Settlers and Scouts Part 27

He seized the opportunity when their backs were turned to slip down from his perch and run to the village: would not the wasungu even now strike a blow for him?

This was a staggering piece of news. The knoll was up-stream; there was not much doubt that downstream the warriors whose village had been captured were marching up in pursuit of the safari. Probably they had already been met by fugitives from the village and informed of what had happened. It struck John that Juma and the chief might have fallen out, and that the Swahili had made a rapid dash northward to possess himself of the treasure while the "bad men" were absent from the neighbourhood.

However that might be, there was no question but that both the Swahilis and the villagers were dangerous enemies, and would join forces to crush the little band who had defied and routed them.

"We're in the tightest place we have ever been in yet," said John.

"They've got us between them. What on earth are we to do?"

"Slip away, west or east?" suggested Ferrier.

"Hopeless! Loaded as we should be, we couldn't escape them. It's too late to get on to the river now. This one raft won't hold us all. We are done at last!"

They looked at each other in speechless anxiety. The men had ceased work on the second raft; they all knew what had occurred, and gazed at their white leaders with troubled countenances.

"There's one desperate chance," said Ferrier at length. "Juma is nearest. Deal with him before the others come up."

John stared at him for a moment with brightening eyes. Then he sprang up.

"Right!" he cried. "It's the one chance. But we can't risk it without knowing a little of the ground. I'll go out with Bill and have a look at it, if you'll stay and keep a look-out for the down-stream lot."

The two set off at once. Bill led the way rapidly round the village and further up the hill until they reached the summit. From this point the ground fell away to the plain, and rather less than a mile away John descried the knoll of which Bill had spoken, the peninsula from which it rose jutting out into the river. It was densely covered with vegetation, and on the other side of the stream there was a similar screen. Only a short reach of the river was visible, but here he saw negroes wading waist-deep. They were crossing, however, not to the far side, but from it. Juma had thought it better to bring his porters to the ivory than the reverse. Apparently none of it had yet been transported from bank to bank; but it was all laid in readiness.

Bill gazed at the scene with an expression of mingled grief and rage.

Suddenly he stretched forth his hand, pointing towards the trees on the near side of the river. At first John could not see anything but the dense ma.s.s of foliage; but presently he discerned two negroes standing motionless at the foot of the knoll. Clearly Juma had posted them as scouts to give warning of any movement from the village. So many years had pa.s.sed since the defeat of his safari that the likelihood of the people suspecting his search for the treasure was small, especially since they were obviously unaware of its location. But with the remembrance of their hostility in his mind he was evidently uneasy.

John's guess at the course of events was very near the mark. Ever since the defeat of the Arabs, Juma, the sole survivor of their hapless safari, had lived for nothing else than the recovery of the ivory, which would make him a millionaire according to the native standard of wealth.

But the store lay in the enemy's country; he had the best of reasons for knowing how formidable they were, and what his fate would be if he was discovered by them when removing the ivory. He had recognized that there was little chance of obtaining possession of it unless he came with sufficient force to repel attack. Its transport would demand a large number of porters, and a still larger number of armed men to protect them. It had therefore been the work of his life to organize such a party. For this he had become a porter himself, to avail himself of opportunities of stealthy pilfering. For this he had established himself in the island fort, hoping to seize an occasion when the villagers were absent on a raid or a hunting expedition to make a dash up the river and achieve the aim of his ambition.

The unexpected series of events that culminated in the capture of the fort had interposed a check at the very moment when he saw success within his grasp. But his cunning mind conceived the scheme which he had carried out: to form an alliance with the very tribe with whom he had expected to come into conflict. He seized upon the presence of the white men as a rational basis for their alliance, intending, when the white men and their safari had been annihilated, to turn his arms against his allies, and having overthrown them, to secure the prize he had so long coveted.

Again he was baulked by the prolonged resistance of the white men. But it happened that the combined force of natives which he had gathered about him ran short of food. In this circ.u.mstance he saw his opportunity. On the morning after John had left the fort, Juma set off with his own contingent before the escape had been discovered, ostensibly to go hunting for game. He took with him almost all the men who had rifles, and a large party to carry the game he promised to shoot. Striking at first to the west, he turned sharply northward, and pushed on with all speed towards the knoll where the h.o.a.rd of ivory lay concealed. Had he secured it, his whilom enemies, his present allies, would have seen him no more. He would have taken the shortest route to the coast, to dispose of the ivory at one of the ports. His approach was hidden from the people in the village by the hill rising behind it, and being quite unaware that the village was now held by the white men, he felt that he had nothing to fear except chance discovery by some one who might happen to stray up the hill. To provide against this he had posted the two scouts whom John saw at the base of the knoll.

John perceived in a moment that the work of transporting the ivory across the river gave him an opportunity of taking the enemy at a disadvantage. Running back to the top of the hill, careful not to come within sight of the scouts, he reached a point whence he could overlook the village and where he was himself in full view from it. The moment he arrived there he knew that he had been seen, for Ferrier waved his hand above his head. John immediately semaph.o.r.ed with his arms, asking Ferrier to bring out all the men except a few left to guard the village, and to join him on the hill-top. In ten minutes they were with him.

Then, descending the western slope of the hill, invisible to the enemy, they worked their way through the belt of trees on the river-bank until they arrived within a furlong of the ford. Juma's porters were staggering down the knoll under their loads--great tusks from six to nine feet long. To advance further without being discovered was impossible: the two scouts were full in the path.

John gathered his party just within the belt of trees, and in a whisper told them what to do. Then, at his word, they dashed after him from cover, yelling at the top of their voices, the askaris firing their rifles as they ran, and reloading. There was little chance of the shots taking effect, but John reckoned on them to demoralize the enemy. The result surpa.s.sed his antic.i.p.ations. The scouts stood for a moment as if rooted to the ground with amazement; then they flung down their rifles and fled like hares to the spot where Juma was indicating the ford. At the same instant the porters dropped their loads with a yell of fright, and made for the river, into which they cast themselves, careless of its depth, and of the crocodiles that might be lurking expectant of a victim. Juma had his arm in a sling: the other Swahilis raised their rifles, and fired, each one wild ineffectual shot, at the advancing company. Then, utterly confounded by this amazing attack from an enemy whom they supposed to be far away, they rushed in a body to the river, sped by a volley of bullets and arrows. Half wading, half swimming, they gained the further bank, and by the time John and his men came to the ford, they had disappeared with all their men into the undergrowth.

Bill ran from one tusk to another, frantic with joy. But John was too much concerned with the serious work that lay before him to trouble himself for the present with the ivory, however valuable it might be. He saw at once that he must remove all his men from the village to the knoll if the plan of floating down the river was to be successfully initiated. After their fright, Juma and his men might for a time be disregarded; but the war-party of villagers could not now be far away, and the interval before their arrival might be all too short. The knoll not only formed a good defensible position, but it was the most convenient spot for the launching of the rafts, and the timber upon it offered material for the second raft yet to be constructed. Keeping part of his men to hack branches from the trees with their knives, he asked Ferrier to return with the rest to the village and bring over the hill the first raft and all the stores.

"Get the women to help," he said. "Promise that we'll do no more harm to the village if they'll work for us. They'll be glad enough to get rid of us, no doubt. I'd go myself, Charley, only my back is bothering me again, confound it."

Ferrier hurried off. In little more than half-an-hour he reappeared on the shoulder of the hill, followed by a long line of the men of the safari and the women of the village, carrying the loads of provisions, the impedimenta of the camp, and the raft, a c.u.mbersome object which required twenty men to carry it. As they descended the slope, shots were fired at them from the trees bordering the river, but manifestly at so long a range that they were little likely to do any harm. They reached the knoll in safety; the baggage was piled up a short distance from the bank to form a sort of rampart: and then the whole party, including a crowd of women who were impressed to fetch and carry, worked rapidly at the construction of the raft.

"There'll be mighty little protection if they fire at us on the way down," said John gloomily.

"Yes," replied Ferrier, "we haven't got enough baggage to screen us. But look here! Why not make a sort of fence to go all round?"

"The very thing! The men are so used to making bomas that it won't give them any trouble."

While the second raft was being finished, the men who were not engaged upon it were set to weave a light framework of canes, rushes, and slender branches, about three feet high, and strong enough to be impenetrable by spears or arrows. As portions of this were completed, they were lashed to the edges of the first raft. Fore and aft the framework was raised to the height of six feet, and a hole was cut in it through which a pole might be thrust, to ward off rocks or other obstructions as the raft floated downstream, and to steer the unwieldy craft.

At midday a good deal of the work still remained to be done. The sun beat down mercilessly upon the workers, and John, eager as he was to finish, ordered a rest and a meal. The negroes threw themselves on the gra.s.s, and appeared to feel no discomfort from the heat; but the white men were glad to seek the shade of the trees crowning the knoll, where Said Mohammed served their dinner.

The order had just been given to resume work when they saw a vast crowd of dusky warriors pouring over the brow of the hill.

"Here they come!" said John, starting up; "and by the look of them, and their yells, we're in for a tight little scrimmage."

Ferrier laughed.

"Not unless they're prepared to attack us over the bodies of their wives," he said. "They can't shoot at us without hitting them."

"Of course not. I hadn't thought of that. But they're so mad that they may be ready to sacrifice their nearest and dearest. We must prevent the women from running away. It's shameful coercion, but we can't help it."

The furious villagers halted within a short distance of the knoll, and one or two let fly arrows at the busy workers behind their rampart of baggage. A wild shriek arose from the terrified women, though none had been hit; and John, running among them, told them sternly that their only safety lay in remaining at their work. To give point to his warning, and at the same time to daunt the warriors, he lifted his rifle and fired towards the dense mob, taking care to aim above their heads.

The result was a general stampede. The men had already learnt the power of the wasungu's weapons, and being exposed on the bare hillside they recognized their disadvantage. They retreated up the hill to a position of security, and stood there in impotent wrath, watching their womenkind toiling for the hated enemy.

The work went on without pause until the rafts were finished. The next thing was to launch them. The river swept round the knoll in a half-circle, and John decided to have the rafts carried to the water on the side remote from the village and out of sight of the warriors, any interference being guarded against by leaving his askaris with loaded rifles at the baggage. When the rafts were launched and moored to prevent their being carried down by the current, the ivory was conveyed to them. One side of each had been left undefended by the framework until the loading was finished. The tusks having been stowed on one raft, half-a-dozen men were set to lash on the framework while the stores and the rest of the baggage were carried to the second raft. It was clear that Bill had by no means exaggerated the value of the ivory.

There were twenty-three tusks, varying in weight and size, but scaling in all at least half a ton. John did not know the market value of ivory, but so large a quant.i.ty would probably fetch several hundreds of pounds.

By the time the loads were stacked round the rafts, close against the framework, it was drawing towards evening.

"I'm afraid we shall have to wait until morning before we start," said John. "It will be very risky to navigate these clumsy things in the darkness. They lie very heavy in the water, and I shouldn't be surprised if they founder before we've gone far."

"We must chance that," said Ferrier. "I think we had better start at once. There are no rapids in this part of the river; our real trouble will begin when we come above the pool. If we stay here till the morning, we may be set upon before we are well away, whereas by starting now we shall be past the village by the time it is dark, and when they see us fairly off they may chuck up the sponge."

"All right. Is there anything else to be done?"

"We'll rope the rafts together, but we must be ready to cut the hawser if there's any need. I'll go in the first raft, of course. Perhaps Coja had better come with me to try his hand at steering, if you don't mind taking Said Mohammed. Your raft ought to come along in the wake of mine without any difficulty; but have your pole ready to push off if we strike a shoal."

"What's the rate of the current, do you think?"

"Three to four miles an hour, at a guess. Better let the women go now."

John withdrew the askaris who had been keeping guard, and the women, on being told that they might go, fled away up the hill like a flock of sheep. All the men of the safari then took their places on the rafts; these were roped together; the framework was lashed on the unprotected sides; the mooring ropes were released, and the strange overladen craft, sinking so low that the logs were covered with water, took the current and began to float down. Luckily the bales of provisions had been placed above the ammunition boxes and other baggage, which would not suffer from a wetting.

The actual start was hidden from the enemy by the projecting knoll; but as the rafts swept round the curve their appearance was hailed with loud shouts from the hill-top, where the women had now joined the warriors.

The left bank was here too precipitous and too densely wooded to permit the enemy to approach near enough to do any damage; and as the voyagers came into the straight reach that ran by the foot of the hill on which the village was perched, they saw the yelling horde rush over the brow.

"Going to meet us on the level," shouted Ferrier from his place behind the breastwork of the foremost raft. "Keep the men crouching behind the palisade."

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FOURTH--Ferrier takes the Lead

The river varied in breadth at this part of its course from sixty to eighty yards. The steersmen, Coja in the first, Said Mohammed in the second, kept the rafts in midstream, and they glided on the full current with a steadiness that augured well for the voyage. In less than half-an-hour they were level with the village. Then a shot rang out from the right bank. Clearly Juma had been on the watch. The shot fell short, and the sound of it caused great consternation among the villagers, who had taken up a position a few hundred yards down-stream on a stretch of treeless land on the left bank, raised a few feet above the level of the river. They had evidently been as yet unaware of the proximity of their allies. But their apprehension was immediately changed to wild excitement as they saw Juma, accompanied by his band, appear on a similar eminence on the opposite bank. They shouted with delight, leaping, brandis.h.i.+ng spears, little suspecting the trick which the Swahilis had played on them.

As the rafts approached, they were a.s.sailed with showers of arrows from both sides, mingled with rifle shots from the right bank. Ferrier and John ordered their men to lie flat on their faces, for those on the starboard side were exposed to the fire from the right bank, those on the port side to that from the left. The two white men themselves, and their two steersmen, could not find shelter in the same way, being bound to stand erect in order to keep the rafts in midstream. As the missiles flew around him, John felt that this was a vastly unpleasant way of running the gauntlet. He instinctively pressed his body close to the framework; and whether it was due to the growing darkness, or to the inability of the enemy to hit a moving target, he escaped unhurt. The immediate danger was past when the banks of the river fell away to the level of the stream. Both parties of the enemy still fired, running along in time with the rafts; but their missiles now flew over the top of the breastwork. Ferrier thought it worth risking a volley from his own men. He ordered them to kneel, rest their rifles on the palisade, and take good aim at the Swahilis. Their skill or luck was superior, for when the volley flashed forth, a yell told that one at least of the bullets had got home. Immediately afterwards John ordered his askaris to fire among the negroes on the left bank; but these were somewhat remoter from the river, and he could not learn that any of the shots took effect.