One day my mother, being unwell, was confined to the house, and Harry came out fishing with Ned Burton and me in the boat. My father, Mudge, and Tommy, accompanied by Paddy Doyle and one of the other men, had gone on a shooting expedition, attended by Pullingo and his son, leaving only d.i.c.ky Popo in attendance on my mother, and two men to guard the camp.
As we were not far off, a musket-shot would bring us quickly back if we were required.
We pulled down to the mouth of the river. The fish soon began to bite, and we hauled up more than we had ever before caught. I observed that the tide was unusually low, as numerous rocks which I had never before seen were uncovered, and remained so for some time. At last the tide began to rise, and we caught the fish even faster than at first. We were so eagerly engaged that we did not remark how rapidly the time went by. We were well-pleased, because we should not only have fish for all hands, but be able to present our black friends with a welcome supply.
We found, I may remark, that they prized us not so much for our knowledge of the arts and sciences, as in proportion to our power of obtaining such food as they valued.
Burton suggested that we might salt some fish, and proposed looking for salt along the sh.o.r.e. I agreed with him that it would be important if we could succeed in doing so, as we might then carry some salted fish on our journey.
As the fish continued to bite, we remained to catch them, and we were still eagerly hauling them in when the sound of a musket fired at the camp reached our ears. We at once hauled in our lines, got up our anchor, and pulled away as hard as we could up the river.
"What can be the matter?" I asked.
"I suppose they wish to remind us that it is supper-time, and so fired the shot to call us back," answered Burton.
"I hope that no strange blacks have come to the camp, or that those bad men whom we met the other day have not returned," said Harry.
"It may be; but we"ll soon show them that we"re not going to stand any of their tricks," observed Burton.
This last suggestion of Harry made me feel very anxious, as I had often heard of the atrocities of which bushrangers had been guilty.
As we neared the camp we could see no one. Just as we pulled up to the landing-place, however, we heard a voice cry out,--"Help! help!--bear a hand, or they"ll be away." We eagerly leaped on sh.o.r.e, when the spectacle which met our eyes made us very anxious. One of our men lay on the ground, apparently dead; and not far off was the other, bound to the trunk of a tree so that he could move neither hands nor feet.
"There! there!" he cried. "Stop them!"
Too anxious about my mother and Edith and Pierce to attend to him, or to understand clearly what he said, I rushed to the door of our cottage.
It was closed. I knocked loudly. "Mother! mother!--let me in; we"ve come to your a.s.sistance," I exclaimed. She did not reply; but I heard some one moving, and presently the door opened and d.i.c.ky Popo appeared.
"O ma.s.sa! so glad you come, or dey murder us all," he exclaimed.
"But my mother--where is she?" I asked.
"She in her room, I tink; but no speakee," answered Popo.
"Mother! mother!--where are you?" I cried out.
The door of her room was also closed; but rushing against it, with the aid of d.i.c.ky I burst it open. My mother lay on the ground. A horrible feeling came over me,--I thought she was shot. On bending down I could discover no wound, and I found that she still breathed, so I trusted that she had only fainted. I sprinkled her face with water, and she shortly after heaved a sigh and opened her eyes. On seeing me she revived, and with Popo"s a.s.sistance I lifted her up and placed her in a chair.
"Is it a hideous dream?" she asked; "or have the bushrangers really been here? And where are Edith and Pierce?"
"There is nothing now to be alarmed about, mother," I answered. "The bushrangers have gone away, and Edith and Pierce are probably hiding somewhere."
"Oh! go and look for them," she said, "and bring them here at once. I am afraid that those terrible men have carried them off."
"Not at all likely, mother," I said. "I have no doubt, however, that Burton and Harry have already set off to follow the men."
As she again urged me to go, a.s.suring me that she was quite recovered, I took my gun, and telling Popo to remain and attend on her, hurried out.
I found that Burton and Harry had released the man who had been bound to the tree, while the other, who had been only stunned, had recovered; and all four, with guns in their hands, were making their way towards the foot of the cliffs in pursuit of the bushrangers. I followed, shouting for Edith and Pierce; for I could not help thinking it possible that the bushrangers might have carried them off. As the robbers were heavily laden with their spoil, they had got only a part of the way up the cliff when we caught sight of them. With intense thankfulness I saw that they were alone, and that they had not carried off the children.
"Stop, you villains!" cried Burton, when he got near enough to make them hear.
They did not reply, but continued making their way up the cliff.
Burton, who was leading, was about to pursue, when one of them turned round and levelled his rifle at his head.
"If you advance another step I"ll fire!" shouted the man.
"Two can play at that game, friend," exclaimed Burton, lifting his musket and letting fly at the bushranger. We imitated his example; but when the smoke cleared off we found that the men were still making their upward way, springing with wonderful agility from rock to rock.
We had to stop to reload; then, notwithstanding their threats, we again began to climb after them. They had, however, a long start of us, and had already gained the easier part of the ascent; still, laden as they were, one of them might slip and give us a chance of overtaking him, and we continued our ascent. They were now, however, hidden from sight by the trees and rocks above our heads.
Burton still kept ahead of us, and was the first to gain the summit of the cliff. He lifted his musket and fired. Directly afterwards the rest of us joined him, when we saw the two bushrangers galloping away to the southward, at no great distance from the cliffs, where, the ground being level, they could make better play than more to the right, where it was undulating and somewhat soft in the bottom. They were already too far off for our bullets to reach them.
"Missed again!" exclaimed Ned. "I believe the fellows must bear charmed lives; or my musket has taken to shooting crooked."
As we could not hope to overtake the robbers, I told Burton how anxious I was to return and look for Edith and Pierce,--although I hoped that, frightened by the appearance of the bushrangers, they had hidden themselves.
"I think not, sir," said Tom Nokes, one of our men. "Soon after you went off in the boat, I saw the young people starting away together along the sh.o.r.e; but thinking their mother had given them leave to go, I didn"t look after them."
This intelligence was so far satisfactory, that it made me believe they could not have been seen by the bushrangers--who, indeed, could scarcely have been such ruffians as to injure them. I therefore hurried back to my mother; but she, having been asleep all the morning, did not even know that the children had gone away. She expressed her anxiety on hearing what Nokes had said, as at all events they ought by this time to have returned. Not wishing to alarm her more, I expressed my belief that they would soon appear. On leaving her, however, I proposed to Burton and Harry to take the boat and pull along the sh.o.r.e, while Nokes volunteered to go on foot in the same direction.
Having landed our fish, we at once pulled away; but no signs did we see of Edith or Pierce. The sun was setting as we rowed down the river. As the bar was smooth, we crossed it without hesitation, and continued our course along the sh.o.r.e, as close in as the coral reefs would allow us to get. Every now and then I stood up to examine the sh.o.r.e, but nowhere were the children to be seen. The tide had risen, too, and in several places washed the very base of the cliffs. This alarmed me much, for I dreaded lest the tide might have entrapped them as they were making their way back.
"We needn"t fear that, Master G.o.dfrey; for they both have got sense, and will have managed, I hope, to reach some place of safety," observed Burton.
Again we pulled on, when just under the highest part of the cliff I caught sight of an object in the water which attracted my attention. At first I thought it was a rock, covered with seaweed moved by the surging water. We paddled in as close as we could venture without running the risk of knocking the bottom of the boat against the coral, and then I made out a horse and a human figure lying together half in the water.
The man was motionless, and apparently dead; but the horse was still faintly struggling, trying to keep its head above the surface.
"That must be one of the bushrangers," I exclaimed.
"No doubt about it," said Burton; "but how he came to fall over the cliff it is hard to say."
"Can we not reach him and see if he is still alive?" I asked.
"No man could have fallen from that height and kept the breath in his body," said Ned; "nor, indeed, escape breaking all his bones, unless he had come down on the top of his horse. Depend on it, he"s dead; and so will the poor horse be in another moment--see! its head has already sunk under the water. If we hadn"t to look for the children we might try to get at him; but it would lose much time, and we might chance also to injure the boat."
"By all means then let us pull on, and continue our search for Edith and Pierce," I answered; and we again took to our oars.
Evening was now drawing rapidly on. In vain we searched the coast as far as our eyes could reach. As we pulled under the cliffs I shouted my brother and sister"s names, but only the echo of my voice came back faintly to our ears. I became more and more alarmed, and it seemed to me as if their doom was p.r.o.nounced, when Burton declared that we must pull back, as it was not likely they could have got so far. Harry showed that he was as unhappy as I was, and joined his voice with mine in shouting out their names as we made our way towards the mouth of the river.
There was scarcely sufficient daylight to enable us to distinguish the entrance. We got safely over the bar, however, and as fast as we could move our oars we pulled up to the encampment. My father and his party had just returned. He was, of course, very much alarmed at the disappearance of my brother and sister. Nokes had discovered no traces of them, still he affirmed that he had seen them go in that direction.
One thing was certain,--that it would be useless to attempt continuing our search during the hours of darkness.
That was indeed a miserable night. My father did his utmost to comfort my poor mother, but she could not fail to dread the worst. Our anxiety about them made us scarcely think of the visit of the bushrangers. On examining our stores, however, it was seen that they had carried off a considerable quant.i.ty of powder and shot, and numerous other articles which were likely to prove useful to them in their wandering life. They had not forgotten, either, to supply themselves with several bottles of spirits: perhaps the liquor, to which they had been so long unaccustomed, was the cause of the death of the unhappy wretch whose body we had seen beneath the cliff. However, that was only conjecture, and will probably for ever remain so.
I had no inclination to go to bed, but my father insisted on my turning in, saying that he would sit up with my mother; and in spite of my grief and anxiety I at length fell fast asleep.
CHAPTER NINE.
PADDY SUGGESTS OBTAINING PULLINGO"S a.s.sISTANCE--WE SET OUT--DESCEND THE CLIFF BY A ROPE--FIND EDITH AND PIERCE IN A CAVE--THE BOAT ARRIVES--A TREMENDOUS STORM--THE WATER FLOWS OVER OUR SETTLEMENT--ESCAPE TO THE CLIFFS--TAKE REFUGE UNDER A ROCK--RETURN TO THE VILLAGE--IT HAS ESCAPED DAMAGE--A WHALE THROWN ON Sh.o.r.e--IT ATTRACTS THE NATIVES--THEIR SAVAGE DANCE--THEY ENCAMP--UNPLEASANT ODOUR FROM THE WHALE--EXPLORE THE RIVER-- RETURN FOR OUR FRIENDS--QUIT OUR VILLAGE--OUR FIRST ENCAMPMENT.