Mother Carey's Chicken Part 52

Mark sprang up, placed one foot on the rocks, shook hands with the major, and in his excitement and dread, as another yell rang out much nearer, gathered himself up to spring clear of the rough scoria that lay about, and then turned sharply round and leaped back in his place.

"What now?" cried the major sharply.

"Who's to reload if I go?" said Mark hoa.r.s.ely; and he looked very white.

"I can, boy. Quick! there's no time to lose."

Mark hesitated for a few moments. On the one side seemed to be safety; on the other, perhaps death from a set of spear-armed savages. Then he ground his teeth, and stood fast.

"Well, why don't you go?"

"I won't be such a coward," cried Mark in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.

"It is no cowardice to retreat," cried the major, "when your superior officer gives the word."

"You're not my superior officer," said Mark between his teeth. "What would my father say?"

"That you obeyed orders."

"He wouldn't," growled Mark. "He'd call me a contemptible cur. So I should be if I went. How could I face Mrs O'Halloran and Miss Mary again?"

The major seemed to choke a little, and he gave quite a gasp, whilst certainly his eyes were suffused with tears as he c.o.c.ked his gun and turned upon Mark.

"I order you to go, sir," he said. "Run for it while there's time."

"I won't," cried Mark fiercely. "I'm going to stop and load the guns."

The major gave a long expiration, as if he had been retaining his breath, but said nothing, only laid his gun-barrel ready on the natural breastwork of rock before him, waved Mark a little way back into shelter, and then stood ready as the beat of feet on the sand was plainly heard, accompanied by a hoa.r.s.e panting as of some one who had been running till quite breathless.

Then from just round behind some intervening branches which grew out broadly by the projecting rocks there came another hoa.r.s.e yell.

"Yah!"

There was a pause, and from the distance an answering cry.

Then a terrible silence. The steps had ceased, but the hoa.r.s.e panting continued, and for the moment Mark was in hopes that their concealment might prove effectual, and the savages pa.s.s on, and to aid this he bent down softly to make a threatening gesture at Jacko, and to hold Bruff's muzzle tightly closed as the pair lay on the birds, among whose feathers Jack's fingers were already busy.

The major had evidently caught the idea, and he too drew back, when once more came the terrible yell, and the keen point and half a dozen feet of the lance dropped into sight, while through the leaves which partially concealed him they could make out a portion of the figure of the savage.

The silence now was terrible, and Mark held his breath, hardly daring to breathe, in dread lest the major should fire, for he could have laid the man lifeless without raising the gun to his shoulder.

Then all at once, in the midst of the hot stillness of that tropic land, with the blue sea lying calm beyond, the sparkling creamy foam where the ocean pulsated on the coral-reef, there came a hideous screech and the swift beat of wings.

Startling enough, but only the cry of a pa.s.sing parrot, and the sound had hardly died away when the point of the spear was slowly raised, and disappeared behind the trees.

Then once more came the loud yell.

"Yah!" and its repet.i.tion three times, now telling of the savages being scattered. And then--

"Oh, dear! oh, dear! Where can they be got to? I'm sure I saw 'em come by here."

"How--how--how--how!" burst out Bruff, and shaking his head free he leaped out, followed by Mark and the major, to confront their spear-armed enemy, about whom the dog was leaping and fawning.

"Why, Jimpny," cried Mark, "is this you?" as he caught the stowaway's hand.

"You scoundrel!" roared the major. "You frightened us, and--no, you didn't quite frighten us," he said, correcting himself, "but we thought you were a savage!"

"So I am, sir," whimpered the man. "Look at me."

He did look one after a fashion as he stood there, Malay spear in hand, his only garment being a pair of canvas trousers whose legs had been torn-off half-way above his knees. For he was torn and bleeding from the effects of thorns, his skin was deeply sunburned, and a fillet tied about his head, stained red with blood, kept back his tangled hair, while his eyes had a wild and scared look.

"Well, it was excusable to think you one," said the major.

"But how came you here?" cried Mark excitedly.

"I don't know, sir," whined the man, piteously. "I've been mad, I think. I believe I'm mad now; and I was just telling myself that it was another of the dreams I had while I was so bad from this chop on the head; and that I had only fancied I saw you two shooting, when old Bruff barked and came out."

"You've been wounded then?"

"Yes, sir, badly, and off my chump."

"But how?"

"One of those Malay chaps gave me a chop on the head with his sword, sir; and I fell down on the deck and crawled right forward down by the bowsprit and lay between some ropes and under an old sail, and then I got mixed."

"Mixed?" said the major.

"Yes, sir; I was so bad I didn't know which I dreamed and which was real, only it seemed that there was a lot of fighting and shooting and yelling."

"You didn't dream that," said Mark sadly.

"I'm glad of that, sir; but I suppose I dreamed that the Malay chaps made the sailors go over the side into one of the boats and row away."

"That must be quite true," said the major gravely.

"But I was very much off my head, sir, and so weak and thirsty. I know I didn't dream about the fire though, for the ship was afire."

"Yes," said Mark; "the poor _Petrel_!"

"It was very horrid, gentlemen; for as I lay there I couldn't speak nor move, only look up at the glare and blaze and sparks, and from where I lay, afraid to stir in case they should chuck me overboard, I saw those savage chaps go over the side and leave the ship; and then there was a blow-up, or else it was before--I don't know, for I was all in a muddle in my head and didn't know anything, only that it was getting hotter and hotter; and at last I was in a sort of dream, feeling as if I was going to be roasted."

"How horrible!" cried Mark.

"Yes, sir, it was horrid, for the masts ketched fire and burned right up, and the great pieces of wood kept falling on the deck, and ropes were all alight--and swinging about with the burning tar. I didn't dream all that, for I see the big mast blazing from top to bottom, and it fell over the side; and then the others went, and the spars was on fire, and the booms at the sides. And at last, as the fire came nearer and nearer, sir, I knew that if I lay there any longer I should be burned to death, and I thought I'd move."

"And very wisely," said the major.

"Yes, sir; but I couldn't," said the stowaway. "I wanted badly, and tried and tried, but I was much too weak. And that's what made it seem like a dream; for the more I tried to creep out from under the sail, the more I lay still, as if something held me back. And all the time there was a puddle of melted pitch bubbling and running slowly toward me. My face burned and my hands were scorched, the wood was crackling, and the pitch rising up in blisters. And if the smoke had come my way I couldn't have breathed; but it all went up with the flames and sparks.