Once fairly away from the ship"s side we were immediately swallowed up by the impenetrable mist; and for a considerable time the flotilla glided gently along, without a sight or sound to tell us whether we were going right or wrong; without the utterance of a word on board either of the boats; and with only the slight m.u.f.fled sound of the oars in the rowlocks and the gurgle of the water along the boats" sides to tell that we were moving at all. The silence would have been oppressive but for the slight murmuring swirl and ripple of the great river and the chirping of the countless millions of insects which swarmed in the bush on both banks of the stream. The latter sent forth so remarkable a volume of sound that when first told it was created by insects alone I found my credulity taxed to its utmost limit; and it was not until I was solemnly a.s.sured by Mr Austin that such was the case that I quite believed it. It was not unlike the "whirr" of machinery, save that it rose and fell in distinct cadences, and occasionally--as if by preconcerted arrangement on the part of every individual insect in the district--stopped altogether for a few moments. Then, indeed, the silence became weird, oppressive, uncanny; making one involuntarily shuffle nearer to one"s neighbour and glance half-fearfully over one"s shoulder. Then, after a slight interval, a faint, far-off signal _chirp! chirp_! would be heard, and in an instant the whole insect-world would burst into full chorus once more, and the air would fairly vibrate with sound. But the night had other voices than this. Mingled with the _chirr_ of the insects there would occasionally float off to us the snarling roar of some forest savage, the barking call of the deer, the yelping of a jackal, the blood-curdling cry of a hyena, the grunt of a hippopotamus, the weird cry of some night-bird; and--nearer at hand, sometimes apparently within a yard or so of the boats--sundry mysterious puffings and blowings, and sudden faint splashings of the water, which latter made me for one, and probably many of the others who heard them, feel particularly uncomfortable, especially if they happened to occur in one of the brief intervals of silence on sh.o.r.e. Once, in particular, during one of those silent intervals, my hair fairly bristled as the boat was suddenly but silently brought up all standing by coming into violent collision with some object which broke water directly under our bows; the shock being instantly followed by a long moaning sigh and a tremendous swirl of the water as the creature--whatever it was--sank again beneath the surface of the river.
The men in the launch were, like myself, considerably startled at the circ.u.mstance, and one of them--an Irishman--exclaimed, in the first paroxysm of his dismay:
"Howly ropeyarns! what was that? Is it shipwrecked, stranded, and cast away we are on the back of a say-crocodile? Thin, Misther Crocodile, let me tell yez at wanst that I"m not good to ate; I"m so sthrongly flavoured wid the tibaccy that I"d be shure to disagray wid yez."
This absurd exclamation appealed so forcibly to the men"s sense of the ridiculous that it had the instant effect of steadying their nerves and raising a hearty laugh, which, however, was as instantly checked by Smellie, who, though he could not restrain a smile, exclaimed sharply:
"Silence, fore and aft! How dare you cry out in that ridiculous fashion, Flanaghan? I have a good mind to report you, sir, as soon as we return to the ship."
"_Who shall say how many of us will live to return_?"
"Merciful G.o.d! who spoke?" hoa.r.s.ely cried the second lieutenant. And well he might. The words were uttered in a sound scarcely above a whisper, in so low a tone, indeed, that but for Smellie"s startled e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n I should almost have been inclined to accept them as prompted by my own excited imagination; yet I saw in an instant that every man in the boat had heard them and was as much startled as myself.
Who had uttered them, indeed? Every man"s look, as his horrified glance sought his neighbour"s face, asked the same question. n.o.body seemed to have recognised or to be able to identify the voice; and the strangest thing about it was that it did not appear to have been spoken in the boat at all, but from a point close at hand.
The men had, with one accord, laid upon their oars in the first shock of this new surprise, and before they had recovered themselves the first cutter had ranged up alongside.
"Did anyone speak on board you, Armitage?" asked Smellie.
"No, certainly not," was the reply.
"Did you hear anyone speak on board the second cutter then?" followed.
"No; I heard nothing. Why?"
"No matter," muttered the second lieutenant. Then, in a low but somewhat louder tone:
"Give way, launches; someone has been trying to play a trick upon us."
The men resumed their work at the oars; but an occasional scarcely heard whisper reaching my ears and suggesting rather than conveying such fragmentary sentences as "Some of us doomed"--"Lose the number of our mess," etcetera, etcetera, showed that a very unfortunate impression had been made by the strange incident.
As we proceeded the second lieutenant began to consult his watch, and at last, turning to me as he slipped it back into his fob, he whispered:
"A quarter after tea. We ought now to be close to Boolambemba Point, but the fog keeps so dense that I am afraid there is no chance of our sighting it."
The insect chorus had been silent for an unusually long time when he spoke; but as the words left Smellie"s lips the sounds burst out once more, this time in startling proximity to our larboard hand.
"By George! there it is, though, sure enough," continued Smellie. "By the sharpness of the sound we must be close aboard of the point. How is her head, c.o.xswain?"
Before the man could reply there came in a low murmur from the men pulling the port oars:
"We"re stirring up the mud here, sir, on the port hand."
And at the same moment, looking up, we became aware that the darkness was deeper--more intense and opaque, as it were, on our port hand than anywhere else.
"All right!" answered Smellie; "that is the point, sure enough, and very prettily we have hit it off. If we can only make as good a shot at the mouth of the creek I shall be more than satisfied. How have you been steering, c.o.xswain?"
"South-east, sir, as straight as ever I could keep her."
"That"s all right. South-east is your course all the way across. Now we are beginning to draw off from the point and out into mid-stream, and there must be no more talking upon any pretence whatever. The noise of the insects will tell us when we are drawing in with the other bank. On a night like this one has to be guided in a great measure by sound, and even the chirp of the gra.s.shoppers may be made useful, Mr Hawkesley."
I murmured a whispered a.s.sent as in duty bound, and then all hands relapsed into silence once more.
The men worked steadily away at the oars, not exerting themselves to any great extent, but keeping the boat moving at the rate of about four knots per hour. According to our time-reckoning, and the fact that the volume of sound proceeding from the southern bank of the river had overpowered that from the northern bank, we had accomplished rather more than the half of our pa.s.sage across the stream, when, happening to raise my head upon emerging from a brown study into which I had fallen, I thought I caught a momentary glimpse of some object looming through the fog broad on our port beam. I looked more earnestly still, and presently felt convinced that there _was_ something there.
Laying my hand on the second lieutenant"s arm to call his attention, I whispered:
"Can you see anything out there, sir, abreast of us on our port hand?"
Smellie looked eagerly in the indicated direction for some moments, and then turning to the c.o.xswain, whispered:
"Starboard--hard!"
The boat"s helm was put over, her bows swept round; and then I was certain _that we were being watched_, for as the launch swerved out of her course the object became suddenly more distinct, only to vanish completely into the fog next moment, however, its course being as suddenly and promptly altered as our own, thus proving that there were other eyes at least as sharp as ours. But that single momentary glance had been sufficient to show me that the object was a native canoe containing three persons.
The second lieutenant was seriously disconcerted at this discovery, and was evidently in great doubt as to whether it would be more prudent to push on or to turn back. If the occupants of the canoe happened to be a.s.sociated with the slavers, and had been sent out as scouts in antic.i.p.ation of an attack from us, then there could be little doubt that it would be wiser to turn back, since a light craft like a canoe could easily reach the creek far enough ahead of us to give the alarm, in which case we should find a warm reception prepared for us; and in so dense a fog all the advantage would be on the side of those manning the slave fleet.
On the other hand, the _rencontre_ might possibly have been purely accidental, and its occupants supremely indifferent to the movements of ourselves and the slavers alike, in which case it would be not only mortifying in the extreme but possibly fatal to Smellie"s prospects in the service if he allowed himself to be frightened out of the advantage of so excellent an opportunity for effecting a surprise.
It was a most embarra.s.sing problem with which he thus suddenly found himself brought face to face; but with a brave man the question could not long remain an open one; a few seconds sufficed him to determine on proceeding and taking our chance.
The sounds from the sh.o.r.e now rapidly increased in intensity, and by and by we suddenly found that they proceeded from both sides of the boats.
Smellie drew out his watch and consulted it by the light of the boat"s binnacle.
"Twenty minutes to twelve! and we are now entering the creek," he whispered to me.
The slavers, we knew, were anch.o.r.ed about two miles up the creek, and the conviction suddenly smote me that in another half-hour I should in all probability be engaged in a fierce and deadly struggle. Somehow up to that moment I had only regarded the attack as a remote possibility--a something which _might_ but was not very likely to happen. I suppose I had unconsciously been entertaining a doubt as to the possibility of our finding the creek. Yet, there we were in it, and nothing could now avert a combat, and more or less bloodshed. Nothing, that is, except the exceedingly unlikely circ.u.mstance of our finding the birds flown.
Did I wish this? Was I _afraid_?
Honestly, I am unable to say whether I was or not; but I am inclined to acquit myself of the charge of cowardice. My sensations were peculiar and rather unpleasant, I freely admit; but looking back upon them now in the light of long years of experience, I am disposed to attribute them entirely to nervous excitement. Hitherto my nostrils had never sniffed the odour of powder burned in anger; I was about to undergo a perfectly new experience; I was about to engage with my fellow-men in mortal combat; to come face to face with and within arm"s-length of those who, if the opportunity occurred, would take my life deliberately and without a moment"s hesitation. In a short half-hour I might be dying--or _dead_. As this disagreeable and inopportune reflection flashed through my mind my heart throbbed violently, the blood rushed to my head, and my breathing became so laboured that I felt as though I was stifling.
These disagreeable--indeed I might more truthfully call them _painful_-- sensations lasted in their intensity perhaps as long as five minutes, after which they rapidly subsided, to be succeeded by a feverish longing and impatience for the moment of action. My excitement ceased; my breathing again became regular; but the period of suspense--that period which only a few minutes before had seemed so short--now felt as though it were lengthening out to a veritable eternity. I wanted to begin at once, to know the worst, and to get it over.
I had not much longer to wait. We had advanced about a mile up the creek when a deep hoa.r.s.e voice was heard shouting something from the sh.o.r.e.
"Oars!" exclaimed Smellie; and the men ceased pulling. "What was it the fellow said?" continued the second lieutenant, turning to me.
"Haven"t the slightest idea, but it sounded like Spanish," I replied.
The hail was repeated, but we could make nothing of it. Mr Armitage, however, who boasted a slight knowledge of Spanish, informed us--the first cutter having by this time drifted up abreast of us--that it was a caution to us to return at once or take the consequences.
"Oh! that"s it, is it?" remarked Smellie. "Well, it seems that we are discovered, so any further attempt at a surprise is useless. Cast the boats adrift from each other, and we will make a dash for it. Our best chance now is to board and carry the three craft simultaneously with a rush--if we can. Give way, lads!"
The boats" painters were cast off; the crews with a ringing cheer plunged their oars simultaneously into the water, and away we went at racing speed through the dense fog along the channel.
We had scarcely pulled half a dozen strokes when the report of a musket rang out from the bank on our starboard hand; and at the same instant a line of tiny sparks of fire appeared on either hand through the thick haze, rapidly increasing in size and luminosity until they stood revealed as huge fires of dry brushwood. They were twelve in number, six on either bank of the channel, and were s.p.a.ced about three hundred yards apart. So large were they that they rendered the fog quite luminous; and it seemed pretty evident that they had been built and lighted for the express purpose of illuminating the channel and revealing our exact whereabouts. I was congratulating myself upon the circ.u.mstance that the dense fog would to a considerable extent defeat their purpose, when, in an instant, as though we had pa.s.sed out through a solid wall, we emerged from the fog, and there lay the three slave- craft before us, moored with springs on their cables, boarding-nettings triced up, and guns run out, evidently quite ready to receive us.
The three craft were moored athwart the channel in a slightly curved line, with their bows pointing to the eastward, the brig being ahead, the schooner next, and the brigantine the sternmost of the line. Thus moored, their broadsides commanded the whole channel in the direction of our advance, and could, if required, be concentrated upon any one point in it.