One Maid's Mischief Part 103

The Resident cast a keen, inquiring look at Hilton, and Mr Perowne went on feebly:

"No, no, of course not; but I thought I'd ask, Mr Hilton. I've had a deal of trouble lately; and my head is very bad."

"Let us go across to the doctor's," said Mr Harley. "There is the chance of his being back. I really feel that, urgent as our necessities are, we must not start without him."

"We ought to have him," replied Hilton. "We are sure to have some wounded."

"And wounds are awful in this climate, if not attended to at once."

"Yes," a.s.sented the Resident. "Will you come with us, Perowne?"

"No," said that gentleman, dreamily. "I shall stay until the expedition starts."

Mr Perowne seated himself upon a low stool, and buried his face in his hands, looking so utterly prostrate, that the Resident crossed to his side, bent down over him and whispered:

"For heaven's sake, be hopeful! I am straining every nerve to get the expedition off!"

"But you are so long--so long!" moaned the wretched man.

"Do not you reproach me," said Mr Harley. "Have some pity for my position. I am even now going beyond my tether in what I am doing; and I hardly dare take a party of men up in this jungle without a doctor with us! Perowne, on my honour, I am burning to go to Helen's help; but I am tied down by red tape at every turn. You don't know what such a position as mine really is!"

"Go and see if Bolter has come back," said Mr Perowne, coldly.

"Yes," said the Resident, to himself, "if not, we must go without him."

The Resident turned away, beckoning Hilton to follow; and leaving Chumbley sitting with the stricken father, they went towards the doctor's cottage.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

JEOPARDY.

Helen caught the sound of the oars at the same moment as the doctor, and he heard her draw a spasmodic breath as she started up in her dread and seized his arm, clinging to it convulsively.

The doctor rose, and shading his eyes, gazed down the stream, but there was no prahu as yet in sight; and he then glanced to left and right for a hiding-place beneath the overhanging trees.

A glance, however, showed him that there was not shelter enough here to cover a boat of half the size; and in despair as to what he should do, he turned to the Malays, who evidently read his perplexity, and shook their heads.

They might have turned the boat and tried to get beyond where they knew the prahu would stop and turn, but that would have taken hours, and they must have been either overtaken or seen long before they had reached the spot.

"Nothing but impudence will do it," thought the doctor, and he turned sharply to Helen. "Lie down in the boat my dear, and trust to me," he whispered.

"Doctor," she moaned pa.s.sionately, "kill me, but don't let me fall again into that wretch's hands!"

"Is this Helen Perowne?" thought the doctor, as with patient trust she submitted to him as he laid her back in the bottom of the boat, threw the great green branches overboard, and covered her loosely with the waterproof sheet, upon which he tossed his macintosh; and then quickly changing the cartridges once more, he coolly sat up, watched his opportunity, after telling the Malays to paddle smoothly, and brought down a handsome green parrot from a bough overhanging the river.

The beat of the prahu's oars ceased on the instant, and coolly telling the Malays to make for the fallen bird, the doctor retrieved it, and threw it carelessly upon the waterproof sheet, full in view for anyone pa.s.sing to see.

"Let the boat drift down," he said to the Malays; and then to Helen: "Don't be alarmed: I am shooting birds."

He had hardly reloaded before another opportunity presented itself, and he shot a brilliantly-plumaged trogon, which he was in the act of picking from the water where it had fallen as the stream bore them full in view of the same large prahu that had pa.s.sed them when making his way up the main river.

The doctor took hardly any notice of the prahu but carefully shook the water from his specimen and smoothed its plumage, giving just a casual glance at the long row-boat, whose swarthy crew were watching his acts; and then, as the stream swept them by, he reloaded, and sat with the b.u.t.t of his gun upon his knee, apparently looking out for another specimen.

All the same, though, he had an eye for the prahu, whose crew were evidently canva.s.sing his presence there; but he seemed to be so occupied with his old practice of collecting brightly-plumaged birds--a habit for which he was well known--that no one thought of stopping him, and a bend in the river soon separated them from the enemy.

The doctor laid down his gun, and after satisfying himself by a glance that the trees completely shut out all view, he raised the covering from the half-suffocated girl, who lay pale and panting there.

"The danger has pa.s.sed," he whispered; then, turning to the boatmen: "Now," he cried, "row for your lives!"

They needed no further incentive, but bent to their work, sending the sampan surging through the water; and the stream being rapid here, they made good way, the prahu having, fortunately for them, thoroughly loosened the tangled water-weeds that otherwise would have hindered their flight.

The doctor listened to the beat of the prahu's oars, which seemed to grow more distant. Then the noise stopped, and recommenced in a different way, the beat sounding short and choppy.

"What does that mean?" he muttered, thoughtfully; but he smoothed his brow as he saw that Helen was watching him intently.

Suddenly he started, for he read the meaning of the sounds, which did not grow more distant.

"They are not satisfied," he said to himself, "and are coming after us.

The prahu cannot turn; the river is too narrow here, and they are backing water."

He tried to doubt his own words; but as they entered upon a long straight portion of the river, down which they glided rapidly, he gazed back, and just as they neared the end of the reach he saw the prahu in full pursuit.

"Paddle hard," he cried; "they must not overtake us. Quick! get round out of sight: we shall get on better in the sharp windings, and leave her more behind."

He was not sure of this, but hoped it would be the case; and he was in the act of hoping this when--_bang_!--there was a sharp report from a lelah on board the prahu, and a pound ball came skipping along the surface of the stream, splashed up the water a few yards away, and then crashed in amongst the dense jungle-growth to the left.

"Paddle, my lads, paddle away!" shouted the doctor; and the men toiled on, every muscle seeming to stand out of their bronze arms, and the veins starting in neck and brow as they obeyed his words, till the boat seemed as if it were skimming like a bird over the surface of the stream.

"That's right! Good! good!" he cried, in the Malay tongue. "I never saw boat worked so well before."

His words seemed to give the men fresh strength, and they forced the sampan on with renewed force. The water rattled and surged beneath her bows, and so good was the speed they now made, that in another minute they would have been out of sight, when a second shot from the prahu's gun came skipping along, and this time aimed so well, or so cleverly winged by fate, that it struck the flying boat, cutting a great piece out of her gunwale.

"Pooh! that's nothing. Never mind the shot!" cried the doctor, coolly.

"I'll wager a new silk sarong, to be fought for by gamec.o.c.ks, that they could not do that again. Dip your paddles deep, my lads; paddle away, and we'll soon leave them far enough behind."

The bend of the river that they had turned gave them some slight chance of escape, and the men worked better and with less display of nervous hesitation. Bank and trees shut them now from the sight of the marksmen on board the prahu, and there is less difficulty in toiling at the paddle when you know that no one is taking careful aim at your back.

The moment they were out of sight of the prahu's crew the doctor stood up in the boat, one moment urging on the men, the next searching the sh.o.r.es for some satisfactory hiding-place--some inlet or opening among the trees into which the sampan might be thrust with some little chance of its escaping the keen eyes of their pursuers, who would be pretty well on the alert for such a trick as this. There were trees overhanging the stream in plenty, but as far as he could see the foliage was not sufficiently dense to be trusted at a time like this; and feeling at last that their only chance of safety was by making for and reaching the main river, he kept on encouraging the men, and in the pauses speaking words of comfort to Helen Perowne.

She lay back utterly prostrate, but turned her eyes to the doctor with an imploring gaze that he read easily enough, interpreting it to mean--"Save me from these wretches, or shoot me sooner than I shall fall into their hands!"

"I mean to save you, my dear," he said to himself; but all the same, he examined the cartridges in his gun, and his fingers played with the trigger, as he listened intently to the sounds of pursuit.

"I'd give something for this to be the cutter of a frigate, well manned with jacks and with half a dozen of our red-coats in the stern sheets.

I don't think we should be showing them how fast we could run away at a time like this. But one must show them a little strategy sometimes."