A CUNNING TRICK.
Jim and Buck followed the direction of his outstretched finger, and
then gasped in surprise. As Jack said, it seemed as if a patch of
jungle had begun to move. A mass of tangled greenery was edging
steadily forward from the sharp line where the forest ended, and was
making its way very slowly across the open towards them. For a moment
the whole thing looked horribly uncanny, then at the next instant the
explanation flashed upon them.
"Say, that's a deep game," cried Buck. "We're in for a hard streak o'
weather, boys. They're coming on in shelter of a movin' barricade."
So they were. The cunning little men in blue had set their savage
hearts on the blood of the white men, and were sparing no effort to
compass the destruction of their enemies. But the terrible hail of
bullets from those steady rifles was a thing they must avoid, or the
attacking party would be wiped out before the shattered door was
reached. So they were coming on under cover. The thing was simply
enough contrived. They had cut down young palms and saplings and
lashed them together with tough creepers. Thus they had formed a
little palisade six feet high and fifteen feet along. Into the joints
everywhere they had thrust great feathery bushes of the wild plum,
completely concealing every sign of themselves. Six of the sturdy
little highland caterans were strung along behind the palisade. To
their muscles of iron it was the simplest thing in the world to swing
the barricade forward a step at a time, and behind them crept a score
of their comrades with _dah_ and musket ready for action.
"They'll march right up to us if we can't stop them in some fashion,"
cried Jack, and he fired his Mannlicher into the palisade. The others
followed his example, and for a few moments they searched the oncoming
mass of greenery with a close fire.
"There's something behind those bushes of wild plum," said Jim Dent.
"Can't you hear the bullets striking into wood? They've formed a big
shield of logs, and are pushing it forward."
Now that their advance was known, the Kachins gave up their silence.
The bearers began to shout to give each other the time and to make
their movements regular and swift. "Ai-ai-Ai!" they shouted. On the
last cry they all lifted and swung the barricade a step forward,
"Ai-ai-Ai!" On they came again, "Ai-ai-Ai!" Another swing of their
burden, and so they cut down the distance foot by foot, and the
blood-thirsty little men who crawled after them felt the edges of
their _dahs_ and promised to dull the shine of the great blades in the
blood of the English sahibs who had shot so many of their friends.
In the building, Jack and his comrades were at their wits' end to
know what to do in order to check this deadly advance.
"They're standing us off easily enough," cried Jack. "At the rate
they're coming, they'll be up to the door in a quarter of an hour, and
then they'll swarm straight in on us. These bullets are too light to
check them." Suddenly he turned on Dent, his bright eyes flashing.
"Jim, Jim!" he cried, "what are we thinking of? Didn't you pack a
heavy big-game rifle among the baggage?"
Jim Dent leapt as if he had been shot.
"Of course I did," he roared. "I put it in on chance of being useful
if we had trouble with tigers or a rogue elephant." He darted across
to the baggage ponies, who had been tethered in a far corner of the
large room, and swiftly cut a case loose. He unstrapped it and drew
out an eight-bore rifle, a big powerful weapon. In a corner of the
case was a package of the cartridges which fitted the rifle. Jim
caught up the packet and ran back to his window.
"The very thing," he breathed in the utmost excitement, "and I stood
here like a dummy and never remembered it was with us till you thought
of it, Jack. Unless they've got some very stiff stuff in yonder
palisade, I'll send a bullet through it as if it was only paper. I've
tried this gun with nickel-covered bullets such as these, and sent the
bullet through eight one-inch teak planks and five inches of wet
sawdust."
"That ought to be good enough," cried Buck. "Pipe the lead into 'em,
Jim, and me and Jack will watch for any you drive out of cover if your
bullet goes through."
"If," snorted Jim, as he threw open the breech and slipped in the big
cartridge, "I'll show you."
He threw the elephant gun forward and fired at the centre of the
palisade. There was an instant scream. The immensely powerful weapon
had driven the bullet straight through the centre of a palm log,
through the body of the dacoit behind, and wounded one of the party
following up.
Jim whipped open the breech, and the empty shell flew out, for the
rifle was an ejector. His practised hands had another cartridge in and
the breech closed in an instant. He fired again and then again, aiming
each time at a different spot in the palisade. There was a roar of
anger from the hidden Kachins, a roar answered by an exultant shout
from the besieged.
"Pipe it into 'em, Jim," roared Buck. "You're gettin' home every shot.
Hark at 'em squealin'."
The barricade had now come to a standstill, and it trembled all over
every time that it was struck by the heavy bullet travelling at
terrific speed at so short a range.
"Fire low, Jim," cried Jack, "they have stopped and are crouching at
the foot of the palisade, I know."
Jim fired low, and his shot was answered by a fresh outburst of yells
of pain and rage. Suddenly the palisade began to waver, then it slowly
fell over, as a stream of blue-clothed figures darted from its
insufficient shelter. The dacoits did not make either for the door of
the hut nor for the jungle they had left. The pagoda was the nearest
cover to them, and they raced for it with all their speed, the
quick-firing Mannlichers scourging them with a whistling shower of
lead as they flew. When the last Kachin who could run had disappeared
behind the building, the comrades checked their fire and looked at
each other with joyful eyes. Jim slapped the breech of the eight-bore
exultantly.
"It sent every bullet through their shield like a cannon!" he cried.
"Lucky I put it in; they'd have got up to the door all right if it
hadn't stopped 'em."
"They would, indeed, Jim," replied Jack, "and it would have been all
over with us then."
"Sure thing," agreed Buck. "We should ha' hit the long trail in short
order."
"What's the next move?" cried Jack.
"Hard to say," replied Jim. "We can do nothing but watch 'em."
Watch them they did. The three comrades kept a steady look-out, but
the sun went down, and the swift dark of the tropics fell over jungle
and clearing, and the dacoits had given no further sign of their
presence. The approach of night filled the besieged with the greatest
uneasiness. There was no moon to light the early hours of the
darkness, and in the deep gloom the dacoits could creep upon them
unseen and swarm over them by sheer force of numbers. But just as dusk
fell, Me Dain began to drag down a number of planks and posts from
aloft. This was the fruit of his hacking away with the heavy _dah_. He
had cut loose enough timber to make a very useful barrier at the open
doorway, and he and Jim made the strongest barricade they could while
the others kept watch.
When night fell they kept their places, every ear strained to catch
the faintest sound. They had only to watch one side of the ground
floor where they stood. Three of the walls were solid and very
strongly built; the fourth was pierced by the windows and the door,
and here they had taken their stand from the first.
About two hours after dark, Me Dain came to the head of the stairs
leading to the next floor. He had been stationed there to move from
one to the other of the upper windows and keep strict watch all round.
"Come here now," said Me Dain.
"I'll go," murmured Jack, and he groped his way across the floor to
the foot of the wooden steps. Up he went, and found the Burman waiting
for him at the top.
"Me think some men this way," muttered Me Dain, and took Jack's
shoulder to lead him through the darkness of the unlighted passage
above.
"Which way?" whispered Jack eagerly, clutching his rifle. "Are they
creeping on us from the back, Me Dain?"
"Me think so," replied the Burman, and led Jack to a long, narrow room
at the back of the monastery, a room lighted by a large window. Coming
from the blackness of the passages, Jack saw the window clearly, a
grey patch in the gloom of the walls. He ran across to it and looked
out. The window was high above the ground, twenty feet at least, and
looked upon a tangle of low bushes which ran almost to the wall of the
building.
"Men in the bushes. Me hear them," said Me Dain.
Jack nodded, and watched intently. The window was a mere hole in the
wall, closed, when necessary, by a shutter. At present the shutter was
fastened back, and Jack could hear every sound that was made below.
Presently his ears caught a rustling among the bushes, and he threw
his rifle forward. Then he returned it to the hollow of his arm. He
would wait and see what were the plans of the freebooters now ambushed
below. At this moment he found Me Dain's lips at his ear.
"They make ladder and come up here," breathed the Burman.
Jack nodded. That was the idea that had already struck him. Well, it
would be easy enough from above to sweep the ladder with a swift rifle
fire and drive the dacoits back into their hiding-place.
Then another idea struck him, and he turned it over and over. To drive
them back. Yes, that was all right. But it would still leave him and
his comrades prisoners with the Kachins in hiding about the monastery
and thirsting for their blood. Would it be possible to win a chance of
escape out of this? It seemed to him there was a chance, just a bare
chance, and he resolved to seize it. He drew Me Dain back into the
shadows, and whispered softly, "How many doors lead into this room?"
"One," answered the Burman, who had thoroughly explored the monastery
before the dusk fell.
"Can you fasten it?"
"Yes, very easy. Big lock, strong lock, and key in it."
"All right," said Jack. "Now you keep watch on, the men below. I'll be
back soon."