ye know--be fair to a boy, now, won't ye?"
"What do you mean?" said Bart, gruffly.
"Remimber that it was you made me desart. I couldn't help meself, could
I?"
Bart did not answer, but kept on with his steady, lumbering trot, which
was the more laborious to him from the shortness of his fetters making
it difficult to him to keep up with his companions.
"Bedad, they're well on the scent!" said the Irishman, gazing back as he
ran; "and it'll not be long before they're up with us. What'll we do at
all?"
"Do?" said Bart, gruffly; "leave you to tell that cursed brute that we
sha'n't want his whip any more; for--"
"Hush!" cried Abel,
"Ay, I forgot," said Bart, nodding his head.
"We'll have to get up the trees before the dogs reach us, or it'll be
awkward for the whole three. They'll forget to respect the king's
uniform in the dark. It's no good, my lads; they'll take us, and ye've
had all your throuble for nothing. Faix, and I'm sorry for ye, whativer
ye did, for it's a dog's life ye lead."
"Silence, man," whispered Abel. "Do you want the dogs to be on us?"
"Divil a bit, sor; but they'll be down on us soon widout hearing us
talk. Murther, but it's a powerful shensh of shmell they have. How
they are coming on!"
It was quite true. The dogs were after them with unerring scent, and
but for the fact that they were in leashes so that those who held them
back might be able to keep up, they would have soon overtaken the
fugitives. They were at no great distance as it was, and their baying,
the encouraging shouts of their holders, and the sight of the lanterns
rising and falling in the darkness, helped the Irishman's words to send
despair into the fugitives' hearts.
"Sure, and we're in the coffee-tree gyarden!" said the sentry. "Oi know
it by the little bits of bushes all in rows. Thin the wood isn't far,
and we'll get up a tree before the bastes of dogs come up to us. Hark
at the onnat'ral bastes; sure, it's supper they think they're going to
have. Maybe they'd like to taste a Kelly."
"Now, Bart, lad, quick! Shall we let him go?" cried Abel.
"And is it let me go?" said the sentry, excitedly. "You'd niver be such
cowards. Let the dogs have fair-play."
"Silence!" cried Abel, imperatively.
"Sure it's meself that's the most silent."
"Abel!--Bart! This way!"
"To the left, lad," cried Bart, for they had now reached the edge of the
jungle; and just as despair was filling their breasts, for Mary made no
sign, her voice proved her fidelity by its being heard some distance to
their left.
"Thin it's all right," said Dinny, excitedly. "Ye've got friends
waiting?"
"Silence, I say!" cried Abel.
"Sure, and I'll hold my pace, and good luck to ye, for I heard the boy's
spache, and maybe he has a boat waiting down by the wather."
"Will you be silent, man?" cried Abel, fiercely, as the baying of the
dogs increased. "Bart, we must not go on, for it would be bringing the
dogs upon someone else."
"Not it," said Dinny; "ye've plenty of time yet, maybe. Go along, me
boys, and bad luck to the dogs, for they'll be disappointed afther all!"
Abel gave a low, peculiar whistle like a sea-bird's cry, and it was
answered not twenty yards away.
"Here, quick!" came in the well-known voice; "I'm here. Jump; never
mind the mud!"
They all jumped together, to find themselves in a miry place where Mary
was waiting.
"This way," she said. "I can guide you direct to the boat. Quick, or
the dogs will be upon us!"
"Well done, boy!" cried Dinny. "That's good. I knew there was a boat."
"And now," cried Abel, turning upon him, "off with that pouch and belt."
"Certainly, sor," replied Dinny, slipping off and handing his
cartridge-bag.
"Now, back to your friends, and tell them we're gone."
"My friends!" cried Dinny. "Sure, there isn't a friend among them."
"Stop back, then, whoever they are."
"But the dogs, sor!"
"Curse the dogs. Back, I say!"
"But, sor, they're the most savage of bastes. They won't listen to anny
explanation, but pull a man down before he has time to say, Heaven
presarve us!"
"Silence, and go!"
"Nay, sor, ye'll tak' me wid ye now? Quick! ye're losing time."
"Let him come, Abel," whispered Mary.
"That's well spoken, young sor. And if we're to have whole shkins,
let's be getting on."
The advice was excellent, for the sounds of pursuit were close at hand,
and the dogs were baying as if they heard as well as scented their prey.
"All's ready," whispered Mary. "I heard the shots, and knew you were
coming. Abel, your hand. Join hands all."
Abel caught at that of his sister, at the same time extending his own,
which was taken by Bart, and he in turn, almost involuntarily, held out
his to Dinny.
In this order they passed rapidly through the jungle, along a beaten
track formed by the animals which frequented the place, and one which
during her long, patient watches had become perfectly familiar to Mary
Dell, who threaded it with ease.
It was one wild excitement, for the dogs were now growing furious. The
scent was hot for them, and ere the fleeing party had reached the creek
the fierce brutes had gained the edge of the jungle, through which they
dragged their keepers, who mingled words of encouragement with oaths and
curses as they were brought into contact with the tangled growth.
But all the same the hunt was hot, and in spite of Mary's foresight and
the manner in which she guided her friends, the dogs were nearly upon
them as the boat was reached.
"In first," whispered Abel; but Mary protested and would have hung back
had not Bart lifted her bodily in after wading into the mud, where he
stood and held the side of the frail canoe.
"Now, Abe," he whispered.
"I can hear them," shouted a voice. "Loose the dogs. Seize 'em, boys,
seize 'em!"
"Here, room for me?" whispered Dinny.
"No," cried Abel, fiercely. "Keep back!"
"I'm coming wid you," cried Dinny.
Bart caught him by the shoulder.
"No, no, my lad, we're escaping; this is no place for you."
"Be my sowl, this isn't," said Dinny, shaking himself free, and seizing
the side of the boat he began to wade and thrust her from the shore.
"In with you too."
Bart said no more, but followed the Irishman's example, and together
they waded on into the muddy creek, only to get a few yards from the
shore, as with a furious rush the dogs crushed through the canes and
reeds, to stop, breast-deep, barking savagely.
"Purty creatures!" whispered Dinny. "Sure, and we musn't get in yet,
or, if we do, it must be together. Push her out."
"Halt, there!" cried a loud voice, suddenly. "I have you. Down, dogs!
Do you hear! Halt!"
"Kape on," whispered Dinny.
"Make ready!" cried the same voice. "Present! Will you surrender?"
"Lie down, me darlins," whispered Dinny. "Divil a bit can they see
where to shoot."
"Fire!" cried the same voice, and a dozen flashes of light blazed out of
the cane-brake. There was a roar that seemed deafening, and the
darkness was once more opaque.
"Anybody hit?" whispered Dinny. "Silence gives consint," he added to
himself. "Push along, and as soon as it's deep enough we'll get in.
Ugh! bedad, it's up to me chin all at wanst," he muttered. "Can you
give a boy a hand?"
A hand caught his wrist, and he was helped over the stern of the boat,
dripping and panting, as Bart scrambled in simultaneously, and though
the little vessel threatened to overset, it held firm.
Then another volley was fired, for the bullets to go bursting through
the canes, but over the fugitives' heads, and once more darkness reigned
over the hurried buzz of voices and the furious baying of the dogs.
Order after order came from the soft marshy land at the edge of the
creek, mingled with shouts at the dogs, which were now loose, and
barking and yelping as they ran here and there at the side of the water,
where their splashing could be heard by those in the boat, which was
being propelled slowly and cautiously by Mary, who knelt in the prow and
thrust a pole she carried down in the mud.
The baying of the dogs as they kept making rushes through the canes gave
the pursuers some clue as to where the fugitives would be; and from time
to time, after a command given to the escaping men to surrender, a
volley was fired, the bright flashes from the muskets cutting the
darkness, and showing where their danger lay.
It was slow work for both parties, the pursuers having to force their
way painfully through the tangled growth, while the heavily-laden boat
had to be propelled through what was in places little more than liquid
mud full of fibrous vegetation, and what had been but a light task to
Mary when she was alone, proved to be almost beyond her strength with so
heavy a load.
"Are you going right?" whispered Abel at last, for they were hardly
moving, and it seemed to him that they were running right in among the
growth that whispered and creaked against the boat.
"Yes; be patient," was the stern reply.
"I can see them. They're wading yonder in the mud up to their waists."
"There they are," came from apparently close at hand, and the dogs burst
out more furiously than ever. "Now, then, you scoundrels, we can see
you. Give up."
"Faith, and it's a cat he is," whispered Dinny. "What a foine senthry
he'd make for night duty!"
"Surrender!" shouted the same voice, "or we'll blow you out of the
water."
"The ugly, yellow-faced divil!" muttered Dinny.
"Now, then, come ashore, and I will not be so severe with you."
"Hark at that, now," whispered Dinny to Bart. "It's a baby he thinks
ye, afther all."
"Curse them! Fire then, sergeant," cried the overseer. "No mercy now."
"Down, dogs!" roared the man again. "Quick, there--fire!"
A rattling volley from close at hand rang out, and it was followed by
utter silence, as if those ashore were listening.
"Curse your stupid fellows, sergeant! Why don't you make them fire
lower?"
"If they fired lower, we should have hit the dogs, sir."
"Hang the dogs! I wanted you to hit the men. Now, then, fire again."
There was the rattling noise of the ramrods in the barrels as the men
loaded, and once more silence. The sinuous nature of the muddy creek
had brought the fugitives terribly near to the dense brake; but Mary's
pole remained perfectly motionless, and there was nothing to be done but
wait till the party moved on, when there would be a chance to get lower
down towards the open sea; while, after the next quarter of a mile, the
creek opened out into quite a little estuary dotted by sandbanks and
islets of bamboos and palms.
"Now I have them!" cried the overseer, suddenly. "Bring a gun,
sergeant. I can pick off that fellow easily."
"Faith, and what a foine liar he would make wid a little training,"
whispered Dinny. "Why, I can't even see my hand before me face."
"Hush," whispered Bart, and then he half started up in the boat, for
there was a sudden splashing, a shout, and the piteous yelping and
baying of a dog, which was taken up in chorus by the others present.
Yelp--bark--howl, accompanied by the splashing and beating of water, and
rustling of reeds and canes, and then a choking, suffocating sound, as
of some animal being dragged under water, after which the dogs whined
and seemed to be scuffling away.
"What's the matter with the dogs?" said the overseer.
"One of those beasts of alligators dragged the poor brute down," said
the sergeant. "It struck me with its tail."
There was a rushing, scuffling noise here, and the heavy trampling of
people among the tangled growth, growing more distant moment by moment,
in the midst of which Mary began to use her pole, and the boat glided on
through the thick, half-liquid mud.
"Sure, an' it's plisant," said Dinny, coolly; "the dogs on one side, and
the crockidills on the other. It isn't at all a tempting spot for a
bathe; but I've got to have a dip as soon as we get out of this into the
sea."
"What for?" whispered Bart.
"Bekase I'm wet with fresh wather and mud, and I'm a man who likes a
little salt outside as well at in. It kapes off the ugly fayvers of the
place. Do you want me to catch a cowld?"
"Silence, there!" said Mary, gruffly, from her place in the prow; and
for quite an hour she toiled on through the intense darkness, guiding
the boat from the tangle of weedy growth and cane into winding
canal-like portions of the lagoon, where every now and then they
disturbed some great reptile, which plunged into deeper water with a
loud splash, or wallowed farther among the half-liquid mud.
The sounds ashore grew distant, the firing had ceased; and, feeling
safer, the little party began to converse in a low tone, all save Dinny,
whose deep, regular breathing told that he had fallen fast asleep in
happy carelessness of any risk that he might run.
"How came you out here?" said Bart from his seat, after another vain
effort to take Mary's place.
"Ship," she said laconically, and with a hoarse laugh.
"But who gave you a passage?" said Abel.
"Gave? No one," she said, speaking in quite a rough tone of voice.
"How could I find friends who would give! I worked my way out."
"Oh," said Bart; and he sat back, thinking and listening as the pole
kept falling in the water with a rhythmic splash, and the brother and
sister carried on a conversation in a low tone.
"I suppose we are safe now," said Mary. "They never saw the boat, and
they would think you are hiding somewhere in the woods."
"Yes; and because they don't find us, they'll think the alligators have
pulled us down," replied Abel. "Where are we going?"
"To get right down to the mouth of this creek, and round the shore.
There are plenty of hiding-places along the coast. Inlets and islands,
with the trees growing to the edge of the sea."
"And what then?" said Abel.
"What then?" said Mary, in a half wondering tone.
"Yes; where shall we go?"
There was an interval of silence, during which the boat glided on in the
darkness, which seemed to be quite opaque.
"I had not thought of that," said Mary, in the same short, rough voice
which she seemed to have adopted. "I only thought of finding you, Abel,
and when I had found you, of helping you to escape."
"She never thought of me," muttered Bart, with a sigh.
"Good girl," said Abel, tenderly.
"Hush! Don't say that," she cried shortly. "Who is this man with you?"
she whispered then.
"One of the sentries."
"Why did you bring him?"
"We were obliged to bring him, or--"
"Kill him?" said Mary, hoarsely, for her brother did not end his
sentence.
"Yes."
"You must set him ashore, of course."
"Yes, of course. And then?"
"I don't know, Abel. I wanted to help you to escape, and you have
escaped. You must do the rest."
"You're a brave, true girl," said Abel, enthusiastically; but he was
again checked shortly.
"Don't say that," cried Mary, in an angry tone.
"What's she mean?" thought Bart; and he lay back wondering, while the
boat glided on, and there was a long pause, for Abel ceased speaking,
and when his deep breathing took Bart's attention and he leaned forward
and touched him there was no response.
"Why, he's fallen asleep, Mary!" said Bart, in a whisper.
"Hush, Bart don't call me that!" came from the prow.
"All right, my lass!" said the rough fellow. "I'll do anything you
tells me."
"Then don't say `my lass' to me."
"I won't if you don't wish it," growled Bart. "Here, let me pole her
along now."
"No; sit still. Is that man asleep?"
"Yes; can't you hear? He's fagged out like poor old Abel. But let me
pole the boat."
"No; she'll drift now with the current and we shall be carried out to
sea. If the people yonder saw us then they would not know who was in
the boat. You have escaped, Bart?"
"Ay, we've escaped, my--"
"Hush, I say!" cried Mary, imperiously; and Bart, feeling puzzled,
rubbed one ear and sat gazing straight before him into the darkness
where he knew the girl to be, his imagination filing up the blanks, till
he seemed to see her standing up in the boat, with a red worsted cap
perched jauntily upon her raven-black hair, and a tight blue-knitted
jacket above her linsey-woolsey skirt, just as he had seen her hundreds
of times in her father's, and then in Abel's boat at home on the Devon
shore.
All at once Bart Wrigley opened his eyes and stared. Had he been asleep
and dreamed that he and Abel had escaped, and then that he was in the
Dell's boat, with Mary poling it along?
What could it all mean? He was in a boat, and behind him lay back the
soldier with his mouth open, sleeping heavily. On his left was Abel
Dell, also sleeping as a man sleeps who is utterly exhausted by some
terrible exertion. But that was not the Devon coast upon which the sun
was shedding its early morning rays. Dense belts of mangrove did not
spread their muddy roots like intricate rustic scaffoldings on southern
English shores, and there were no clusters of alligators lying here and
there among the mud and ooze.
It was true enough. They did escape in the night, and Mary had been
there ready to help them with a boat; but where was she now? and who was
this sturdy youth in loose petticoat-canvas trousers, and heavy
fisherman's boots?
Bart stared till his eyes showed a ring of white about their pupils, and
his mouth opened roundly in unison for a time. Then eyes and mouth
closed tightly, and wrinkles appeared all over his face, as he softly
shook all over, and then, after glancing at Abel and the Irish soldier,
he uttered a low--
"Haw, haw!"
The figure in the boat swung round and faced him sharply, glancing at
the two sleeping men, and holding up a roughened brown hand to command
silence.
"All right," said Bart, half-choking with mirth; and then, "Oh, I say,
my lass, you do look rum in them big boots!"
"Silence, idiot!" she whispered, sharply. "Do you want that strange man
to know?"
"Nay, not I," said Bart, shortly, as he too glanced at Dinny. "But I
say, you do look rum."
"Bart," whispered Mary, fiercely, and her eyes flashed with indignant
anger, "is this a time to fool?"
"Nay, my lass, nay," he said, becoming sober on the instant, "But you do
look so rum. I say, though," he cried, sharply, "what's gone of all
your beautiful long hair?"
"Fire," said Mary, coldly.
"Fire! what!--you've cut it off and burnt it?" Mary nodded.
"Oh!" ejaculated Bart, and it sounded a groan.
"Could girl with long hair have worked her passage out here as a
sailor-boy, and have come into that cane-brake and saved you two?" said
Mary, sharply; and as Bart sat staring at her with dilated eyes once
more, she bent down after gazing at Dinny, still soundly sleeping, and
laid her hand with a firm grip on her brother's shoulder.
He started into wakefulness on the instant, and gazed without
recognition in the face leaning over him.
"Don't you know me, Abel?" said Mary, sadly.
"You, Mary?--dressed like this!"
He started up angrily, his face flushing as hers had flushed, and his
look darkened into a scowl.
"What else could I do?" she said, repeating her defence as she had
pleaded to Bart. Then, as if her spirit rebelled against his anger, her
eyes flashed with indignation, and she exclaimed hoarsely, "Well, I have
saved you, and if you have done with me--there is the sea!"
"But you--dressed as a boy!" said Abel.
"Hush! Do you want that man to know?" whispered Mary, hoarsely. "My
brother was unjustly punished and sent out here to die in prison, while
I, a helpless girl, might have starved at home, or been hunted down by
that devil who called himself a man? What could I do?"
"But you worked your passage out here as a sailor?" whispered Abel.
"Ay, and she could do it, too--as good a sailor as ever took in sail;
and, Mary, lass, I asks your pardon for laughing; and if I wasn't such a
big ugly chap, I could lie down there and cry."
He held out his great coarse hand, in which Mary placed hers to return
his honest clasp, and her eyes smiled for a moment into his, while Abel
sat frowning and biting his lips as he glanced at Dinny.
"I don't know what to do," he said, hesitatingly. "It seems--"
"Heigh--ho--ho! Oh, dear me!" cried Dinny, opening his eyes suddenly,
making Mary start and Abel mutter a curse.
There was only one of the two equal to the emergency, and that was Bart,
who gave his knee a sounding slap and cried aloud--
"Jack Dell, my lad, you've behaved like a trump, and got us away
splendid. I on'y wish, Abel, I had such a brother. Hallo, soger, where
shall we set you ashore?"
"Set me ashore?" said the Irishman, nodding at Mary; "what for?"
"What for?" cried Bart. "To go back."
"I'm not going back," said the Irishman, laughing. "Sure, I want a
change."
"Change!" cried Abel. "You can't go with us."
"Sure, and you forced me to come, and ye wouldn't behave so dirthily as
to send me back?"
"But we're escaping," said Bart.
"Sure, and I'll escape too," said Dinny, smiling. "It's moighty dull
work stopping there."
"But you're a soldier," said Abel.
"To be sure I am--a sowldier of fortune."
"You'll be a deserter if you stop with us," growled Bart.
"The divil a bit! Ye made me a prishner, and I couldn't help meself."
"Why, I wanted you to go back last night!" growled Bart.
"To be ate up entoirely by the ugly bastes of dogs! Thank ye kindly,
sor, I'd rather not."
Dinny looked at Mary and gave her a droll cock of the eye, which made
her frown and look uneasy.
"Sure, Misther Jack," he said, coolly, "don't you think they're a bit
hard on a boy?"
"Hard?" said Mary, shortly.
"Av coorse. They knocked me down and took away me mushket and bagnet,
and there they are in the bottom of the boat. Then they made me get
over the gate and eshcape wid 'em; and, now they're safe, they want to
put me ashore."
"We can't take you with us," said Abel, shortly.
"Aisy, now! Think about it, sor. Ye're going for a holiday, sure; and
under the circumstances I'd like one too. There! I see what ye're
a-thinking--that I'd bethray ye. Sure, and I'm a Kelly, and ye never
knew a Kelly do a dirthy thrick to anyone. Did I shout for help last
night when you towld me not?"
"You were afraid," growled Bart.
"Afraid!--me afraid! Did ye ever hear of a Kelly who was afraid? No,
sor; I said to meself, `The poor boys are making a run for it, and I'll
let them go.' Sure, and I did, and here ye are."
"It would not be wise to go near the shore now," said Mary, in a whisper
to her brother. "You have nothing to fear from him."
Abel glanced at the happy, contented face before him, and then turned to
Bart.
"What do you say?" he asked.
"There's no harm in him," said Bart, with a suspicious look at the
Irishman.
"Sure, an' ye'll find me very useful," said Dinny. "I was at say before
I 'listed, so I can steer and haul a rope."
"Can you keep faith with those who trust you?" said Mary, quickly.
"An' is it a Kelly who can keep faith, me lad? Sure, an' we're the
faithfullest people there is anny where. And, bedad! but you're a
handsome boy, and have a way wid you as'll make some hearts ache before
ye've done."
Mary started, and turned of a deep dark red, which showed through her
sun-browned skin, as she flashed an angry look upon the speaker.
Dinny burst into a hearty laugh.
"Look at him," he said, "colouring up like a girl. There, don't look at
me, boy, as if ye were going to bite. I like to see it in a lad. It
shows his heart's in the right place, and that he's honest and true.
There, take a grip o' me hand, for I like you as much for your handsome
face as for the way you've stood thrue to your brother and his mate.
And did ye come all the way from your own counthry to thry and save
them?"
Mary nodded.
"Did ye, now? Then ye're a brave lad; and there ar'n't many men who
would have watched night after night in that ugly bit o' wood among the
shnakes and reptiles. I wouldn't for the best brother I iver had, and
there's five of 'em, and all sisters."
Mary smilingly laid her hand on Dinny's, and gazed in the merry, frank
face before her.
"I'll trust you," she said.
"And ye sha'n't repent it, me lad, for you've done no harm, and were
niver a prishner. And now, as we are talking, I'd like to know what yer
brother and number noinety-sivin did to be sint out of the counthry. It
wasn't murther, or they'd have hung 'em. Was it--helping yerselves?"
"My brother and his old friend Bart Wrigley were transported to the
plantations for beating and half-killing, they said, the scoundrel who
had insulted and ill-used his sister!" cried Mary, with flashing eyes
and flaming cheeks, as she stood up proudly in the boat, and looked from
one to the other.
"Wid a shtick?" said Dinny, rubbing his cheek as he peered eagerly into
Mary's face.
"Yes, with sticks."
"And was that all?"
"Yes."
"They transported thim two boys to this baste of a place, and put chains
on their legs, for giving a spalpeen like that a big bating wid a
shtick?"
"Yes," said Mary, smiling in the eager face before her; "that was the
reason."
"Holy Moses!" ejaculated Dinny. "For just handling a shtick like that.
Think o' that, now! Why, I sent Larry Higgins to the hospital for sivin
weeks wance for just such a thing. An' it was a contimptibly thin
shkull he'd got, just like a bad egg, and it cracked directly I felt it
wid the shtick. And what did you do?" he added sharply, as he turned to
Mary. "Where was your shtick?"
"I struck him with my hand," said Mary, proudly.
"More sorrow to it that it hadn't a shtick in it at the time. Sint ye
both out here for a thing like that! Gintlemen, I'm proud of ye. Why
didn't ye tell me before?"
He held out his hands to both, and, intruder as he was, it seemed
impossible to resist his frank, friendly way, and the escaped prisoners
shook hands with him again.
"And now what are ye going to do?" said Dinny, eagerly.
"We don't know yet," said Abel, rather distantly.
"That's jist me case," said Dinny. "I'm tired of sogering and walking
up and down wid a mushket kaping guard over a lot of poor divils chained
like wild bastes. I tuk the shilling bekase I'd been in a skrimmage,
and the bowld sergeant said there'd be plinty of foighting; and the
divil a bit there's been but setting us to shoot prishners, and I didn't
want that. Now, ye'll tak me wid ye, only I must get rid o' these soger
clothes, and--look here, what are ye going to do wid thim chains?"
"Get rid of them," said Abel, "when we can find a file."
"I did not think of a file," said Mary, with a disappointed look.
"There's plinty of strange plants out in these parts," said Dinny,
laughing, "but I never see one that grew files. Only there's more ways
of killing a cat than hanging him, as the praste said when he minded his
owld brogues wid a glue-pot. Come here."
He took off his flannel jacket, folded it, and laid it in the bottom of
the boat, but looked up directly.
"Ye've got a bit o' sail," he said, "and there's a nice wind. Where are
you going first?"
Mary looked at her brother, and Abel glanced at Bart.
"Ye haven't made up yer minds," said Dinny, "so look here. About twenty
miles out yander to the west there's a bit of an island where the
overseer and two officers wint one day to shute wild pig and birds, and
I went wid 'em. Why not go there till ye make up yer minds? It's a
moighty purty place, and ye're not overlooked by the neighbours' cabins,
for there's nobody lives there at all, at all, and we can have it our
own way."
"Wild pig there?" said Abel, eagerly.
"Bedad, yis, sor; nice swate bacon running about on four legs all over
the place, and fruit on the trees, and fish in the say for the catching.
Oh, an' it's a moighty purty little estate!"
"And how could we find it?" cried Mary.
"By jist setting a sail, and kaping about four miles from the shore till
ye see it lying like a bit o' cloud off to the south. Sure, and we
could hang our hammocks there before night, and the mushket here all
ready to shoot a pig."
"Yes," said Mary, in response to a glance from her brother.
"Then I'll hoist the sail," said Bart.
"Nay, let the boy do it," said Dinny, "and you come and sit down here.
I'll soon show you a thing as would make the sergeant stare."
Dinny drew a large knife from his pocket, and a flint and steel. The
latter he returned, and, taking the flint, he laid his open knife on the
thwart of the boat, and with the flint jagged the edge of the blade all
along into a rough kind of saw.
"There!" he said; "that will do. That iron's as soft as cheese."
This last was a slight Hibernian exaggeration; but as Mary hoisted sail,
and Abel put out an oar to steer, while the little vessel glided swiftly
over the sunlit sea, Dinny began to operate upon the ring round one of
Bart's ankles, sawing away steadily, and with such good effect that at
the end of an hour he had cut half through, when, by hammering the ring
together with the butt of the musket, the half-severed iron gave way,
and one leg was free.
"Look at that, now!" said Dinny, triumphantly, and with an air of
satisfaction that took away the last doubts of his companions. "Now,
thin, up wid that other purty foot!" he cried; and, as the boat glided
rapidly toward the west, he sawed away again, with intervals of
re-jagging at the knife edge, and soon made a cut in the second ring.
"Keep her a little farther from the shore, Abel," said Mary, in a
warning tone, as the boat sped westward.
"Ye needn't mind," said Dinny, sawing away; "the inhabitants all along
here are a moighty dacent sort of folk, and won't tell where we're gone.
They're not handsome, and they've got into a bad habit o' wearing
little tails wid a moighty convanient crook in 'em to take howld of a
tree."
"Monkeys?" said Mary, eagerly.
"Yes, Masther Jack, monkeys; and then there's the shmiling crockidills,
and a few shnakes like ships' masts, and some shpotted cats. There's
nobody else lives here for hundreds o' miles."
"Then you are safe, Abel," said Mary, with the tears standing in her
eyes.
"Yes, Ma--yes, Jack," cried Abel, checking himself; and then meaningly,
as he glanced at Bart, "you're a brother of whom a man may well be
proud."
"Ay," cried Bart, excitedly, "a brother of whom a man may well be
proud."
"Hurroo!" cried Dinny. "Howlt still, my lad, and I'll soon be through."
And the boat sped onward toward the west.
The island was found just as the Irishman had foretold, and as evening
approached, without having even sighted a sail on their way, the little
boat began coasting along, its occupants eagerly scanning the low,
rock-reefed shore, above which waved a luxuriant tropic growth, but for
some time no landing-place was found, while, though the sea was calm,
there was a heavy swell to curl up and break upon the various reefs in a
way that would have swamped their craft had they attempted to land.
The last fetter had been laboriously sawn through, Dinny having
persisted in continuing the task, and he now sat resting and watching
the shore with a critical eye.
All at once, upon sailing round a jagged point to which they had to give
a wide berth on account of the fierce race which swept and eddied among
the rocks, a pleasantly-wooded little bay opened out before them with a
smooth sandy shore where the waves just creamed and glistened in the
sun.
"Look at that, now," said Dinny. "That's where we landed; but I was
ashleep after pulling a long time at the oar, and I disremembered all
about where we went ashore."
"How beautiful!" said Jack, gazing thoughtfully at the glorious scene,
and asking herself whether that was to be her future home.
"An' d'yer caal that beautiful?" said Dinny, contemptuously. "Young
man, did ye iver see Dublin Bay?"
"No," said Jack, smiling in the earnest face before him.
"Nor the Hill of Howth?"
Jack shook his head.
"Then don't call that beautiful again in me presence," said Dinny.
"Puts me in mind of Black Pool," said Bart, thoughtfully.
Further conversation was checked by the interest of landing, the boat
being run up on the shore and hidden among the rocks, not that it was
likely that it would be seen, but the position of the fugitives and the
dread of being retaken made them doubly cautious, Bart even going so far
as to obliterate their footprints on the sand.
"Now, then," said Dinny, "you've got the mushket and the bagnet, and
those two make one; but if I was you I'd cut down one of them bamboos
and shtick the bagnet an that, which would make two of it, and it would
be a mighty purty tool to kill a pig."
The hint was taken, Bart soon cutting down a long, straight lance shaft
and forcing it into the socket of the bayonet.
"Then next," said Dinny, "if I was captain I should say let's see about
something to ate."
"Hear that, Abel?" said Bart.
"Yes. I was thinking of how we could get down some cocoa-nuts. There
are plenty of bananas."
"Hapes," put in Dinny; "and there's a cabbage growing in the heart of
every one of thim bundles of leaves on the top of a shtick as they call
palms; but them's only vegetables, captain, dear, and me shtomach is
asking for mate."
"Can we easily shoot a pig--you say there are some," said Abel.
"And is it aisily shoot a pig?" said Dinny. "Here, give me the
mushket."
He held out his hand for the piece, and Abel, who bore it, hesitated for
a moment or two, and glanced at Jack, who nodded shortly, and the loaded
weapon was passed to the Irishman.
"Ye doubted me," he said, laughing; "but niver mind, it's quite nat'ral.
Come along; I won't shoot anny of ye unless I'm very hungry and can't
get a pig."
He led the way through an opening in the rough el if, and they climbed
along a narrow ravine for some few hundred yards, the roar of the sea
being hushed and the overhanging trees which held on among the rifts of
the rocks shutting out the evening light, so that at times it was quite
dusk. But the rocky barrier was soon passed, and an open natural park
spread before them, in a depression of which lay a little lake, whose
smooth grassy shores were literally ploughed in every direction with
shallow scorings of the soil.
"Look at that now," said Dinny in a whisper, as he pointed down at some
of the more recent turnings of the soft earth. "The purty creatures
have all been as busy as Pat Mulcahy's pig which nobody could ring.
Whisht! lie down, ye divils," he whispered, setting the example, and
crouching behind a piece of rock.
The others hid at once, and a low grunting and squeaking which had
suddenly been heard in the distance increased loudly; and directly after
a herd of quite two hundred pigs came tearing down through a narrow
opening in the rocky jungle and made straight for the lake.
They were of all sizes, from little plump fellows, half the weight of
ordinary porkers, to their seniors--the largest of which was not more
than half the dimensions of an English pig.
They trotted down to the water side, where they drank and rolled and
wallowed at the edge for a few moments, and then came back in happy
unconsciousness of the fate which awaited one of their number, and
passing so near the hidden group that Dinny had an easy shot at a well
fed specimen which rolled over, the rest dashing on through the trees
squealing as if every one had been injured by the shot.
"We sha'n't starve here," said Dinny, with a grin of satisfaction, and
before many minutes had passed a fire was kindled in a sheltered nook,
where the flame was not likely to be seen from the sea, and as soon as
it was glowing, pieces of the pig, cut in a manner which would have
disgusted a butcher, were frizzling in the embers.