Brace hesitated for a few moments before making any move to go on deck.
Then, seeing Briscoe go to the arms rack and return with rifle and
ammunition, he followed his example and went on deck, to find the brig
swinging gently by its cable and the crew all lying about on the deck to
shelter themselves from the sun as well as from the Indians, two of
whose arrows were just as they had fallen, sticking upright in the white
boards, between the seams of which the pitch was beginning to ooze out,
looking bright and sticky in the sun.
"Lie down, sir, lie down!" shouted Dan, and Briscoe dropped flat upon
the deck at once, his rifle clattering against the boards; but before
Brace was down, a couple of arrows came _ping, ping_, to stick in the
deck, while a third pierced and hung in one of the sails, a fourth
dropping with a hiss a little short of the brig and into the water.
"This is nice, Mr Brace," cried Lynton, laughing. "It's as the circus
clown said, too dangerous to be safe."
"Yes," said Dellow, who was crawling towards the starboard bulwark on
hands and knees, dragging two rifles after him. "Come and lay hold of
one, Jem. Mind you don't shoot yourself. It's the wooden end of the
rifle that you have to put up against your shoulder, and the hole in the
iron barrel which you are supposed to point at the enemy."
"Is it now?" said the second mate sarcastically. "I'm much obliged and
thankye for telling me. You put the bullet in at that end of the gun
too, don't you, and push it through with the ramrod like a popgun, eh?"
"Yes, that's right," said Dellow, chuckling; "but hit the poor fellows
soft the first time so as not to hurt 'em much. If they get saucy
afterwards, why then you must hit hard."
"All right; I'll mind," said Lynton, looking at Brace and smiling; "but
this ought to be stopped, for the niggers are wonderfully clever at
hitting the brig. They shoot right up into the air and guess at their
aim, so that the arrows seem to come down out of the sky."
"Yes," said Brace, who was now gradually beginning to take an excited
interest in the encounter with the natives; "it's the way they shoot the
floating turtles, so that their arrows pierce the shell instead of
glancing off."
"There's another," said Dellow. "Well, I wish they'd keep to their
turtles. I don't like them practising on me. What's that one like, Mr
Brace? Is the point broken?"
"No," said Brace, who had crept sidewise along the deck so as to reach
the last arrow that had come on board, and carefully drawn it out, to
sit examining the head.
"Poisoned?" asked the mate.
"I'm afraid so," replied Brace. "Look at this stuff lying in the
groove," and he pointed to what appeared to be some kind of gum,
adhering to the roughly-made head.
"Ah! looks nasty," said Briscoe; "but it isn't obliged to be dangerous
to human beings. You see, they use their arrows principally for small
game. I don't believe, mind you, that your brother's going to be much
the worse for his trouble."
"I sincerely hope not," said Brace, with a sigh.
"So does everybody, sir," said the mate. "But come: it's our turn now.
Let's see if we can't stop this game before some of us are hit."
"Yes," said Briscoe, who had taken up, examined, and then smelt the
arrow-head, ending by moistening a paper which he drew from his pocket
and rubbing the arrow-point thereon, with the result that the paper
received a brownish smear and the soft iron became clear.
After a few moments he said:
"There is no doubt about the arrows having been dipped in something, and
we must not run any more risks."
Brace experienced a chilly feeling as he thought of his brother, but he
made an effort to master the nervous dread by devoting himself to the
task they had in hand.
"The arrows seem to come from the foot of that great tree," he said,
pointing to where a giant rose high above the heads of its neighbours
and sent forth huge boughs, the lowermost of which swept the surface of
the river.
"I fancy they come from some twenty feet up," said Briscoe thoughtfully.
"You're right, sir," said his servant. "Look at that," and he drew his
master's attention to a shaft which just at that moment rose from out of
the densest part of the tree, described an arch, and fell upon the deck.
"I can't see him," cried Lynton, who was crouching in the shelter of the
bulwark; "but I fancy I can make out where he is."
"Try," said the mate, and the next minute Lynton fired, his bullet
cutting the leaves of the pyramid of verdure, and the report startling a
flock of bright green birds, which flew screaming across to the opposite
bank of the river.
"A miss," said the mate. "Now you try, sir. It's random work though."
Brace felt a shrinking sensation, but he knew that the time had come for
action, and rested his rifle upon the bulwark and sent the bullet
hurtling through the densest part of the tree.
"Bravo! Well done!" cried Briscoe.
"What is it?" said Brace eagerly. "I couldn't see for the smoke."
"I could," said the mate. "There was somebody there, and, hit or no,
your shot startled him, for I saw something go crashing down through the
boughs. I believe you've finished him, and we shall have no more arrows
from there."
"Think there was only one of them then?" said Lynton.
"Oh, no, my lad; there's no knowing how many there are of the beauties,
but I fancy there's one the less."
The mate had hardly spoken before another arrow stuck in the deck, its
inclination showing that it had come from an entirely fresh direction.
But it had hardly touched the deck with a dull rap before the American's
rifle uttered its sharp crack, and the bullet sent the leaves of a tree
some distance farther to the left pattering down.
"That looks as though there were some more of them about," said the mate
gruffly, and he knelt in shelter, keenly watching for his opportunity of
delivering a shot.
Just then the captain came on deck, and Brace hurried to meet him. He
did not speak, but looked at the captain with questioning eyes.
"Sound asleep, squire," said Captain Banes, in answer to Brace's mute
enquiry. "Well, how many have you brought down?" Then, without waiting
for an answer, he continued: "I don't suppose there are above half a
dozen of them. Just a hunting party in a canoe. Look here, Dellow, we
shall have to try to scare them away before they do any more mischief."
"Well, we are scaring them," said the mate gruffly. "I believe we've
brought down two."
"But they keep on shooting," said the captain, as another arrow came on
board not far from the spot where they were sheltering, "and I can't say
I want to have one of those things sticking into me."
"What shall we do then?" said the mate.
"Here, you," cried the captain to one of the men, "go and tell the cook
to stick the poker in the galley fire."
The man went on all fours along the deck nearly as actively as a dog,
and his fellows laughingly cheered him, even the captain smiling grimly
before turning once more to the mate.
"Get one of those little flannel bags of powder and load the brass gun.
You can point her towards where the blackguards are, and she'll go off
with such a roar that it may startle them and send them paddling for
their lives."
"Maybe it will," said the mate gruffly; "but I doubt it."
"Never mind your doubts, my lad. It won't cost much to try. I don't
suppose they ever heard a cannon fired in their lives, and they'll think
we've got the thunder to help us. We'll run a double charge in: the
brass gun will stand it."
"Suppose she bursts?" said the mate rather sourly.
"Suppose?" said the captain sharply. "There, you do what I tell you.
If she does burst I shall have fired her, and she'll kill me, and you'll
be skipper, so you're all right."
"No, I shan't," said the mate gruffly, "for she'll kill me. I'm going
to fire her myself."
"Load her then," said the captain, chuckling, "and don't go on setting a
mutinous example to the men. Squire Brace looks quite startled."
The mate smiled grimly and went below, to return with a couple of little
flannel bags and crawl with them to where the little signal cannon was
lashed to the deck.
Brace followed, preferring to assist in the preparation of this
experiment to firing in the direction of naked savages.
"Here, I shall be having all the skin rubbed off my knees," said the
mate, nodding at Brace. "Nature never meant me to go along like a
four-footed beast."
"It is awkward," said Brace, smiling.
"Awkward isn't the word for it," grumbled the mate. "Got your knife
handy?"
Brace nodded, and drew it from his pocket, and the mate slit open one of
the bags so as to pour about half its contents into the mouth of the
little cannon.
"It's all very fine of the skipper to talk," he said, placing the whole
cartridge now in its place, "but I'm very fond of the first mate of the
`Jason' brig, and I should be sorry to do him any mischief. I should
look well, I should, if I had to go back home as a ghost to tell my wife
all my bits had been eaten by the savage fish in this river. I know her
ideas well, and she wouldn't like it, I can tell you. There you are;
down it goes," he continued, taking the little rammer from where it was
strapped to the carriage and driving the bag home on to the top of the
loose charge. "Is the powder up, sir?"
"Yes," said Brace; "the touch-hole's full."
"That's right, then. Avast there; be smart with that red-hot poker."
The man who had taken it to the galley trotted away again in his
dog-like fashion, disappeared, and then came into sight again directly,
to shout out to the mate:
"Cook says it aren't half hot enough, sir."
"Bring the poker," roared the mate. "Told you to fetch it, didn't I?
What do I want with what the cook says?"
The man darted into the galley again and reappeared directly with the
poker. The other men commenced roaring with laughter when they saw him,
for he limped aft like a lame dog now, one hand being occupied with the
poker.
"Ahoy there!" shouted the captain; "be smart with that gun. Look out."
For just then the prow of a good-sized canoe appeared from beneath the
overhanging boughs of the trees, and was paddled out quickly by four
men, while two more stood in the stern fitting arrows to their bows.
"Steady!" growled the mate, as he slewed the mouth of the cannon round
in the direction of the coming boat. "Now then, pass me that poker.
Here, Mr Brace, you'd better get into shelter away from the pieces.
That's right, my lad. Be off."
The man trotted back and settled himself down under the bulwark, and
just then Brace laid hold of the poker.
"Let me fire," he said.
"What, aren't you skeart, sir?" said the mate, with a grin, as he
relaxed his hold.
"Not very much," said Brace quietly; "only that the poker isn't hot
enough."
"She'll do it, my lad. One moment; there's nothing except the wad
inside, but I may as well sight the gun at the enemy and let 'em have
the benefit of the blast."
Brace stood back from the gun for a moment or two while the mate ran his
eye along the little barrel, and then as the canoe was within forty
yards the latter cried:
"Now then, sir; let 'em have it."
Brace applied the end of the poker to the loose grains lying in the
little rounded depression about the touch-hole of the cannon; but the
cook was right: the poker was far from hot, and the end failed to ignite
the powder.
"Have you a match?" said Brace, impatiently throwing the implement down.
"No," was the reply. "A match over here, someone."
Men began fumbling; but at sea men chew their tobacco instead of
smoking, and no box was forthcoming. At that moment Brace tried again,
for, though wanting in the power to ignite the priming at the end, the
poker was fairly hot a few inches from the point, and he noted that it
was making the pitch bubble in the seam it lay across.
"Sight the gun again," cried Brace hurriedly, and the mate sprang to
obey his order, exposing his head and shoulders in doing so, and very
nearly paying the penalty, for a couple of arrows whizzed by pretty
closely.
Directly after, in response to another touch from the middle of the
poker, there was a flash, a puff of white smoke, and a roar like
thunder. The gun-carriage in its recoil leaped from the deck and fell
with a loud bang upon its side, while the crew burst into a hearty
cheer.
The effect of the shot had been beyond the captain's expectation. In
their utter astonishment and dread the Indians had to a man sprung out
of the canoe, overturning it in the act, and were swimming and diving
their best to reach the shelter of the hanging boughs, while their frail
vessel was floating bottom upward rapidly down the stream.
"Good aim, Dellow," cried the captain. "Well fired, squire."
Brace glanced at the result of the shot, and then darted to the
companion-ladder, to hurry down into the cabin so as to see what the
consequences of the heavy report had been there, for in the hurry and
excitement of the preparations he had for the moment forgotten his
brother.
To his surprise and satisfaction, however, Sir Humphrey lay back
sleeping heavily, with a soft dew beading his face, and evidently
perfectly free from suffering.
Brace laid his hand upon his brother's forehead, to feel that it was
comparatively cool, and upon touching his wrist it was to find the pulse
beating steadily and well.
The next minute he was stepping gently back, and ascended once more to
the deck.
"Oh, here he is," said the captain. "Look sharp, squire, if you want a
shot at the blackguards before they get into shelter."
"Not I," said Brace half-angrily. "Ah, look, look!"
There was no need for him to shout, for a wild cry drew the attention of
all to one of the swimmers, who suddenly threw up his arms and then
began to beat the surface wildly, but only for a second or two, before
with a couple of sharp jerks he was dragged under water, while another
cry from the savage nearest to the shore gave warning that his was to be
a similar fate, one jerk, however, sufficing to drag him under, just as
his companions reached the shelter of the trees.
"Horrid," growled the captain, as, evidently satisfied that there were
no others to shoot, he stood close to the bulwark.
"What was it drew them under?" said Brace hoarsely.
"Can't say, squire," replied the captain. "Might be alligators, snakes,
or a shoal of the savage fish that swarm along these rivers. Lesson to
us not to try bathing."
"Could nothing be done for them? Can we launch a boat?" faltered Brace.
The captain shook his head slowly, frowning the while.
"Impossible, my lad; but we don't know that we're safe here. There may
be scores more in hiding under the trees by the bank yonder; so keep
down, everyone."
The order was obeyed, but no more arrows came on board, while from
behind the deckhouse Brace stood with Briscoe watching the upturned
canoe growing smaller and smaller in the distance, Brace expecting to
see some daring swimmer appear from the shore, trying to get on board.
He said something of the kind to Lynton, who joined them just before the
canoe disappeared round a curve of the river, but the latter smiled
before he made a reply.
"You forget what sort of a shore it is," he said. "Those fellows could
not get along through that jungle a quarter so fast as the canoe drifted
with the stream, if they could get along at all. Well, it's been a bad
time for them: they've lost their boat and two of their crew."
"And serve 'em right," said Dellow, who had overheard the conversation.
"They should have left us alone. It isn't their fault that Sir Humphrey
isn't lying below there dead and cold instead of getting better fast."
"Ah! you have seen him, then?" cried Brace anxiously.
"Been below with the skipper, sir, and there won't be much the matter by
this time to-morrow if the savages leave us alone."