Fitz the Filibuster Part 48

"Last evening, mate," growled the other.

"Yes, that's right, messmate. He just had a word with us. Mr Burgess sent him. He wanted news, but of course we had got none, only about the shooting. The bosun said that if the skipper didn't soon come back he was afraid accidents would happen to the schooner--catch fire, or something--for old Burgess was making it so hot for everybody that he was glad to get away in the little boat."

"Off with you!" said Poole, and he and his companion hurried back through the gathering mist.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

WINKS'S SALLYS.

The distance back to the hacienda seemed short enough, and in antic.i.p.ation of his mission proving successful, the skipper had his first boat's load told off ready for their start.

"Well done! Splendid!" he said to the lads. "Off with you back. Take the command, Poole. Are you going again, Mr Burnett?"

"Yes, sir; of course."

Fitz turned sharply round when he was addressed, from where he was standing with the carpenter, after noting that here and there at a distance a tiny fire was burning, indicating the different posts between them and the enemy, and just before Winks had come hurriedly up to him and given him a nudge.

"I arn't got them set up yet, sir," he whispered, "but I've made four.

Not much to look at, but they will be all right. Two crossed sticks, bamboos, blankets, and them Spanish hats. There's two Sallys and two Guys. The Sallys has got the blankets right over the tops with the hats down close. They looks just like old women a little way off.--Going back again, sir?"

"Yes," replied Fitz. "We shan't be very long this time."

"All right, sir. I shall have the traps set by the time you come again.

My word! I should like to be there when the Span'ls finds they are nothing but a set of paddies. I should like to hear the words they said. It would be something pretty in bad Spanish, I'll be bound."

"Now, Mr Burnett," cried the skipper sharply, and somehow feeling as if he were one of the schooner's officers, the middy hurried off, helping to guide the party, consisting of Don Ramon's followers all but two, and succeeding in reaching the wharf without an adventure, the boat coming up at once on hearing their approach, and in a very short time loaded gunwale down, gliding off along the swift stream.

"That's one lot," said Poole excitedly, as the stern of the boat disappeared. "Well, we had no orders, but of course we've got to go back for another lot and bring them down. I suppose we shall have them here long before the empty boat returns from the schooner."

"It will be a stiff pull against the stream," said Fitz.

"Yes, but empty, and I made them fully understand that they were to start back after s.h.i.+pping the men and communicating with old Burgess. I think that will turn out all right."

It did, and in due time a second load was despatched to the schooner, forming half the human cargo she would have to bear.

They were anxious times during these journeys in the boat. All was going well, but at any moment the fiction of the watchers by the fires might have been discovered, and the enemy come on to the attack upon a force weakened first by one-fourth, then by half, and later on by three-fourths of its number, the danger increasing at a terrific ratio for those who were left. At last, still keeping manfully to their posts, the last portion--the last quarter of the little force--stood waiting, nearly all English, those of Spanish descent consisting of Don Ramon and his most staunch adherent.

The skipper had urged him to go with the third party, but he had scornfully refused.

"What!" he cried. "Provide for my safety, and leave you brave Englishmen to fight my battle all alone! Bah! You would never be able to call me friend again. But tell me this: why did you not go yourself and leave me to guard the hacienda till the boat came back?--Hah! You say nothing! You cannot. No, I shall stay, and we will escape together, ready to sail round, seize Velova, and meet mine enemies when they return."

The peril seemed to increase minute by minute, as the little party watched, straining their ears in the darkness to catch the slightest sound, while it seemed hours since the last party had left them, and they awaited the coming of the two lads to announce that the boat had returned.

It was weary work for these goers to and fro, but excitement and exertion kept them from feeling the agony of the Englishmen who, apparently calm, kept watch and ward at the hacienda, while from time to time the skipper and Winks went from fire to fire, mending them and arranging more fuel so that when they were left for good they might still keep burning.

They had been round for the last visit, and returned to the hacienda, walking very slowly, and pausing from time to time to listen for any movement in the enemy's lines, and at last they stopped short close to the spot where the carpenter had destroyed the snake, when after standing for some time listening to a faint murmur of voices close at hand, coming from the waiting crew, the carpenter uttered a peculiar husky cough. It was so strange and unnatural that the skipper put the right interpretation upon it at once.

"Yes?" he said. "You wanted to ask me something?"

"Yes, sir. It's this waiting makes me want to speak. I can't stand the doing nothing at a time like this. I'd ten times rather be on the fight."

"So would I, Winks, if you come to that. It's a cruel strain, my lad.

Worse than being in the wildest storm. But go on; what did you want to say?"

"Oh, only this, sir. I want you to give me orders to go round again and give the fires a poke. You needn't come, sir. You are wanted here.

You can trust me to do the lot."

"Yes, I know that," said the skipper sternly; "but that isn't all. You were thinking something else, and now it's come to the point you are afraid to speak."

"How did you know that, sir?" said the man huskily.

"By your manner and the tone of your voice. What is it you are thinking? Out with it at once."

"Well, sir, I dunno how you come to know, but it has come over me just lately like a skeer. Aren't the young gents been much longer this time?"

"Yes, much," replied the skipper; "or else it seems to be."

"I thought so, sir, and I've got so now that I feels as if I can't bear it. What are you going to do, sir? Follow 'em up and see what's wrong?"

"I shall give them ten minutes longer, Winks. I meant to stay here to the very last, ready to give the enemy a volley and a check if they should come on; but now the time has come to hurry on to the wharf and wait there in the hope that the boat may still come and take us off without further waste of time."

"But don't let me make you downhearted, sir," said the carpenter, trying to speak cheerily. "I'm a bit of an old woman in my ways sometimes.

Maybe it's all right, after all."

"Maybe it is," said the skipper. "We are tired out and over-anxious now. It's quite possible that we shall have them back here soon."

"Pst!" whispered the carpenter. "There's some one coming."

It was from their rear, and the next moment they were joined by Don Ramon.

"Ah, you are here," he said. "Is it not time that the boys came back?"

"Nearly," said the skipper quietly.

"No, no," said Don Ramon; "they have been twice too long. Something must have happened, or they would have come by now."

"Pst! Look out!" whispered the carpenter, and he c.o.c.ked his rifle.

"No: all right," he continued. "It's not from the enemy's side."

He was quite right, for directly after the two boys trotted up.

"All right, father," cried Poole. "The boat's back."

"We thought she would never have come," added Fitz. "They have had a very hard pull up stream, for the water has risen, and they thought that they'd never get to the landing-place."

"But they are there!" cried the skipper eagerly. "What about the others? Have they got on board?"