Real Gold Part 29

"And try to kill us?"

"Yes, they would kill you."

"Try to, you mean."

"No," said the man gravely. "Kill you. You are few, they are many."

"Stop a moment," said Cyril, as the man turned his head aside wearily.

"Will they try to kill us if we stay?"

"No."

Cyril tried to get more information from the man, but he shook his head, and made a pretence of being so lazy and unable to comprehend the boy's words, that Cyril gave up in disgust, and turned impatiently away.

"It's of no good to-night," he said. "We heard all that he is likely to know. Let's walk round again."

"But they may strike at us in the dark."

"No, they will not do that. I'm not afraid. Let's go through with our watching, till we think it's midnight, and then wake up the colonel."

"We'd better call him now."

"No; if we did, it would only be giving a false alarm, when we know that there is no danger. Come along."

The weaker mind yielded to the stronger, and the march round was begun again, one which required no little courage, knowing, as the boys did, that there must be quite a dozen Indians within striking distance, and every rustle they heard, made probably by one of the grazing mules, might be caused by an enemy creeping forward to strike a blow.

At last, when they felt that it must be getting toward midnight, Cyril proposed that they should go back close to where the colonel lay asleep, and they had not been standing near him ten minutes, hesitating to call him for fear he should be awakened too soon, when he suddenly made a hasty movement, opened his eyes, looked round, and sprang to his feet.

"Midnight, boys," he said, "is it not?"

"We don't know, father, and did not like to call you too soon."

"Yes, it must be about midnight," he said decisively, "or I should not have woke up. Well, is all right?"

"No, father," whispered Perry.

"Oh yes; there's nothing to mind," said Cyril hastily. "We only found that there are a lot of Indians round about the camp."

"You saw them?"

"Yes, sir. So soon as we moved a little way, a man rose up and stopped us."

"On one side?" said the colonel.

"All round, sir."

"On guard, then, in case we wished to escape. We're prisoners, my lad, for the present. However, they will not venture to hurt us, unless we give them good reason, by loading up the mules to take away something they consider ought to be kept here, and that we shall not be ready to do for some days to come."

"That's what I wanted Perry to feel sir," said Cyril, "but he would have it that they were going to attack us to-night."

"There is no fear of that, my boy," said the colonel firmly. "There, lie down, and sleep till breakfast-time; there is nothing to fear."

"But are you going to watch alone, sir?"

"Yes, quite alone, my lad," said the colonel, smiling. "There, take my place; I'm rested now, and you have nothing to mind. Don't meet perils half-way; its bad enough when they come. Till they do, it is our duty to be patient and watch. Afterwards we must fight--if it is necessary.

Now--to bed."

The boys obeyed, and the colonel commenced his solitary watch.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

COLLECTING THE GOLD.

"Ever see 'em ketch eels at home, Master Cyril?" said John Manning one morning.

"We used to set night lines in the lake at school," said Cyril. "We threw the bait out ever so far, and tied the other end to a brick sunk in the water."

"Oh yes: but I don't mean that way, where every twopenny eel spoils four pen'orth o' good line and hooks. I mean with an eel-trap, one of those made of osiers, so that it's very easy to get in, but very hard to get out."

"Yes; I saw some of those once," cried Perry, "up by a weir. But why?

There are no eels here."

John Manning chuckled, and shook all over, as if he enjoyed what he was saying.

"Not many, sir, but quite enough. We're the eels, and we've wriggled ourselves right into a trap, and there's no getting out again."

"It doesn't seem as if there were," said Cyril thoughtfully; "but we're getting what the colonel wanted, and I don't think the Indians have noticed it yet."

"'Tain't for want of looking, sir," said the old soldier. "I go for a bit of a walk in one direction, and begin picking something, and feel a tickling about the back. 'Some one's eyes on me,' I says to myself, and I go a bit farther, and feel the same tickling in front. Then one side, then t'other, and it's always eyes watching."

"Yes," said Perry. "We've been a week here, and I get so sick of it: I never move without there being some one after me; and the worst of it is, you don't see him coming, but find him watching you from behind a rock, or out of a bush."

"Yes," said Cyril, "it isn't nice. They crawl about like snakes, and almost as quietly."

"Don't matter," said John Manning, with another chuckle. "We can be as cunning as they. How have you young gents got on since the colonel give his orders?"

"Pretty well," said Cyril. "Of course it's of no use to try and get roots or cuttings, they look too sharp after us; but I've found some seed, and he has got more than I have."

"How much have you got, both of you together?" asked the old soldier, with his eyes twinkling.

"Nearly a handful, I should say," replied Cyril.

"A handful, sir! Why, what's that? I've got quite half a gallon."

"You have?" cried Perry. "Father will be so pleased."