Annie o' the Banks o' Dee Part 26

The officers appeared above the ramparts to look and to listen.

"Hear, O white men!" cried the savage chief, in fairly good English; "'tis you who brought dis evil on us. We now do starve. De rice and de fruit and de rats and most all wild beasts dey kill or hide demselves.

In de sea all round de fish he die. We soon starve. But we not wish to fight. You and your men saved us from the foe that came in der big black war canoe. Den you try to teach us G.o.d and good. But we all same as before now. We must fight, eat and live, if you do not leave the island. Plenty big canoe take you off. Den de gra.s.s and trees and fruit will grow again, and we shall be happy and flee onct mo'."

"An end to this!" cried d.i.c.kson angrily. "Fight as you please, and as soon as you please. But mind, you will have a devilish hot reception, and few of you will return to your glens to tell the tale. Away!"

As soon as the chief had returned and communicated to his men the result of the interview, they shrieked and shouted and danced like demons.

They brandished their spears aloft and rattled them against their s.h.i.+elds. Then, with one continuous maddened howl, they dashed onwards to scale the ramparts. "Blood! blood!" was their battle cry.

Well knowing that if once they got inside the little garrison would soon be butchered, d.i.c.kson immediately had both guns trained on them. He himself did so.

"Bang! bang!" they went, and the grape made fearful havoc in the close and serried ranks of the cannibals. The rifles kept up a withering fire. Again, and quickly too, the guns were loaded and run out, and just as the enemy had scaled the brae they were once more met by the terrible fire, and positively hewn down before it.

Not even savages could stand this. They became demoralised, and fled incontinently. And they soon disappeared, carrying many of their dead with them. Far along the beach went they, and as stakes were placed in the ground, large fires built around them, and one or more of the dead thrown on each, it was evident that they had made up their minds not to starve.

One of the blacks was now sent out from the fort to make a circuit round the hills, and then, mingling with the savages, to find out out what was their intention.

He returned in a few hours, and while the awful feast was still going on. A night attack was determined on, and they believed they would inherit strength and bravery by eating their dead comrades. That was the scout's report.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

MORE FEARFUL FIGHTING--GOLDEN GULCH--"A s.h.i.+P! A s.h.i.+P!"

Forewarned is, or ought to be, forearmed. Nevertheless, it must be confessed that d.i.c.kson and the others greatly dreaded an attack by savages under cover of the moonless darkness of a tropical night. All was done that could be done to repel the fury of the onslaught. But come it must and would.

Just as the sun was sinking behind the western mountains, amidst lurid and threatening clouds, a happy thought occurred to one of the sailors.

"Sir," he said to d.i.c.kson, "the darkness will be our greatest foe, will it not?"

"Certainly. If these demon cannibals would but show front in daylight we could easily disperse them, as we did before. Have you any plans, McGregor?"

"I'm only a humble sailor," said McGregor, "but my advice is this. We can trust the honest blacks we have here within the fort?"

"Yes."

"Well, let them throw up a bit of sand cover for themselves down here on the beach and by the sea. Each man should wear a bit of white cotton around his arm, that we may be able to distinguish friend from foe. Do you follow me, sir?"

"Good, McGregor. Go on."

"Well, captain, the cannibals are certain to make direct for the barracks and attempt to scale as they did before. I will go in command of our twenty black soldiers, and just as you pour in your withering grape and rifle bullets we shall attack from the rear, or flank, rather, and thus I do not doubt we shall once more beat them off."

"Good again, my lad; but remember we cannot aim in the darkness."

"That can be provided against. We have plenty of tarry wood here, and we can cut down the still standing brush, and making two huge bonfires, deluge the whole with kerosene when we hear the beggars coming and near at hand. Thus shall you have light to fight."

"McGregor, my lad, I think you have saved the fort and our lives. Get ready your men and proceed to duty. Or, stay. While they still are at their terrible feast and dancing round the fires, you may remain inside."

"Thanks, sir, thanks."

The men had supper at eleven o'clock and a modic.u.m of rum each. The British sailor needs no Dutch courage on the day of battle.

The distant fires burnt on till midnight. Then, by means of his night-gla.s.s, d.i.c.kson could see the tall chieftain was mustering his men for the charge.

Half an hour later they came on with fiendish shouts and howling. Then brave McGregor and his men left the barracks and hid in the darkling to the left and low down on the sands.

The enemy advanced from the right. Their chief was evidently a poor soldier, or he would have caused them to steal as silently as panthers upon the fort. When within a hundred yards, d.i.c.kson at one side and Reginald at the other, each accompanied by a man carrying a keg of kerosene, issued forth at the back door.

In three minutes more the flames sprang up as if by magic. They leaped in great white tongues of fire up the rock sides, from which the rays were reflected, so that all round the camp was as bright as day.

The astonished savages, however, came on like a whirlwind, till within twenty yards of the brae on which stood the fort. Then Mr Hall, the brave and imperturbable Yankee, "gave them fits," as he termed it. He trained a gun on them and fired it point-blank. The yells and awful howlings of rage and pain told how well the grape had done its deadly work, and that many had fallen never to rise again.

The tall, skin-clad chief now waved his spear aloft, and shouted to his men, pointing at the fort. That dark cloud was a ma.s.s of frenzied savages now. They leaped quickly over their dead and wounded, and rushed for the hill. But they were an easy mark, and once again both guns riddled their ranks. They would not be denied even yet.

But lo! while still but half-way up the hill, to their astonishment and general demoralisation, they were attacked by a terrible rifle fire from the flank. Again and again those rifles cracked, and at so close a range that the attacking party fell dead in twos and threes.

But not until two more shots were fired from the fort, not until the giant chief was seen to throw up his arms and fall dead in his tracks, did they hurriedly rush back helter-skelter, and seek safety in flight.

The black riflemen had no mercy on their brother-islanders. Their blood was up. So was McGregor's, and they pursued the enemy, pouring in volley after volley until the darkness swallowed them up.

The slaughter had been immense. The camp was molested no more. But at daybreak it was observed that no cloud hung any longer on the volcanic peak. The savages were still grouped in hundreds around their now relighted fires, and it was evident a new feast was in preparation.

But something still more strange now happened. Accompanied by two gigantic spear-armed men of the guard, the Queen herself was seen to issue from the glen, and boldly approach the rebels. What she said may never be known. But, while her guard stood like two statues, she was seen to be haranguing the cannibals, sometimes striking her sceptre-pole against the hard white sand, sometimes pointing with it towards the volcanic mountain.

But see! another chief approaches her, and is apparently defying her.

Next moment there is a little puff of white smoke, and the man falls, shot through the head.

And now the brave and romantic Queen nods to her guards, and with their spears far and near the fires are dispersed and put out.

This was all very interesting, as well as wonderful, to the onlookers at the fort, but when the Queen was seen approaching the little garrison, a little white flag waving from her pole, and followed by all the natives, astonishment was at its height.

Humbly enough they approached now, for the Queen in their eyes was a G.o.ddess. With a wave of her sceptre she stopped them under the brae, or hill, and d.i.c.kson and Reginald hurried down to meet her floral majesty.

"Had I only known sooner," she said sympathisingly, "that my people had rebelled and attempted to murder you, I should have been here long, long before now. These, however, are but the black sheep of my island, and now at my command they have come to sue for pardon."

"And they will lay down their arms?"

"Yes, every spear and bow and crease."

"Then," said d.i.c.kson, "let them go in single file and heap them on the still smouldering fire up yonder."

Queen Bertha said something to them in their own language, and she was instantly obeyed. The fire so strangely replenished took heart and blazed up once more, and soon the arms were reduced to ashes, and the very knives bent or melted with the fierce heat.

"Go home now to your wives and children," she cried imperiously. "For a time you shall remain in disgrace. But if you behave well I will gladly receive you once more into my favour. Disperse! Be off!"

All now quietly dispersed, thankfully enough, too, for they had expected decapitation. But ten were retained to dig deep graves near the sea and bury the dead. There were no wounded. This done, peace was restored once more on the Island of Flowers.