Real Gold Part 32

"Don't stare down the valley any more," said Cyril, after a pause.

"Why? It's very beautiful."

"Because you're watched. We're watched always, sleeping or waking."

"Then we shall never be able to get away," said Perry despondently.

"Must, my lad. Why, we're not going to let a pack of half-savage Indians prove too clever for us. What are you thinking about? There, let's get back at once, or they'll be thinking we mean something by sitting here."

Perry rose and followed his companion, who made several halts in the forest before they reached the shelter-hut, to find the colonel and John Manning away; but they returned soon after, each carrying a couple of good-sized birds, which gave a colour to their morning's walk.

This game John Manning bore off to prepare by the fire which Diego and his companion kept going night and day; and as soon as he had gone, the colonel seated himself, and looked curiously from one boy to the other.

"Well Cyril," he said sharply, "ready to go home and meet your father?"

"Yes, sir," replied the boy promptly. "I want to get it over."

"And you, Perry, ready to go back to where you can sleep in a decent bed again?"

"Yes, father," replied Perry; but there was a dubious tone to his words.

"That's right. Listen, then, both of you. I trust to you to make no sign whatever, but to go on precisely the same as usual, so as to keep the Indians in ignorance of our intentions."

"Then you are going to make a start, sir?" said Cyril eagerly.

"All being well, very soon, my lad."

"But the mules, sir?"

"Ah, we shall see about that," said the colonel. "I have now got together quite as much of the seed as I dared to hope for, and it would be foolish to delay longer. These Indian labourers are only working for somebody of importance, and if whoever he may be comes and finds us here, our position may be made very unpleasant, so I have decided for us to start at dark, to-morrow evening."

This announcement caused a peculiar fluttering in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of both lads, for they felt that they would not be able to get away without a struggle, since that they were detained here until some one in authority arrived, seemed certain; and they well understood how necessary it was for them to get away if possible.

The rest of the day pa.s.sed like a feverish dream to Cyril, whose thoughts were of a very mingled nature. On the one hand, there was the risk to be run in making their escape, and the long perilous journey before them; on the other hand, there was home at San Geronimo, and his father's stern face rose before him, full of reproach for his conduct; and now, more than ever, he asked himself how he could have been so mad and so cruel to those who loved him, as to leave in the way he had.

Too late for repentance then, as he knew, and he had to face the inevitable, and take the punishment he deserved as patiently as he could.

Toward dark the boys found themselves alone with John Manning, who whispered: "Been over the arms and ammunition, gentlemen, and they're in splendid order. Bit touched with rust, but that won't interfere with their shooting."

"Don't talk about it," said Perry petulantly.

"Can't help it, sir. We're off to-morrow night, and some of us may have to cover the retreat. You can't do that sort o' work without tools."

"Look here," said Cyril eagerly. "How about the mules?"

"I don't know, sir," replied the old soldier. "That's the puzzle of it.

But the colonel knows what he means to do, of course. I've been with him before, when he was going to make an advance."

"But this is a retreat," said Cyril sharply.

"What, sir? Retreat? British soldiers don't retreat. Of course they have to make an advance the other way on sometimes. You can't always be going in one direction; but they don't retreat. It'll be all right, though, sir. You'll see: for following orders, I've got all the packs ready to stow on the saddles at a moment's notice, and we shan't leave nothing behind."

They had a hint soon after of there being a plan all ready, for the colonel came and hunted Cyril out to act as interpreter, and walked down with him to where Diego and his companion were seated, while the mules were browsing here and there, some fifty yards away.

"Now, interpret as well as you can," said the colonel. "Tell him that I am very angry about the state of the mules, which look half-starved.

The feed about here is disgraceful, and all the time there is a splendid supply on the other side of the clearing, beyond where the Indians are cutting and stacking the bark."

Cyril's voice shook a little from anxiety as he began his interpretation, but it soon grew stronger, and he gave the colonel's wishes with so much energy that the guide looked terribly disturbed as he replied.

"What does he say?" cried the colonel angrily.

"That the head-man of the kina gatherers gave orders that they were to be pastured here."

"Then tell him to go to the head-man, and say I order them to be moved at once over to the other side of the huts, ready for me when I wish to go on."

Diego started off at once, and returned soon after with the head-man and about a dozen of the Indians, to whom the colonel's wishes were repeated; and then came quite a deprecating reply that it was impossible, for the woodcutters were going in that direction the very next day, and the mules would be disturbed again.

"Tell him my mules are of more consequence than his bark gatherers,"

said the colonel, "and that I insist upon the mules being moved."

There was a laboured interpretation, a short buzz of conversation, and then a reply came through Diego that the head-man would obey the white chief's orders, and remove the mules to better pasture; but it could not be there, in the place he wished.

"Tell him anywhere, so long as the poor beasts are properly fed."

The colonel stalked away, with his rifle in the hollow of his arm, the Indians giving place obsequiously; but he turned back to Cyril. "Tell John Manning to stop and see where they are driven, and then come and report to me.--You two follow."

Cyril gave the colonel's orders, and then went after him to the hut, where they sat waiting for nearly an hour before Manning arrived.

"Well, where are the mules?"

"They've driven 'em out of the bit of forest, sir, and down on the other side toward the slope of that big valley."

"Hah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the colonel; and then, after a pause, "The very spot."

"But you said the other side," said Cyril; "at the back of their huts."

"Where I knew they would not have them," said the colonel. "It looked to them, in their childish cunning, like an attempt on my part to get the animals down toward the point from which we came; and, of course, they would not do that. I hardly expected such good fortune, boys; but the mules are in the very place I wish. Now we have to devise a means of getting those mules loaded unseen, and then starting off down the valley as soon after dark to-morrow night as possible."

A long conversation followed as to those best means, and the colonel heard each one's proposal impatiently.

Perry said it was impossible, and that they must all take as much provision as they could carry, and leave the mules behind.

John Manning said there was only one way of doing it, and that was for him to take the stock off one of the guns, and as soon as it was dusk creep round the camp, and catch every one of the sentries by surprise, and then club him, and bind his hands and feet.

"I could stun 'em, sir, and then they couldn't give no alarm."

"You mean, murder the poor wretches," said the colonel quietly.

"No, no, sir; not so bad as that," grumbled the man. "These Injuns have got heads as thick as rams. More likely to spoil the gun."