The Rev. Wilfrid and Mrs. Deighton were at lunch, talking about the
genial manners and other qualifications of their guests, when suddenly
they heard a rapid step on the verandah, and Blount dashed into the
room.
His face was white with excitement, and they saw that he carried his
revolver in his hand.
“What in heaven's name is wrong, Mr. Blount? Why are you armed----”
“For God's sake don't ask me now! Our lives are in danger--deadly,
imminent danger. Follow me to my house!”
“But, my dear sir,” began Mr. Deighton, “I do not see--I fail----”
“Man, don't talk! Do you think I do not know what I am saying? Your two
friends are both murdered. Banderah is now at my house, too exhausted to
tell me more than to come and save you.”
“Dear, dear me! Oh, this is dreadful! Let us, Alice, my dear, seek
Divine----”
“You fool!” and the trader seized the missionary by the arm as he was
about to sink upon his knees. “Stay here and pray if you like--and
get your throat cut In ten--in five minutes more, every native except
Banderah will be here ready to burn and murder. I tell you, man, that
our only chance of safety is to reach my house first, and then the
schooner. Come, Mrs. Deighton. For God's sake, come!”
Pushing past the missionary, he seized Mrs. Deighton by the hand and
descended the steps. They had scarcely gone two hundred yards when they
heard a strange, awful cry peal through the woods; and Mr. Deighton
shuddered. Only once before had he heard such a cry, and that was when,
during the early days of the mission, he had seen a native priest tear
out the heart of a victim destined for a cannibal feast, and hold it up
to the people.
Suddenly little Mrs. Deighton gasped and tottered as they hurried her
along; she was already exhausted. Then Deighton stopped.
“Mr. Blount... go on by yourself. We have not your strength to run at
this speed. I will help my wife along in a minute or two. Some of the
mission people will surely come to our aid.”
“Will they?” said Blount grimly. “Look for yourself and see; there's not
a soul in the whole village. They have gone to see----” and he made an
expressive gesture.
Mr. Deighton groaned. “My God, it is terrible!--” then suddenly, as he saw
his wife's deathly features, his real nature came out “Mr. Blount, you
are a brave man. For God's sake save my dear wife! I am too exhausted to
run any further. I am too weak from my last attack of the fever. But we
are only a quarter of a mile away from your house now. Take her on with
you, but give me your revolver. I can at least cover your retreat for a
time.”
Blount hesitated, then giving the weapon to the missionary, he lifted
the fainting woman in his arms, and said--
“Try and come on a little; as soon as I am in sight of the house your
wife will be safe; you must at least keep me in sight.”
As the trader strode along, carrying the unconscious woman in his strong
arms, the missionary looked at the weapon in his hand, and shuddered
again.
“May God forgive me if I have done wrong,” he muttered. “But take the
life of one of His creatures to save my own I never will. Yet to save
hers I must do it.”
Then with trembling feet but brave heart he walked unsteadily along
after the trader and his burden. So far, no sound had reached him since
that one dreadful cry smote upon his ear, and a hope began to rise in
his breast that no immediate danger threatened. A short distance away,
embowered among the trees, was the house of Burrowes. The door was
closed, and not a sign of life was discernible about the place.
“Heavens, were they asleep?” He had heard that Burrowes and the German
had been carousing all the morning with the captain of the _Starlight_.
Likely enough they were all lying in a drunken slumber. “God, give me
strength to warn them,” he said to himself; and then with a last glance
at Blount and his wife, he resolutely turned aside and began to ascend
the hill.
But before he gained the summit, Blount had reached the fence
surrounding his house, and Banderah and Taya and her two young brothers,
rifles in hand, met the trader.
“Quick, take her!” and he pushed Mrs. Deighton into Taya's arms and
looked back.
“My God! he's going up to Burrowes' house! Come, Banderah,” and he
started back again, “he'll be speared or shot before he gets there.”
Just as the missionary reached the door and began in feeble, exhausted
tones to call out, Blount and the chief caught up to him, and seizing
his hands dragged him away again down the hill.
“Don't bother about them, they are all on board,” was all Blount said.
And there was no time to talk, for now fierce cries were heard in the
direction of the mission house, and Blount and Banderah, looking back,
saw black, naked figures leap over the low stone wall enclosing the
missionary's dwelling and disappear inside.
“Just in time,” muttered the trader, as dragging Mr. Deighton between
them they gained the house, and sat the missionary down beside his wife,
who with a cry of thankfulness threw her arms about his neck and then
quietly fainted.
* * * * *
For nearly half an hour Blount, with Banderah and the missionary by his
side, looked out through the windows and saw the natives plundering
and wrecking the mission house and the dwellings of Schwartzkoff and
Burrowes. A mile away, motionless upon the glassy waters of the harbour,
lay the schooner, with her boat astern, and every now and then Blount
would take a look at her through his glass.
“I can't see a soul on deck,” he said to Mr. Deighton. “I heard that
Peter and Burrowes went off this morning with the captain, all pretty
well drunk. Would to God I knew what is best to do! To go on board would
perhaps mean that those ruffians would shoot us down before we were
alongside. No, we'll stay here and take our chance. Banderah says he
feels pretty sure that he can protect us from his own people. They'd
never dare to hurt him; and I think _that_ will steady them a bit,”
and he pointed to the fence, upon which, at intervals, were tied green
cocoanut boughs. These had just been placed there by Banderah himself,
and meant that the house was _tapu_--it and all in it were sacred.
“God grant it may!” said Mr. Deighton, and looking at the mystic
sign, the use of which he had so often tried to put down as a silly,
heathenish practice, he felt a twinge of conscience.
At last the work of plunder was over, and then Blount saw a swarm of
black, excited savages, led by two or three “devil-doctors” or priests,
advance towards the house. At the same moment Banderah, looking seaward,
saw that the boat had left the schooner and was pulling ashore. He was
just about to point her out to the trader when, for some reason, he
changed his mind, turned away, and joined his white friends at the other
end of the room.
Following the lead of the “devil-doctors,” who, stripped to the waist,
and with their heads covered with the hideous masks used in their
incantations, looked like demons newly arisen from the pit, the yelling
swarm of natives at last reached the fence outside Blount's house;
and Mr. Deighton, with an inward groan, saw among them some of his pet
converts, stark naked and armed with spears and clubs.
Leaping and dancing with mad gyrations, and uttering curious grunting
sounds as their feet struck the ground, the devil-doctors at last came
within a few feet of the gate in the trader's fence. Then, suddenly, as
they caught sight of a branch of cocoanut leaf twisted in and around the
woodwork of the gate, they stopped their maddened whirl as if by magic;
and upon those behind them fell the silence of fear.
“Thank God!” muttered Blount, “we are safe. They will not break
Banderah's _tapu_.”
Then, rifle in hand, and with quiet, unmoved face, Banderah opened the
trader's door and came out before them all.
“Who among ye desires the life of Banderah and those to whom he has
given his _tapu?_” he said.
The smaller of the two priests dashed aside his mask, and revealed the
face of the old man Toka, who had struck Baxter his death-blow.
“Who indeed, O chief? If it be to thy mind to make _tapu_ this house and
all in it, who is there dare break it? To the white man Challi and his
sons and daughters we meant no harm, though sweet to our bellies will be
the flesh of those whom we have slain and who now roast for the feast.
But more are yet to come; for I, Toka, lost my son, when thou, Banderah,
lost thy brother; and the gods have told me that I shall eat my fill of
those who stole him.”
The savage, bitter hatred that rang through the old man's voice, and
the deep, approving murmur of those who stood about him, warned both
Banderah and Blount that the lust for slaughter was not yet appeased;
so it was with a feeling of intense surprise and relief that he and the
missionary saw them suddenly withdraw, and move rapidly away to the rear
of the house among the thick jungle.
“That's d----d curious!” said Blount, turning to Banderah and speaking
in English; and then the chief took him by the arm and pointed towards
the shore--the boat, pulled by Schwartzkoff and Bur-rowes, with Captain
Bilker sitting in the stern, had just touched the beach. Then it flashed
across his mind in an instant why the natives had left so suddenly--they
were lying in ambush for the three men!
“By God! bad as they are, I can't let them walk to their deaths,” said
Blount, jumping outside, so as to hail and warn them. But before he
could utter a sound, Banderah sprang upon him and clapped his hand to
his mouth.
“Challi,” he said, “they must die. Try to save them, and we all perish.
For the sake of thy daughters and of thy sons, raise not thy voice nor
thy hand. Must all our blood run because of these three dogs' lives?”
Even as he spoke the end came. Staggering up the beach in drunken
hilarity, the three whites did not notice, as they headed for the path,
a file of natives, armed with spears and clubs, walk quietly along
between them and the water's edge. There they sat down and waited. But
not for long, for presently from out the thick, tangled jungle in front
came a humming whirr of deadly arrows and in a few seconds the three
white men were wallowing in their blood. Then came that bloodcurdling
shout of savage triumph, telling those who heard it that all was over.
Before its echoes died away the bleeding bodies were carried to where a
thick, heavy smoke rising from the jungle told the shuddering missionary
that the awful feast was preparing. When he looked again not a native
was in sight.
Standing apart in the room from the others, Blount and Banderah spoke
hurriedly together, and then the trader came to the missionary.
“Mr. Deighton, if you wish to save your wife's and your own life, and
escape from this slaughterhouse, now is your time. As God is my judge I
believe we shall never be safe again, and I would gladly go with you if
I could. But my daughter Nelly is at Lak-a-lak, and--well, that settles
it. Banderah here will tell you that he dreads your staying, as the
priests may plot your death at any moment. I implore you, sir, to think
of your wife. See, there is the boat, drifting along the beach with
the tide. For God's sake be advised and get on board the schooner, and
whatever port you do reach, send a vessel to take me away!”
Then, before the missionary and his wife could realise what was
happening, Banderah had run to the beach, swam to the boat, seized the
painter, gained the shore again, and pulled her along till opposite
the trader's house, just as Blount and Taya, supporting Mrs. Deighton
between them, were leaving the house to meet him.
In twenty minutes more they were close to the _Starlight_, and saw that
her crew were weighing the anchor. On the after deck stood the mate and
steward with rifles in their hands.
“What in the name of God is wrong?” said the mate, as the boat ranged up
alongside, and the missionary and his wife were assisted on deck.
“Don't ask now, man. Get your anchor up as quick as you can and put to
sea. Your captain and the two passengers are all dead. Clear out at once
if you don't want the ship to be taken.”
“I thought something was wrong when I saw the native dragging the boat
along. Lend us a hand to get under weigh, will you?” and the mate sprang
forward.
In another five minutes the _Starlight's_ anchor was up, and then Blount
and Banderah, with a hurried farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Deighton, sprang
into the boat and pushed off.
“May God bless and keep you,” called out the missionary to Blount, “and
may we meet again soon;” then sinking on his knees beside his wife, he
raised his face to heaven, and the trader saw that tears were streaming
down his worn and rugged cheeks.
Blount never heard of the missionary and his wife again. Long,
long afterwards he did hear that some wreckage of a vessel like the
_Starlight_ had been found on Rennel Island, and that sovereigns were
discovered among the pools and crevices of the reef for many years
after. Whether she ran ashore or drifted there dismasted--for a heavy
gale set in a week after she left Mayou--is one of those mysteries of
the sea that will never be solved.