"Watch and watch, Li Fu," said Barnes, when night settled down on the
islet, the river-mouth and the booming surf. "I'm done in. Wake me
at midnight; they'll not come until then."
"Not then, I think," said Li Fu. "China boys not like night devils.
Plenty devils in liver."
"All right," Barnes laughed as he stretched out in the warm sand.
"Let the river-devils fight for us, then!"
About midnight the quartermaster wakened him. There had been no
alarm, no sound or sight of the enemy. Only the continuous rolling
crash of the surf, regular and unceasing, conflicted with the noises
of nightbirds from the jungle. The starlight and thin glow of the
sickle moon faintly illumined the white sands and the glittering
waters, where the waves curled and broke in running lines of
phosphorescent radiance.
At first Barnes found Li Fu's conviction incredible. It was hard to
believe that Lim Tock's lascars and Chinese, the latter probably
predominating, would relinquish the opportunity to sweep in upon the
islet with their boats and finish everything with one determined
rush. The Chinese firmly credited the existence of water-devils,
however, and river-devils in particular, whose power at night was
invincible.
Barnes sat through his lonely watch, stiff and aching from his wound,
and found no indication of alarm out on the surging waters, where a
heavy ground-swell kept the rollers tumbling in along the shoreline.
He began to think that he had wasted himself, despite all. Had he
stayed in the boat, it by this time would be far up the river.
He laughed and shook off the thought. After all, he had no assurance
of that! The boat, with only two oars, might be a day or two in
reaching the main river above the delta, where the Dutch post would
be placed. With dawn, the pirates would sweep down on the island.
If they found it deserted, they would go up the river with a rush.
No, the effort was not wasted; was far from wasted!
Toward dawn he roused Li Fu, and lay down once more to get all the
rest possible. When the quartermaster again wakened him, it was to
point out dark dots on the waters, now overcast with the graying
dawn. The boats, four of them, were scattered a quarter-mile from
the river mouth, up and down from the bar. Jim Barnes laughed softly.
"They think we'll come out with the first breath o' wind; that we've
been waiting here for the breeze! And they're waiting to riddle us
with their rifles, then close in. Good! Let 'em wait. Every minute
gained puts the whaleboats farther up the river. Suppose we make
some tea, Li Fu. The fire will show that we're here and encourage
'em to wait."
Chuckling at all this, Li Fu gathered wood and soon had a fire going.
Hot tea and biscuit invigorated Barnes hugely, and he was much
himself again by the time the reddening dawn and freshening daylight
betrayed to the waiting boats that the fugitives were not setting
forth from shore. No doubt they considered that Barnes had laid up
the whaleboat and was prepared to fight it out.
"They're closing in," said Barnes suddenly. "Oars are out. The junk
is coming down the coast, too. She'll probably anchor off the river,
and they'll pour in a hot rifle-fire before making a rush. Dig for
cover, Li!"
Grasping the idea, Li Fu took his knife to the sand and prepared two
long, deep depressions at the edge of the brush.
Meantime, one of the boats drew in closer than the others as though
to test the presence of those on the islet. Barnes sighed
unavailingly for a rifle, as his pistols were of small value at such
distance. He tried two shots, however, and by sheer luck dropped the
boat's helmsman, so that she sheered off promptly. The boats opened
a dropping rifle-fire, and Barnes retired to the position prepared.
Lying beside Li Fu, he waited. He had three automatics and several
spare clips. The quartermaster had two revolvers and a handful of
loose cartridges.
Under the urge of the ground-swell, surf was now breaking in a heavy
line at the bar, an outer line of breakers stretching twenty yards
farther seaward. While the boats kept up their intermittent fire,
bullets crashing across the island, the junk came slowly along with
the morning breeze. Outside the first line of surf she dropped
anchor and hauled down the brown matting sails, and the boats
converged upon her. Streamers and fingers of flame were reaching
across the whole eastern sky.
"Plenty of men aboard her," said Barnes. "They'll crowd into the
boats and pull for us. Catch the first boat as she rises, Li, like
we did last night. If one of them goes over in that surf, not a man
will reach shore. Good gosh, look at her rise up! They're fools if
they try it."
To the two men lying on the sandy islet, the surf promised indeed to
be an excellent protection. The roaring breakers swept on and hurled
up into a great wall of white and crimson spray, against the sunrise,
a ten-foot wall of curling, foaming water whose impact as it came
down made the islet shake and sent a booming roar echoing along the
coast. The tide was coming in, and there was a strong rip along the
bar.
Now the sun was up, in a gleaming splendor of golden glory.
As each glittering line of surf swept up and curled, it hid from
sight the boats and all save the upper masts of the junk herself.
Between the surges, the rifle-fire was maintained steadily, but Li Fu
and Barnes were well protected against the ripping storm of lead that
devastated the foliage above and ploughed the sand into ripples of
dancing grains.
"They come," said Li Fu suddenly.
The next surf-interval showed a crowded boat leaving the junk. The
craft damaged on the preceding evening by Hi John's bullet must have
sunk, for it appeared that now there were but two whaleboats among
the four approaching craft. One of those, however, would do the
business, thought Jim Barnes grimly.
Covered by a hot fire from the rifles, the first boat reached in for
the surf, her oars dipping strongly, the other boats following her.
She was a bluff-jawed longboat belonging to the junk, dangerously
crowded with men, and Barnes caught the flame of naked steel as she
lifted on a crest. He thrilled to the possibility of sending her
over as she struck the white wall to cleave a way through. Not a man
would reach shore through the pounding maelstrom of those waters.
Thundering and shuddering, a long breaker smashed and swirled across
the bar, and now the longboat dipped oars and gathered way to rise on
the next crest and come over. A whirl of bullets heralded her
coming. Then, as the riotous crest closed in and lifted her and the
shots ceased, Barnes came to one knee. He had her position
absolutely fixed, and aimed carefully, firing even before she came
into sight.
She heaved and lifted, cleaving the water. Barnes fired again and
again, hearing the bark of Li Fu's revolver at his side. A mad yell
broke from the Chinese. Barnes lowered his arm and stared, wide-eyed.
That first shot of his, perhaps, had done the work; had sent a rower
headlong at the crucial instant. At the very crest of the giant
wave, the boat broached, was sent stern-first. A shriek burst from
the score of men crowded into her, a fearful, splitting shriek that
wrenched through the roar of the surf. Then she was picked up,
hurled end over end from the crest of the wave, flung sideways, and
went upside down beneath the terrific smash of that falling pinnacle
of water.
A lather of foam spread out from the sweeping rush of the breaker,
but not a man showed in it. They were held down, dragged out with
the backlash, gripped and flung about with the mad swirl under the
surface. The boat itself, a crushed and broken thing, came into
sight, was tugged out and into the next surf-crest, to be whirled
horribly aloft and buried again; but no man of all her crew appeared.
The whiff of a bullet made Barnes wake up, and he flung himself into
the sand. Li Fu was yelling in an ecstasy of delight. Then, at the
next interval, Barnes realized that the other boats were coming
forward--two whale-boats, and a smaller craft.
"Lascars!" yelled Li Fu. "Plenty joss along Lim Tock!"
The Malays were rowing these boats; seamen unsurpassed. Well, this
was the end of it; useless everything that had been done, once these
boats came through. Barnes caught the arm of the yellow man.
"Empty one gun--then reload and wait. Savvy?"
Li Fu nodded hastily. The two whale-boats came on abreast, rowed
with precision, a brown Malay at each steering crutch, the long oars
rising and dipping and hurling her forward with absolute surety. Up
they rose and up, then forward and down, as though leaping from that
high curling wall into the water beyond!
Barnes found himself firing mechanically, firing until the hammer
clicked on nothing and he slipped one of his extra clips into the
weapon. Useless! A sudden inarticulate cry escaped his lips. The
last bullet had brought down the steersman of the boat to the left.
Almost through, she broached and swerved. The water swung her about,
caught up her keel and spilled her men into the smother. She was
sent rolling along, crushing the men beneath her, pounding on the
sand until the undertow dragged her out and away.
But the other boat was through. It drove forward toward the islet
with a wild yell lifting from the men aboard, and rifles spattering
lead. And now the smaller boat was in the surf, and riding it.
"Back!" shouted Barnes. "Back to cover, Li! Fire and reload while I
fire."
From the shelter of the brush, Li Fu emptied his two revolvers into
the boat. He could hardly miss at this distance, as she came foaming
to the shore. Barnes could see the figure of Lim Tock crouching
amidships, a bandage about his head. Men went down, brown and yellow
men crowded between her thwarts. Rifles and revolvers sent bullets
hailing at the trees, and with the impetus that was upon her, she
came in and her nose touched the beach.
Barnes was ready, cool, imperturbable. The first man that leaped
from her, he dropped; and the second, and the third. Then the boat
tipped, and brown and yellow came ashore in a mass, Lim Tock heading
them. Krisses and knives flamed in the sunlight. The smaller boat
was reaching into the shore now. The end was at hand.
Into the mass Barnes planted his bullets steadily. One gun was
empty, now the other. No time to reload--he dropped them and seized
that of Ellen Maggs. Only three or four men left, Lim Tock heading
them! Then a new burst of yells, and from the last boat poured a
dozen fresh assailants, with the serang Gajah at their head, his
unhealed scalp wound red and ominous in the sunlight.
A scream of battle-madness burst from Li Fu. He leaped forward, out
into the open, and ran at the newcomers. Pistols barked; krisses
glittered. Barnes saw the quartermaster come to grips with Gajah,
and the two men went rolling in the sand. Then, smiling, he lifted
his weapon and shot.
Lim Tock took the bullet between the eyes, and sprawled forward.
Barnes laughed, and shot again. Then he ducked back into the brush.
An instant later, the brown and yellow men came on in a wave, mad
with the battle fury, blind and deaf to everything around them,
intent only upon the white man who had eluded them.
From among the trees the weapon of Barnes barked out its last shots.