Real Gold Part 36

"Wonderfully quickly," said Cyril.

"It was, sir, though I say it as shouldn't say it. I did get warm over the job. Thought I should have had no end o' trouble with 'em, but they took it as quietly as lambs; and as soon as they found out what was going on, the pack-mules all hung together and waited their turns, while the saddle mules seemed to be looking on."

"Of course that was after the--after Diego and the other man--"

"Of course, sir. There'd ha' been no mule packing if we'd left those two chaps to lift up their lovely voices, and shout to their friends for help. That would not have done, eh, Mr Cyril?"

"No; I suppose not, if we were to escape."

"And that's what we had to do, sir; for, as the colonel said to me more than once, 'We're not safe, John Manning, for sooner or later they'll find out why I have come, and then I would not answer for our lives.'

But we're off now in spite of 'em, and well provisioned too. My word, I did get a warming over those mules; but the colonel's wonderful handy at the loading, and helped me well. You see, he superintended a lot out in India, when we had mules and camels to carry our baggage. And we did it all fine. Listen."

They paused, but the faint pattering of the mules' hoofs was the only sound; and they followed on again, John Manning keeping silence for a time, and then bursting out with a chuckle.

"I told you so yes'day, young gentlemen. The colonel 'll have some dodge to get us off, and there you are! He led, and it was grand the way in which he had worked it out. He didn't tell me till to-night, and when he had done, I laughed out. 'Think it will do, John Manning?' he said. 'Do, sir?' I says. 'Of course it'll do;' and it's done. Don't suppose those two liked it much, poor fellows, but they had to put up with it."

"Oh, John Manning," cried Perry excitedly, unable to bear it any longer, "how can you treat it so lightly? If you had tied and bound the poor wretches, it would have been different, but to drag them away and kill them in cold blood! It is horrible."

"Well I _am_ blessed!" exclaimed the old soldier, in a tone and with an emphasis that showed how he was startled.

"And I'll never believe that my father meant it to be so."

John Manning gave Cyril a dig with his elbow, and he winked one eye, but the act was invisible in the darkness.

"Why, it was him as 'vented the plan, sir. I only helped carry it out."

"Oh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Perry.

"Hadn't we got to escape, sir?"

"But in such a way!"

"Why, it was a splendid way, Master Perry. But I say I am ashamed of you to go private court-martialling your own father in that way, and find such fault with him for helping you to get off!"

"I'm not going to judge him," said Perry. "I only say it was horrible."

"Well, yes, sir, it was, and is," said the old soldier, giving Cyril another dig. "Can't say as I should like to lie all night on my back with my hands tied behind me to a big pole, and my ankles and knees served the same, just as if I was going to be roasted for a cannibal's dinner, and to make it worse, an old worsted stocking rammed into my mouth, and a cloth tied over it and behind my neck, to make sure I didn't get it out."

"What!" cried Perry.

"I said a stocking rammed into my month, sir, so as I shouldn't holler, only breathe. It is hard on a man, but what was you to do?"

"Then you didn't kill them," cried Perry joyfully.

"Kill 'em," said John Manning, in a tone full of disgust. "Did you ever know a British soldier, as was a soldier, go killing folk in that way, sir, when they'd been made prisoners? Master Perry, sir, I'm ashamed o'

you for thinking such a thing o' your father, as is as fine an officer as ever stepped."

"Not so much ashamed of me as I am of myself," said Perry huskily.

"Then Diego and the other man are all right?"

"They don't think so," said the old soldier with a chuckle. "They're precious uncomfortable by this time, for I rammed the stockings pretty far, and I tied them knots with those new hide ropes as tight as they'd draw."

"Quiet there, quiet," said the colonel sternly, for he had stopped and let the mules pa.s.s him. "No more talking for the present. Can you hear anything?"

"No, sir, not a sound," said John Manning. But even as he spoke there was a faint cry borne on the night wind from high up the valley, and situated as they were, that sound could only have one meaning--pursuit.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE DARK WAY.

"They've missed us," said Cyril excitedly. "Shall I run to the leader, sir, and hurry him on?"

"No, my lad," said the colonel, "we shall do nothing by hurrying. Our retreat must be carried out slowly. We can get on no faster than the mules will walk. Keep on as we are."

He left them after listening for a few minutes, and hurried forward to reach his place again by the leading mule, for the sagacious beast had gone steadily on, followed by the others, acting as if it knew its duty as well as a human being--that duty being to follow the easiest course offered by the valley, which ran parallel with one of the outer ranges of foot-hills, there being no track whatever to act as guide.

"Sounds quite reviving," said John Manning in a whisper. "We've had so much dull do-nothing times, that it quite freshens one up."

"How long will it be before they overtake us?" said Perry anxiously.

"How long have we been coming here, sir?" replied the old soldier.

"I don't know--an hour, I suppose."

"Yes, sir, an hour. Well, if they knew the way we came and followed on, it would take them hours more than it has taken us."

"Why?" said Cyril sharply.

"Why, sir? because," said John Manning, with one of his dry chuckles, "they'll have to come along very slowly, searching among the trees as they come, for fear of overrunning the scent; for as it's dark, they've got nothing to guide 'em, and I hope they won't find much when it's light, for the sun will soon dry up the dew which shows the marks made by brushing it off. We're all right till they hit the track we've come, and that won't be till some time to-morrow, if they hit it then."

"Oh, they'll know the way we've come," said Perry, who was breathing hard from excitement.

"They must be very clever then, sir," said John Manning drily. "I should say they'll think we've made for the way we came."

"Speak lower," said Cyril. "Why?"

"Because, says they, these white fellows haven't got any guides now, and they only know one road, so they're sure to take it."

"Yes, that sounds likely," said Perry sharply; "but how was it we could hear them shouting?"

"I know that," said Cyril. "The air is so clear right up here in the mountains, and the wind is this way. It's like seeing. You know how close the peaks seem when they're twenty miles away."

"Yes, sir, and sounds run along a hollow like this wonderfully. Why, I remember in one of the pa.s.ses up in India, we in the rearguard could hear the men talking right away in the front as easily as if we were close to them."

"But look here," said Cyril. "Diego or the other fellow must have seen which way we came."