CHAPTER XXVIII--THE DREAM AND THE TERROR!
Far more acute in hearing are these children of the wilds than any whiteman who ever lived, and now, just as hope was beginning to die out ofeven Roland's heart, a sudden movement on the part of the savages whohad gained admittance caused him to marvel.
More quickly than they had entered, back they sprang towards theparapet, and on gazing after them, our heroes found that the hill-sideswere clear.
It was evident, however, that a great battle was going on down beneathon the prairie.
Explanation is hardly needed.
Rodrigo's men, guided by Benee, had outflanked--nay, evensurrounded--the foe, and with well-aimed volleys had thrust them backand back towards the river, into which, with wild agonizing shouts, allthat was left of Kaloomah's army was driven.
They were excellent swimmers, the 'gators were absent from this river,and doubtless hundreds of fugitives would find their way back into theirown dark land to tell how well and bravely the pale-faces can fight.
But Kaloomah, where is he?
Intent on revenge, even while the battle raged the fiercest and thewhites were being driven back, his quick eye caught the glimmer of thecandle-light in the cave.
Leeboo was there, he told himself, and the false witch Weenah.
He shortened his knife, and made a rush for the entrance.
"Hab--a--rabb--rr--rr--ow!" That was the voice of the great wolf-hound,as he sprang on the would-be assassin and pinned him to the ground.
Kaloomah's knife dropped from his hand as he tried to free himself.
But Brawn had him by the throat now, and had not brave Peggy sprung tothe assistance of the savage, the dog would have torn the windpipe fromhis neck.
But Kaloomah was prisoner, and when the fight was all over, the dog wasreleased from duty, and the chief was bound hand and foot and placed inthe other cave beside Peter.
This cave, which had thus been turned into a prison, possessed anentrance at the side, a kind of doorway through the dark rocks, and agreat hole at the top, through which daylight, or even moonlight, couldstream. At some not very distant date it had evidently been used as ahut, and must have been the scene of many a fearful cannibal orgie, forscores of human skulls were heaped up in corners, and calcined boneswere also found. Altogether, therefore, an unhallowed kind of place,and eerie beyond conception.
It is as well to tell the truth concerning the battle on the hill-top,ghastly though it may appear. There were no wounded men there, for evenin the thick of the fight the savages not only slew the white men whodropped, but their own maimed as well.
So long as the brave fellows under Roland and Dick held the ramparts,and poured their volleys into the ranks of the enemy beneath, scarcely awhite man was hurt; but when the battlements were carried by storm, thenthe havoc of war commenced in earnest; and at daylight a great deeptrench was excavated, and in this no fewer than eleven white men wereplaced, side by side.
A simple prayer was said, then a hymn was sung--a sad dirge-like hymn tothat sacred air called "Martyrdom", which has risen in olden times frommany a Scottish battle-field, where the heather was dripping blood. Itake my fiddle and play it now, and that mournful scene rises up beforeme, in which the white men crowd around the long quiet grave, wheretheir late companions lie sleeping in the tomb.
Every head is bared in the morning sunshine, every eye is wet withtears.
It is Bill himself who leads the melody.
Then clods are gently thrown upon the dead, and soon the grave isfilled.
----
There was not the slightest apprehension now that the battle would berenewed, and so all the day was spent in getting ready for the longmarch back to the spot where, under the charge of one of the captainsand his faithful peons, the great canoes had been left.
Among the stores brought here to camp--the suggestion had emanated fromRoland's mother and Beeboo--was a chest containing many changes ofraiment and dresses belonging to Peggy. In the cave, then, both she andWeenah conducted their toilet, and when, some time after, and just asbreakfast was about to be served, they both came out, it would have beendifficult, indeed, to keep from exclamations of surprise.
Even Benee gave way to his excitement, and, seizing Weenah, held her fora moment high in air.
"I rejoice foh true!" he cried. "All ober my heart go flapperty-flap.Oh, Weenah! you am now all same one red pale-face lady."
Dick thought Peggy, with her bonnie sun-tanned face, more lovely nowthan ever he had seen her.
----
But while they are breakfasting, and while the men are quietly butbusily engaged getting the stores down-hill, let us take a peep into thecave where the prisoners are.
When Kaloomah was thrust into the cave, Peter was fast asleep. Of latehe had become utterly tired and careless of life. Was his not a wreckedexistence from beginning to end? This was a question that he oftentimesasked himself sadly enough.
During the fight that had raged so long and fiercely he had remainedperfectly passive. What was it to him who won or who lost? If theIndians won, he would speedily be put out of pain. If the white menwere the victors--well, he would probably die just the same. At allevents, life was not worth having now.
Then, when the lull of battle came, when the wild shrieks and shoutingwere over, and when the rattling of musketry was no longer heard, hefelt utterly tired. He would sleep, he told himself, and what cared heif it should be
"The sleep that knows not breaking, Morn of toil or night of waking"?
The cords that bound him hurt a little, but he would not feel theirpressure when--he slept.
His was not a dreamless sleep by any means, though a long one.
His old, old life seemed to rise up before him. He was back again inEngland--dear old England! He was a clerk, a confidential clerk.
He had no care, no complications, and he was happy. Happy in the love ofa sweet girl who adored him; the girl that he would have made his wife.Poor? Yes, both were; but oh! when one has innocence and sweetcontentment, love can bloom in a garret.
Yet envy of the rich began to fill his soul. The world was badlydivided. Why had he to tread the streets day after day with muddy bootsto his office, and back to his dingy home after long hours of toil anddrudgery at the desk?
Oh for comfort! Oh for riches!
The girl that was to be his was more beautiful than many who lolled incushioned carriages, with liveried servants to attend their beck andcall.
So his dream went on, and dreams are but half-waking thoughts.
But it changes now!
He sees Mary his sweetheart, wan and pale, with tears in her eyes forhim whose voice she may never hear again.
For the tempter has come with gold and with golden promises.
And he has fallen!
Other men have fallen before. Why not he when so much was to be gained?So much of--nay, not of glory, but of gold. What is it that gold cannotdo?
A conscience? Yes, he had possessed one once. But this tempter hadlaughed heartily when he talked of so old-fashioned a possession. Itwas all a matter of business.
Behold those wealthy men who glide past in their beautiful landaus. Didthey have consciences? If they did, then, instead of a town and countryhouse, their home would soon be the garret vile in some back slum inLondon.
Again the dream changes. To the fearful and awful now. For, stretchedout before him is Mary, wan and worn--Mary, DEAD!
He awakes with a shriek, and sits up with his back against the blackrock.
His hand touches something cold. It is a skull, and he shudders as hethrusts it away.
But is he awake? He lifts his fettered hands and rubs his eyes.
He gazes in terror at someone that is sitting, just as he is, with hisback against the wall--and asleep.
The rough dress is all disarranged, and the brown hands are covered withblood. It is an awful v
ision.
He shuts his eyes a moment, but when he opens them again the man isstill there! The terror!
The morning sun is glimmering in and falling directly on the awfulsleeping face.
He sits bolt upright now and leans forward.
"Kaloomah!" he cries. "Kaloomah!"
And his own voice seems to belong to some spirit behind those prisonwalls.
But the terror awakes.
And the eyes of the two men meet.
"Don Pedro! You here?"
"Kaloomah. I am."
CHAPTER XXIX--EASTWARD HO! FOR MERRIE ENGLAND
Captain Roland St. Clair, as he was called by his men, was busy alongwith Dick and Bill in superintending the sending-off of all heavybaggage down-stream, when a man came up and saluted him.
"Well, Harris?"
"The prisoner Peter desires to speak with you, sir, in the presence oftwo witnesses. He wished me to request you to bring paper, pen, andink. It is his desire that you should take his deposition."
"Deposition, Harris? But the man is not dying."
"Well, perhaps not, sir. I only tell you what he says."
"I will be in his cell in less than twenty minutes, Harris."
"Dick," said Roland, at the appointed time, "there is some mystery here.Come with me, and you also, Bill."
"What I have to say must be said briefly and quickly," said Peter,sitting up. "I will not give myself the pain," he added, "to think verymuch about the past. It is all too dark and horrible. But I make thisconfession, unasked for and being still in possession of all myfaculties and reasoning power."
He spoke very slowly, and Dick wrote down the confession as he made it.
"I am guilty, gentlemen. Dare I say 'with extenuating circumstances'?That, however, will be for you to consider. As the matter stands I donot beg for my life, but rather that you should deal with me as Ideserve to be treated.
"Death, believe me, gentlemen, is in my case preferable to life. Butlisten and judge for yourselves, and if parts of my story needconfirmation, behold yonder is Kaloomah, and he it was whom I hired tocarry your adopted sister away, where in all human probability she couldnever more be heard of again. Have you got all that down?"
"I have," said Dick.
"But," said Roland, "what reason had you to take so terrible a revengeon those who never harmed you, if revenge indeed it was?"
"It was not revenge. What I did, I did for greed of gold. Listen.
"I was happy in England, and had I only been content, I might now havebeen married and in comfort, but I fell, and am now the heart-brokenvillain you see before you.
"You know the will your uncle made, Mr. St. Clair?"
"I have only heard of it."
"It was I who copied it for my master, the wretched solicitor.
"I stole that copy and re-copied it, and sold it to the only man whom itcould benefit, and that was your Uncle John."
"My Uncle John? He who sent you out to my poor, dear father?"
"The same. But let me hurry on. The real will is still in possessionof the solicitor, and it gives all the estates of Burnley Hall, inCornwall, to John, in the event of Peggy's death."
"I begin to see," said Dick.
"My reward was to have been great, if I managed the affair properly. Ihave never had it, and, alas! I need it not now.
"But," he continued, "your villainous uncle was too great a coward tohave Peggy murdered. His last words to me on board the steamer before Isailed were: 'Remember--not one single drop of blood shed.'
"I might have done worse than even I did, but these were the words thatinstigated my vile plot, of which I now most heartily repent. All I hadto do was to get apparent proof of Peggy's death."
"And my Uncle John now holds the estates of Burnley Hall? Is that so?"
"He does. The solicitor could not help but produce the will, on hearingof Peggy's capture and death.
"That, then, is my story, gentlemen. Before Heaven I swear it is alltrue. It is, moreover, my deposition, for I already feel the coldshadow of death creeping over me. Yes, I will sign it."
He did so.
"I makee sign too," said Kaloomah.
"That is the man whom I hired to do the deed," said Peter again.
And Kaloomah made his mark.
"I feel easier now, gentlemen" continued Peter. "But leave me a while.I would sleep."
----
Kaloomah had all a savage's love for the horrible, and he was merely aninterested spectator of the tragedy that followed.
Between him and Peter lie two poison-tipped arrows.
At first Peter looks at them like one dazed. Then he glances upwards atthe glorious sunshine streaming in through the opening.
Nearer and nearer he now creeps to those arrows!
Nearer and nearer!
Now he positions them with his manacled hands.
Then strikes.
In half an hour's time, when Burly Bill entered the cave to inform theprisoners that it was time for them to be on the road, he started backin horror.
Peter, fearfully contorted, lay on the floor of the cave, dead.
----
Some weeks after this the party found themselves once more near to thebanks of the rapid Madeira.
Everything had gone well with those captains and peons whom they hadleft behind, and now every preparation was made to descend the streamwith all possible speed, consonant with safety.
They had taken Kaloomah thus far, lest he should return and bringanother army to attack them.
And now a kind of drum-head court-martial was held on this wild chief,at which even Charlie and Benee were present.
"I really don't see," said Roland, "what good has come of saddlingourselves with a savage."
"No, I agree with you, Roll," said Dick. "Peter has gone to hisaccount, and really this Kaloomah has been more sinned against than hehas sinned."
"What would you advise, Bill?"
"Why, I'd give him a rousing kick and let him go."
"And you Benee?"
"I go for hangee he."
"Charlie, what would you do?"
Charlie was smiling and rubbing his hands; it was evident he hadformulated some plan that satisfied himself.
"I tie dat savage to one biggee stake all by de ribber, den watch de'gator come, chumpee, chumpee he."
But a more merciful plan was adopted. Kaloomah evidently expecteddeath, but when Roland himself cut his bonds and pointed to the west,the savage gave just one wild whoop and yell, and next moment he haddisappeared in the forest.
----
Were I beginning a story instead of ending one, I should not be able toresist the temptation to describe that voyage down the beautifulMadeira.
It must suffice to say that it was all one long and happy picnic.
Just one grief, however, had been Peggy's at the start. Poor Dixie, thepony, must be left behind.
She kissed his forehead as she bade him good-bye, and her face was wetwith tears as she turned her back to her favourite.
Roland did what he could to comfort her.
"Dixie will soon be as happy as any horse can be," he said. "He willfind companions, and will live a long, long time in the wilds of thisbeautiful land. So you must not grieve."
----
There are times when people in this world are so inexpressibly happythat they cannot wish evil to happen even to their greatest enemies.They feel that they would like every creature, every being on earth, tobe happy also.
Surely it is with some such spirit that angels and saints in heaven areimbued.
Had you been on board the steamship _Panama_ as she was swiftlyploughing her way through the wide blue sea that separates Old Englandfrom South America, from Para and the mouths of the mighty Amazon, youcould not have been otherwise than struck with the evident contentmentand happiness of a gr
oup of saloon passengers there. Whether walkingthe quarter-deck, or seated on chairs under the awning, or early in themorning surrounding their own special little breakfast-table, pleasurebeamed in every eye, joy in every face.
Who were they? Listen and I shall tell you.
There was Roland, Dick, Roland's sweet-faced mother, Peggy; and last,but certainly not least in size at all events, there was dark-skinnedjolly-looking Burly Bill himself.
But Burly Bill did not obtrude his company too much on the youngerfolks. He was fond of walking on the bridge and talking to the officeron duty. Fond, too, of blowing a cloud from his lips as they dalliedwith his great meerschaum. Fond of telling a good story, but fonderstill of listening to one, and often chuckling over it till he appearedquite apoplectic.
There was someone else on board who must be mentioned. And this wasDixie, the pony!
Did he remain on the banks of the Madeira? Not he. For by some meansor other he found his way--so marvellous is the homing instinct inanimals--back to the old plantation long before Roland and his littlearmy, and was the first to run out to meet Peggy and get a kiss on hissoft warm snout.
Need I add that Brawn was one of the passengers? And a happy dog he was,and always ready for a lark when the sailors chose to throw abelaying-pin for him.
Dick had had a grief to face when he returned.
His uncle was dead. So he determined--as did Roland with hisplantation--to sell off and return to England, for a time at all events.
The two estates are now worked by a "Company Ltd.", but Jake Solomons ishead overseer.
Benee, who has married his "moon-dream", little Weenah, is second incommand, and right merry of a morning is the boom and the song of theold buzz-saw.
----
So happy, then, were Roland and Dick and Peggy that they concluded theywould not be too hard on wicked Uncle John.
This wicked Uncle John went into retirement after the arrival of ourheroes and heroine. He might have been sent into retirement of quite adifferent sort if Roland had cared to press matters.
Peggy got all her own again. She is now Mrs. Temple, and Dick and sheare beloved by all the tenantry--yes, and by all the county gentry andfarmer folks round and round.
I had almost forgotten to say a last word about Beeboo. She is Mrs.Temple's chief servant, and a right happy body is Beeboo, and BurlyBilly is estate manager.
Now, if any of my readers want a special treat, let him or her try toget an invitation to spend Christmas at Burnley Old Hall.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends