"THINK YOU CAN HIT A BLACK?"
A long anxious afternoon of watching, but the blacks made no sign, and
upon Shanter being referred to, he replied coolly: "Plenty come along
when piggi jump down, all no see."
Tim shuddered at the black's coolness.
"Make shoot bang. Black fellow run along holler--ow!"
"He doesn't seem to mind a bit," whispered Tim.
"Don't know the danger, I suppose," said Norman. "I say, boys, how long
could we hold out?"
"Always," said Rifle. "Or till we had eaten all the cattle."
"If the blacks don't spear them and drive them away."
As the afternoon wore on the conversation grew less frequent, and all
waited, wondering whether the blacks would attack them or try to drive
off the cattle. Guns were laid ready; ammunition was to hand, and the
captain seemed to have quite thrown aside his suspicions of the black,
who, on his side, had apparently forgotten the cut across his shoulder,
though a great weal was plainly to be seen.
In spite of bad appetites there had been two meals prepared.
"Men can't fight on nothing, wife," the captain said; and then seeing
the frightened looks of Mrs Bedford and the girls, he added with a
merry laugh: "If they have to fight. Bah! if the black scoundrels come
on, it only means a few charges of swan-shot to scatter them, and give
them a lesson they will never forget."
Soon after this the captain and Uncle Jack went outside with the glass
to sweep the edge of the scrub and the ridge, as well as every patch of
trees, leaving the boys alone in the back part of the house to keep
watch there.
"I say," said Rifle, in a low tone, "it's all very well for father to
talk like that to them, but he doesn't think a charge of swan-shot will
scatter the blacks, or else he wouldn't have the bullets ready."
"No," replied Norman, quietly. "He looks very serious about it all."
"Enough to make him," said Tim; "after getting all this place so
beautiful, to have a pack of savages coming and interfering.--I say,
Shanter, think the savages are gone?"
"Mine no pidney," said Shanter, starting up from where he had been
squatting in one corner.
"Are the black fellows gone?"
"Baal black fellow gone along. Wait till piggi jump down and can't
see."
"Think so? Come along all dark?" said Rifle. "Yohi. Come along, get
flour, numkull chicken fellow. Make big fight."
Norman frowned.
"Mine glad Marmi Rifle. Mine like plenty stop along here."
"Well, I don't," grumbled Rifle. "I don't like it at all. I say, Man,
don't you wish we were all safe somewhere else?"
"Yes. No," said Norman, shortly; "we mustn't be cowards now."
"'Tisn't cowardly not to want to fight like this," grumbled Rifle. "If
I shoot, perhaps I shall kill a black fellow. I don't want to kill a
black fellow."
Shanter nodded admiringly, for he did not quite grasp the speech.
"Kill a black fellow," he said. "Mumkull. Go bong."
"Oh, bother; I wish he wouldn't muddle what a fellow means. I say, Tim,
feel frightened?"
"Horribly," replied Tim. "I say, I hope they will not come."
"Perhaps they will not," said Norman. "If they do, it may only mean to
drive away some of the cattle."
"Well, father don't want his cattle driven away, does he?"
"Don't talk so," said Norman, who was standing with his face to a small
square window, which he reached by standing on a case. "I say, come
here, Tim."
The boy went and stood by him.
"Look straight along the garden fence, and see if that isn't something
moving; there, by those bushes."
Tim looked intently for a few moments, and shook his head.
"No," he said; "it's getting too dim. What's that?"
"Only father and uncle," said Rifle, for just then their elders entered
the house, and closed and fastened the door before coming into the back
room.
"It's getting so dark, boys, that we'll trust to the place now to
protect us. Close that window all but the narrow slit. Are the other
windows fast?"
"Yes, father," said Norman; "all but the loopholes in our bedroom and
the kitchen. Think they'll come?"
"Can't say, boy; but we think it is not wise to risk a spear from some
fellow who has crawled up."
"Black fellow crawl up," said Shanter, as Norman secured the window.
"They had better stay away," said the captain, gravely. "Poor wretches,
it is very horrible to have to fire at their unprotected bodies. If
they would only keep away."
The captain cast an eye over the defences, and at the boys' weapons
before going to the girls' bedroom, which stood a little higher than the
other rooms of the house, and being considered the safest spot in the
stronghold, the ladies were all gathered there.
Here the boys could hear him talking cheerily as the place grew darker
and darker, for the fire in the kitchen had been extinguished, and
lights were of course forbidden. From the front room by the door came
the low murmur of voices, where Uncle Munday and Sam German sat
together, the latter now armed with a gun, though his pitchfork was
placed beside him, as if even now he might require it for his defence.
At last, wearied out with sitting in one position, Rifle rose and went
to the door, where his uncle and Sam German were keeping watch.
"Think you can hit a black, Sam?" whispered Rifle, after a few words
with his uncle.
"Dunno, Master Rifle; but I have hit sparrers afore now, and brought
down a rabbit."
"Oh!" ejaculated Rifle. Then after a pause. "I say, Sam, which did you
put in first, the powder or shot?"
"There, it's of no good your trying to be funny, my lad," whispered back
the gardener, "because it won't do. You feel as unked as I do, I'm
sewer. What I says is, I wish it was to-morrow mornin'."
"Or else that they would come, German, and let us get it over," said a
voice out of the darkness, which made them start. "The suspense is
painful, but keep a good heart.--Raphael, boy, you ought to be at your
post. Mind and report every sound you hear."
"Yes, father," said the boy, who crept back to the room he had left, but
not without going to the bedroom door, and whispering sharply, "It's all
right, mother. We'll take care of you."
He did not wait for a reply, but crept into the backroom, where all was
silent, and he went from thence into the long lean-to kitchen, with its
big stone fireplace and chimney.
"Pist! you there, boys?"
"Yes; mind how you come. Your gun's standing up in the corner by the
fireplace. We're going to sit here, and take it in turns for one to
watch at the window slit."
Then after making out by touch where the others were placed, and nearly
falling over Shanter, who was squatting, enjoying the warmth which came
from the hearthstone to his bare feet, the boy seated himself on a rough
bench by his gun, and all was silent as well as dark. From time to time
the captain came round--in each case just after they had changed watches
at the window loophole--but neither Norman, his cousin, nor brother had
anything to report, and he went away again, after telling them the last
time that all was well, and that he thought their sister and cousin had
gone off to sleep.
Then there was the same oppressive darkness and silence once more, a
heavy breathing by the still warm fireplace, suggesting that Shanter,
well refreshed with damper, had gone to sleep, and the boys
instinctively shrank from disturbing him for fear he should start into
wakefulness, and lay about him with his nulla-nulla.
It must have been nearly twelve o'clock, when Norman was wishing that
the Dutch clock in the corner had not been stopped on account of its
striking, for the silence was growing more and more painful, and he was
wondering how it would be possible to keep up for hours longer. He felt
no desire for sleep; on the contrary, his nerves were strained to their
greatest tension, and he could hear sounds outside as if they had been
magnified--the chirp of some grasshopper-like insect, or the impatient
stamp of a horse in the enclosure, being quite startling.
But there was nothing to report. He could easily find an explanation
for every sound, even to the creaking noise which he felt sure was
caused by one of the cows rubbing itself against the rough fence.
Rifle was watching now at the narrow slit, but there was nothing to see,
"except darkness," he whispered to his brother, "and you can't see
that."
And then, as he sat there for another half-hour, Norman began once more
to envy the black, who seemed to be sleeping easily and well, in spite
of the danger which might be lurking so near.
But he was misjudging the black: Shanter was never more wide awake in
his life, and the proof soon came. All at once there was a faint
rustling from near the fireplace apparently, and Rifle turned sharply,
but did not speak, thinking that Norman and his cousin had changed
places.
Norman heard the sound too, and gave the credit to Tim, who in turn made
sure that his cousin had lain down to sleep. So no one spoke, and the
rustling was heard again, followed now sharply by a quick movement, a
horrible yell, a rushing sound, and then the sickening thud of a heavy
blow. Before the boys could quite grasp what it meant, there was a
sharp rattling, as if a big stick was being rapidly moved in the
chimney, then another yell, a fresh rattling as of another great stick
against the stone sides of the chimney, with a heavy thumping overhead.
Norman grasped the position now in those quick moments, and, gun in
hand, dashed to the chimney, cannoning against Rifle and then against
some one else, for he had tripped over a soft body. Before he could
recover himself there was a deafening roar, and the sour odour of powder
began to steal to his nostrils as he listened to a rustling sound as of
something rolling over the split wood slabs which roofed the place,
followed by a heavy fall close under the window.
"What is it, boys?" cried the captain at the door, for all had passed so
rapidly that the episode was over before he reached the kitchen.
"Black fellow come along," said Shanter, quietly. "Mine mumkull."
"Through the window?" cried the captain, reproachfully, advancing into
the kitchen. "Oh, boys! Ah!"--he stumbled and nearly fell--"wounded?
Who is this?"
There was no reply.
"Norman--Rifle--Tim?" cried the captain in horrified tones.
"Yes, father! Yes, uncle!" cried the boys excitedly.
"Then it's the black! But I don't understand. How was it?"
"Mine hear black fellow come down along," said Shanter, quickly. "Mine
make black fellow go up along. You pidney?"
"What, down the chimney?"
"Yohi. Make plenty fire, baal come along down."
"Wait a minute," said the captain quickly, and they heard him go into
the other room. Then there was the sharp striking of flint and steel, a
shower of sparks, and the face of the captain was faintly visible as he
blew one spark in the tinder till it glowed, and a blue fluttering light
on the end of a brimstone match now shone out. Then the splint burst
into flame as voices were heard inquiring what it all meant.
"Back into your room!" thundered the captain.
As he spoke, _thud_, _thud_, _thud_, came three heavy knocks at the door
in front, which were answered by Uncle Jack's gun rapidly thrust through
the slit left for defence, out of which a long tongue of flame rushed as
there was a sharp report, and then silence.
"Blows of clubs?" cried the captain, sheltering the light with his hand,
as he looked toward his brother.
"Spears," said Uncle Jack, laconically; and the next moment the sound of
his powder-flask was heard upon the muzzle of the gun, followed by the
ramming down of a wad.
But the boys' eyes were not directed toward their uncle, whose figure
could be plainly seen as he loaded again, for they were fixed upon the
body of a black lying face downward on the kitchen floor, with Shanter,
hideously painted, squatting beside it, showing his white teeth, and
evidently supremely proud of his deed of arms.