Dead Man's Land Part 59

This the boy did, and after removing the wad he poured a little of the dry powder into Dan's palm. The piece of string was roughly rolled up, laid upon the pinch or two of powder, and then the little sailor placed his palms together and gave them a circular, millstone-like movement one over the other till all the powder was absorbed and his hands as black as ink.

"There, gentlemen," he said, pa.s.sing the string two or three times through his fingers, "that's nearly dry now, and if it's shoved down the hole, one end left out, and the hole stopped with a bit of clay--"

"Where are you going to get your clay, mate?" said Bob Bacon.

"Oh, I don't know," said the man. "Never mind the clay. You can make baskets."

"What's that got to do with it?" growled Bob.

"Not much, but pull out your knife and find a good soft bit of wood that you can turn into a peg."

This was soon done, and laying the string fuse a little way along the cement floor, Dan declared the mine to be ready.

"Only wants everybody to stand clear, gentlemen," said the little fellow, "and somebody to go down with a match, and then run. Then up she goes; and that's my job."

"Oh, I'll do that," cried Mark, and he pulled out a little silver box of matches that he had in his pocket.

"Steady, Mr Mark, sir--steady!" cried the little fellow.

"Clear out, everybody!" cried Mark.

The doctor opened his lips to speak angrily, but on second thoughts he followed those who were in the hole and had begun making for a safe distance from the explosion that was to come.

"Spring out the moment you have lit the fuse," he shouted.

"All right," cried Mark impetuously, as, bending down, he rapidly struck a wax match and held it to the string fuse; and then--he could not have explained why--stood over it as if affected by some nightmare-like feeling, watching the tiny sparkling of the damp powder as it began to run along the string towards the hole.

"Mr Mark!" shouted the little sailor. "Run--run!"

The boy started violently, turned to look at the speaker, then back at the faint sparkling of the fuse, and then stared helplessly again after those who were now standing some little distance away.

"Yah! Run!" yelled Buck Denham, and as he shouted he s.n.a.t.c.hed off Dean's hat and sent it skimming like a boomerang right away over the bushes, though, unlike a boomerang, it did not come back.

It affected his purpose, though, for startled by the driver's fierce yell, and his attention being taken by the flying hat, Mark made a dash, climbed out of the hole, rose to his feet, and had begun to run for safety, when the explosion came with a roar; and it was as if a giant had suddenly given the boy a tremendous push which sent him flying into the nearest bushes, out of which he was struggling when Dean and Buck Denham came running through the smoke and fragments of earth and cement which were falling all around.

"Oh, Mark, don't say you are hurt!"

"Why not?" said Mark slowly, as he s.n.a.t.c.hed at Buck's extended hand and struggled out from amongst the thorns. "I am, I tell you," continued the boy.

"Not much, sir, are you?" said the driver. "Only a bit p.r.i.c.ked, eh?"

"Well, I don't know," said Mark slowly, as he began to squirm and alter the set of his clothes. "Yes, p.r.i.c.ked a bit, though."

"And a good job it's no worse, sir."

"Here, you," cried Dean angrily, for the excitement of the incident had brought on a curious attack of irritation. "You, Buck Denham, how dare you s.n.a.t.c.h off my hat like that and send it flying!"

"Eh?" said the man, staring. "Oh, ah, so I did."

"Then don't do it again, sir!" And then turning hurriedly away with a feeling of annoyance at his display of fault-finding with one who he felt now had probably saved his cousin from serious hurt, he went on after his hat, but only to meet the pigmy half way to the spot where it had fallen, holding out the missing straw at the end of Mak's spear.

"Are you hurt much, Mark?" said the doctor sternly; and the words were echoed by Sir James, who came hurrying up.

"Oh, no," said the boy hastily, feeling half annoyed now at the bearing of those near; and then he stood looking at his father's frowning countenance and listened to the doctor's sternly uttered whisper.

"Foolishly impetuous and thoughtless," said the doctor. "How often have I told you to try to think before you act!"

"I--I'm very sorry, sir," faltered Mark. "And so am I," said the doctor gravely, as he turned away. "Now, Denham," he continued, in his natural tones, speaking as if to put an end to the incident by those last words, "how has the fuse acted?"

"Splendid, sir," replied the man, who had followed Dan down into the hole. "There's no end of pieces loose ready for you to have a look at them. Yah! Mind where you are coming to, my lads!" he continued, to the two keepers, who had now followed him down into the hole. "Don't trample. Get your baskets and bring them to the edge here, and me and Dan'll hand you out the bits to lay ready for the boss to look over.

Here's one or two of them, Dr Robertson, sir, as has got a touch of gold in them."

And so it proved, for as the pieces were carefully picked up and pa.s.sed on for the doctor to examine, he found more of the little eighth or quarter of an inch long sc.r.a.ps of wire, and in addition, here and there in the fragments of cement, tiny wedge-like tacks of the precious metal.

"Doesn't seem much," said Mark, "after all. It would take ten times as many sc.r.a.ps as we have found to weigh a sovereign."

"I don't know about your calculation," said the doctor, speaking cheerfully now, for his angry feeling had pa.s.sed away. "From one point of view we might say the whole find was of no value, but from another-- the archaeological point of view--valuable indeed. But by the way, boys, I don't like those two blacks looking so glum at us. It's almost as if they felt contempt for the white man seeming so anxious to find gold."

"Here's another bit, sir," cried Buck Denham. "The powder chucked it right over here, close to the wall."

As he spoke the man held a good-sized fragment of the cement pressed against his side with one hand, and began to climb out of the hole.

"No, no, thank you, sir," he said, as Mark stooped down to take the piece of cement; and then in a whisper, "I wanted for them blacks not to see it; but they have got eyes like needles, and I think they did.

Don't look round at them. These chaps have got ideas of their own. See that, doctor, sir?" He turned the fragment over now, as he stood with his back turned to Mak and the pigmy. "See that, sir?"

"Yes," said the doctor; "that explains what I was talking about just now. Their ideas are that to disturb the bones of the dead may mean mischief or injury to themselves. I believe that is what they think.

Look, Sir James;" and he held the fragment so that his chief could see that, fixed in the cement like a fossil, there was a large portion of a human bone.

"Yes," said Sir James. "Possibly there has been fighting here."

"No, sir, I don't think that," said the doctor. "What we have found before, and this, seem to point to the fact that we have hit upon one of the old dwellings, for it is the custom among some of the nations to bury their dead beneath the floor of their homes, and to cover them over with a fresh floor before another family can occupy the old place."

"Fresh floor?" cried Mark eagerly.

"Yes, and we have seen confirmation of what I have read, for these sc.r.a.ps of gold and the bone must have been covered-in with the wet cement for it to be bedded within like this."

"This is rather gruesome, doctor," said Sir James.

"Yes, sir, but I think you must agree that it is very interesting, teaching us as it does the habits and customs of people who lived many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years ago."

"Yes," said Sir James; "but it is rather ghoulish to disturb their remains. What are you going to do now?"

"I was going to confirm my notions by going down into the pit and trying to make sure whether there are any more remains; and if there are, I propose that we shall refrain from doing anything that may arouse the prejudices of the blacks."

"How?" said Sir James.

"By having that hole filled up again, for I feel convinced that we shall find plenty to satisfy our desires without interfering with such relics as these."