CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
"Here, what's the matter?" I cried; and at that moment Sarah camerunning out again, looking inquiringly from one to the other.
"What was that noise?" she said.
"De ribber--de ribber," panted Hannibal. Then he tried to say more, buthe was so excited that his command of English failed him, and he turnedto Pomp, who had just come back from the hut, and said something to himvolubly in his own tongue. Pomp's mouth opened wide, and he staredwildly at his father. Then turning to me, he caught hold of my arm.
"Come, get up the tree, Mass' George. Pull missie up the tree."
"What for? What's the matter?" I said, as the dull roaring seemed tobe coming back.
"Ribber run all ober; water take away de boat, and all gone."
"River running over? What do you mean--a flood?"
"Yes, dat's flood. Come, get up a tree."
"Oh, nonsense! Come and see."
"No, no, Mass' George, mustn't go," cried Pomp, seizing my arm, and Iwas making for the path leading to the stream. "Hark! Hear dat?"
I certainly did hear a low, ominous roar rising and falling in the air,but it sounded like distant thunder dying away. I began to be startlednow, for the look of dread in Hannibal's features was not without itseffect upon me. Just then Pomp began to drag Sarah toward the biggestcypress about the place, chattering to her excitedly the while.
"No, no, I can't; my good boy, no," she cried. "What! Get up the tree?Oh, nonsense! Here, Master George, my dear boy, what does it allmean?"
"I don't know. I'm as puzzled as you are, but it means that we're goingto have a flood. I wish my father was here."
"Look here, Pomp," I said; "we need not climb a tree; it's a greatchance if the water reaches as high as the garden;" and I looked round,thinking how wise my father had been to select this spot, which was theonly rising bit of ground near, though he had not chosen it on accountof fears of flood, but so as to be well above the swamp damp and mists.
Hannibal said something excitedly to his son.
"Yes; climb up a tree, Mass' George. Big water come roll down, wash umall away. Ah! Make um hase, Mass' George." He seized me by the arm,and pushed me toward the tree, which was about a hundred feet away downthe slope at the back, but almost instantaneously a wave of water camewashing and sighing through the forest slowly but surely, and lappedonward as it swept out from the forest line at a rate which, deliberateas it seemed, was sufficient for it to reach the big cypress before wecould; and I stopped short appalled and looked round for a place ofrefuge.
The water came on, and in another minute would have been up to where westood, but it shrank back again toward the forest, and I felt that thedanger was over, when to my great delight I heard a shout, the splashingof some one running through water, and my father came into sight to runup the slope to the place where we stood, closely followed by Morgan,and both at first too much exhausted to speak.
"Thank God!" he cried at last. "Don't speak. Flood. The settlementdeep in water. Rising fast. The boat?"
"Wash away, massa," cried Pomp.
"Ah!" cried my father, despairingly. "Quick, all of you. It is comingnow."
As he spoke I heard the deep roar increasing, and after a glance round,my father pointed to the tree.
"We must get up into that. No: too late."
For the flood came in a great, smooth, swelling wave out from the edgeof the forest, and then glided toward us, rising rapidly up the slope.
"I'm with you," cried my father, and catching Sarah by the hand, hedragged her into the house, seized the rough ladder, and made her climbup silent and trembling into the loft, where, before we could join her,the water was over the doorsteps and had risen to our knees.
But the moment Sarah was in the loft, my father ordered Pomp and me tofollow, then Hannibal and Morgan, coming up last himself, by which timethe water was up to his waist.
As soon as he was in the little low loft, my father forced out thewooden bars across one of the windows and looked out, to take in theextent of our danger, and I pressed close to his side.
"Is there any danger?" I said, rather huskily.
"I hope not, my boy," he said, sadly. "The question is whether thehouse will be swept right away. Everything depends upon whether itcomes with a fierce rash, or rises slowly."
I looked round and could see that the flood kept coming in little swellsor waves from the edge of the forest, the water rushing out from amongthe tall trunks, and then seeming to undulate gently toward the house.The garden was covered deeply, and where I had been accustomed to lookat the pleasant sand-walks, and the young fruit-trees, all was nowwater, out of which rose the tops of trees here and there.
The thatched roof of the blacks' hut was just visible as a grey pointseen amongst the tree-tops, and all at once I saw it rise up high out ofthe water and then settle down again and float slowly away.
At that moment my father uttered a low sigh, and then there was anotherloud dull roar, and a great wave came rolling out of the edge of theforest, swelling onward, the tops of the trees bending towards us as itcame on and on slowly, but with a force that bore all before it, and Ifelt my father's hand clasp mine in his.
"Quick!" he whispered; "climb out, and get on the ridge of the roof."
"Are you coming too, father?" I said.
"Out, quick!" he answered, but before I was clear of the window, he hadhold of me and half drew me back, holding to me tightly, and not withoutneed, for there was a dull thud, the house quivered from the tremendousblow, and I felt the water leap over me, deluging me from head to foot,and making me gasp for breath as I struggled to get back.
"Quiet!" said my father, sternly, and I remained still, expecting tofeel the house swept away, to go floating like the roof of the hut,right away.
But it stood firm, the wave gliding off, but leaving the water nowrippling up between the boards, telling that the lower floor was filled,and the flood rising through the ceiling.
An anxious ten minutes ensued, during which wave after wave came rollingout of the forest, each to deliver a heavy blow at our house, making theroof crack, but never yield, and with the last came so great an influxof water that our position rapidly began to grow untenable.
My father made no effort to induce me to climb up after the first wavestruck us, till the water had risen well up into the loft, when he saidquietly--
"Up with you, Morgan, on to the ridge."
"Begging your pardon, sir, I--"
"Silence, sir! Out and up with you, and be ready to take your wife'shands."
It was the officer spoke then, and Morgan crept out through the roughdormer window, and directly after shouted briefly--
"Ready."
"Now, Sarah, my good woman, be brave and firm; creep out here," said myfather. "Don't think about the water, and grasp your husband's hands atonce."
I heard Sarah give a deep sigh, and she caught at and pressed myshoulder as she passed; then with an activity I should not have expectedof her, she crept out of the window, my father holding her dresstightly; there was a loud scrambling sound heard above the hissing androaring of the water, and my father spoke again.
"Safe!" he muttered. Then aloud, "Now, boys--both of you--up, and on tothe ridge."
"You first, Pomp," I said; and the boy scrambled out, and I followed,the task being, of course, mere play to us as we crept up thewell-timbered roof, and got outside of the ridge-pole.
We had not been there a minute before Hannibal and my father were besideus, and the waste of water all around.
"Not much too soon," said my father, cheerfully. "Do you see, George?"
"Yes, father," I said, feeling rather white, or as I suppose any onewould feel if he were white, for the water was level now with the bottomof the window; "will it rise higher?"
"I am afraid so," he said, gravely, as he looked sharply round at thevarious trees standing out of the water. "Yes," he continued, with thefirmness of one who has mad
e his decision; "Morgan, you swim well, andthe current sets in the right direction. If the house gives way--"
"Oh, but it won't, sir; we made it too strong for that."
"Then if the water compels us to leave here, do you think you cansupport your wife to that tree, if I swim beside and help you?"
"I will support her there, sir," said Morgan, firmly.
"That's right. Hannibal, you can easily reach there?"
"Yes, sah."
"And you boys can, of course. We may have to take to that tree, for Ithink it will stand."
We all declared our ability to reach the new refuge, and Pomp gave me anod and a smile, for it was the tree we had before meant to reach; andthen we sat there awe-struck, and wondering whether the house would giveway, and be swept from its position.
But now no fresh waves came rolling out of the forest, only a currentswept gently past, and after a long silence my father said--
"Yes, that must be it. A terrible series of storms must have beenoccurring, hundreds, perhaps a thousand miles away up in the highlandsand mountains, gathering force, till a flood has swept down to here likea series of huge waves passing down the rivers, and flooding all theirbanks. The first violence has passed, and I think we may hope that thewaters will go down as rapidly as they rose."
But his words did not seem likely to prove correct, for as we sat there,with evening creeping on, it was plain to see that the water was stillrising--very slowly, but creeping steadily on. At first it was onlylevel with the dormer window; then by slow degrees it was half way up;and as darkness was coming on, the top of the window was nearly reached.
The roof was high in pitch, so that we were well out of the reach of thecold current as yet; but calculating by the rate of advance, it wasplain that before many hours had passed the water would have risen tous; and the question my father had to ask us all was, whether we shouldstay there in the hope that at any time the highest point of the floodmight have been reached, or try and swim at once to the great cypress,and take refuge among its boughs.
"What do you say, Morgan?" said my father at last. "Shall we go orstay?"
"Don't know what to say, sir. We are dry now, but if we swim to thetree we shall all be drenched, except these two blacks, and they caneasily wring out their things. Then it means sitting in our wet clotheshalf perished through the night. I don't so much mind, but it would beterrible for her."
"Don't study me, sir, please," said Sarah, firmly. "Do what is for thebest."
"I think what you say is right, Morgan. We can but swim to the treewhen the water rises too high for us to stay here longer."
"But you don't really think it'll get any higher, sir, do you?"
"I am afraid to say what I think," replied my father. "We are in a vastcontinent whose rivers are enormous. You see the water is stillrising."
"Oh yes, sir, it's still rising," grumbled Morgan; "but I wish it wouldkeep still. Going to stop or go, sir? If we go it had better be atonce."
"We will stay," said my father; and as terrible a vigil as ever poorcreatures kept commenced.
Fortunately for us the night was glorious, and as the last gleam ofdaylight passed away, the great stars came out rapidly, till thedarkened heavens were one blaze of splendour, while the scene was mademore grand by the glittering being reflected from the calm surface ofthe waters all around, till we seemed to be sitting there in the midstof a sea of gold, with blackened figures standing up dotted here andthere, and beyond them the dark line of the forest.
The silence for a time was awful, for the current now ran very slowly,and the rise of the water was so insidious that it could hardly beperceived.
From time to time my father tried to raise our spirits by speakinghopefully and prayerfully of our position, but it was hard work to raisethe spirits of poor creatures in so perilous a strait, and after a timehe became silent, and we all sat wondering, and bending down to feel ifthe water was still rising.
Then all at once a curious thrill of horror ran through me, for thehideous bellow of an alligator was heard, and Morgan's hand wentinvoluntarily to his pocket.
"Got knives, everybody?" he said. "Don't want them cowardly beasts totackle us now."
"It is hardly likely," said my father, but at that moment as he spokePomp touched my arm.
"Dah 'gator!" he said, pointing.
I could see nothing, only that there was a broken lustre of the starsreflected on the water; and if it was one of the monsters it slowlyglided away.
Then it began to grow colder and colder, and as I sat and gazed beforeme, the dark trees standing above the flood grew misty, and a pleasantsensation was stealing over me, when I felt my arm grasped tightly, andI gave quite a jump.
"No, no, my boy!" said my father, sternly. "You must not give way tothat."
"I--I--" I faltered.
"You were dropping off to sleep," said my father, firmly. "You mustmaster the desire. Hannibal, take care that Pomp does not go to sleep."
"Him sleep long time, sah," said the black. "Wake um up?"
"No; let him sleep; only keep watch over him, or he may slide into thewater."
There was silence again, only broken by a low sigh or two from Sarah, towhom Morgan muttered something again and again as the time crawledslowly on and the waters still rose higher and higher toward our feet.
Never did the night seem so long before, and the only relief I had in mywearisome position was derived from the efforts I had to make from timeto time to master the terrible feeling of drowsiness which would keepcoming on.
Every now and then there was a little buzz of conversation, and I madeout that my father asked every one's opinion, and made all try to makeout how much higher the water had risen, so as to excite their interest,though it was all plain enough.
And so the night wore on, with the flood gliding up and up, and strangesplashings and bellowings heard from time to time, now far off, nownearer, and every eye was strained to see if the creatures that madethese noises were appearing.
Then all was silent again, and we waited, with the water still rising.
All at once I caught at my father's arm.
"What's that?" I whispered, in awe-stricken tones, for there was acurious quivering thrill in the timbers of the house, and it felt to meas if it was at last yielding to the presence of the water, andpreparing to break up and float away.
My father did not answer for a few moments, and I knew that he waslistening intently.
"I am not sure," he said at last. "I think--and hope--that it wassomething heavy swept against the house, and that it has passed on."
The alarm died out, and we sat either in silence or talking together ofthe state of affairs at the settlement, and the possibility of helpcoming in the shape of boats at daybreak, when Pomp's sharp voicesuddenly rang out--
"Hi! Who did dat? Who pour cole water on nigger leg?"
In spite of the cold and misery and peril of my position, I could nothelp laughing heartily as I heard Hannibal speaking angrily.
Pomp retorted just as sharply, but though his father spoke in their WestAfrican tongue the boy replied in his broken English, to which he wasdaily becoming more accustomed, while his father acquired it far moreslowly.
"How I know?" cried Pomp, irritably. "I tought Mass' George play trick.Hi! Mass' George, you dah?"
"Yes," I said. "What is it?"
"You got anyfing to eat? I so dreffle hungry."
"No, Pomp," I replied, sadly; "nothing at all."
"You been sleep, sah?" he continued, turning to my father.
"No, my lad, no," replied my father, good-humouredly, and I heard theboy yawn loudly.
There was no need to measure the water now, or to be in doubt as towhether it was rising, for it had wetted our feet as we sat astride, oreased the position by sitting in the ordinary way. But the stars stillshone, and the night dragged its slow way on.
"Will morning never come?" I said, despairingly to my father at last."Oh, I am
so--so sleepy."
He took my hand and pressed it. "Try and bear it all like a man, myboy," he whispered. "There is a woman with us, and you have not heardher make a single complaint."
"No; it was very selfish and cowardly of me, father," I whispered back,"and I will try."
I did, and I conquered, for I know that not a single complaintafterwards escaped my lips.
And higher still rose the black, gold-spangled water over our ankles,creeping chilly and numbing up our legs, and we knew that before longthe effort would have to be made to reach the great black mound ofboughs which we could dimly see a short distance away.
"How far do you think it is from daybreak, Morgan?" said my fathersuddenly, after what seemed to me a terrible time of suspense.
"Don't know, sir. Daren't guess at it," said Morgan, despondently."Time has gone so slowly that it may be hours off yet."
"No," said my father, "it cannot be very far away. If I could feel sureI would still wait before making our attempt, but I am afraid to waitlong. We are getting chilled and numb."
"Just so, sir," said Morgan, sadly. "You think for us all, sir, andgive your orders. I'll do my best."
There was another pause, and I heard my father draw a deep breath, andthen speak sharply--
"Well, George," he said; "how do you feel for your swim?"
I tried to answer, but a feeling of despair choked me, as I lookedacross at the dark boughs, thought of the depth of water between, andthat I could not swim there now.
"Oh, come, come, lad, pick up," cried my father. "The distance isnothing. I shall want you to help me."
"Yes, father," I said, despondently; and I heard him draw a deep,catching breath.
But he knew that on him lay the task of saving us all, and he saidcheerfully--
"You can easily swim that, Hannibal?"
"Yes, sah," said the black, quietly.
"And you, Pompey?"
"Eh, massa? Swim dat? Yes, Pomp swim all dat, sah."
"We shall be forced to start directly," said my father. "Do you hear,Morgan? We must not wait to be floated off."
"No, sir," replied Morgan; and his voice sounded sad and grave, and alow sigh came from by his side. Then arose in a low voice--
"Master George, dear, could you get here?"
"Yes," I said, trying to stir myself; and, catching hold of my father'shand, I stood up with a foot on each side of the ridge, stiff, cramped,and with the water streaming from me.
"That's right," said my father, cheerfully. "Mind how you go, my lad.It will stretch your legs. Take hold of Hannibal; don't slip and get aducking."
He said all this cheerily, and I knew it was to encourage us all; but asI passed by him, stepping right over his legs, he whispered, "Speakcheerily to the poor woman."
"Yes, father," I whispered back.
"Don't keep him, Sarah," said my father. "I want to come there myself;I shall swim by your other side."
She did not answer, and I crept by Hannibal and then over Pomp, who gaveme a hug, his teeth chattering as he said--
"Oh, I say, Mass' George, I so dreffle cold. Water right up a-top."
The next moment I was seated again on the ridge, feeling that the waterreally was right up to the top, as Sarah's cold arms closed round me,and her wet face was pressed to mine as she kissed me.
"Good-bye; God bless you, my darling!"
"Don't, don't talk like that," I said. "We'll all mount the tree, andthe water will go down."
A piteous, despairing sigh came into my ear, and I felt Morgan's handseek mine, and give me what I knew was meant for a farewell grip.
A bad preparation for a swim to save one's life, and the chill of therising water began now to increase as I fancied it made a leap at us, asif to snatch us off and bear us away to the far-off dark shores beyondwhich there was a newer life.
"Come, George, my lad. Back with you," cried my father; "I want to comethere. Be ready every one; we must start in a few minutes."
"Yes, father," I said; and I was on my way back, passing Pomp, who beganto follow me, and together we crept, splashing through the water,holding tight by Hannibal, and then by my father.
"You too, my lad?" he said, kindly.
"Yes, massa," replied Pomp.
"Swim steadily, both of you. The distance is very short, and there isnothing to mind." Then as if to himself--"Oh, if I could only tell whenmorning would come!"
"Massa want know when time to get up to go to work?" said Pomp, sharply.
"Yes."
"Oh, quite soon, sah. Sun come up dreckly, and warm poor little nigger;I so dreffle cold."
"How do you know?" cried my father, clinging as it were like a drowningman to a straw of hope.
"Oh, Pomp know, sah. Dah! You ope bofe ear, and listum to lil bird.Dat him. Lil blackum yallow bird, go _pinkum-winkum-wee_."
A dead silence fell upon us, and what had been inaudible to me, butquite plain to the boy, came faintly from the distance--the twitteringcry of a bird in one of the trees at the edge of the forest; anddirectly after it was answered from far away, and I felt my father'scold wet hand grasp mine as he exclaimed hoarsely--"Thank God."
I could hear him breathing hard, and the tears ran down my cheeks as myhead rested on his breast, and I clung to him for a few seconds.
Then he drew another deep breath, and his voice and manner were entirelychanged, as he cried out--
"Do you hear, Morgan? Daybreak in a few minutes, and the sun beforelong. I think we could hold out here for an hour at a pinch. We shallhave our swim long before that, and with heaven's good light to help ussafely there."
"Hurrah!" shouted Morgan, hoarsely. And then we all joined in a heartycheer, while the cry of the bird rang out directly after from close athand.