Carette of Sark Part 49

"You'll be careful of yourselves," she said wistfully, as we stood at the top of the slope. "I--we can't spare either of you yet."

We promised every possible caution, and she went on to join the other women, while Uncle George and I ran across to the men standing in a dark clump on the Moie de Mouton.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII

HOW WE HELD OUR HOMES

There was no need to ask how the boats were heading. All eyes were fixed anxiously on them as they came straight for the north of the Island, and just as we came up Amice Le Couteur gave the word to move on to Eperquerie.

Stragglers from the more distant houses were coming up every few minutes.

He left one to send them all on after us, and we straggled off past Belfontaine and Tintageu and the Autelets and Saignie Bay, and so into the road to the Common, and took our stand on the high ground above the Boutiques, and as we went Thomas G.o.dfray loaded my pistols for me from his own flask.

The colours had long since faded out of the sky, and the bank of clouds in which the sun had set was creeping heavily up the west. Both sky and sea were gray and shadowy. The sea was flawed with dark blurrs of sudden squalls, and the waves broke harsh and white on La Grune and Bec du Nez.

The six boats came on with steady venom. They kept well out round Bec du Nez, and we ran across the broken ground to meet them on the other side of the Island, and lay down there by the Senechal's orders.

There was always the chance that they were making straight for the French coast. It would have been well for some of them if they had. That hope died as they turned inside the Pecheresse rock and came sweeping down towards Eperquerie landing.

We could see them better now, and estimate our chances. Three of the boats were of large size, holding ten to twelve men each, and carrying a small carronade in the bows. The others held six to eight, and they were all as evil and scowling a set as ever I set eyes on.

"They will try here," said Amice Le Couteur. "I will warn them once not to land, then do you be ready to fire. Take advantage of the rocks, and let no man expose himself unnecessarily."

They came thras.h.i.+ng along, with no show of order but much of the spirit that was in them. There is no dog so ready to snap at anything that offers as the one that is running from a fight. Their l.u.s.t for mischief came up to us in hoa.r.s.e growls and curses, and tightened our grip on our weapons.

The first boat ground on the s.h.i.+ngle, and the next ran in alongside before the oars were uns.h.i.+pped, and the wind was thick with curses on their clumsiness. The landing between the rock is a narrow one, and no more than two could come in at once. The others had to wait outside.

The rascals were beginning to tumble ash.o.r.e, when Amice Le Couteur stood up and cried, "Stop there! If you land it is at your peril. We will not have it."

Those who were landing turned their black faces upwards in surprise, for they had not seen us. But from one of the waiting boats behind, half a dozen shots rang out in a sudden blaze of light, and the Senechal fell back among us, and our men began a hot fire at the boats from behind their rocks.

I ran to M. Le Couteur, as I had no weapons but a cutla.s.s and pistols, and these were only for close work. He was bleeding in the head and chest, but said he thought the wounds were not serious.

"See that some of them don't slip away to the Creux or Dixcart, while we're busy with the others here, Carre," he said, as I tied up his head with his own kerchief, and then dragged him down into a little hollow where no shots could reach him.

There was much cursing and shouting down below, and a satisfactory amount of groaning also, and our men fired and loaded without stopping and said no word. The landing-place and the rocks above were thick with smoke, which came swirling up in great coils, so that I could see nothing, though I could hear enough and to spare.

I scrambled down the side of Pignon, bending among the rocks lest they should see me, and so came out on to the larger rocks, inside which lies the landing-place. I was thus in the rear of the Herm men, with the open sea behind me, and a glance told me that the Senechal's fears were justified. The two boats that had pushed in were alone there, and I heard the sound of oars working l.u.s.tily down the coast.

I turned and tumbled back the way I had come, scrambling and falling, cutting and bruising myself on the ragged rocks, and so up to our men.

"There are only two boats there," I shouted. "The rest are off for the Creux."

"Good lad!" cried George Hamon. "Off after them, Phil, and keep them in sight. Fire your pistol if they stop. We'll divide and follow, and we'll not be far behind;" and I ran on past Les Fontaines and Creux Belet.

I heard them pa.s.s Banquette as I stood in the gorse of the hillside, and followed them round to Greve de la Ville, where there was little chance of their landing, as the sh.o.r.e is not easy, and the climb not tempting.

From there I could have cut across into the Creux Road, and been at the harbour long before them, but I thought best to follow the cliffs and keep them in touch, lest they should try any tricks.

They had to keep well out round Moie a Navet, but they came in again under Grande Moie, and so we came down the coast, they below and I above, till I ran across country, back of the Cagnons, and dropped into Creux Road just above the tunnel, and there found George Hamon with a good company come straight by the road from La Tour, and still panting hard from their rush.

"Ah, here you are, mon gars!" said Uncle George. "And where are they?"

"Coming along. I saw them past Les Cagnons. How are they at Eperquerie?"

"We left them at it, but they're scotched there. Will they try here, or go on?"

"Dixcart, if they know their business. It'll be all hands to the pumps there, Uncle George. Four of us could hold the tunnel here against fifty."

"Yes, we'll get on by Les Laches and wait there and make sure. Do you stop here, Phil, with G.o.dfray and De Carteret and Jean Drillot, until you are sure they have gone on, then come on and join us. Best barricade the tunnel with some of that timber."

He and the rest went on up the hillside to Les Laches, and we four set to work hauling and piling, till the seaward mouth of the tunnel leading from the road to the sh.o.r.e was barred against any possible entrance. And listening anxiously through our barrier, with the stillness of the tunnel behind us, we presently heard the sound of the toiling oars pa.s.s slowly on towards Dixcart. We waited till they died away, and then climbed the hill to Les Laches and sped across by the old ruins, with a wide berth to the great Creux at the head of Derrible Bay, and down over the Hog's Back into Dixcart Valley, where we knew, and they knew, their best chances lay. For in Dixcart the sh.o.r.e shelves gently, and the valley runs wide to the beach; fifty boats could land there in a line, and their crews could come up the sloping way by the streamlet ten abreast. It would be no easy place to defend if the enemy pushed his attack with persistence, and every man we had would be needed.

We tumbled into our men as they settled their plan of defence. We were twenty-one all told. Ten were to go along the Hog's Back cliff towards Pointe Chateau, where they would overlook the point of landing, if the enemy made straight for the valley. They were to begin firing the moment the boats touched sh.o.r.e, and then to draw back into the valley. The other ten were to lie in the bracken on the slope of the opposite hill, just where it gives on to the bay, and to pour in their fire before the enemy had recovered from his first dose. Then, if he came on, the two bands would meet him with volleys from both hillsides as he came into the valley, and again retiring along the hillsides, would continue to hara.s.s him till, at the head of the valley, if he got that far, the united bands would meet him hand to hand. We judged he might be about thirty strong, but hoped our first volleys might bring us about even.

Uncle George asked me to go with himself and the nine along Hog's Back. As I had no gun, and only one arm in full working order, I might be useful in carrying any change of orders to the other party.

There was no sound of their coming yet, but the pull round Derrible Pointe would account for that. So we stole silently along to our appointed places.

The night was very dark and squally, but on this side of the Island we were sheltered. On the other side the white waves would be roaring and gnas.h.i.+ng up the black cliffs, but here in Dixcart they fell sadly on the s.h.i.+ngle and drew back into the depths with long-drawn growls and hisses.

"V'la!" said Uncle George, as we lay on the cliff; and we heard the oars below in the bay, and all stood up ready.

They came in as close under the cliff as they dared, so close that we heard their voices clearly between the falling of the waves. And then, dimly, we saw the black bulks of their boats in the streaming surf as it ran back to the sea, and I started, for I could only see three, but could not be certain.

"Now!" said Uncle George, and our volley caught them full.

They roared curses, and began snapping back at us as each man found his musket. But a step back took us under cover, for a black cliff two hundred and fifty feet high, and hidden in the night, offered no mark for them, and from the face of the opposite hill our other volley crashed into the marks their own fire offered.

"Again!" said Uncle George, as soon as our men were ready, and our ten guns spoke once more.

They were sadly discomfited, and furiously angry down below there. But those who were not wounded had tumbled ash.o.r.e, and they replied to our second volley with a more concerted fire. And in the flash Of their guns I, craning over the scarp of the hill, saw clearly but three boats.

"Only three boats," I whispered in George Hamon's ear. "I'm off to look for the other," and before he could stop me I was gone. For he needed all his men, and I believed I could manage alone.

Back across Hog's Back, past the old mill, through the fields by La Forge, and along the hill-path by Les Laches, and down the hill, slipping and stumbling, and into the Creux tunnel with only one fear--that I might arrive too late.

And I was only just in time. As I ran in I heard them on the seaward side hauling at the timbers of our barricade; and with my chest going like a pump, and my hands all shaking with excitement, I drew Peter Le Marchant's cutla.s.s and sent it lancing through the openings wherever a body seemed to be.

Sudden oaths broke out, and the work stopped. I pulled out one of my pistols, shoved the muzzle through a hole and pulled the trigger, and still had wit enough to wonder what would happen if it burst, as Aunt Jeanne had hinted.

It did not burst, however, and the discharge provoked a further outburst of curses. I drew the other, and fired it likewise, and stood ready with my cutla.s.s for the next a.s.sault. But they had hoped to break through unperceived, and possibly the violence of my attack misled them into a belief in numbers. They drew off along the s.h.i.+ngle, and I leaned back against the side of the tunnel and panted for my life.

I heard a discussion going on, and presently they were at work at something, but I could not make out what.