We waited for some minutes crouched there among the bushes listening to
the coming of those who forced their way through the trees, while moment
by moment the morning light grew clearer, the small birds twittered, and
the parrots screamed. We could see nothing, but it was evident that two
if not three savages were slowly descending the slope of the ravine
towards where we were hidden. The wounded man uttered a low groan that
thrilled me and then sent a cold shudder through my veins, for I was
almost touching him; and set aside the feeling of horror at having been,
as it were, partner in inflicting his injury, there was the sensation
that he might recover sufficiently to revenge himself upon us by a blow
with his spear.
The sounds came nearer, and it was now so light that as we watched we
could see the bushes moving, and it seemed to me that more of this
horrible bloodshed must ensue. We were crouching close, but the wounded
man was moaning, and his companions might at any moment hear him and
then discovery must follow; while if, on the other hand, we did not
resist, all hope of rescuing my poor father would be gone.
"We must fight," I said to myself, setting my teeth hard and bringing my
gun to bear on the spot where I could see something moving. At the same
time I tried to find where Jack Penny was hiding, but he was out of
sight.
At the risk of being seen I rose up a little so as to try and get a
glimpse of the coming enemy; but though the movement among the bushes
was plain enough I only caught one glimpse of a black body, and had I
been disposed to shoot it was too quick for me and was gone in an
instant.
They were coming nearer, and in an agony of excitement I was thinking of
attempting to back away and try to reach the cave, when I felt that I
could not get Jack Penny and the black to act with me unless I showed
myself, and this meant revealing our position, and there all the time
were the enemy steadily making their way right towards us.
"What shall I do?" I said to myself as I realised in a small way what
must be the feelings of a general who finds that the battle is going
against him. "I must call to Jack Penny."
"_Cooey_!" rang out just then from a little way to my right, and Jimmy
looked up from his hiding-place.
"Is Carstairs there?" cried the familiar voice of the doctor, and as
with beating heart I sprang up, he came staggering wearily towards me
through the clinging bushes.
"My dear boy," he cried, with his voice trembling, "what I have suffered
on your account! I thought you were a prisoner."
"No!" I exclaimed, delighted at this turn in our affairs. "Jimmy
helped me to escape. I say, you don't think I ran away and deserted
you?"
"My dear boy," he cried, "I was afraid that you would think this of me.
But there, thank Heaven you are safe! and though we have not rescued
your father we know enough to make success certain."
"I'm afraid not," I said hastily. "The savages have discovered our
hiding-place."
"No!"
"Yes; and one of them was approaching it just now when Jack Penny shot
him down."
"This is very unfortunate! Where? What! close here?"
I had taken his hand to lead him to the clump of bushes where the poor
wretch lay, and on parting the boughs and twigs we both started back in
horror.
"My boy, what have you done?" cried the doctor, as I stood speechless
there by his side. "We have not so many friends that we could afford to
kill them."
But already he was busy, feeling the folly of wasting words, and down
upon his knees, to place the head of our friend, the prisoner of the
savages, in a more comfortable position before beginning to examine him
for his wound.
"Bullet--right through the shoulder!" said the doctor in a short abrupt
manner; and as he spoke he rapidly tore up his handkerchief, and plugged
and bound the wound, supplementing the handkerchief with a long scarf
which he wore round the waist.
"Now, Ti-hi! Jimmy! help me carry him to the cave."
"Jimmy carry um all 'long right way; put um on Jimmy's back!" cried my
black companion; and this seeming to be no bad way of carrying the
wounded man in such a time of emergency, Jimmy stooped down,
exasperating me the while by grinning, as if it was good fun, till the
sufferer from our mistake was placed upon his back, when he exclaimed:
"Lot much heavy-heavy! Twice two sheep heavy. Clear de bush!"
We hastily drew the boughs aside, and Jimmy steadily descended the steep
slope, entered the rivulet, crossed, and then stopped for a moment
beneath the overhanging boughs before climbing to the cabin.
"Here, let me help you!" said the doctor, holding out his hand.
"Yes," said Jimmy, drawing his waddy and boomerang from his belt; "hold
um tight, um all in black fellow way."
Then, seizing the boughs, he balanced the wounded man carefully, and
drew himself steadily up step by step, exhibiting wonderful strength of
muscle, till he had climbed to the entrance of the cave, where he bent
down and crawled in on hands and knees, waiting till his burden was
removed from his back, and then getting up once more to look round
smiling.
"Jimmy carry lot o' men like that way!"
We laid the sufferer on one of the beds of twigs that the savages had
made for us, and here the doctor set himself to work to more securely
bandage his patient's shoulder; Jack Penny looking on, resting upon his
gun, and wearing a countenance full of misery.
"There!" said the doctor when he had finished. "I think he will do now.
Two inches lower, Master Penny, and he would have been a dead man."
"I couldn't help it!" drawled Jack Penny. "I thought he was a savage
coming to kill us. I'm always doing something. There never was such an
unlucky chap as I am!"
"Oh, you meant what you did for the best!" said the doctor, laying his
hand on Jack Penny's shoulder.
"What did he want to look like a savage for?" grumbled Jack. "Who was
going to know that any one dressed up--no, I mean dressed down--like
that was an Englishman?"
"It was an unfortunate mistake, Penny; you must be more careful if you
mean to handle a gun."
"Here, take it away!" said Jack Penny bitterly. "I won't fire it off
again."
"I was very nearly making the same mistake," I said, out of compassion
for Jack Penny--he seemed so much distressed. "I had you and Ti-hi
covered in turn as you came up, doctor."
"Then I'm glad you did not fire!" he said. "There, keep your piece,
Penny; we may want its help. As for our friend here, he has a painful
wound, but I don't think any evil will result from it. Hist, he is
coming to!"
Our conversation had been carried on in a whisper, and we now stopped
short and watched the doctor's patient in the dim twilight of the
cavern, as he unclosed his eyes and stared first up at the ceiling and
then about him, till his eyes rested upon us, when he smiled.
"Am I much hurt?" he said, in a low calm voice.
"Oh, no!" said the doctor. "A bullet wound--not a dangerous one at
all."
To my astonishment he went on talking quite calmly, and without any of
the dazed look and the strange habit of forgetting his own tongue to
continue in that of the people among whom he had been a prisoner for so
long.
"I thought I should find you here," he said; "and I came on, thinking
that perhaps I could help you."
"Help us! yes, of course you can! You shall help us to get Mr
Carstairs away!"
"Poor fellow; yes!" he said softly, and in so kindly a way that I crept
closer and took his hand. "We tried several times to escape, but they
overtook us, and treated us so hard that of late we had grown resigned
to our fate."