ON GUARD.
"Who in the world can Charley's 'savages' be, Ned?" asked Jack, when the
story was finished.
"Negro squatters," answered Ned; "I didn't think there were any on Bee
Island."
"What do you mean by negro squatters?"
"Why, negroes who, instead of hiring themselves out or renting land,
have simply squatted on the island, cultivating little patches, and
living by hunting and fishing. There are a good many on plantations that
haven't been cultivated since the war. You see, when the war ended there
were many men who had large bodies of land--some of them owning half a
dozen big plantations--but with very little capital. They have not been
able, for want of money, to resume the cultivation of all their
abandoned plantations, so there are many large tracts still lying idle
and unoccupied, and some of the negroes, not caring to hire as hands, or
to rent land, have squatted here and there. They are generally the worst
of the negroes; men without thrift, and almost untouched by
civilization. They prefer a wild life, and live by fishing, hunting, and
stealing from choice."
"But, I say," said Charley, "my savage wasn't a tame negro at all. He
couldn't speak English I tell you."
"No more can many others of the old sea-island and rice-field negroes.
They talk a jargon which only themselves and the old-time overseers ever
understood. The fact is that many of them really were savages before the
war,--untamed Guinea savages. They or their parents were brought here
from Africa, and they lived all their lives here on these coast
plantations, rarely seeing a white person except their overseers, and
learning scarcely any thing of civilized life. They were not at all like
the negroes up in Aiken, and all over the South for that matter. They
were simply savages who had learned to work under an overseer, and when
the war ended the worst of them relapsed into the ways of savage life
instead of trying to improve themselves as the negroes everywhere else
did. They hadn't learned enough to want to be civilized."
"But what did that fellow get after Charley for?"
"Because we've been robbing their rice field without knowing it."
"I didn't think of that. I thought the rice was wild--self-seeded."
"Probably it is," answered Ned, "but they regard it as theirs for all
that, just as they think this island is theirs, although it belongs to
my uncle."
"Now I know who stole our provisions," said Charley. "But I say, boys,
what's to be done? Suppose the savages should attack us here?"
"They may do that," answered Ned, "though I don't think it likely. They
want us away; perhaps, but they chiefly want us to let them and their
rice alone, and now that we know that it's theirs by some sort of right,
we'll let it alone and get on with what we have on hand. The main thing
now is to build our boat. We must get on as fast as we can with that."
"That's so," said Jack. "That must be the first thing thought of, but
still it seems to me we should do something for our own defence. You
see, Ned, if they should attack us, we are helpless. We haven't a thing
to defend ourselves with, now that the gun is gone, and it isn't right
to trust too much to those people's good-nature."
"Well, what can we do?"
"A good many things; I don't know exactly what will be best as yet, but
we must think it out while we work on the boat. Then we can compare
notes and do whatever is best. We'll work on the boat until dinner-time,
and then give the afternoon to our defences. Perhaps we can make so good
a beginning that we needn't spend more than an hour or two each day on
that work after to-day."
"All right," said Ned; "now let's get to work on the boat."
With a will the three boys set to work. The stem- and stern-posts of the
new boat were securely fastened to the keel, and the difficult task of
setting up the ribs was begun. These ribs were so broken that it
required not a little planning and contriving to make them answer the
purpose; but Jack was very ingenious, and under his direction Ned and
Charley managed to do some very clever splicing and bracing, while Jack
himself dealt with the most difficult problems.
By mid-day about half the ribs were in their place.
"We can begin to see the shape of our new boat," said Ned, "and I'm not
sure she isn't going to be prettier than the old _Red Bird_."
"By the way," said Jack, "what are we to name her?"
"The Phoenix," suggested Charley; then he added: "No that won't do,
because it isn't a case of rising from ashes. The _Red Bird_ wasn't
burned."
"No," said Ned, "that would be very absurd. Suppose we call her
Sea-Gull, because she came to us--in her timbers at least--from the
sea."
"Better call her 'axe, hatchet, and hunting-knife,'" said Jack, "because
we are making her with those tools. But if we must be poetical and
suggestive, why not call her Aphrodite? She, like that fabled goddess,
is sprung from the foam of the sea."
"_Aphrodite_ it is," shouted Jack's companions, and Charley added:
"You're the most classical and poetic youth of the party, Jack, if you
do pretend to sneer at us for our sentimental fancy for an appropriate
name."
"Very well," replied Jack, "you're welcome to think so; but just now I
want my dinner worse than any thing else, and that isn't a mere
sentiment I assure you."
Dinner over, the preparations for defence were begun.
"What plan have you thought of, Jack?" Charley asked.
"Let me hear from you and Ned first," answered Jack.
"Well, I've thought of earthworks," said Charley; "they say they are the
best fortifications."
"Against cannon, yes," said Ned; "but it's only because cannon can't
batter them down as they can masonry. Our problem is a very different
one, because our savages haven't any cannon. What we have got to do is
not to make fortifications that can't be battered down by artillery, but
to fence ourselves in in some way so that the negro squatters can't get
at us."
"Well, what's your idea for that?" asked Charley.
"A stockade."
"Details?" queried Jack.
"My notion is," answered Ned, "to set a line of stockade around the
camp, running it out into the water on each side, making a big 'C' of
it. If we make it ten feet high and slope it outward, it will puzzle the
squatters to get over it, and from the inside we can beat them off."
"But how shall we make the stockade?" asked Jack.
"Why, by digging a trench first, and setting timbers in it, sloping them
at the proper angle, and filling in with earth."
"But couldn't a strong man pull a timber down by jumping up and hanging
to it with his hands?" asked Charley.
"Perhaps so, if each timber stood alone," said Ned, "but we'll set a row
of them in the ditch, and then roll a log in behind them before filling
up. Then we'll set another row and roll in another log, and so on. Then,
in order to pull down a post it will be necessary to lift the whole of
the log that is behind it, together with all the earth that lies on top
of the log, and that is more than any half dozen men can do."
"That's an excellent idea," said Jack, after thinking awhile, "but the
job is too big to be completed to-day. We'd better follow my plan first,
and make the stockade hereafter."
"What's your plan?"
"To build a sort of wall of timber around the camp. It isn't half so
good as a stockade, because of course it is easily climbed over; but it
is better than nothing, and will do for one night."
"But I don't see," said Charley, "that we can build a timber wall half
so quickly as we can make the stockade. To do it we have got to cut
enough logs to make a pile all around the camp, and that will take ten
times as many logs as it will to make the stockade."
"That is true," said Jack, "and, besides, small timbers, five or six
inches in diameter, will do as well for the stockade as big logs, and in
the present state of our axe that is a consideration not to be despised.
I surrender. Ned's plan is by odds the best one. Let's get to work at
it, and if we don't finish it to-day, we'll patch up the deficiency in
some way. Luckily we have digging tools."
The soil of the coast and islands of South Carolina is a light
vegetable mould, mixed with sand, and below it there is sand only. There
are no rocks, no stones, no pebbles even, and no stiff clay; and all
this was greatly in the boys' favor. The trench grew very rapidly as
they worked. Jack and Ned dug, while Charley, who was more expert with
the axe than either of his companions, cut down small trees and trimmed
them into shape for the stockade, making each about fourteen feet long,
so that when set in the ditch it would project about ten feet above
ground.
The digging of the ditch was the smallest part of the task. Its length,
in order to enclose the hut, the well, and the boat, had to be about one
hundred and fifty feet, so that a great many sticks of timber were
necessary.
"We must set them about six inches apart," said Jack, "so as to use as
few as we can at first. If necessary, we can fill in the gaps afterward;
but a man can't get through a six-inch crack, and by setting them in
that way each post, with its half of the two cracks, will occupy about a
foot of space."
But to cut a hundred and fifty pieces of timber with a dull axe was no
small job, and when night came on the boys had only twenty-five of them
set up in their places, while as many more were ready for use. This was
discouraging, and in their weariness Ned and Charley felt very much
disheartened indeed. Jack alone kept his spirits up.
"It's very good work so far as it goes," he said, looking at the line of
timbers all leaning outward from the camp, "and when we get it done it
will puzzle all the squatters in South Carolina to take our fort."
"Yes, if we ever do get it done," said Charley, despondently.
"Now, Charley," said Jack, "none of that. We've been in a tighter place
than this, and you especially ought not to be downhearted. You're ever
so much better off than you were this time last night, when that darkey
had you treed; and you're better off now than Ned is, with his game
foot."
"Poor fellow," said Charley, looking at Ned as he limped into the hut
with difficulty.
"The fact is," continued Jack, "we're tired out, and so things look blue
to us, but they'll look better in the morning. You see we got no sleep
last night, besides wearing ourselves out with anxiety and excitement,
and we have worked like convicts all day. We'll feel better and brighter
after we get some sleep, and things that look gloomy and discouraging
now will look bright and hopeful enough to-morrow morning."
"That's true," said Ned, coming out of the hut again, "and it would be
much better for us if we could quit work right now, and sleep for ten
hours without waking, but we can't."
"Why not?" asked Charley, who was utterly worn out.
"Because we've some more work to do that must be done before we sleep,"
answered Ned. "What we have done for defence is of no good at all as it
stands. We must have a barrier around the camp to-night."
"How shall we make one?" asked Jack.
"With brush. We have plenty of it already cut in the shape of the tree
tops we've trimmed off in getting our stockade poles."
"Brush won't make a very good defence," muttered Charley.
"No, but it will be much better than no defence at all," replied Ned.
"It isn't easy to climb over a well-packed brush pile, particularly if
the brush is so laid that all the branches point outward, and that's the
way we'll lay it. It won't take long to make a wall of that kind, and we
can remove it little by little, as we set the poles hereafter."
This plan commended itself to Jack, and Charley submitted. Poor fellow,
he was too weary to take any active interest even in plans for defence.
The brushwood was brought and carefully placed in position. It was not
sufficient to make a wall all the way around, but only a small gap was
left near the water.
"Shall we cut more brush to-night, Jack?" asked Ned.
"No, I think we needn't. When we go to setting poles to-morrow, the
brush we remove will do to close the gap with, and for one night we can
watch so small an opening. We need rest and sleep now more than any
thing else. You and Charley lie down. I'm the freshest one of the party,
I think, and so I'll stand guard for a good while before calling either
of you."
"Stand guard?" asked Ned; "what for?"
"Why, it won't do at all for all three to sleep at once. We might be
attacked while asleep. If there were no danger of that we needn't have
thought of a stockade at all."
Sleepy and tired as Ned and Charley were, they recognized the necessity
for this watchfulness. It was very hard for the three weary fellows to
take their turns at standing guard that night, but they did their duty.
Jack took a long turn first, and Ned followed him, so that Charley got a
good sleep of several hours, and was much refreshed before his period of
watching began.