Old Gold Part 25

"Lie down, sir, lie down!" shouted Dan, and Briscoe dropped flat upon the deck at once, his rifle clattering against the boards; but before Brace was down, a couple of arrows came _ping, ping_, to stick in the deck, while a third pierced and hung in one of the sails, a fourth dropping with a hiss a little short of the brig and into the water.

"This is nice, Mr Brace," cried Lynton, laughing. "It's as the circus clown said, too dangerous to be safe."

"Yes," said Dellow, who was crawling towards the starboard bulwark on hands and knees, dragging two rifles after him. "Come and lay hold of one, Jem. Mind you don't shoot yourself. It's the wooden end of the rifle that you have to put up against your shoulder, and the hole in the iron barrel which you are supposed to point at the enemy."

"Is it now?" said the second mate sarcastically. "I'm much obliged and thankye for telling me. You put the bullet in at that end of the gun too, don't you, and push it through with the ramrod like a popgun, eh?"

"Yes, that's right," said Dellow, chuckling; "but hit the poor fellows soft the first time so as not to hurt 'em much. If they get saucy afterwards, why then you must hit hard."

"All right; I'll mind," said Lynton, looking at Brace and smiling; "but this ought to be stopped, for the n.i.g.g.e.rs are wonderfully clever at hitting the brig. They shoot right up into the air and guess at their aim, so that the arrows seem to come down out of the sky."

"Yes," said Brace, who was now gradually beginning to take an excited interest in the encounter with the natives; "it's the way they shoot the floating turtles, so that their arrows pierce the sh.e.l.l instead of glancing off."

"There's another," said Dellow. "Well, I wish they'd keep to their turtles. I don't like them practising on me. What's that one like, Mr Brace? Is the point broken?"

"No," said Brace, who had crept sidewise along the deck so as to reach the last arrow that had come on board, and carefully drawn it out, to sit examining the head.

"Poisoned?" asked the mate.

"I'm afraid so," replied Brace. "Look at this stuff lying in the groove," and he pointed to what appeared to be some kind of gum, adhering to the roughly-made head.

"Ah! looks nasty," said Briscoe; "but it isn't obliged to be dangerous to human beings. You see, they use their arrows princ.i.p.ally for small game. I don't believe, mind you, that your brother's going to be much the worse for his trouble."

"I sincerely hope not," said Brace, with a sigh.

"So does everybody, sir," said the mate. "But come: it's our turn now.

Let's see if we can't stop this game before some of us are hit."

"Yes," said Briscoe, who had taken up, examined, and then smelt the arrow-head, ending by moistening a paper which he drew from his pocket and rubbing the arrow-point thereon, with the result that the paper received a brownish smear and the soft iron became clear.

After a few moments he said:

"There is no doubt about the arrows having been dipped in something, and we must not run any more risks."

Brace experienced a chilly feeling as he thought of his brother, but he made an effort to master the nervous dread by devoting himself to the task they had in hand.

"The arrows seem to come from the foot of that great tree," he said, pointing to where a giant rose high above the heads of its neighbours and sent forth huge boughs, the lowermost of which swept the surface of the river.

"I fancy they come from some twenty feet up," said Briscoe thoughtfully.

"You're right, sir," said his servant. "Look at that," and he drew his master's attention to a shaft which just at that moment rose from out of the densest part of the tree, described an arch, and fell upon the deck.

"I can't see him," cried Lynton, who was crouching in the shelter of the bulwark; "but I fancy I can make out where he is."

"Try," said the mate, and the next minute Lynton fired, his bullet cutting the leaves of the pyramid of verdure, and the report startling a flock of bright green birds, which flew screaming across to the opposite bank of the river.

"A miss," said the mate. "Now you try, sir. It's random work though."

Brace felt a shrinking sensation, but he knew that the time had come for action, and rested his rifle upon the bulwark and sent the bullet hurtling through the densest part of the tree.

"Bravo! Well done!" cried Briscoe.

"What is it?" said Brace eagerly. "I couldn't see for the smoke."

"I could," said the mate. "There was somebody there, and, hit or no, your shot startled him, for I saw something go cras.h.i.+ng down through the boughs. I believe you've finished him, and we shall have no more arrows from there."

"Think there was only one of them then?" said Lynton.

"Oh, no, my lad; there's no knowing how many there are of the beauties, but I fancy there's one the less."

The mate had hardly spoken before another arrow stuck in the deck, its inclination showing that it had come from an entirely fresh direction.

But it had hardly touched the deck with a dull rap before the American's rifle uttered its sharp crack, and the bullet sent the leaves of a tree some distance farther to the left pattering down.

"That looks as though there were some more of them about," said the mate gruffly, and he knelt in shelter, keenly watching for his opportunity of delivering a shot.

Just then the captain came on deck, and Brace hurried to meet him. He did not speak, but looked at the captain with questioning eyes.

"Sound asleep, squire," said Captain Banes, in answer to Brace's mute enquiry. "Well, how many have you brought down?" Then, without waiting for an answer, he continued: "I don't suppose there are above half a dozen of them. Just a hunting party in a canoe. Look here, Dellow, we shall have to try to scare them away before they do any more mischief."

"Well, we are scaring them," said the mate gruffly. "I believe we've brought down two."

"But they keep on shooting," said the captain, as another arrow came on board not far from the spot where they were sheltering, "and I can't say I want to have one of those things sticking into me."

"What shall we do then?" said the mate.

"Here, you," cried the captain to one of the men, "go and tell the cook to stick the poker in the galley fire."

The man went on all fours along the deck nearly as actively as a dog, and his fellows laughingly cheered him, even the captain smiling grimly before turning once more to the mate.

"Get one of those little flannel bags of powder and load the bra.s.s gun.

You can point her towards where the blackguards are, and she'll go off with such a roar that it may startle them and send them paddling for their lives."

"Maybe it will," said the mate gruffly; "but I doubt it."

"Never mind your doubts, my lad. It won't cost much to try. I don't suppose they ever heard a cannon fired in their lives, and they'll think we've got the thunder to help us. We'll run a double charge in: the bra.s.s gun will stand it."

"Suppose she bursts?" said the mate rather sourly.

"Suppose?" said the captain sharply. "There, you do what I tell you.

If she does burst I shall have fired her, and she'll kill me, and you'll be skipper, so you're all right."

"No, I shan't," said the mate gruffly, "for she'll kill me. I'm going to fire her myself."

"Load her then," said the captain, chuckling, "and don't go on setting a mutinous example to the men. Squire Brace looks quite startled."

The mate smiled grimly and went below, to return with a couple of little flannel bags and crawl with them to where the little signal cannon was lashed to the deck.

Brace followed, preferring to a.s.sist in the preparation of this experiment to firing in the direction of naked savages.