Bunyip Land Part 55

"Jimmy!" I panted, as soon as I had recovered myself to find that the black was feeling me all over in the darkness.

"Not got no knock um chops, no waddy bang, no popgun ball in um nowhere," he whispered.

"No Jimmy, I'm not wounded," I said. "I thought you were one of the black fellows."

"No, no black fellow--no common black fellow sabbage," he said importantly. "Come long fas, fas."

"But the doctor and the prisoner and Ti-hi?" I said.

"All run way much fas," said Jimmy. "Gyp, Gyp, see black fellow come long much, for Jimmy do and nibblum legs make um hard hard. Gib one two topper topper, den Jimmy say time um way, take Ma.s.s Joe. Come long."

"But we must go and help the doctor," I said.

"Can't find um. All go long back to big hole. Hidum. Say Ma.s.s Joe come back long o' Jimmy-Jimmy."

It seemed probable that they would make for our hiding-place, but I was very reluctant to go and leave my friends in the lurch, so I detained Jimmy and we sat listening, the black making me sit down.

"Rest um leggums," he said. "Run much fas den."

We stayed there listening for what must have been the s.p.a.ce of half an hour, and during that time we could hear the shouting and rapping of trees of the blacks as they were evidently searching the bush, but there was no sound of excitement or fighting, neither did it seem to me that there were any exulting shouts such as might arise over the capture of prisoners.

This gave me hope, and in the belief that I might find my companions at the hiding-place I was about to propose to Jimmy that we would go on, when he jumped up.

"No stop no longer. Black fellow come along fas. Get away."

The noises made by the blacks were plainly coming nearer, and I sprang to my feet, trying to pierce the darkness, but everywhere there were the dimly-seen shapes of trees so close that they almost seemed to lower and their branches to bear down upon our heads; there was the fresh moist scent of the dewy earth and leaves, and now and then a faint cry of some bird, but nothing to indicate the way we ought to go.

I turned to Jimmy.

"Can you tell where the cave is?" I said.

"No: Jimmy all dark," he answered.

"Can't you tell which way to go?"

"Oh yes um," he whispered. "Jimmy know which way go."

"Well, which?" I said, as the shouts came nearer.

"Dat away where no black fellow."

"But it may be away from the cave," I said.

"Jimmy don't know, can't help along. Find cave morrow nex day."

There was wisdom in his proposal, which, awkwardly as it was shaped, meant that we were to avoid the danger now and find our friends another time.

"Ma.s.s Joe keep long close," he whispered. "Soon come near time see along way Ma.s.s doctor and Ma.s.s Jack Penny-Penny."

We paused for a moment, the black going down on his knees to lay his head close to the ground so as to make sure of the direction where the savages were, and he rose up with anything but comfortable news.

"All round bout nearer, come 'long other way."

Just then I gave a jump, for something touched my leg through a great rent in my trousers. It felt cold, and for the moment I thought it must be the head of a serpent; but a low familiar whine undeceived me, and I stooped down to pat the neck of Jack Penny's s.h.a.ggy friend.

"Home, Gyp!" I said. "Home!"

He understood me and started off at once, fortunately in the direction taken by Jimmy, and after a long toilsome struggle through the bush, the more arduous from the difficulty we experienced in keeping up with the dog, we at last reached a gully at the bottom of which we could hear the trickling of water.

"All right ums," said Jimmy quickly, and plunging down through the bushes he was soon at the bottom, and went upon his knees to find out which way the stream ran.

He jumped up directly, having found that by the direction the water ran we must be below the cave, always supposing that this was the right stream.

Down in the gully the sounds of pursuit grew very faint, and at last died out, while we waded at times, and at others found room upon the shelving bank to get along, perhaps for a hundred yards unchecked; then would come a long stretch where the gully was full of thick bushes, and here our only chance was to creep under them, wading the while in the little stream, often with our bodies bent so that our faces were close to the water.

Gyp trotted cheerfully on as I plashed through the water, stopping from time to time to utter a low whine to guide us when he got some distance ahead, and I often envied the sagacious animal his strength and activity, for beside him at a time like this I seemed to be a _very_ helpless creature indeed.

Two or three times over I grasped the black's arm and we stopped to listen, for it seemed to me that I could hear footsteps and the rustling of the bushes at the top of the gully far above our heads; but whenever we stopped the noise ceased, and feeling at last that it was fancy I plodded on, till, half dead with fatigue, I sank down on my knees and drank eagerly of the cool fresh water, both Jimmy and the dog following my example.

At last, though I should not have recognised the place in the gloom, Jimmy stopped short, and from the darkness above my head, as I stood with the stream bubbling past my legs, I heard the unmistakable click of a gun c.o.c.k.

"Jack!" I whispered. "Jack Penny!"

"That'll do," he whispered back. "Come along. All right! Have you got him?"

"Whom?" I said, stumbling painfully up into the cave, where I threw myself down.

"Your father."

"No," I said dismally, "and we've lost the doctor and Ti-hi. Poor fellows, I'm afraid they are taken. But, Jack Penny, we are right. My father is a prisoner in the village."

"Then we'll go and fetch him out, and the doctor too. Ti-hi can take care of himself. I'd as soon expect to keep a snake in a wicker cage as that fellow in these woods; but come, tell us all about it."

I partook, with a sensation as if choking all the while, of the food he had waiting, and then, as we sat there waiting for the day in the hope that the doctor might come, I told Jack Penny the adventures of the night, Jimmy playing an accompaniment the while upon his nose.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

HOW JACK PENNY FIRED A STRAIGHT SHOT.

There was no stopping Jimmy's snoring. Pokes and kicks only intensified the noise, so at last we let him lie and I went on in a doleful key to the end.

"Oh, it ain't so very bad after all!" said Jack Penny, in his slow drawl. "I call it a good night's work."

"Good, Jack?"

"Yes. Well, ain't it?" he drawled. "Why, you've got back safe, and you don't know that the doctor won't get back, and you've done what you came to do--you've found your father."