Blown to Bits or The Lonely Man of Rakata Part 19

But the sharp eyes of the pirates were too much accustomed to phantoms of every kind to be easily deceived. Just as the canoe was about to pa.s.s beyond the line of their vision a stir was heard in their camp. Then a stern challenge rolled across the river and awoke the slumbering echoes of the forest--perchance to the surprise and scaring away of some prowling beast of prey.

"No need for concealment now," said Van der Kemp, quietly; "we must paddle for life. If you have occasion to use your weapons, Nigel, take no life needlessly. Moses knows my mind on this point and needs no warning. Any fool can take away life. Only G.o.d can give it."

"I will be careful," replied Nigel, as he dipped his paddle with all the muscular power at his command. His comrades did the same, and the canoe shot up the river like an arrow.

A yell from the Dyaks, and the noise of jumping into and pus.h.i.+ng off their boats told that there was no time to lose.

"They are strong men, and plenty of them to relieve each other," said the hermit, who now spoke in his ordinary tones, "so they have some chance of overhauling us in the smooth water; but a few miles further up there is a rapid which will stop them and will only check us. If we can reach it we shall be safe."

While he was speaking every muscle in his broad back and arms was strained to the uttermost; so also were the muscles of his companions, and the canoe seemed to advance by a series of rapid leaps and bounds.

Yet the sound of the pursuers' oars seemed to increase, and soon the proverb "it is the pace that kills" received ill.u.s.tration, for the speed of the canoe began to decrease a little--very little at first--while the pursuers, with fresh hands at the oars, gradually overhauled the fugitives.

"Put on a spurt!" said the hermit, setting the example.

The pirates heard the words and understood either them or the action that followed, for they also "put on a spurt," and encouraged each other with a cheer.

Moses heard the cheer, and at the same time heard the sound of the rapid to which they were by that time drawing near. He glanced over his shoulder and could make out the dim form of the leading boat, with a tall figure standing up in the bow, not thirty yards behind.

"Shall we manage it, Moses?" asked Van der Kemp, in that calm steady voice which seemed to be unchangeable either by anxiety or peril.

"No, ma.s.sa. Unpossable--widout _dis_!"

The negro drew the revolver from his belt, slewed round, took rapid aim and fired.

The tall figure in the bow of the boat fell back with a crash and a hideous yell. Great shouting and confusion followed, and the boat dropped behind. A few minutes later and the canoe was leaping over the surges of a shallow rapid. They dashed from eddy to eddy, taking advantage of every stone that formed a tail of backwater below it, and gradually worked the light craft upward in a way that the hermit and his man had learned in the nor'-western rivers of America.

"We are not safe yet," said the former, resting and wiping his brow as they floated for a few seconds in a calm basin at the head of the rapid.

"Surely they cannot take a boat up such a place as that!"

"Nay, but they can follow up the banks on foot. However, we will soon baffle them, for the river winds like a serpent just above this, and by carrying our canoe across one, two, or three spits of land we will gain a distance in an hour or so that would cost them nearly a day to ascend in boats. They know that, and will certainly give up the chase. I think they have given it up already, but it is well to make sure."

"I wonder why they did not fire at us," remarked Nigel.

"Probably because they felt sure of catching us," returned the hermit, "and when they recovered from the confusion that Moses threw them into we were lost to them in darkness, besides being pretty well beyond range. I hope, Moses, that you aimed low."

"Yes, ma.s.sa--but it's sca'cely fair when life an' def am in de balance to expect me to hit 'im on de legs on a dark night. Legs is a bad targit. Bullet's apt to pa.s.s between 'em. Howseber, dat feller won't hop much for some time to come!"

A couple of hours later, having carried the canoe and baggage across the spits of land above referred to, and thus put at least half-a-day's journey between themselves and their foes, they came to a halt for the night.

"It won't be easy to find a suitable place to camp on," remarked Nigel, glancing at the bank, where the bushes grew so thick that they overhung the water, brus.h.i.+ng the faces of our travellers and rendering the darkness so intense that they had literally to feel their way as they glided along.

"We will encamp where we are," returned the hermit. "I'll make fast to a bush and you may get out the victuals, Moses."

"Das de bery best word you've said dis day, ma.s.sa," remarked the negro with a profound sigh. "I's pritty well tired now, an' de bery t'ought ob grub comforts me!"

"Do you mean that we shall sleep in the canoe?" asked Nigel.

"Ay, why not?" returned the hermit, who could be heard, though not seen, busying himself with the contents of the fore locker. "You'll find the canoe a pretty fair bed. You have only to slip down and pull your head and shoulders through the manhole and go to sleep. You won't want blankets in this weather, and, see--there is a pillow for you and another for Moses."

"I cannot _see_, but I can feel," said Nigel, with a soft laugh, as he pa.s.sed the pillow aft.

"T'ank ee, Nadgel," said Moses; "here--feel behind you an' you'll find grub for yourself an' some to pa.s.s forid to ma.s.sa. Mind when you slip down for go to sleep dat you don't dig your heels into ma.s.sa's skull.

Dere's no bulkhead to purtect it."

"I'll be careful," said Nigel, beginning his invisible supper with keen appet.i.te. "But how about _my_ skull, Moses? Is there a bulkhead between it and _your_ heels?"

"No, but you don't need to mind, for I allers sleeps doubled up, wid my knees agin my chin. It makes de arms an' legs feel more sociable like."

With this remark Moses ceased to encourage conversation--his mouth being otherwise engaged.

Thereafter they slipped down into their respective places, laid their heads on their pillows and fell instantly into sound repose, while the dark waters flowed sluggishly past, and the only sound that disturbed the universal stillness was the occasional cry of some creature of the night or the flap of an alligator's tail.

CHAPTER XIV.

A NEW FRIEND FOUND--NEW DANGERS ENCOUNTERED AND HEW HOPES DELAYED.

When grey dawn began to dispel the gloom of night, Nigel Roy awoke with an uncomfortable sensation of having been buried alive. Stretching himself as was his wont he inadvertently touched the head of Van der Kemp, an exclamation from whom aroused Moses, who, uncoiling himself, awoke Spinkie. It was usually the privilege of that affectionate creature to nestle in the negro's bosom.

With the alacrity peculiar to his race, Spinkie sprang through the manhole and sat down in his particular place to superintend, perhaps to admire, the work of his human friends, whose dishevelled heads emerged simultaneously from their respective burrows.

Dawn is a period of the day when the spirit of man is calmly reflective.

Speech seemed distasteful that morning, and as each knew what had to be done, it was needless. The silently conducted operations of the men appeared to arouse fellow-feeling in the monkey, for its careworn countenance became more and more expressive as it gazed earnestly and alternately into the faces of its comrades. To all appearance it seemed about to speak--but it didn't.

Pus.h.i.+ng out from the sh.o.r.e they paddled swiftly up stream, and soon put such a distance between them and their late pursuers that all risk of being overtaken was at an end.

All day they advanced inland without rest, save at the breakfast hour, and again at mid-day to dine. Towards evening they observed that the country through which they were pa.s.sing had changed much in character and aspect. The low and swampy region had given place to hillocks and undulating ground, all covered with the beautiful virgin forest with its palms and creepers and n.o.ble fruit-trees and rich vegetation, conspicuous among which magnificent ferns of many kinds covered the steep banks of the stream.

On rounding a point of the river the travellers came suddenly upon an interesting group, in the midst of a most beautiful woodland scene.

Under the trees on a flat spot by the river-bank were seated round a fire a man and a boy and a monkey. The monkey was a tame orang-utan, youthful but large. The boy was a Dyak in light cotton drawers, with the upper part of his body naked, bra.s.s rings on his arms, heavy ornaments in his ears, and a bright kerchief worn as a turban on his head. The man was a sort of nondescript in a semi-European shooting garb, with a wide-brimmed sombrero on his head, black hair, a deeply tanned face, a snub nose, huge beard and moustache, and immense blue spectacles.

Something not unlike a cheer burst from the usually undemonstrative Van der Kemp on coming in sight of the party, and he waved his hand as if in recognition. The nondescript replied by starting to his feet, throwing up both arms and giving vent to an absolute roar of joy.

"He seems to know you," remarked Nigel, as they made for a landing-place.

"Yes. He is the friend I have come to rescue," replied the hermit in a tone of quiet satisfaction. "He is a naturalist and lives with the Rajah against whom the pirates are plotting."

"He don't look z'if he needs much rescuin'," remarked Moses with a chuckle, as they drew to land.

The man looked in truth as if he were well able to take care of himself in most circ.u.mstances, being of colossal bulk although somewhat short of limb.

"Ah! mein frond! mine brodder!" he exclaimed, in fairly idiomatic English, but with a broken p.r.o.nunciation that was a mixture of Dutch, American, and Malay. His language therefore, like himself, was nondescript. In fact he was an American-born Dutchman, who had been transported early in life to the Straits Settlements, had received most of his education in Hongkong, was an old school-fellow of Van der Kemp, became an enthusiastic naturalist, and, being possessed of independent means, spent most of his time in wandering about the various islands of the archipelago, making extensive collections of animal and vegetable specimens, which he distributed with liberal hand to whatever museums at home or abroad seemed most to need or desire them. Owing to his tastes and habits he had been dubbed Professor by his friends.

"Ach! Van der Kemp," he exclaimed, while his coal-black eyes glittered as they shook hands, "_vat_ a booterfly I saw to-day! It beat all creation! The vay it flew--oh! But, excuse me--v'ere did you come from, and vy do you come? An' who is your frond?"