Trapped by Malays Part 34

"Hanged if I do!" he cried angrily; and thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, he had another look at Archie, and then raised himself up so as to peer through the opening the elephant had made, and try to get some better idea of his position.

"Trees, trees, trees," he said; "trees everywhere; but there's a path off to the left, and one goes off to the right, and there's another goes straight away. Let's see: off to the right must be down to the river, because that's where the helephants went; and those other paths must go to where somebody lives; but there's no sign of a house--nothing but trees. Not a sound! Oh, what a lonely place it is! And here's all the long, dark night coming. The sun's going down fast. I sha'n't sleep a wink to-night after snoozing as I did. And here I'm going to lie thinking about that upset with poor Mister Archie's boat, and--yes, I shall be thinking more about what's become of Miss Minnie. Here, I say, what a row there's going to be when the Major and Sir Charles know of it all! And me shut up here instead of being with the lads when the governor lets them slip at these Malay jockeys, for I am a bigger fool than I thought for if one of these Rajahs isn't at the bottom of this job. I don't know but what it might be that there smooth young 'un who dosses hisself up to look like an English gent. If it ain't him, it's that queer-eyed, big, fat fellow; only I suppose it can't be him, because old Tipsy Job says he's friends. How comes it, then," he continued, speaking with energy, "that the Frenchman has had to do with our being prisoners? Here, I can't think. It's making my head ache and things get mixed again. What's that?" he half-whispered excitedly.

"It's somebody coming;" and pressing his face closer to the opening, he strained his eyes round so as to gaze to the left, and then dropped lightly down before throwing himself upon the dried palm-leaves close to where Archie lay, and listening to the coming steps. "That chap can speak English 'most as well as I can," he thought to himself, "and I am going to ask him plump and plain what's become of Miss Minnie."

A gruff voice uttered what was evidently a command to halt, the wooden bars were lowered and the door thrown open to admit the deep sunset glow, and the stern-looking Malay with his following marched in, their steps rustling amidst the leaves that covered the floor; and the leader bent down curiously over Archie, scowling at him fiercely, before turning his lurid eyes searchingly upon the young private, who now lay back with his lids half-lowered, apparently gazing down into his chest.

The Malay rose again, then turned and gave an order to his followers, two of whom stepped outside, one of them first standing up the spear he carried in the dark corner behind the door, while their chief growled out something as he pointed at the freshly torn opening in the side.

One of the men grunted--it sounded like a grunt to Peter Pegg--and raising his spear, he pa.s.sed it through the opening, rattled it to and fro, and then stepped outside to pick up two or three torn-out pieces of palm-fibre, brought them in, showed them to his chief, and uttered a half-laugh.

Just then the two men who had pa.s.sed outside returned, one bearing a fresh jar brim-full of water, the other a basket of fruit and another of the big, roughly made cakes, which were set down.

Then the leader stepped forward, stooped down suddenly over Pegg, his right hand resting upon the fold of the sarong which covered the hilt of his kris, and with his left thumb he roughly raised the young private's eyelids one after the other.

Peter Pegg did not so much as wince.

"Let him think I'm asleep if he likes--an ugly Eastern beast!"

The Malay turned now to Archie to look fixedly at the poor fellow's head, before touching the injured scalp with one brown finger, with the effect of eliciting a deep-drawn sigh of pain.

Then the man rose, and apparently satisfied with the helplessness of the prisoners, he uttered a low, abrupt order, and his little train shouldered their spears and marched out, one of them carrying the empty basket, his companion shouldering the heavy earthen jar.

Peter Pegg lay back motionless, to listen to the barring of the door, half-wondering the while at the great change that the closing door made upon the interior: one moment the last rays of the setting sun were flooding the great stable with a deep, blood-red glow; the next the place seemed by comparison quite dark.

The lad listened till the last retiring steps had died away, and then he sat up suddenly, with the recollection of a little knife and fork given to him years before by his grandmother, and chuckling softly to himself, he half-whispered:

"A present for a good boy!--Of course," he said, after a pause to make sure that no one was going to return; "I am not going to bounce, but I was a very good boy for not pitching into that 'nana. Oh my! Ain't it splendid!" he continued, turning over on hands and knees and scrambling like a quadruped to where the jar and basket had been placed. "There's going to be such a supper! But don't I wish I was going to have company! Oh, you beauty!" he cried hoa.r.s.ely, as he hugged the great jar to his chest, bent down till he could press his lips to the thick edge, and then tilting it slightly, drank and drank and drank.

At last he lowered the jar till it stood firmly in its place, raised himself upon his knees, and uttered a long, deep sigh.

"Oh, ain't it splendid!" he said. "They have got water here! Talk about a horse drinking--well, I suppose any one would say I drank like a ha.s.s or a pig. No, I didn't, because I've only been drinking the helephant's share if he comes again--not yours, Mister Archie. I do wish you were awake.--Here, I say, let's have some of that bread," he said, half-aloud now; and breaking the cake in four, he placed himself in a comfortable position and took a bite.

"That ain't quite comfortable, though," he muttered, and raking a lot of the leaves into the corner of the place, he seated himself so that he could rest his back in the angle.

"Not quite right," he muttered. "These 'ere big feathers have got a lot of quill in them. Let's have some more."

He stretched out his left hand in the darkness to draw an armful more of the dried palm-leaves beneath him, when his hand came in contact with something which rasped against the matted wall and fell heavily in the direction of where his fellow-prisoner lay.

"What's that?" said the lad sharply, as, sweeping his hand round over the leaves, his fingers closed almost spasmodically upon what felt like a bamboo cane.

The next moment Pete was upon his feet, staring in the direction of the dimly seen door.

"My!" he whispered hoa.r.s.ely; and using the cane like a walking-stick, he stepped on tiptoe right to the door, and then whispered softly beneath his breath:

"Hi! Hi! Hi! I say, old 'un, you've forgot your spear.--Think of that, now," he continued, half-aloud. "Why, of course; he stood it up there before he went out to fetch that precious jar. Forgot it! I say--talk about discipline in the Rajah's army, and a chap forgetting his piece! Fancy old Tipsy, and it was me and my rifle! Plenty of water, plenty of bread and fruit, and a present of one of them spears, as will be handier than a fixed bay'net. Why isn't Mister Archie awake to enjoy all this? Now then, if that chap will only come to-morrow night, and forget another of these sharp-pointed toothpicks for Mister Archie, I shall be very much obliged. But here am I playing the fool like this, and at any moment he may be coming back to fetch this one away. Well, if he expects he's going to get it, poor chap, I'm sorry for him;" and obeying his first impulse, he carried the keen-pointed weapon across the floor, lowered the head, and felt gently to find where it was bare; and the next moment his lingers were playing about over what was evidently a short piece of bamboo of about the same circ.u.mference as the shaft, and which fitted tightly over the keen blade like a sheath.

Then going down upon one knee, he thrust the spear carefully in beneath the bed of leaves at the foot of the wall, behind where Archie lay. Not satisfied at once, he withdrew and thrust in the weapon again, feeling if it was well covered; and then going to the far end, and sc.r.a.ping up and bringing a double armful of the dried leaves, he carefully covered his treasure more deeply.

"Ah!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, panting a little with his exertion, "I don't think it's likely.--What say, sir?" he added, addressing an imaginary Malay fighting-man. "Have I seen your spear? No, sir. Haven't set eyes upon it, honour bright.--'Always tell the truth, Pete,' granny used to say.

Well, ain't that the truth? Why, I don't believe a cat could have seen it; and if I hadn't knocked it down I shouldn't have known it was there.

Now, between ourselves, I do think I deserve something to eat after that," muttered the poor fellow. "Here, where did I put that there piece of cake? It must be lost amongst those leaves. Dropped it when I was feeling for the spear. What! plenty more in the basket? No, I won't. Wilful waste makes woeful want. Why, here it is in my trousers pocket all the time! So, now then, let's have another try; and I will treat myself to a banana afterwards. No, I won't; I'll have two." And hurrying to the basket, he helped himself to the fruit, and then made himself comfortable in the corner where he had knocked over the spear, and began to eat with a splendid appet.i.te.

"Oh, don't I wish you was here to help me, Mister Archie, sir!" he said, half-aloud and rather piteously. "Poor, dear chap! I'd feed you if I dared wake you up; but I'm sure it's right to let you sleep. But won't you be glad when you know about that spear? If we could only get another, and a couple of them krises, we should be regular set up if it come to a scrimmage, as it shall, as sure as my name's Peter. We are going to escape--somehow; and if anybody stops us it's a fight. We sha'n't be able to throw the spears like these Malay beggars do, but me and Mister Archie can do bay'net practice with them in a way that will open some of their eyes. Oh, how good!" half-whispered the lad, as he finished his frugal supper of bread and banana. "Don't it seem to put life in a fellow! Now, what am I going to do? Sit and think of how to escape? No hurry, lad. I want Mister Archie's orders, and I'll do the work. Seems to me that the first thing will be for me to get out of here somehow in the dark to go and reconnoitre, and then steal--no, it's capture, being enemies--another spear and two krises. How? Knock down an enemy somewhere and take what he's got. I'm game. And then--"

That was as far as Peter Pegg got, for he could not partake of so hearty a meal, after refreshing himself in a way that thoroughly quenched his thirst, without obeying Nature afterwards; and this he did, lying p.r.o.ne, fully stretched out, and not in the painful, cramping position of the previous night.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

ARCHIE THINKS.

"Hoomph! Phoonk!"

"What say?" cried Peter, springing up in a sitting position, to find it was daylight once more. "Oh, it's you, is it?" he cried, for there was a crackling by the door, and the great, tapering, serpent-like trunk of an elephant was waving to and fro and reaching towards the water-jar.

"Yahhh! Burrrr!" came from outside, and there were steps as if somebody were rushing towards the door to chase the intruder away.

The utterer of the yell seemed to have been successful, for the trunk was drawn back quickly, the elephant trumpeted, there were the footsteps of a man, and the shuffling sound of the gait of the great beast, as, springing up, Peter Pegg ran to the door and climbed up to place his eye where the trunk had been, so that he could see what was taking place.

"My! Look at that!" cried Peter cheerily. "That ain't the way to drive a helephant away. You are going all wrong, comrade." For, instead of suffering himself to be driven, the elephant opened his mouth, curved up his trunk into something the shape of the letter S, and displaying two finely produced, sharply pointed tusks, he was starting in full chase of the stumpy underling who had been driving him down to the river, but only to turn back and make a call on his new friend for refreshment.

"What a lark!" said Peter, as the elephant disappeared after his quarry.

"It makes me feel as if I should like to keep helephants, if I get to be Field-Marshal and they make me Governor-General of Injy and Malay; for they are such rum beggars. They look just as if when they died they would do to cut up for injy-rubber. And they seem so friendly, too, with any one they like. Sort of things as you can't drive, but have to lead. I should like a good helephant for a pet, but I suppose he would be expensive to keep; and I don't suppose that there grubby-looking little chap feels very comfortable with that one chivying him. Here, I never thought of that," continued Peter, as he dropped down amongst the palm-leaves. "My lord was reaching out that big leech of his after our rations. Lucky he couldn't get at them. I ought to have remembered to put them away;" and, to guard against any mishap, Peter Pegg hastened to place jar and basket in the right-hand corner of the building, where they would be handy for replenishing, and out of reach and out of sight of his huge visitor. This done, the young private crossed over to where he had thrust and covered over the spear, and, to his intense satisfaction, he found that unless a searcher well turned over the dried leaves, it would be impossible to find the concealed weapon.

"Is that you, Pete?" said a faint voice; and Archie's fellow-prisoner literally rushed to the speaker's side.

"Me it is, sir. England for ever, and hooray! Oh, do say you are better, sir!" cried the lad, ending in a half-squeak as if there were tears in his throat or he was trying to imitate an elephant.

"Better? Yes, I think I'm better, Pete," said the poor fellow feebly.

"But my head aches dreadfully, and--and--I'm so weak."

"Ah, I've got to bathe that head, sir."

"Yes, I think that would do it good. Yes, I am better, Pete, for I can think. We are prisoners, aren't we?"

"Yes, sir, at present," said Pete confidently. "Just till we are exchanged, or escape."

"Ah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Archie. "I said I could think now, and I was forgetting. Look here, have you found Miss Minnie?"

"Now, now, now, sir," cried the young private in a tone full of remonstrance; "you have been very ill, and off your head. It's very horrid, I know, but you have got to get better, and not make yourself worse with thinking about that."

"Yes, yes, I know," said Archie excitedly. "But you don't tell me.

Have you found out where she is?"

"No, sir; not yet. I couldn't leave you."

"Not leave me, man? You must get out of this place as soon as you can, and either find her or make your way to headquarters, and let the Doctor and Major Knowle--oh, and Sir Charles too--know what has happened."

"Mister Archie, sir," said the lad, laying a cool hand on his young officer's burning brow, "don't, sir--please, don't! They must know all you want to say long enough ago, and before now they have got all our brave lads out searching the country; and you may lie still, sir, and think to yourself that n.o.body will rest until Miss Minnie is found."