Charlie as Decoy--Death of the old White Man--The Fight in the
Cave--The Catastrophe.
Tired out with their exertions and the continued night work the party
slept soundly, and awoke at dawn to find the camp as calm and silent
as if no such tragedies as they had witnessed were ever enacted in
the neighbourhood.
"Terribly sultry, is it not?" said Morton; "I suppose it is because
these rocks retain the heat so."
"It seems in the air. Look what a haze there is. I don't think I
ever felt it so hot at this time of day. What do you say to a walk
to the crater after breakfast?"
Charlie called out just then that the meal was ready, and during its
progress the plan of action for the day was discussed and agreed upon.
On arriving at the crater they found it in a great state of activity,
most of the pools were in violent commotion, and constantly
overflowing into the crater, causing a succession of reports.
Returning to the camp they found that Columbus and two or three of
the old men had arrived, all looking as mild and gentle as if they
habitually lived upon milk and water.
"Look at the old scoundrel," said Morton; "his mouth is watering to
see us roasting on the coals."
"I think he only wants to get rid of us and to induce us to leave
Charlie behind. Now let's try him," returned Brown.
Preparations were then apparently made for departure, Charlie
intimating to Columbus that he intended to go with him. The native
appeared hugely delighted, and when the time for departure arrived
neither he nor the others could restrain their expressions of joy.
With their swags on their shoulders Morton, Brown, and Billy strode
off along the track by which they had come, ostentatiously waving
their hands to Charlie.
No sooner, however, were they hidden from the camp than Morton and
Billy slipped aside amongst the rocks, whilst Brown plodded steadily
on, making as much noise as possible. For nearly a quarter of a mile
he kept his course, and then stepped on one side and stood quietly
behind a boulder. After five minutes' waiting the sound of footsteps
was heard, and a native came along, evidently following the track to
make sure that the white men left the place, for he was unarmed and
alone. He was close up before he saw Brown, and then with a
frightened cry sprang away; but he was too late. Brown had hold of
him, and exerting all his uncommon strength threw him heavily down
amongst the rocks, where he lay stunned and quiet. Brown waited
patiently for some time, but nothing could be heard; evidently one
native only had been sent to watch them away.
Leaving his swag in a secure hiding-place, Brown then cautiously
directed his course towards the limestone cliff, using every
precaution to escape being seen. He arrived in sight of the mouth of
the cave after a toilsome journey, and after cautiously reconnoitring
gave a low whistle. There was no answer, but voices could be heard
approaching, and peering carefully out Brown saw Columbus, Charlie,
and three other old men emerge from among the rocks and enter the
cave. At the same moment a low whistle sounded near him, to which he
instantly replied, and in a few minutes Morton and Billy came
creeping silently along and joined him.
"It's splendid," said Morton. "Columbus took Charlie on one side
amongst the rocks, then he gave a signal and all the blacks came
along the track and squatted down in the open space where we were
camped. Columbus and three old men then went away with Charlie, whom
they carefully kept hidden, and I think those are all we have to deal
with; so come along, for I can't bear to let that boy stop alone with
them long, although I think he's safe enough."
"We'll just rush the four of them, and then take our time examining
the place and the white man--is that it?" said Brown; "but how we're
to get away afterwards I can't make out."
"We must trust to chance and our rifles; I think we can manage. But
come quick."
Noiselessly they stole along the narrow entrance that led into the
inner cave, and cautiously peered in to be sure of their ground
before making their attack; the prisoners were there and the three
old men, but Columbus and Charlie were absent. "Quick!" whispered
Brown, and sprang forward on to one, while Morton felled the other
with a nulla nulla[1a] he had picked up. The third made a bolt for
the entrance, uttering a shrill yell as he did so, but Billy, whether
through sudden fright or not, fired his carbine at him and the black
dropped dead.
Startled by the yell and report, Columbus came rushing from a dark
corner of the cave; his eyes were flashing, and all the cannibal in
his nature seemed aroused.
"Hit this fellow on the head!" roared Brown, releasing his struggling
prisoner and grappling with the new foe.
Morton dealt the native a stunning blow with the waddy,[1b] and then
turned to assist his comrade. Strong as Brown was, it would have
been hard work for him to subdue the infuriated Columbus without
assistance. Between them they got him down and bound him with straps.
[1a][1b] A native club of hard wood.
"Now for Charlie!" cried Morton, turning in the direction of the dark
corner. "Something must have happened to him."
"I'm all right, old man; come with me." And Charlie showed himself
at the entrance of another and inner cave.
First stopping to tell Billy to wait and watch the prisoners, and
shoot them if they attempted to escape, the two friends followed
their young companion, leaving a strange scene behind them--Billy
Button on guard at the entrance of the passage, the savages prostrate
on the ground, and the captives for the cannibal feast, who had
preserved a frightened apathy throughout, still huddled together.
In a smaller cave than the one they had just quitted, lighted like it
through fissures from above, the three whites found the old man
seated on the sandy floor, gazing with his half sightless eyes at the
unaccustomed figures, for thus much could he apparently discern. In
a hasty whisper Charlie confided to them that he had been speaking to
him, and thought he could make him hear.
"Try again," said Morton eagerly.
Charlie stooped down and shouted in the old man's ear, "Englishman!
White man!"
A faint gleam of intelligence seemed to illuminate the poor
creature's face, and he pointed eagerly forward with trembling hands.
The friends followed the direction of his hands, and saw a heap of
objects piled in a dusky corner of the cavern, and Brown strode
forward to examine them. The attention of the other two was confined
to the ancient white man, who seemed strangely moved. He tried to
rise and speak, but could only struggle ineffectually. It was awful
to watch his convulsed features, and think what secrets he carried
hidden in his breast, secrets that time had forbidden him to reveal.
At last with panting effort he half rose up, and with a quavering
hoarse voice cried distinctly:
"Yes! Englishman! White man!" and with a choking gasp fell back
dead.
Awe-struck and startled the whites looked at the body of the
unfortunate man who had dragged out such a long term of existence
amongst savages. Not a doubt was in their minds but that they were
gazing on one of the survivors of Leichhardt's lost party, whose fate
had long been such a mystery. Now the very shock of their coming
seemed to have shaken the last sands of life out, and he had died
before their eyes with the story of the past untold.
"Look!" said Charlie, stooping gently over the body and indicating
the swarthy breast.
There, almost undecipherable by reason of the darkened colour of the
skin, was the tatooed mark of a rude anchor.
Suddenly their meditations were interrupted by a series of frantic
yells from the outside cave, and the report of a rifle. Rushing out,
the cause was instantly explained. Billy's attention had wandered to
one of the lady captives, and Columbus had, unobserved by him, freed
himself from the hastily-tied straps. The first thing Billy knew
about it was a blow from a club, and the back view of a figure flying
up the entrance-passage, at whom he hastily and vainly fired, as was
pretty evident by the fierce shouts of Columbus outside, calling his
comrades to him.
"Get your cartridges ready; we must fight for all we're worth," cried
Brown.
Almost as he spoke there was a rush of flying feet and a roar of
voices at the entrance.
"Fire like blazes!" ordered Morton, setting an example, which was
followed by the others, until the white smoke nearly filled the
cavern. Madly and fanatically the natives dashed up the narrow
passage; but with four breech-loaders playing on them, the terrible,
unknown lightning and deafening thunder smiting their foremost down,
two and three at a time, the attempt was hopeless; they fell back,
and for a moment or two there was silence.
"Top! Top! Look out!" suddenly screamed Billy, and none too soon.
Clambering up the cliff the blacks were on the plateau forming the
roof of the cave, and were forcing their way down through the many
cracks and fissures. Hastily abandoning their position, the whites
had scant time to escape into the open air over the bodies of those
they had shot down. Here, to their astonishment, they found
themselves unopposed by the cannibals, who had all made for the top
of the cliff to gain entrance into the cave.
"What's up, Brown?" cried Morton; "you look like a ghost! Are you
hit?"
"No, I don't think so, but I feel queer, and you look sick. For
Heaven's sake come over to the rocks, quick!"
An awful feeling of nausea and giddiness suddenly and strangely
attacked them all. Reeling to the rocks in front of the cavern they
threw themselves down in what shade they could find, utterly
regardless of their enemies.
The air was pulsating with fiery heat, the reports from the crater
followed each other with scarce any interval, and the earth seemed
rocking beneath them. From the mouth of the cavern issued a
melancholy wail, the death-chant over the dead white man.
By a great effort Morton rallied himself, for it suddenly flashed
across him what was going to happen.
"Come on!" he shouted, staggering to his feet and making to where an
overhanging boulder afforded some slight shelter. With difficulty
the others followed him. As they crouched down, completely unmanned,
they felt the ground tremble violently; then came a terrific report,
as if the very rocks were rent asunder, and the air was filled with
blinding steam and scalding mud.
Dead silence reigned for nearly ten minutes, then Brown gave a deep
sigh and raised his head.
"All aboard!" he cried out. "Anybody hurt?"
One by one they answered, stood up, and looked around.
"Pretty warm while it lasted," said Morton; "that's an experience one
does not get every day. Those fellows in the cavern were best off."
"Were they?" cried Brown excitedly. "Great Scott! Look there!"
He pointed to the brow of the cliff, and they all saw what had
happened. The mouth of the cavern had disappeared, and the shape of
the cliff was changed. The earth-tremor they had just experienced
had brought down the roof of the cave, and their late enemies and
their wretched captives lay buried beneath countless tons of rock.
The death-wail they had heard had been the death-wail of a whole
tribe. The cannibals and their victims were in one common tomb.
"And the secret of that white man lies buried there too," said
Morton, after a long pause.
"No, I hope not," replied Brown. "I brought something away from that
heap the old man pointed to;" and from the bosom of his shirt he drew
out an old-fashioned leather pocket-book.
No one was anxious to examine the contents just then; they were all
in a hurry to get back to camp and quench their thirst, and away from
the scene of their late adventure. No apparent change had taken
place in the surroundings of their camp, and they made a fire and sat
down to rest and eat.
"Poor old Columbus!" said Morton. "I cannot help feeling sorry for
the old ruffian. He was a real plucky fellow. Do you remember how
coolly he walked in to us the morning we got here?"
"Yes, and after all we had no business--according to their ideas--to
interfere with their little rites and ceremonies. They treated us in
a friendly fashion."
"After all, however, things turned up trumps for us. We would not
have had the ghost of a show in a fight amongst these boulders. No,
we must thank that earth-tremor for being alive now."
After their meal was over and the four somewhat rested, Morton
proposed a stroll to the crater to see how it had fared, for not a
single report had been heard since the one accompanying the eruption
of mud.
A wondrous change had taken place, they found. The crater, or what
they had taken for one, had subsided, and over its site now flowed an
unbroken sheet of water. The mud on the boulders and the turbid
condition of the water were the only signs of the late convulsion of
nature.
"And so," said Brown, "the burning mountain, such as it was, is gone
for good, and we are the only white men living who have seen it, who
will now ever see it."
"That's so," commenced Morton, when he was interrupted by a footstep
from behind. They all turned hastily.
Scarred, bleeding, and burnt, a most miserable object, there stood
Columbus, the only survivor of his tribe. He looked abjectly and
imploringly at the whites--apparently it was to their power he
attributed the disaster that had happened,--and came forward with a
crushed and broken air, gazing woefully at the space where the crater
had been.
Brown beckoned, and the blackfellow came up to them.
Just then Charlie and Billy called out loudly that the water was
sinking. It was true: the muddy water was rapidly falling, and a
whirlpool was forming in the middle, as though some cavity in the
earth had been opened by the late convulsion. Silently they all
watched the water as it swirled round quicker and quicker, and a
harsh scream went up from it. In less than half an hour the hole was
empty, save for a misty vapour that arose. This cleared away, and
the bottom of the hole lay bare--a chaotic jumble of boulders coated
with mud, and in the centre a dark rift, as though the crater
formation had sunk down bodily.
"Anyone feel inclined to go down there?" said Morton.
"Not just at present," replied Brown; "we'll let it cool off a bit
first."
The disappearance of the water seemed to put the final blow on the
shattered Columbus. He followed them readily to the camping-ground,
where they gave him some food, which he ate ravenously, although it
made the whites shudder to see him, when they remembered what his
last meal had been.
In spite of what they had gone through, they were all too anxious to
get out of the gloomy desert of barren rocks to defer their
departure, and at sundown they started back for the lagoons. The
ex-chief accompanied them, as they thought they could make him useful
in furthering their future discoveries.
They arrived at their camp early the next day tired out, but right
glad to get back to more cheerful surroundings. Their horses were
feeding quietly about the place, having enjoyed a better time of it
than their masters, and everything else was just as they had left it.
They endeavoured to extract from Columbus the story of his escape,
and after much misunderstanding managed to worry out, that when he
found the white man dead he thought that the other white men had
killed him, and rushed out after them. As soon as he got outside he
was struck down and knew no more, excepting that all the others must
have been buried under the fall of rock.
"How about those fellows who were sent back after the corpse?"
suddenly said Morton.
Further questioning elicited from Columbus that six men had gone
back, and by the signs he used it was evident that they had not yet
returned.
"By Jove, I never thought of them!" said Brown. "Lucky they did not
come along and spear our horses while we were away."