Settlers and Scouts Part 25

was his unspoken thought.

The men were amazed and delighted that the master had returned. As for Said Mohammed, it was doubtful whether his fate gave them any concern.

The night pa.s.sed in peace. Ferrier felt very weary in the morning, but John, after a long sleep, rose much refreshed, though he still found moving difficult. About eight o'clock there was a cry from the gate that the enemy were rushing down towards the causeway. The bastions were instantly manned, John taking post in one and Ferrier in the other, dividing the askaris equally between them. Twenty men with spears and bows and arrows were told off to hold the broken portion of the wall on either side of the gate, where the attack was most to be feared. The remainder of the force were stationed at various points, to be ready to run wherever they were called, and to keep watch on the opposite side of the island.

John was surprised to see that the enemy did not take to the water, as they had done on the former occasion, but came in a yelling line along the causeway. They were Juma's newest allies, and being without personal experience of the reception their friends had formerly met with, they came rushing across with a reckless courage. When the first man had reached the middle of the causeway, a volley was fired simultaneously from each of the bastions, and half the line fell into the water, uttering dreadful yells. There was a momentary pause; but the leader had escaped; he bounded forward, followed by the survivors and others who had not come within the line of fire. The sh.o.r.e behind was thick with black warriors, hideous in their war-paint, and shouting furiously. Only Ferrier's rifle was double-barrelled; John's had been taken from him when he was captured; and before the men could reload, several of the enemy had reached the end of the causeway, and, springing into the water at the gap, gained the shelf of land beneath the wall.

Ferrier's rifle disposed of one of them; the rest rushed up to the gate and the ruined rampart, and were in a moment fighting hand-to-hand with the men within.

"Keep your fire on the causeway," shouted John, who then called to some of the men in reserve to mount the wall and fling stones on the men trying to clamber up. A second volley from either side crashed into the negroes racing towards the fort. Only two of them got across. Those behind who had not been struck down came to a sudden halt, only to be pushed on by those surging in the rear. The result was that a score of unhurt negroes were hustled into the water. John forbore to fire at these, but as soon as his men had reloaded, sent another volley among those who were still running along. Meanwhile the defenders of the wall had beaten off the a.s.sault of the men below, who were at a hopeless disadvantage. Two or three fell groaning to the ground, transfixed with spears; the rest leapt into the pool, and struck out frantically for the sh.o.r.e. The sight of this retreat, and a fourth volley from their unseen enemy, shattered the confidence of the bravest negroes. There was wild confusion on the causeway. Those upon it could not retreat because of the pressure of their comrades behind. They jumped into the water on both sides. The others, seeing that all was lost, fled back towards the wood. In ten minutes after the first attack they were in full flight.

But at this moment a shout was raised that the enemy were attacking from the other side of the island. Ferrier instantly sprang down from his perch, and calling on his men to follow him, rushed across the enclosure to repel this new a.s.sault. John, perforce confined to his post, ordered his company to join the others, while he alone kept watch on the causeway. Being undisturbed, he had leisure to consider what the enemy's plan had been. He could not doubt that they had arranged in their council of war that the Swahilis with their party should cross the river and creep under cover of the trees and scrub to the western sh.o.r.e of the pool. The intention had certainly been that the attack should be made on both sides of the fort simultaneously. If it had been perfectly timed, and begun at a concerted signal, the plight of the garrison might have been very serious. But careful co-operation is impossible to the negro. The men on the eastern side had rushed blindly to the a.s.sault, heedless of what the other party was doing. These, led by Juma himself, had made their way un.o.bserved to the place arranged, and swum the pool under cover of the fringe of trees which were still left standing. But only one or two had landed when they heard the din of fighting on the other side. Juma, more intelligent than the negroes, had seen at once the necessity of striking while the garrison was engaged in that quarter. But he was compelled to wait until he had sufficient support, and by the time he had gathered a score of men about him the eastern attack was beaten off, and the defenders were hurrying to meet him.

When Ferrier reached the wall, he saw the Swahilis and their followers coming up the slope in a straggling body. The moment they perceived him, they halted; those who had rifles fired them off, too hurriedly to take effective aim; the others let fly a shower of arrows. Then they all rushed forward, a disorderly shouting mob. Ferrier fired his rifle, but his men had not had time to reload, having hastened from the bastion immediately after the final volley upon the causeway. The enemy had come within about twenty yards of the wall when Ferrier, whipping out his revolver, snapped a shot at Juma and winged him. The big man fell to the ground with a howl of pain; his men halted in consternation.

This was not the easy victory they had been promised. Their hesitation was fatal. It had given time to the men on the wall to load their pieces. A general fusillade spattered bullets among the waverers; it quickened them into action, but instead of continuing their advance they turned tail and bolted down the slope, pursued by a shower of arrows.

Juma had risen, and struggled along with the help of two of his kind.

They fled with all speed among the trees, and the garrison, yelling with delight, saw them no more that day.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SECOND--A Counter Stroke

John had every reason to be satisfied when he took stock of the results of the action. The enemy had been thoroughly routed, with considerable loss: he had no men killed, and only a few with superficial flesh wounds. But he looked grave enough when, at dinner-time, Ferrier confessed that he had already had to put the men on half rations.

"Our only hope is that the enemy have had enough of it and will clear off," he said. "The 'bad men,' at any rate, won't think much of their job."

"And Juma himself has had a reminder that won't leave him for a few days. But if they _don't_ clear off----"

"We must wait and see. There ought to be plenty of fish in this pool; couldn't we try a little angling?"

"What about hooks?"

"Well, there are some empty condensed milk-tins; we can make some sort of hooks out of them. And as for bait--I say, look there!"

Two vultures were swooping down upon the western end of the island.

"Sickening!" said Ferrier, with a shudder. "I'll go and pot them and get the men to attend to things there. The birds will give us bait, and the men may like to eat them--I couldn't."

Several large hooks were made out of milk-tins. A piece of rope was unravelled to form lines, and several of the men were soon sitting on the causeway, angling with portions of the vultures which Ferrier shot.

In the course of an hour or two they caught several fish, large and small; but the total quant.i.ty was insignificant in comparison with what was needed to give all a full meal. They were all rather hungry when they settled down for the night, and the white men devoutly hoped that when morning dawned they would see that the enemy's force had broken up.

In this they were disappointed. Daylight showed them parties of negroes hovering on the outskirts of the wood. That their intention was to resume their old tactics of watching the fort was proved before the day was over. A long line of women was observed coming from the north, bending under heavy loads.

"Grub for them," said Ferrier. "They're short, like us: but they can draw on the village while we starve."

"I wonder if we could intercept a convoy," suggested John.

"Very risky: practically impossible. We couldn't tell when it's coming.

We might have to wait a day or two, and miss it after all. Besides, we might be cut off; they're strong enough to keep us out if they get between us and the fort; and the garrison would be so much weakened that they couldn't hold out against a general attack. No: we mustn't think of it."

"Well, it looks as if we must either break out or starve. We may starve in any case. We didn't pa.s.s a single cultivated field on the way up, and if we made a dash for home we should have to depend on game and what wild fruits we could pick up. I don't know what on earth we can do, that's a fact."

Next day saw them no nearer a solution of the problem. The enemy were still in force, and the punishment they had received had not sufficed to detach the "bad men," who were easily distinguishable from the other negroes by their characteristic equipment. Juma had in fact persuaded them that the surrender of the white men was only a matter of time: they could not live without food, and while they remained in the fort to obtain food was impossible.

"Look here, Charley," said John that afternoon, "we can't stand this any longer. It's neck or nothing, and I'm for a bold course. That village up yonder is crammed with food-stuff of all kinds. They've just been harvesting. I vote we make a dash for it and seize enough to last us best part of the way home. All the fighting men are away, or nearly all. If we can only get there it'll be easy enough to capture the place and hold it as long as we like: there's a good stockade. But I don't want to hold it. We might stay there a day or two until our men are fed up, and then make tracks. Perhaps we'd have the luck to escape them; it's not likely, I admit. They would be between us and the farm: we should have to be uncommonly clever to dodge them; and as we couldn't move fast, with our men loaded, they're bound to come up with us some time or other. That would mean a fight in the open; perhaps a running fight for miles, with the odds of numbers against us. But I prefer fighting to starving; and it's Hobson's choice."

"It means a night march."

"Yes, but the men won't mind that. We haven't failed in anything so far, and success goes a long way with them."

"Your escape has bucked them more than anything. Bill has told them some wonderful story about your voyage on the raft, and if you talked about taking a trip to the moon I believe they'd think it feasible."

"Things couldn't be better, then. Suppose we start about eight o'clock--the enemy will all be asleep by then--we should have ten hours'

grace before sunrise, more than long enough to get to the village, barring accidents."

"That is, if they don't find out that we've gone."

"Of course. I don't see why they should do that. They've never shown any inclination to attack us in the darkness, and if any of them keep a watch on the causeway side, they certainly don't at the other end, or Coja couldn't have got in. That's our way out. We shall have to keep the men quiet, but we've done that before, and when we've explained to them what's at stake they'll be on their mettle. We'll cross the pool in the canoes, and the paddles won't make any sound that they can hear, if we're careful."

"I've an idea. While we're ferrying our things over, and most of the men, why not start the others on a sing-song? That would drown any noise we might make."

"And wake the enemy! They'd wonder what was up. Why should we disturb their rest? Better not make any difference in our usual ways, I think: keep our fires burning, and give 'em no reason to think we're doing anything out of the ordinary."

"You're right. There's a risk that in spite of all our care they'll hear something, but it will take 'em some time to make sure that we've gone, and it's ten to one they won't pursue us in the darkness."

"And when they do find out, in the daylight, they'll probably waste some time in picking up the trail, unless they are good trackers, which we've no evidence of. I fancy we shall get, as I said, a good ten hours'

start of them, and I defy 'em to catch us then--again barring accidents."

"D'you think you can stand the march?"

"I'm going to chance it, anyway. Your rubbings have done me a deal of good, and we can't go very fast at night, so I think I'll manage to keep up. If I can't, you must just sling me on to a litter. I'm eleven stone two--or was; I suspect I've lost a few pounds lately; but four men could toddle along with me, and a dozen will have loads in any case.

There's the ammunition, and all that flummery I gave to them; they won't want to leave that."

"Suppose we find that some of the war-party have gone back?"

"It's not likely. They're here with the idea of getting loot, and not a man Jack of them will be willing to lose the chance of his share.

Anyway, we must risk it. If we have luck we shall get to the village before it's light, and a sudden rush will have the effect it always has on them."

"Well, it sounds rather promising, and, upon my word, I'm itching to be off."

"All in good time, old man. I wish we could all have a good feed before we start, but perhaps the men will march the better with the promise of a meal before them."

The preparation of the men's loads was set about betimes. The absence of large quant.i.ties of food was an advantage; the other goods could easily be carried by twelve of the men, and the labour would be lightened by transferring the loads to the others in turn.

There was much excitement among the negroes when John explained his plan to them. The past successes had given them entire confidence in their leaders; and the prospect of actually capturing the village of the notorious "bad men" had a spice of daring about it which lent it a certain charm.

At nightfall the canoes were let down over the wall and carried to the sh.o.r.e. Then the men conveyed the stores to them, moving so silently that only a very alert enemy could have detected the activity. The canoes had to make several journeys across the pool before all the goods and the men were ferried over. There was not a sound from the enemy's encampment. When all were safely landed, John called the men about him, and repeated his instructions to march quietly and above all to beware of straggling; then he set off with Bill to lead the way. Behind him came in order four askaris carrying rifles: then the twelve men with the ammunition and the a.s.sortment of oddments found in the fort; then six men bearing in litters three others whose wounds prevented them from marching. After these came the rest of the negroes, among whom the prisoner taken at the camp was enrolled, Ferrier and Coja bringing up the rear to ensure that there was no straggling at the end of the line.