Old Gold Part 49

"Ay, ay, sir," cried the party cheerily.

The next minute they were at the water's edge, where their defenders halted ready, just as the captain's voice was heard to shout:

"Fire!"

Three shots rang out, and, covered by the smoke, the captain and his mates ran on, to begin reloading.

"Look sharp, boys!" panted the captain; "get to the boats, each man to his own, but put the wounded man in mine. You're ready, Mr Brace--Mr Briscoe?"

"Yes."

"That's right: we won't row away and leave you. Forward, my lads, and get under cover of the boat's side. Hoist the sail half-mast, and keep behind it. They'll begin to shoot directly. We'll get on board first, gentlemen, to cover you from the boats. Stand fast till we're all in if you can, and then give 'em all four barrels and make a dash for it before the smoke rises."

These next were anxious moments, but Brace did not flinch, and his companion went on talking with his eyes fixed upon the approaching enemy, each man holding an arrow to his bowstring, but unaccountably refraining from winging it home. He seemed to be in every case watching the muzzles of the guns in wonder and fear as he slowly approached.

"I want to cut and run horribly, Brace," said the American, in a husky voice; "only I suppose we mustn't. We shall look like porcupines directly--full of arrows, I expect; but keep up your spirits: I daresay we shall each have a fair share."

"I say, don't!" said Brace. "It is too serious to joke about."

"And no mistake. Are they all aboard yet?" asked Briscoe.

"Don't know, and can't look round. I must face them. It would be ever so much worse to turn our backs."

"Ten times," said Briscoe. "Look out! I say; that's a fresh party-- twenty or thirty of them, coming out of the woods a quarter of a mile away. They ought to be too late to reach us."

"Our men are all on board, and the Indians are going to rush us,"

whispered Brace.

"That's so," said the American. "Be ready. I'll say 'Fire!' Then wait till the smoke lifts, when I'll give the word again, and then it's a rush through the water to the boats. Bet you two cents I get most arrows in my back."

"Steady!" growled Brace hoa.r.s.ely.

"Fire!" shouted the captain from the boat, and, in spite of the order upsetting their plans, the covering party obeyed and sent their little shower of shot amongst the yelling enemies' legs.

"Let 'em have it again," roared the captain from the second boat.

The remaining two barrels rang out, and those who fired sprang up and dashed through the water to reach the larger boat, where they were seized and dragged in and under cover.

None too soon, for a little shower of arrows came aboard and through the sails, which were shivering in the brisk breeze.

The next minute, in response to a thrust or two, and a touch at the tillers, both sails half-filled, and the boats were gliding swiftly away from the sh.o.r.e, the arrows coming more and more seldom, till the last two failed to reach them, but fell into the water twenty yards astern.

Then the captain, who had been tending the wounded man, rose up and said, loud enough for those in both boats to hear:

"There we are then, my lads, quite out of danger now, and nothing to mind but a few canoes up stream and a few more down; but look here, I've just got this to say to you all: if you'd had your way there'd have been a big fire ash.o.r.e to-night and a general collection of Indians to the biggest roast they had enjoyed for years. After it was over everyone of those copper-skinned gentlemen would have been going about with a good big bit of my crew in his inside. That's quite true, isn't it, Mr Briscoe?"

"Oh, yes," said the American: "these people are cannibals still when they get the chance."

"That's so," cried the captain; "and now you know, my lads. There, you've had your touch of the gold fever, and if we get back on board I'll give every man-jack of you a dose of quinine. But now I shall say no more about it, for I see you're all sorry for being such fools, and are going to fall back into your work."

There was a low murmur of a.s.sent at this, and the captain spoke again:

"What say, Sir Humphrey?"

"I say, we seem to be leaving the canoes down the river well behind, but those up stream are bearing down upon us fast."

"Then," said the captain, "they'd better look out, gentlemen, and keep out of our way, for I mean to rush right upon them full sail. The prows of these boats are pretty sharp, and their dug-outs don't take much to send them to the bottom. I say, you Dan," he went on, "you'd better serve round some biscuit and bacon to the lads, for they must be getting peckish after what they've gone through. I say, Sir Humphrey, what do you say to making a hand-grenade or two out of pound powder-tins and pieces of rag?"

"To throw on board the canoes?" said Sir Humphrey: "horrible!"

"Quite true, sir; but it would be more horrible still if these savages should manage to get the better of the crew of the 'Jason' brig. What do you say to that?"

"I give up," replied Sir Humphrey. "I hate the idea of slaughtering the poor ignorant wretches, but self-preservation is the first law of nature."

"Exactly so, sir. If we kill it won't be for the sake of killing."

"How is Jem's wound going on?" said Brace anxiously.

"You take no notice about that, sir," said the captain, with a peculiar look. "He has got a hole in his leg made by an arrow, and I've doctored it up just as I did your brother's, and laughed at him and told him it served him right. You gentlemen had better take the same line. If he sees that we look serious about it he'll take and die right off: he'll kill himself with the belief that he's shot by a poisoned arrow."

"Is he?" said Brace, in an eager whisper.

"I didn't see the arrow made, sir, and I didn't see it dipped in anything. What's more, I never saw the arrow at all, for the boys pulled it out and chucked it away. Maybe it was poisoned; but you see these arrows are only meant to kill birds, and what might kill a bird won't do much harm to a man. I've done all I know for the wound, same as we did for your brother's. He got well, and if we laugh at Jem he'll get well too."

"The n.i.g.g.e.rs are coming right down upon us, sir," said the first mate from the other boat, "and evidently mean to fight."

"All right, Dellow; be ready for 'em. I shall lead. We mean to fight too."

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

THE WAY TO NOWHERE.

The long light canoes of the approaching Indians were well manned, and as they came nearer Brace could see that most of the occupants wore a kind of tiara made of the tail feathers of parrots or macaws. Several held spears or bows, but the major part were busy paddling, and they came down with the stream, evidently full of fierce determination to destroy or capture the strange intruders upon their solitudes, striving hard to increase the speed of their canoes, which were in a well-kept line.

There was no time for the discussion of plans, for the distance between the brig's boats and the enemy was rapidly growing less.

"One wouldn't have time to prepare anything if one wanted to," said the captain, after a sharp glance forward. "Will you leave it to me, gentlemen, to do my best?"

"Of course," said Sir Humphrey, and Briscoe nodded from where he knelt, with his double gun held ready in his hand.

"Then here goes," said the captain. "Ahoy there, Dellow; clap on all you can, take the tiller yourself; and run one of the canoes down. Let your lads knock all over who try to board you."

"Ay, ay!" came back in answer from the second boat.

"Now, Lynton," continued the captain, "steer for that canoe in the centre. We're going faster than they are. You, gentlemen, don't shoot, but use the b.u.t.t-ends of your rifles if we should happen to get to close quarters. Every man take an oar or boathook, and use 'em like as if they were whaling-lances. Ready? Look out!"