Yes, I may as well own to it: I was terribly frightened, but my first
thoughts were as to what had become of my companions. Jack Penny and
the doctor must have been seized at the same time as I. Jimmy might
have managed to escape. Perhaps his black skin would make him be looked
upon as a friend. But the old captain, what about him? He would return
to the schooner with his men and be seized, and knocked on the head for
certain. The fierce resistance he would make certainly would cause his
death, and I shuddered at the thought.
Then I began to think of my mother and father, how I should have failed
in helping them; and I remember thinking what a good job it was that my
mother would never know exactly what had happened to me. Better the
long anxiety, I thought, of watching and waiting for my return than to
know I had been killed like this.
"But I'm not killed yet," I thought, as the blood flushed to my face.
"I'll have a run for it, if I can."
I had not much time given me to think, for I was dragged to my feet, and
out into a large open place where there were huts and trees, and there
before me lay the sea with our schooner, but the other was gone; and as
I recalled the fire of the previous night I knew that she must have been
burned to the water's edge and then sunk.
I began wondering about what must have been the fate of the other
schooner's crew, and somehow it seemed that they deserved it. Then I
began thinking of my own friends, and then, very selfishly no doubt,
about myself.
But I had little time for thought, being hurried along and placed in the
middle of a crowd of the savages, all of whom seemed to be rolling their
eyes and looking at me as if enjoying my position.
"Well," I thought to myself, "it is enough to scare anybody; but I'll
try and let them see that I belong to a superior race, and will not show
what I feel."
My eyes kept wandering about eagerly, first to look where my companions
were placed, but as I saw no sign of them I began to hope that they
might have escaped; secondly, to see which would be the best course to
take if I ran for my life. For I could run, and pretty swiftly, then.
The hardy life I had led out in the bush, with Jimmy for my companion,
had made me light of foot and tolerably enduring.
But for some little time I saw not the slightest chance of escape.
There were too many savages close about me, and they must have divined
my ideas, for they kept a watchful eye upon every act.
At first I had felt numbed and cold. My legs and arms ached, and when
the blacks took off the rope that they had bound about my limbs every
nerve seemed to throb and burn; but by degrees this passed off, and to
my great joy I felt more myself.
At last, after a great deal of incomprehensible chatter, it seemed that
a decision had been come to about me, and a tall black armed with a
war-club came dancing up to me, swinging his weapon about, chattering
wildly, and after a few feints he made a blow at my head.
If that blow had taken effect I should not have been able to tell this
story. But I had been too much with my friend Jimmy not to be well upon
the alert. We had often played together--he like a big boy--in mimic
fight, when he had pretended to spear me, and taught me how to catch the
spear on a shield, and to avoid blows made with waddies. Jimmy's
lessons were not thrown away. I could avoid a thrown spear, though
helpless, like the black, against bullets, which he said came "too much
faster faster to top." And as the savage made the blow at me I followed
out Jimmy's tactics, threw myself forward, striking the wretch right in
the chest with my head, driving him backward, and leaping over him I ran
for my life, making straight for the forest.
"It's all because of those wretches in the other schooner yesterday," I
thought, as I ran swiftly on with a pack of the enemy shouting in my
rear; and though I could run very fast, I found, to my horror, that my
pursuers were as swift of foot, and that though I was close upon the
forest it was all so open that they would be able to see me easily, and
once caught I knew now what was to be my fate.
I began thinking of the hunted hare, as I ran on, casting glances behind
me from time to time, and seeing that though some of my pursuers lagged,
there were four who were pretty close upon my heels, one of whom hurled
his spear at me, which came whizzing past my ear so closely that it
lightly touched my shoulder, making me leap forward as if struck by the
weapon.
I was panting heavily, and a choking sensation came upon me, but I raced
on, since it was for life.
How long the pursuit lasted I cannot tell. Perhaps a minute. It seemed
half an hour. Twice I leaped aside to avoid blows aimed at me, and each
time ran blindly in a fresh direction; but all at once the idea occurred
to me in a flash that in my unnerved stupefied position I must have been
going backward and struck my head violently against a tree, for it
seemed as if there was a violent shock like thunder with a flash of
lightning to dazzle my eyes, and then there was nothing at all.