"Asleep," he said. "Don't disturb her. Let's have a look at your
wound."
He drew me into his rough room, and gave me no little pain as he
rebandaged my leg, Pomp standing by and looking on.
"Oh, that's all right, my lad," said the doctor. "Smarts, of course,
but you'll soon mend up. Very different if it had gone into your chest.
Now, Ebony, let's look at your hand."
"Pomp, sah," said the boy with dignity, "not Eb'ny."
"Oh, well then, Pomp. Now then. How's the hand?"
"On'y got lil hole in um, sah. Hurt lil bit. Oh! Hurt big bit, you do
dat."
"Yes, I suppose so," said the doctor, examining and rebandaging the
wound. "There, that will soon be well if you do not use it. Well,
young Bruton, so they burnt you out, did they, last night?"
"Yes," I said, bitterly.
"Oh, never mind. You heard what was said. Well, let's go and see what
they are doing. We're non-combatants, eh?"
We walked out into the open square, after the young doctor had
admonished the black woman who had been appointed the first nurse to be
watchful and attentive to her patient.
There was something going on down by the gate, and I forgot all about
the pain in my leg as I accompanied the doctor there, continuing my
breakfast on the second slice of bread Pomp handed to me.
We soon learned what caused the bustle. A strong party of well-armed
scouts was out in the direction of the forest, which lay some distance
back from the block-house now, as clearing after clearing had been made,
and turned into plantations; and these scouts, with a second line in
support, were ready to give the alarm and arrest the first attack, their
orders being to fall back slowly to the gate, so that ample time would
be given at the alarm of the first shot for the busy party now being
sent out to retreat and get under cover. For now that every one was
safe, it had been decided to try and bring in, as far as was
practicable, the most valuable things from the nearest houses.
I was not long in mounting to a good place inside the great palisade,
where I could command a view of what was going on, and soon saw that a
couple of lines of men had been made with military precision, extending
from the gate to the General's house, which had been voted the first to
be cleared; and between these lines, under the command of Colonel
Preston, a strong body of the slaves--men only at first, but as the work
went on women too--were soon going and coming, bearing the most valuable
of the household chattels, and these were so stacked in the centre of
the enclosure that they would be safe so long as the palisade kept the
enemy at bay, and would afterwards act as a line of defence.
In little over half an hour another house was treated in the same way,
and all through that day the work went on, till a goodly stack of the
best of the things had been brought in, along with stores of provisions,
that in the first hurry had been left behind. As this went on the
people who had been sick at heart and despondent began to look more
hopeful, and family after family had their goods arranged so that they
were able to make comfortable bivouacs out in the middle of the square;
but these were all arranged under the orders of the General and his
officers, so as to form places of defence, to which the defenders of the
palisade could flee and be under cover, the whole of the new barricade
being arranged so that a way was left leading up to the main entrance of
the block-house.
I grasped all this from my position of looker-on, Pomp never leaving my
side, and asking questions which I tried to answer, so that he could
understand.
And he did comprehend too, much better than I should have expected, for
toward evening, after the day had passed, with the scouts relieved twice
over without having seen the slightest token of Indians being near, all
at once he said to me--
"When Injum come an' shoot an' get over de big fence, all dat make great
big fire."
My father's words about the great enemy we had to fear came back to me
at this, and it was with a curiously uncomfortable feeling that I left
my look-out place for the second time to go and partake of the food that
had been prepared.
For the garrison of the fort were rapidly settling down to make the best
of their position, and all was being done as to the serving out of food
with military precision, the General having drilled his followers in the
past, so that they might be prepared for such an emergency as this; and
it was quite wonderful how soon the confusion and disorder of the first
hours had changed to regular ways.
And now the night would soon be here--a time looked forward to with the
greatest of anxiety by all.
The scouts were called in by sound of bugle, and at sundown the gates
were barricaded, and sentries placed all round our defences. Fires were
put out, and as darkness fell, and the customary chorus of the reptiles
arose from the forest and distant swamps, a curious feeling of awe came
over me where I sat watching by my father, who, after a long and arduous
day's work was sleeping heavily, Morgan close at hand, with Pomp and
Hannibal too.
I could not sleep, for there was a dull, gnawing pain in my wound; and
so I sat in discomfort and misery, thinking that though the sentries
were all on the watch, the place would not be so safe now that my father
was asleep.
The moon was hidden, but the stars shone down brightly, and I sat back,
leaning against Sarah's big bundle, in which some of the arrows were
still sticking, gazing up at the spangled heavens, listening to the
bull-frogs, and thinking how far off they sounded as compared to when I
had heard them at home.
I was listening and wondering whether the Indians would come, when I
heard a rustling sound close by, and directly after a low muttering.
But I did not pay any heed, thinking that Morgan or one of the blacks
had turned in his sleep; but the noise came again and again, and then
there was a loud ejaculation, and directly after I heard a familiar
voice exclaim--
"Bodder de ole han'! Oh, how um do hurt!"
"Can't you sleep, Pomp?" I whispered, as I crept softly to his side.
"Dat you, Mass' George?"
"Yes; I say, can't you sleep?"
"Yes, Mass' George. Pomp can't sleep ebber so, but dis 'tupid han'
won't let um."
"Does it hurt?"
"Yes. Big hot fly in um keep goin' froo. Pomp goin' take off de rag."
"No, no; let it be; it will soon be better. Go to sleep."
"Han' say no go sleep. Let's go an' try find de coon."
"No, no; we are not at home now. We can't go out of the fort."
"Out ob de fort?"
"Well, outside of the big fence."
Pomp gave a little laugh.
"Why, Pomp go over easy 'nuff."
"But it's against orders," I said. "Here, I can't sleep either. Let's
go and have a talk to the sentries."
Pomp jumped up at once, and without waking the others, we walked slowly
to the gate, where one of the sentries challenged us and let us go on,
after recognising me, the man saying with a laugh--
"That anybody with you, sir?"
"Yes," I said; "our boy Pompey."
"Oh! Shouldn't hardly have thought it. Looks like a bit o' the black
night out for a walk in a pair o' white cotton drawers."
"Him laugh at Pomp," said the boy, as we went on.
"Yes; it was only his fun."
"But what um mean 'bout de dark night in cottum drawer?"
"Oh, nothing. Nonsense!"
"Yes, nonsense; Pomp know better. Night can't wear cottum drawer. All
'tuff."
"Hush! Don't talk so loud."
"Den why say dat, an' make fun ob poor lil nigger? I know dat man.
Wait bit; I make fun ob him, an' Mass' George an' me laugh den."
"Will you be quiet, Pomp?"
"Yes; Pomp be ebber so quiet. Wait till laugh at him."
"Who goes there?" came from just ahead, out of the darkness.
"Mass' George an' me," said Pomp, promptly.
I hastened to give the word, and we were allowed to pass on, to be
challenged again and again, till we reached the part of the palisade on
the farther side of the block-house.
Here the sentry proved to be one of the men who had rowed out to us in
Colonel Preston's boat; and as he asked about my wound and Pomp's hand,
we stopped by him where upon the raised platform he stood, firelock in
hand, gazing over the great fence toward the forest.
"So your hurts wouldn't let you sleep, eh?" he said. "Well, we must pay
the Indians off for it if they come nigh; but it's my belief that they
won't."
Then he fell to questioning me in a low tone about my adventures, and I
had to tell him how Pomp and I escaped.
"I should have liked to have been with you, my lad," he said. "I'm not
fond of fighting; had too much along with Colonel Preston; but I should
have liked to have been with you when the arrows were flying."
"I wish you had been," I said.
"Do you? Well, come, I like that; it sounds friendly. Yes, I wish I'd
been there. The cowards, shooting at people who've been soldiers, but
who want to settle down into peaceable folk, and wouldn't interfere with
them a bit. I only wish they'd come; I don't think they'd want to come
any more."
"That's what my father says," I observed. "He thinks the Indians want a
good lesson."
"So they do, my lad, so they do. Let's take, for instance, your place,
which they burned down last night. Now what for, but out of sheer nasty
mischief! There's plenty of room for them, and there's plenty of room
for us. If they think they're going to frighten us away they're
mistaken. They don't know what Englishmen are, do they, little nigger?"
"How Pomp know what de Injum tink?" said the boy, promptly.
The man turned to me and gave me a nudge, as he laughingly continued, in
the whisper in which the conversation was carried on--
"Ah, well, they don't know, but if they'd come, I think we should teach
them, for every one here's fighting for his home, without thinking about
those who are fighting for their wives and children as well. You don't
understand that yet, squire."
"I think I do," I said. "I suppose a man would fight for his wife and
children in the same way as I would try and fight for my father."
"Well, suppose it is about the same. You'll have to fight some day,
perhaps."
"Mass' George fight dreffle," put in Pomp. "Shoot lot of Injum."
"Nonsense, Pomp!" I said, hurriedly.
"Not nonsense. Pomp see um tummle down when. Mass' George shoot um."
"Why, you didn't fire on the Indians, did you, squire?" said the man.
"Lot o' times," said Pomp, quickly.
The man let his firelock go into the hollow of his left arm, and he
shook my hand warmly, as Pomp stood staring over the fence into the
darkness.
"I like that," he said, as I felt very uncomfortable and shrinking.
"But then I might have known it. Your father and Colonel Preston didn't
hit it very well together, but the colonel always said your father was a
very brave officer, quiet as he seemed--and like father, like son. Feel
chilly?"
"No," I said.
"Well, it isn't cold, but after being so hot all day it feels a bit
different. Heigho! I shouldn't at all mind having a good sleep. One
gets tired of watching for nothing."
"Sit down and have a sleep," I said. "I'll hold your gun and keep
guard."
"Will you, my lad?" he said, eagerly.
"Yes; I can't sleep, and I'll wake you directly if there is anything
wrong."
"Come, that's friendly," said the man. "I like that, and I'd give
anything for an hour's sleep. Catch hold; I'll lie down here. You'll
be sure and call me?"
"You may trust me."
"Bah!" cried the man in an ill-used tone, and snatching back his
firelock, "that's done it."
"What is the matter?" I said, wonderingly.
"You said you may trust me."
"Yes; I did."
"That did it. It's just what I said to the colonel when he asked me if
I could keep on sentry without going to sleep."
"But you would not go to sleep without leaving some one else to watch."
"No," he said, sternly, "and I won't skulk. I've been digging and
planting so long that I've forgotten my soldiering. No, sir, a man who
goes to sleep at his post when facing the enemy ought to be shot, and,"
he added with emphasis, "he deserves it."
"Here um come, Mass' George," whispered Pomp just at that moment.
"What--to relieve guard?" I said, quickly, as I thought of the sentry's
mistake.
"No, Mass' George, de Injum."