CHAPTER VIII
A RECONNAISSANCE
The hut allotted to the four white men, like all the others in the innerenclosure, was built of logs, and in shape resembled an expandedsentry-box. It had no furniture except a few grass mats laid upon theearthen floor, and a clumsy rack of sticks, containing some crudeplatters of clay, and a couple of heavy wooden clubs. Worn out by theirrecent experiences, the occupants slept soundly through their firstnight as the chief's guests, only disturbed at intervals by thevisitations of cockroaches which the darkness drew from crevices in thewalls.
Next morning they were given a breakfast of bananas and nuts, and waterbrought to them in long bamboo stalks, which had been cleaned of theirpartitions except at the end.
'We are not supposed to wash,' remarked Trentham, 'and we can't shave;before long we shall all be as hairy as Meek.'
Meek looked apologetic, and Grinson passed a hand over his cheeks andchin, already dark with stubble.
'A regular Jack ashore, sir,' he said, 'and no barber round the corner.What is to be will be, and I only hope I make a better show thanEphraim; his whiskers ain't much of an ornament, I must say.'
'I ought to have shaved young,' sighed Meek. ''Tis too late now, Mr.Grinson.'
'Truly, Ephraim, you 've lost your chance, poor lad. But you might lookworse, that's one comfort.'
While they were at breakfast the man who had interpreted on the previousday came with a message from the chief. They were free to move aboutthe enclosure, but the gate was forbidden them.
'We 're prisoners, then,' said Hoole.
'I fancy he doesn't trust the cannibals outside,' said Trentham. 'Forthe present I dare say we are safer where we are. But I don't know howwe are to kill time.'
'Here you are, sir,' said Grinson, producing a greasy pack of cards. 'Arubber or two 'll be good for the digestion. Ephraim plays a good hand,though you might not think it.'
While they were playing cards a man came from the chief's house andlooked in on them through the doorway. His shadow caused them to glanceup, and Hoole and Trentham recognised him as the patrician leader of theparty from whom they had rescued Hahn. They wondered whether therecognition was mutual, feeling that it might go hardly with them ifthey were known; but the man, after a prolonged stare of curiosity,departed without giving any sign of suspicion. It came out afterwardsthat his party, finding the chimney blocked, had had to wait for the ebbtide and then walk for some miles along the shore before they reached apracticable path up the cliffs. They had then returned to the chimney,removed the obstruction from its top, and sought to track the fugitives;but they had lost the trail in the forest.
Several days passed--days of tedium and growing irritation. Theprisoners were given regular meals of bananas, sweet potatoes, and otherroots, sometimes a bird or a pig; but movement beyond the stockade wasstill interdicted. They saw nothing of the chief, and one day, whenTrentham sent him a message, asking that they might be allowed to go outand see what the Germans were doing, the answer was that he was sick,and could not attend to them until he was out and about again. Hoolesuggested that it was a diplomatic illness, but the sight of thehideously painted figure of the tribal medicine-man going every day intothe chief's house seemed to show that the reason given was genuine.
One afternoon there were signs of much excitement in the village. Frombeyond the stockade came a babel of voices; a man admitted through thegate gave those within some news which appeared to agitate them, and afew minutes after he had entered the chief's house the interpreter camerunning to the hut, and said that the chief wished to see the 'white manfella' at once.
'Release at last!' said Trentham when he returned. Alone of the four,Meek showed no sign of pleasure.
'The old fellow is in a pretty bad way,' Trentham went on. 'Themedicine-man was chanting incantations over him, and he lookedpathetically resigned. He had just heard bad news. It appears that hisson, whose name I understood to be Flanso--a corruption of Francois, Ifancy--went out yesterday with a small scouting party, and had just gotthrough that burnt village when they were surprised by a number of whitemen and collared; only the messenger escaped. Among the party wasKafulu, the head-man of the natives outside, and it's to that fact weowe our chance. I offered to go out and see if I could discover whathad become of the prisoners, anticipating the chief's request. He jumpedat it, and told me that the cannibals outside, when they understand whatour errand is, won't do us any harm. But only you and I are to go,Hoole; the others must remain as hostages.'
'A dirty trick, sir,' said Meek. 'As sure as your back is turned, they'll eat me; I know they will.'
'Don't you take on, Ephraim,' said Grinson. ''Tis true I 'd rather gowith the gentlemen, but I 'll protect you, me lad. Before they eat you,they 'll have to cook my goose.'
Early next morning, Hoole and Trentham started with half a dozen of thechief's best men and the interpreter. Hoole had his revolver, Trenthama spear like those with which the escort were armed. They marchedrapidly through the forest, reached the burnt village about midday, andfound there the bodies of two of the scouting party, shot by theGermans. From this point they moved with great circumspection, theguide leading them through a maze of vegetation by a winding track thatbore downhill, crossing narrow gullies and swift hill streams.
Late in the afternoon they entered a tract of country strewn withrounded boulders, which had no doubt been brought down in remote ages byglacial action from the mountain range in the interior. Here the groundsloped steeply to the edge of the cliffs, and they had a view far overthe sea. Deprived of cover by the lack of vegetation, they bore awaytowards the forest on the right. Though they had approached by adifferent route, the white men now recognised the spot from which theyhad caught sight of the Raider lying in the cove below the cliffs.Half-way down the forest-clad slope Trentham called a halt.
'We know where we are now, Hoole,' he said, 'and I think we had betterleave the natives here under cover while we go on by ourselves. They'll be no good to us in reconnoitring, and the fewer the better on a joblike this.'
He instructed the interpreter to remain with the men on guard, and ifnot rejoined by nightfall, to return to the village.
A very rough and narrow track led through the trees and scrub with whichthe whole face of the cliff was covered. The two men crept cautiouslydown this for some distance; then it occurred to Hoole that it would besafer to make a way of their own through the bush, for at some turn ofthe track they might suddenly meet some one ascending, or emergeunexpectedly into view from the beach. Accordingly they turned off tothe right, and continued their course as quickly as possible undercover, moving parallel with the track.
Not many minutes had passed before they had reason to be glad that theprecaution had occurred to Hoole in time. Less than a hundred yardsbelow the spot where they had quitted the track they came to the edge ofa space from which the vegetation had been cleared away. The path ranthrough this, and at one side of it stood a rough log hut where a Germansailor, armed with a rifle, was standing on guard. Trentham, a littlein advance of Hoole, was the first to catch sight of the man. Hemotioned to Hoole to halt, peered out for a few moments at the scenebefore him, then went back.
'There 's a sentry-post below,' he said in a low tone. 'The man's backwas towards me; he was watching something going on below him. We shallhave to creep round. It's pretty rough going; take care you don'tslip.'
Keeping on the seaward side of the sentry, they wormed their way throughthe bush. With every step the descent became steeper, and they had tocling to branches and roots in order to keep their footing. The contourof the cliff hid them from the sentry, but the dislodging of a loosestone might at any moment betray their presence, and they let themselvesdown inch by inch with great care.
WITH EVERY STEP THE DESCENT BECAME STEEPER.]
As they had noticed on the occasion of their previous visit, the cove inwhich the Raider lay
was almost encircled. The cliff which they werenow scaling jutted out in a kind of spit on the eastern side. When theyfinally reached its base they found themselves among a tangle of jaggedrocks. The tide was coming in, and they realised from the banks ofseaweed that the rocks were covered at the flood, and that they hadlittle time to spare if their reconnaissance was to lead them muchfarther and they had to return by the same route.
After a precautionary glance seaward they began to make their waythrough the mass of rocks, clambering, springing from one to another,always careful not to expose themselves to the view of the sentrysomewhere high up on their left. Presently, between two high rocks atthe outer edge, they caught sight of blue water. Entering the gap, theylooked out, and found that almost the whole of the cove was before them.
'She 's gone,' said Hoole.
The well-remembered vessel was no longer at her anchorage. No craft ofany kind lay within the cove. But men were moving about the beach. Tothe left, near the base of the cliff, above high-water mark, were twolarge sheds; a little further on was a third shed, still larger.Between them the beach was covered with much miscellaneous litter, thenature of which the observers could not at present determine. Whatinterested them most, and for a time puzzled them, was the sight of manydark figures working on a natural ledge some eighty feet above the sealevel on the opposite side of the cove. They heard the sound of picks,and saw black men bringing baskets from a narrow tunnel in the cliffface, and emptying them on to the beach below. From the spot where thecontents fell clouds of black dust rose high into the air. A white manwas walking up and down the ledge, occasionally moving his right arm ina curiously jerky manner; and amid the other sounds came now and thenrough shouts and sharp cracks.
'By George, Hoole!' exclaimed Trentham under his breath, 'thatparticular mystery is solved. They are working coal! There must be anoutcrop in the cliff; of course they are not mining. The Raider can'trely on filling her bunkers from captures, apparently, or they wouldn'tgo to all this trouble.'
'I guess it's the niggers get the trouble,' remarked Hoole. 'Thatfellow--in the distance he 's mighty like Halm--is making good play withhis whip. You may bet your bottom dollar they snapped up Flanso and therest to increase the number of their hands. Say, d' you hear that purr?'
He swung round and looked seaward, shading his eyes with his hands.
'There she is,' he exclaimed a few moments later. 'Skip behind therock, Trentham; she 's diving right here.'
'The seaplane?'
'Yes. Can't you see her? She 's cut off her engines, making a verypretty swoop. See her now?'
'Yes; you 've better eyes than mine, Hoole.'
Hoole smiled. His eyes were fixed on the machine with an intenseadmiring interest.
'She blips,' he said, as the engine spluttered for a second or two.'Now she 's cut off again. The pilot knows his job. I wonder where she'll come down.'
Crouching behind the rocks they watched the seaplane as it made acircling movement, diving all the time, until it swept round and headedstraight for the entrance to the cove. From a height of about twohundred feet it swooped down towards the sea, 'blipped' again, thendescended lightly upon the surface, ran a few yards, and at last came torest a little distance from the beach. Several bare-legged Germansailors had already emerged from one of the nearer sheds. They wadedinto the water. Two of them carried the occupants of the seaplane ontheir backs to the shore, then returned to help their comrades to pullthe machine in. It glided smoothly up the beach until it rested justbelow the sheds.
'Gliders all complete,' said Hoole.
'What do you mean?'
'They 've laid down boards on the beach; you can't see them from here.They are well greased, too, to judge by the speed the floats slid upthem. Those Germans are pretty thorough, Trentham.'
'Where did you pick up all these details?' asked Trentham curiously.
'Oh, I 've seen that sort of thing once or twice before. But hadn't webetter get back? There 's nothing more to be seen from this quarter, andI presume Flanso and his men are on that ledge yonder, or near about.'
'That farthest shed is the officers' quarters, by the look of it. Thetwo airmen have just gone inside. We 've learnt the lie of the land andnot much else, I 'm afraid. Can't we go a little farther along theshore, behind the rocks, and climb the cliff nearer the sheds?'
'We can try, but 'ware the sentry.'
They had not gone far, however, before the incoming tide forced them toleave the rocks and clamber up through the bushes. The ascent was evenmore difficult than the descent had been, and a miscalculation of thedirection of the path on which this sentry-box stood almost led to theirundoing. They had supposed that it ran fairly straight to the shedsfrom the point at which they had left it; but the nature of the groundhad necessitated its being carried a good many yards farther along thecliff, and then it bent round and formed a loop, approaching the shedsin the same direction as Hoole and Trentham were now going. Unaware ofthis, they were slowly climbing when Trentham slipped, displacing a massof loose earth which went rattling down the cliff. They were notgreatly alarmed, thinking that the sentry was too far away to have heardthe sound through the noise of the coal-tipping across the cove. Butfootsteps not far above them caused them to snuggle behind a thick bush.The rustle of movement above drew nearer. Through the bush they saw thesentry stepping cautiously down, and prodding the vegetation with hisbayonet. Hoole fingered his revolver, but Trentham signed to him thatif any weapon had to be used it must be the spear. The sentry, however,stopped ten or a dozen yards above them, then, apparently satisfied thatthe landslide was accidental, laboriously climbed up the cliff.
Much relieved, for violent measures would have been fatal to the successof their reconnaissance, the two men waited for a quarter of an hour orso, then struck up the cliff some distance to the left of the spot wherethe sentry had appeared, and wormed their way to the path, far beyondhis box, by a wide circuit. It was almost dark by the time theyrejoined the natives. They marched a few miles until night descendedupon them; then they rested for a while, discussing the results of theirexpedition.
'I 'm afraid the chief will be disappointed at our returning without hisson,' said Trentham, 'but I hope he 'll see reason. We couldn'tpossibly have rescued him.'
'Clearly not,' said Hoole. 'There wasn't time to discover exactly wherethe Germans keep their slaves. I guess we 'll have to reconnoitreagain, from the other side, before we can see our way clear. Theabsence of the Raider would help us considerably, for there appeared tobe only about half a dozen Germans on the spot. I wish I could haveseen whether that fellow cracking the whip was Hahn.'
'Why?'
'Well, we don't owe the skunk a great deal; besides, he 's got mywatch.'