"WHY, HE'S ASLEEP!"
"The enemy do not come, Lynn," said Blunt a short time later, when they
had both filled their bandoliers and pistol-pouches.
"And a good thing too, for we're hardly ready yet."
"What! with our defences? Well, let's take a good look round and see
what more there is to be done."
It was getting late in the afternoon, and the westering sun was pouring
down its rays with a violence peculiar to a Chinese summer, though the
winters are so intensely cold that the people go about with clothes
piled upon clothes, so that a wealthy man often resembles an animated
feather-bed, and in fact has his garments so quilted with feathers and
down that if picked to pieces, though he might not furnish enough for a
bed, he could respectably fill a bolster and pair of pillows. There was
very little breeze, and Blunt and his companion were longing for that
which would come in the evening.
"Only there'll be a great drawback to it," said Stan--"the darkness will
come too."
"Yes, the darkness will come too," said Blunt thoughtfully, for his eyes
were wandering over the tea-chest defence-wall inside which they were
walking; "but," he added in words which proved that his thoughts were
not upon the darkness, "I don't like that ending off. It's weak."
"What! where it turns round the end of the warehouse?" replied Stan.
"Yes; the enemy might make for that corner and come round."
"And attack us in the flank, as soldiers would say," exclaimed Blunt.
"It won't do.--Here, three or four of you, get some more tea-chests out
and build this end up higher. There ought to be quite a dwarf tower
here."
"No more chests, sir," said the clerk addressed. "We've used them all
as far as they'd go."
"Then use bales. Call up a dozen coolies, and build up a rounded corner
as quickly as you can."
"Yes, sir," was the eager response, and the man addressed trotted off,
followed by his comrades.
"Odd that we shouldn't have noticed that before. The corner at the
other end is strong, and I meant in my hurried mental plans for this to
be like it. Stopped, of course, by the material running out. Our weak
spot, Lynn; and they say a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Our chain of defences--eh?"
"I hope we shall not find any more weak points," replied Stan.
"Then we had better not look round any farther, my lad, for in this
hasty knocking up of our defences we shall find plenty."
"Let's know the worst," said the lad warmly. "Yes; we'll have no falser
confidence," replied Blunt; and they continued their inspection of the
ground-floor with its two doors and the ample material ready for
barricading them if the defenders were driven in. Then they ascended to
the first floor, after standing aside for a few minutes to allow the
bearers of the bales to pass along with their loads ready for making the
little extemporised bastion at the end.
But they found no weak places upstairs. Every window had its protecting
breastwork where a man could use his rifle in comparative safety and
well cover the spots likely to be attacked.
"Capital," said Blunt; "far better than I expected. If the enemy do
come, all I can say is that they will be mad to attack us, for they must
leave scores of their party shot down before they could carry our outer
wall. Now then, we'll go down and see how the corner is getting on;
then hail Wing, and if he has nothing to report, we'll call the men
together for a good hearty meal, and over it I'll tell off the different
stations they are to occupy."
"What are you going to do about giving orders when the firing begins?"
said Stan. "There'll be the noise of the guns and shouting."
"This," said Blunt, taking a large silver whistle from his pocket. "I
shall explain that when this whistle is blown all are to run towards the
place from which the sound comes, so as to command plenty of strength in
hardly-pressed places. Two shrill whistles mean, make for the upper
windows."
"Retreat?"
"Yes."
"And what about barricading the two doors?"
"I shall station the two carpenters and four men at those doors, ready
to close them up when necessary. Tut, tut, tut!"
"What's the matter?" said Stan, startled by his companion's
ejaculations.
"In the hurry and excitement I haven't found time to say a few words to
the Chinamen about fighting for us. Never mind; I'll have a few words
with them over the supper, dinner, or whatever it is."
They passed down and went outside on to the wharf, where, before
inspecting the addition to their defences, they both looked up, and
Blunt hailed Wing, who was still seated astride the gable, shading his
eyes from the ardent sun and slowly sweeping the horizon.
"Well, Wing," cried Blunt; "see anything of the enemy?"
"No. Not come yet. Velly long time."
"And a good job, too," said Blunt to his companion, who, after another
good look at the patient figure in the blue frock, crouching all of a
heap and looking like a very amateurish beginner astride of a huge
razor-backed horse, said:
"Don't let us forget to send the poor fellow up some tea and bread-cake.
He must be half-famished."
"So must everybody be," said Blunt. "I know I am. Here, how are you
getting on, my lads?" he continued, turning to the working party.
"I think we've got on as far as we can, sir," replied the clerk. "I was
hoping that you'd come soon and tell us what more to do. We've packed
in nearly fifty bales, as you see."
Blunt inspected the work in silence, with its double wall loopholed, and
with extra shelters for the men who would be firing therefrom, and
finally stood thinking.
"Well," he said to the men who were watching him anxiously, "I can
suggest nothing more. You have done your work admirably. So now knock
off and come into the big store-room for refreshments."
The men cheered and followed into the great place, which, minus its
piles of tea-chests carried out to build the wall, looked vast; but the
trestle and boards spread ready, and pretty well covered with a
substantial tea by Blunt's Chinese servants, made the place look welcome
in the extreme; and upon the men being bidden to fall to, Europeans and
Asiatics set to work eagerly, talking, laughing, eating, and drinking,
and more resembling a strange picnic party than a number of men
expecting to be engaged at any hour in a desperate fight for their lives
against a savage foe.
There were only two of those present who looked moody and were silent.
These were Blunt and Stan, the former washing down his food with
draughts of tea as with frowning brow he cogitated over his plans; the
latter, now that the excitement of preparation was over, feeling a
strange sense of sinking which the bread and tea did not remove. He
wanted to preserve his firmness and show Blunt that he was no coward,
but there was what seemed to be a dark mental cloud ahead, and in spite
of every attempt to pierce it, there it hung ominously like a portent of
what was to come, and as if fate was kindly hiding from him the horrors
in store.
Stan set his teeth hard and made a tremendous effort at last.
"I must eat," he said to himself, "or I shall be as weak as a child, and
I must drink to quench this horrible feeling of delirious thirst. Oh, I
wish I wasn't such a weak coward! I'm sure no other fellows of my age
can be like me."
Forcing himself then, he began to eat and drink hurriedly, all the while
recalling old school fights into which he had entered with fear and
trembling, but without recalling how he had come out.
Then all that he had read of Chinese horrors, and the indifference of
these people to life, came floating before his eyes--anecdotes that he
had read of their atrocities and savage treatment of their enemies--
there they all were, till, instead of seeing any longer that black,
cloud-like curtain, the lad now seemed to be seeing red, and he started
violently when his companion brought him to himself by suddenly rising
and blowing his silver whistle. Then in the silence that immediately
ensued Blunt explained his plans to his listeners, and had his words
well interpreted to such of the Chinese workers as were not perfect in
their knowledge of English.
Blunt spoke briefly, but every word of his instructions was to the
point, and the listeners rose from their rough benches at last well
drilled in their duties as to the places they were to occupy, the
Europeans finding a leader to reply and declare how to a man they would
fight to the death; while, when the manager had done, the head of the
Chinamen rose and declared that his comrades thoroughly hated all
pirates and murderers, and that to a man they too would fight for the
good, just master who always behaved to his men as if he were their
father.
Blunt smiled and nodded, and then said a few words to the leader about
his comrades having rifles. But these were declined, the Chinaman
declaring that he and his fellows could do more good with their long
knives and hatchets when the enemy came to close quarters; and this he
said, as Stan noticed, with a fierce glow in his eyes which proclaimed
that, in spite of the speaker being as a rule a mild-spoken, peaceful
carpenter, there was Chinese Asiatic savage instinct beneath the skin--
showing, too, that he and his fellows were going to prove themselves
dangerous foes to the bloodthirsty enemy when they approached.
"Then now we all understand each other," said Blunt sternly. "I have
only this more to say--that as soon as it is dark three parts of you
will lie down to sleep. I shall place sentries to give the alarm if the
enemy come on in the night. Then every man will run to his post, and
Heaven help us all to do our best!"
A tremendous cheer greeted the close of Blunt's speech, and after giving
all present a sharp gratified look, with a nod of the head, Blunt turned
to his young companion.
"Come along," he said. "You and I will go and order poor Wing down, and
keep a lookout from the little bastion while he comes and has his tea."
"Yes, quick!" said Stan; "my conscience has been smiting me all the time
you were talking, but of course I could say nothing then."
"Of course not I had quite forgotten him. I had so much else to think
about. Now then, take your rifle. Here's mine. We must make these our
companions now."
Stan obeyed the order he had received, following his companion's example
as Blunt took his rifle from the corner where he had placed it; and
together they stepped out into the shelter behind the wall, then climbed
over on to the wharf, looked at the broad, clear river, bright in the
evening glow, but with nothing visible to mar its peaceful beauty, and
then as they reached the end of the wall--
"We shall have no enemy to-night," said Blunt.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because we can see for miles, and there is not a sign of danger. They
will not surprise us; they want daylight for their attack.--Ahoy, there!
Wing! See anything?"
There was no reply.
"Look at that," said Blunt, smiling. "Nice sort of a sentry that!"
"Why, he's asleep!" whispered Stan.
Asleep the poor fellow was, and no wonder. Duty to his employers had a
strong hold, but nature and exhaustion, after hours of baking and
fasting upon the roof with straining eyes, were stronger; and but a very
short time before the appearance of his European masters, Wing's head,
in spite of a desperate struggle to keep it firm, had begun to nod, then
to make long, slow, graceful bows at the western sky, till at last, as
if the strain upon his eyes in watching had affected the poor fellow's
brain with an uncontrollable drowsiness, his head went right down, to
rest between his knees. There he crouched as if in a saddle; and then
he was motionless, and looking wonderfully like a beautifully carved
finial placed by a cunning builder as an ornament to the great
gable-end.
"Poor beggar! It was too bad to leave him so long," said Blunt. "I
suppose I mustn't bully him. But suppose the enemy had been coming down
the river and had surprised us."
"We should have been to blame for not having more sentries on the
lookout."
"Right, my young Solon," said Blunt; "but it would have been a startler
for him, and a lesson too, if he had been woke up by a shot."
"Yes, that's right," said Stan, smiling at a thought which flashed
across his brain.
"What are you laughing at?" said Blunt sharply. "I was thinking how it
would make him jump if I fired a shot now."
"Ah, to be sure! Slip a cartridge into your rifle and fire in the air."
"I am loaded," said Stan, who began to repent of his words.
"Of course. Fire away."
"No, no; it would be too bad."
"Fire--away!" said Blunt in a stern, angry tone; and feeling at once the
impulse to obey, the lad held his rifle up pistol-wise at arm's-length,
drew the trigger, and then, as the report rang out, winced at the kick
the piece gave, and as the smoke rose, stared in horror at the result of
his shot.