"What an escape!" exclaimed Drew at last.
"Yes," said Panton, wiping the cold perspiration from his brow, "for
him, too."
"But what next?" exclaimed Drew. "I'm thinking about poor Rimmer.
Can't one of us get round through the forest before them, and warn them
on board the brig? It will be horrible for them to be surprised."
"You know we can't get through these trees," said Panton sadly, "and it
would take a day if we could. But Rimmer won't be surprised."
"No, I hope not," said Drew. "We ought to have sent a man back to warn
him."
"We meant to go ourselves, only we couldn't leave poor Lane in the
lurch."
"No," said Drew, with a sigh. "Do you think it's safe yet to imitate
the birds again?"
"No, I don't," said Panton, sharply. "You'll bring the enemy back upon
us if you do that. Now, then, at all hazards we must go in search of
him. I'm afraid he has broken down from the exertion."
"No, he hasn't," said a voice in a low tone, and to the intense delight
of all, Lane raised his head from the ground, so that they could see his
face all torn and bleeding, from its owner having had to force his way
as he crawled through the dense creepers at the edge of the forest.
"Thank heaven!" cried Panton, and he let his head drop down upon his
hands in his weakness produced by long suffering and over-exertion.
"Then you saw the savages?" said Drew, excitedly.
"Yes. I was creeping in this direction, to get a shot at some of the
paradise birds which I heard calling, when I came suddenly upon a black,
and in endeavouring to crawl silently away, a piece of wood snapped
under my hand and made the man turn toward me. I had to be perfectly
still for a long time before he went on. Are there any more?"
"Fifty at least, so the men say," replied Panton, recovering himself.
"But are you at all hurt?"
"Only scratched and done up. I feel so weak. But what are you going to
do?"
"Crawl back through the edge of the forest till we are near the brig,
and then wait till night--if we escape notice. Seems the best way."
"And then," said Oliver, "if they make an attack on the brig, we can
take them in flank or rear, perhaps scare them off."
"Beg pardon, sir," said Smith. "It's only a sort of a kind o'
disgestion like as you can do or no, but them beggars has left their
boats. How would it be for us to go down to the shore and grab one and
sink t'other? Then we should be free to sail away where we liked."
"Without provisions, compass, or water?" said Panton, drily.
"And leave our friends in the lurch?" said Drew.
"O' course," said Smith, scratching his head. "That's the wust o' my
dis--suggestions; there's allus a screw loose or suthin' wrong about
'em, so as they won't hold water."
"Allus," said Wriggs, solemnly.
"Deal you know about it," growled Smith. "Don't you get a shovin' your
oar in that how. P'raps you've got a better hidear? 'Cause if you
have, let it off at once for the gents to hear. I on'y said what I
thought."
"Quite right, Smith," interposed Lane. "Don't be cross about it,
because the idea will not work."
"Oh, no, sir, I ar'n't cross and I ar'n't a-goin' to be cross, but I
don't like it when Billy Wriggs will be so jolly clever and get thinking
as he knows every blessed thing as there is in life. He don't propose
any good things, do he?"
"No, Tommy, I don't," said Wriggs, quietly. "It ar'n't in my way o'
business. Ropes and swabbing and pullin' a oar or setting of a sail's
more in my line, mate."
"That will do," said Oliver, firmly, and somehow, though he was yet weak
and rather helpless from the injury he had received, he dropped at once
into a way of taking the lead, unchallenged by either of his elder
companions.
"Now, then," he continued, "is there any better plan? Silence! Then
we'll try the one we have before us, and follow cautiously in the
savages' track."
"How do you feel, Lane?" said Panton in a whisper, as they two stood
together during a halt.
"Tired and hot."
"So do I, but I didn't mean that. Do you feel fighty?"
"Fighty? No; not at all. Rather, as if I should like to run away."
"That's frank," said Panton.
"Well, it's the truth. I'm weak and done up, and I don't think I'm one
of the fighting sort. It doesn't seem nice either to shoot at human
beings, but I suppose we shall have to."
"Yes, it's their lives or ours, my lad; but as you say, it's not nice.
You won't think me a coward, will you, if I tell you that I feel just
the same as you do?"
"Hush! don't talk," whispered Drew, who was a little way in front,
keeping a sharp look-out, "I don't think they are far ahead. Ready to
go on?"
"Yes," said the others in a breath, and the toilsome march was resumed,
Drew, as the lightest and most active, going in front, the two sailors
following, and Oliver Lane and Panton, as the weakest of the party,
bringing up the rear.
The sun beat down with tremendous force, but the heat was forgotten in
the excitement, as, forced by circumstances to imitate the savages, the
little party crept cautiously on, taking advantage of every bit of cover
and keeping well in under the shade of the trees at the edge of the
forest. At any moment it was felt that they might come upon the rear of
the enemy, when, if undiscovered, the aim was to remain in hiding. If
seen, Drew proposed to wait until there was any attack, and then fire;
the others to follow, taking their cue from him, and without hurrying,
following one another, so as to give those who fired first time to
reload and continue a steady fusillade. This, it was hoped, would drive
the savage crew into confusion and enable the party to get on to where
they would be opposite to the brig, when they could rush across without
running the risk of being fired at by their friends, who would have had
fair warning of their approach and be ready to help them.
These were their plans, but everything depended upon the Papuans, who
had unaccountably disappeared.
For it seemed to all that they ought to have been overtaken some time
before, whereas they had for some time seen no sign of them, nor heard
so much as a whisper.
All at once, when they were still quite a mile from the brig, and while
Oliver was being tortured by opportunities for acquiring magnificent
specimens of butterfly and bird of which he could not avail himself,
Drew stopped short, and let the others come close up to where he was
crouching beneath the huge leaves of a dwarf palm.
"I dare not go any further," he whispered, "for I feel certain that we
are walking right into a trap."
"Why?" asked Oliver. "You say you have neither seen nor heard anything
of them."
"I can't tell you, but somehow I feel as if they are lying in ambush,
waiting for us, and I can't lead you on to your death."
These words acted like a chill to all, and for the full space of a
minute there was utter silence. Then Oliver spoke.
"I feel so weak and helpless, that I do not like to make proposals," he
said, "but how would it be to try and play boldly?"
"How?" asked Panton.
"By taking the initiative and attacking."
"Madness," said Drew.
"I don't know that. Our shots would let Mr Rimmer know that we are in
danger. It is too far-off to make him hear the boatswain's whistle. As
soon as he knew he would come to our help, and we should have the enemy
then between two fires. They would be scared, and either throw down
their arms or take to the woods."
There was silence again after these words, and then Panton spoke.
"Won't do, Lane," he said. "You speak as if you were as strong as Smith
or Wriggs here, and all the time you are as helpless and weak as I."
"Yes," said Drew. "It is like being only three to attack fifty."
Oliver was silent, for he felt the force of his companion's remark.
"Like to send me or Billy Wriggs on ahead, gentlemen?" said Smith.
"What for, man?" said Panton, impatiently.
"I don't quite zackly know, sir, but I've got a brother as is a soger,
and he was a tellin' me that when they fight the niggers up in the
hills, where they shuts themselves up strong behind stone walls, with
lots o' big ones ready to chuck down on them as comes to attack, they
sends some one fust, and calls him a f'lorn hope. I don't quite know
what good it is, but I'll go and be a f'lorn hope if you like, or so
would Billy Wriggs here. P'r'aps he'd do butter, sir, for he's a more
mizz'able-looking chap than me."
Panton smiled.
"It's very good and brave of you, my lad," he said.
"Oh, don't you make no mistake about that, sir," said Smith, shaking his
head. "I'm only a sailor, and not a soger, and not brave at all."
"Speak the truth, Tommy," said Wriggs, in a tone of protest.
"Well, that is the truth, Billy; I ar'n't what you call a brave chap,
and I can't fight a bit till some one hurts me, and then I s'pose I do
let go, 'cause you see I feel nasty and sawage like, but that ar'n't
being brave."
"Don't you believe him, gents," growled Wriggs; "he is a brave chap when
his monkey's up. You can't hold him then."
"Yah, don't talk stuff, my lad," said Smith, bashfully. "How can a chap
be brave as has got two legs as runs away with him as soon as he's
scared?"
"Hush!" whispered Drew, "we are talking too loudly. Look here, Lane,
and you, Panton: we had better wait for the darkness, and then take our
chance of making a dash for the brig."
"And spend all these weary hours in this heat without water. It would
be horrible."
"Lie down, and try and pass the time in sleep, while we watch."
"She's at it again, sir," whispered Wriggs, with bated breath, as he
made a clutch at his messmate and held on tightly, for a curious heaving
sensation, as of a wave passing beneath them, was felt, followed by a
deep booming roar from northward.
"Ay," whispered Smith, "and if she'd suck one o' them big waves ashore
and make a clean sweep o' these charcoal chaps, she'd be doing some
good."
"That's so, messmate," growled Wriggs, "for black-skins as can't live in
a beautiful country without wantin' to kill and eat their neighbours,
oughtn't to be 'lowed to live at all, that's what I says about them.
Here, hold tight!"
He set the example by throwing his arms about a young tree, for there
was a peculiar rushing sound as the earth quivered and the trees of the
forest bent over and seemed as if stricken by some tremendous blast,
though all the time there was not a breath of air.
Then they became conscious of a black cloud rising over the forest
beyond the clearing, as if the precursor of some fresh eruption.
"I say, Billy," whispered Smith, "oughtn't this here to scare them
sawages?"
"I should say so," replied the other; "all I know is that it scares me."
"Hist--hist!" whispered Drew, as he pointed forward and signed to the
others to lie close, for from out of the edge of the forest, about a
hundred yards in front, a black head was thrust forth from among the
trees.
It was a strange and incongruous sight. Between the hiding party and
the black scout of the savages there ran a high wall of dazzling green
of many tints, bright flowers hung clustering down, the dazzling sun
shone from the vivid blue sky, and every now and then bird and butterfly
of effulgent hue flitted before their sight; while there, just beyond
this strip of glorious beauty, there was the hideous black grotesque
head of the Papuan, evidently scanning the side of the forest back
towards where they were hidden.
The next minute he had drawn back, but only to spring out with a shout,
brandishing his club, while his cry was taken up by fifty throats, as
with a roar the whole band rushed into sight, and dashed down towards
where the little party lay.