Old Gold Part 28

Brace had suddenly gripped his companion's arm whilst he was speaking, and in response to Briscoe's question he thrust his right hand over the side of the brig and pointed up the river.

Briscoe shaded his eyes and gazed in the indicated direction for some moments.

"I see nothing," he whispered at last.

"Look again, a little way out from the point."

There was another pause in the darkness, and then the American spoke.

"Your eyes are better than mine. Yes, I see it now. What do you make of it?"

"Three canoes following one another and coming slowly with the stream."

"Full of men?" said Briscoe.

"It is too dark to see."

"Pst! Captain!" whispered Briscoe, and that gentleman crossed to where they stood.

"See anything?"

For answer Brace pointed up stream, and after a sharp glance the captain sent one of the men below, and the whole party were upon the _qui vive_, with hardly a word being uttered, for every man was prepared for the alarm. That which had been fully expected had occurred, and, rifles in hand, officers, pa.s.sengers, and crew took the places to which they had been appointed.

Brace's heart beat fast as he stood gazing at the long low shadowy objects gliding slowly nearer and nearer to the brig, thinking the while that if he were captain he would give the order at once for fire to be opened with buckshot, so that it might scatter and wound as many of the Indians as possible without causing death.

But he was not in command, and he started with surprise, for the captain's voice suddenly rang out with an order, though not the one he antic.i.p.ated.

"Stand by, a couple of you," he said, "and be handy there, Mr Dellow, to let go the port anchor. I expect they'll foul the cable and send us adrift."

There was a pattering of feet upon the deck, and the next moment Captain Banes's hand was upon Brace's shoulder.

"Your eyes are a little out of focus, squire," he said quietly. "They magnify too much, and see more than there is."

"Why--what--surely--" stammered Brace.

"It's all right, my lad," said the captain quietly. "Better than seeing nothing when there's real danger coming on board."

"They deceived me, captain," said Briscoe.

"So they did me, sir, at the first squint. I thought we were in for a scrimmage, and that before long I should be cutting up sticking-plaster and putting it on. Two fine old sticks of timber those, squire, and they must have come down some fierce falls to be stripped of their boughs like that. Now, then, are they going to foul our cable and send us adrift or will they slip quietly by?"

Brace felt so annoyed and disgusted that he could find no words for the moment, and he stood there watching the two old tree-trunks coming closer and closer, till the foremost just missed the cable, and directly after touched the brig's bows with a slow, dull, heavy impact which made her jar from end to end.

"Bah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the lad, in his disgust, and, turning away, he left the deck, glad of the excuse of going down into the cabin to see after his brother.

But the second mate was waiting for him when he came up, ready with a bantering laugh.

"I say, sir," he whispered, "aren't you a bit too eager for a fight?"

Brace said nothing, but, mortified by his mistake, walked right aft, to stand leaning over the stern, gazing down into the black waters as they came rushing and whispering from beneath the vessel, eddying about the rudder, and suggesting wonders of the mysterious monsters that might even then be gazing up at him with gla.s.sy eyes, meditating a spring and a s.n.a.t.c.h to seize and drag him down to their lair, as he had seen the two savages s.n.a.t.c.hed from life not many hours before.

"Horrible!" he muttered, half-aloud, as he shrank away with a shudder.

"What's horrible?" said the familiar voice of the American behind him; "being chaffed by the skipper? Don't be so thin-skinned."

"Oh, it wasn't that," said Brace frankly. "I was slightly annoyed for the moment, but it was only a mistake."

"Of course, and it's better to be too particular than not particular enough. We should look well if we were taken by surprise. What was horrible, then?"

"I was thinking about those two Indians being seized and dragged down as I looked over the side, and of the possibility of a huge snake making a s.n.a.t.c.h at one, and then--ugh!"

"Were you?" said Briscoe, with a faint laugh. "Why, I was leaning over the side yonder, and I turned quite nervous with fancying something of the same kind. A bit cowardly, I suppose, but it would be an awful death."

"Don't talk about it," said Brace. "If you're cowardly in that way, I am. I never thought of these rivers being infested with such horrible creatures."

"The worst being the crocodiles," said Briscoe; "but they wouldn't be out here in the swift stream. I should say that the place to beware of the serpents would be the shallow, still creeks in sunny parts of the forest, or in the pools of the swamps, where they lie half-torpid till some animal comes in to bathe or drink."

"Hadn't we better change the conversation?" said Brace, laughing. "What about the Indians? I don't feel disposed to keep watch any more."

"Why? The danger is as great as ever."

"So is that of being laughed at for my false alarm."

"Oh, you should not notice that. Let's go forward again."

As the pair walked to the bows it was to pa.s.s the men of the watch, the rest having gone quietly below again; and no one spoke or made allusion to what had taken place, so that Brace resumed his vigil in peace, till it was time for the relief to come on deck, when he descended, to find his brother sleeping so peacefully that, in spite of all efforts to the contrary, he could not finish the night by watching at Sir Humphrey's side, for his head slowly sank sidewise as he sat upon the cabin locker, and then all was blank till there was a creaking noise in the adjacent cabin--a noise which made him start to his feet and look wonderingly around.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

FROM SHADOW TO SUNSHINE.

Brace Leigh was half-asleep still as he looked down at his sleeping brother, and had hard work to collect his thoughts before making out that it was a brilliant sunny morning, that Dan was busily preparing the breakfast, and the brig careening over to port as the water rippled by her bows.

Then everything was plain: there had been no attack in the night, the breeze had sprung up with the sun, and the brig was gliding at a fair rate up the river.

But best all and most welcome was the appearance of Sir Humphrey when Brace descended after going on deck for a refreshing morning bath, the toilet equipment consisting of a rough towel and a bucket of water dipped out of the river by one of the men.

For as Brace went to the side of the berth to gaze anxiously in his brother's face, Sir Humphrey's eyes opened and he stared wonderingly up into those bent upon him.

"What a horrible dream!" he said slowly. "I dreamed I--Why, it was all true: I was shot with a poisoned arrow."

"Yes, Free, it's all true enough," said Brace, laying a hand upon the other's forehead, to find it burning hot.

"Yes, I remember everything now. I felt that I was going to die."

"We were afraid so too."