CHAPTER VI
THREE WILD BEASTS
When the captain joined the two ladies and the boy, who were impatientlywaiting for him on the plateau, he had made up his mind to tell them thebad news. Terrible as was the necessity, it could not be helped. It wasvery hard for him to meet those three radiant faces, and to hear themtalk about the water that had been discovered.
"Now," said Mrs. Cliff, "I see no reason why we should not live here inpeace and comfort until Mr. Rynders chooses to come back for us. And Ihave been thinking, captain, that if somebody--and I am sure Ralph wouldbe very good at it--could catch some fish, it would help out very much.We are getting a little short of meat, but as for the other things, wehave enough to last for days and days. But we won't talk of that now. Wewant to hear where that other colored man came from. Just look at him ashe sits there with Maka by those embers. One might think he would shiverhimself to pieces. Was he cast ashore from a wreck?"
The captain stood silent for a moment, and then, briefly but plainly, andglossing over the horrors of the situation as much as he could, he toldthem about the Rackbirds. Not one of the little party interrupted thecaptain's story, but their faces grew paler and paler as he proceeded.
When he had finished, Mrs. Cliff burst into tears. "Captain," she cried,"let us take the boat and row away from this dreadful place. We shouldnot lose a minute. Let us go now!"
But the captain shook his head. "That would not do," he said. "On thisopen sea they could easily see us. They have boats, and could row muchfaster than we could."
"Then," exclaimed the excited woman, "we could turn over the boat, andall sink to the bottom together."
To this the captain made no answer. "You must all get inside as quicklyas you can," he said. "Maka, you and that other fellow carry ineverything that has been left out here. Be quick. Go up, Ralph, and takethe flag down, and then run in."
When the others had entered the narrow passage, the captain followed.Fortunately, he had two guns, each double-barrelled, and if but a few ofthe Rackbirds came in pursuit of the escaped negro, he might be a matchfor them in that narrow passage.
Shortly after the party had retired within the rocks, Miss Markham cameto the captain, who was standing at the door of the first apartment."Captain Horn," said she, "Mrs. Cliff is in a state of nervous fear, andI have been trying to quiet her. Can you say anything that might give hera little courage? Do you really think there is any chance of our escapefrom this new danger?"
"Yes," said the captain, "there is a chance. Rynders may come backbefore the Rackbirds discover us, and even if two or three of themfind out our retreat, I may be able to dispose of them, and thus giveus a little more time. That is our only ground of hope. Those men arebound to come here sooner or later, and everything depends upon thereturn of Rynders."
"But," urged Miss Markham, "perhaps they may not come so far as thisto look for the runaway. The waves may have washed out his footstepsupon the sand. There may be no reason why they should come up tothis plateau."
The captain smiled a very sombre smile. "If any of them should come thisway," he said, "it is possible that they might not think it worth whileto cease their search along the beach and come up to this particularspot, were it not that our boat is down there. That is the same thing asif we had put out a sign to tell them where we are. The boat is hauled upon shore, but they could not fail to see it."
"Captain," said Miss Markham, "do you think those Rackbirds killed thethree sailors?"
"I am very much afraid of it," he answered. "If they did, they must haveknown that these poor fellows were survivors of a shipwreck, and Isuppose they stole up behind them and shot them down or stabbed them. Ifthat were so, I wonder why they have not sooner been this way, lookingfor the wreck, or, at least, for other unfortunates who may have reachedshore. I suppose, if they are making this sort of a search, they wentsouthward. But all that, of course, depends upon whether they really sawDavis and the two other men. If they did not, they could have no reasonfor supposing there were any shipwrecked people on the coast."
"But that thought is of no use to us," said Miss Markham, her eyes uponthe ground, "for, of course, they will be coming after the black man.Captain," she continued quickly, "is there anything I can do? I canfire a gun."
He looked at her for a moment. "That will not be necessary," he said."But there is something you can do. Have you a pistol?"
"Yes," said she, "I have. I put it in my pocket as soon as I came intothe cave. Here it is."
The captain took the pistol from her hands and examined it. "Fivechambers," he said, "all charged. Be very careful of it,"--handing itback to her. "I will put your brother and Mrs. Cliff in your charge. Atthe slightest hint of danger, you must keep together in the middle room.I will stand between you and the rascals as long as I can, but if I amkilled, you must do what you think best."
"I will," said she, and she put the pistol back in her pocket.
The captain was very much encouraged by the brave talk of this youngwoman, and it really seemed as if he now had some one to stand by him,some one with whom he could even consult.
"I have carefully examined this cavern," said the captain, after amoment's pause, "and there are only two ways by which those men couldpossibly get in. You need not be afraid that any one can scramble downthe walls of that farthest apartment. That could not be done, though theymight be able to fire upon any one in it. But in the middle room youwill be perfectly secure from gunshots. I shall keep Maka on guard alittle back from the entrance to the passage. He will lie on the ground,and can hear footsteps long before they reach us. It is barely possiblethat some of them might enter by the great cleft in the cave on the otherside of the lake, but in that case they would have to swim across, and Ishall station that new African on the ledge of which you have heard, andif he sees any of them coming in that direction, I know he will give veryquick warning. I hardly think, though, that they would trust themselvesto be picked off while swimming."
"And you?" said she.
"Oh, I shall keep my eyes on all points," said he, "as far as I can. Ibegin to feel a spirit of fight rising up within me. If I thought I couldkeep them off until Rynders gets here, I almost wish they would thencome. I would like to kill a lot of them."
"Suppose," said Edna Markham, after a moment's reflection, "that theyshould see Mr. Rynders coming back, and should attack him."
"I hardly think they would do that," replied the captain. "He willprobably come in a good-sized vessel, and I don't think they are the kindof men for open battle. They are midnight sneaks and assassins. Now, Iadvise all of you to go and get something to eat. It would be better forus not to try to do any cooking, and so make a smoke."
The captain did not wish to talk any more. Miss Markham's last remark hadput a new fear into his mind. Suppose the Rackbirds had lured Rynders andhis men on shore? Those sailors had but few arms among them. They hadnot thought, when they left, that there would be any necessity fordefence against their fellow-beings.
When Edna Markham told Mrs. Cliff what the captain had said about theirchances, and what he intended to do for their protection, the older womanbrightened up a good deal.
"I have great faith in the captain," she declared, "and if he thinks itis worth while to make a fight, I believe he will make a good one. Ifthey should be firing, and Mr. Rynders is approaching the coast, even ifit should be night, he would lose no time in getting to us."
Toward the close of that afternoon three wild beasts came around thepoint of the bluff and made their way northward along the beach. Theywere ferocious creatures with shaggy hair and beards. Two of them carriedguns, and each of them had a knife in his belt. When they came to a broadbit of beach above the reach of the waves, they were very much surprisedat some footsteps they saw. They were the tracks of two men, instead ofthose of the one they were looking for. This discovery made them verycautious. They were eager to kill the escaped African before he got farenough away to give information of their retreat, for they k
new not atwhat time an armed force in search of them might approach the coast. Butthey were very wary about running into danger. There was somebody withthat black fellow--somebody who wore boots.
After a time they came to the boat. The minute they saw this, eachmiscreant crouched suddenly upon the sand, and, with cocked guns, theylistened. Then, hearing nothing, they carefully examined the boat. Itwas empty--there were not even oars in it.
Looking about them, they saw a hollow behind some rocks. To this theyran, crouching close to the ground, and there they sat and consulted.
It was between two and three o'clock the next morning that Maka's eyes,which had not closed for more than twenty hours, refused to keep open anylonger, and with his head on the hard, rocky ground of the passage inwhich he lay, the poor African slept soundly. On the shelf at the edge ofthe lake, the other African, Mok, sat crouched on his heels, his eyeswide open. Whether he was asleep or not it would have been difficult todetermine, but if any one had appeared in the great cleft on the otherside of the lake, he would have sprung to his feet with a yell--his fearof the Rackbirds was always awake.
Inside the first apartment was Captain Horn, fast asleep, his two guns byhis side. He had kept watch until an hour before, but Ralph had insistedupon taking his turn, and, as the captain knew he could not keep awakealways, he allowed the boy to take a short watch. But now Ralph wasleaning back against one of the walls, snoring evenly and steadily. Inthe next room sat Edna Markham, wide awake. She knew of the arrangementmade with Ralph, and she knew the boy's healthy, sleepy nature, so thatwhen he went on watch she went on watch.
Outside of the cave were three wild beasts. One of them was crouching onthe farther end of the plateau. Another, on the lower ground a littlebelow, stood, gun in hand, and barely visible in the starlight. A third,barefooted, and in garments dingy as the night, and armed only with aknife, crept softly toward the entrance of the cave. There he stoppedand listened. He could plainly hear the breathing of the sleepers. Hetried to separate these sounds one from another, so that he should beable to determine how many persons were sleeping inside, but this hecould not do. Then his cat-like eyes, becoming more and more accustomedto the darkness within the entrance, saw the round head of Maka closeupon the ground.
The soul of the listening fiend laughed within him. "Pretty watchers theyare," he said to himself. "Not three hours after midnight, and they areall snoring!" Then, as stealthily and as slowly as he had come, heslipped away, and joining the others, they all glided through thedarkness down to the beach, and then set off at their best speed back totheir rendezvous.
After they had discovered that there were people in the cave, they hadnot thought of entering. They were not fully armed, and they did notknow how many persons were inside. But they knew one thing, and that wasthat these shipwrecked people--for that was what they must be--kept avery poor watch, and if the whole band came on the following night, theaffair would probably be settled with but very little trouble, no matterhow large the party in the cave might be. It was not necessary to lookany further for the escaped negro. Of course, he had been picked up bythese people.
The three beasts reached their camp about daybreak, and everybody wassoon awakened and the tale was told.
"It is a comfort," said the leader, lighting the stump of a black pipewhich he thrust under his great mustache, and speaking in his nativetongue, which some of them understood, and others did not, "to know thatto-night's work is all cut out for us. Now we can take it easy to-day,and rest our bones. The order of the day is to keep close. No straggling,nor wandering. Keep those four niggers up in the pigeonhole. We will doour own cooking to-day, for we can't afford to run after any more ofthem. Lucky the fellow who got away can't speak English, for he can'ttell anything about us, any more than if he was an ape. So snooze to-day,if you want to. I will give you work to do for to-night."