The Golden Magnet Part 38

It was plain enough that, perhaps ignorant of his loss, perhaps condoning it, Garcia had made common cause with the Indians, and Lilla was to be saved before fire was applied to the hacienda.

For a few moments there was a dead silence, and then the party glided along under the verandah.

"What was that Garcia said?" I then whispered to Lilla.

I knew that my interpretation must have been pretty correct from the start Lilla gave, and then her shudder.

"I dare not tell you," she said, with a half sob.

Then leaving the window, after softly closing and securing it, we hurried, hand in hand, to my uncle.

"How long you have been!" he whispered.

"There was a party of six or seven by my window," I said; "Garcia heading them."

"Then I was right!" he exclaimed anxiously. "I thought--"

The next moment my hand was upon his lips; for, dimly-seen through the narrow aperture left, from which my uncle watched, were four dark figures; while at the same moment there was a sharp cracking noise, as of breaking woodwork, from another part of the house.

"Am I to shoot or ain't I? Is Mas'r Harry there?" whispered a voice from out of the darkness. "Because they're trying to break in here."

"You must fire, Tom," said my uncle huskily; "and mind this, if they do break in, our only hope is in the kitchen, which is stone built and strong. Make your way there."

"Right, Mas'r Landell," said Tom coolly.

Then we heard him glide off.

"Lilla, join your mother in there," I heard my uncle then whisper.

Directly after I knew we were alone.

"Harry," said my uncle, "it seems to me that we ought to have beaten a retreat; but it is too late to talk of that. Our only hope now is by giving them a sharp reception. If we can keep them at bay till daylight we shall have a better opportunity of escaping."

"I don't agree with you," I said. "I think our hopes should be in the darkness."

Drawing near to the window, my remarks were cut short by the sharp report of a gun, followed in a few seconds by another, when the cras.h.i.+ng noise, evidently made by the tearing down of the jalousie bars at one window, suddenly ceased, and a loud shriek rang out upon the night air.

We neither of us spoke, as we listened attentively, to hear the next moment the sound made by a ramrod in a gun-barrel, and we knew that Tom was safe.

"They've gone from my window now, Mas'r Landell," whispered a voice at our elbow; "and they won't come back there, I think, seeing how hot it was. But, harken there, isn't that them trying somewhere else?"

There was no mistaking the sound. Strong hands were striving to tear down a jalousie at the other end of the house; and, hurrying there, my uncle fired, just as several dimly-seen dark figures were beating in the window.

"Crack--crack!" two sharp reports from my uncle's gun; but this time, as their flashes lit up the room where we stood, the fire was replied to by half a dozen pieces, but fortunately without effect.

Then again fell silence, with once more the same result, that of a breaking jalousie at an upstairs window.

"They've swarmed up the verandah posts, lads," said my uncle thickly; "but you two stay by your windows--you at this, Harry; you, Tom, at the other."

We heard him steal away to the staircase, and then Tom left my side.

The next instant came a loud report from upstairs, then a crash as of a falling body on the lattice-work of the verandah, and directly after a dull thud outside the window.

I had no time for thought, though, for incidents now began to succeed each other with such startling rapidity. As the dull thud came upon the bricks beneath the verandah it seemed to me that the darkness outside the window before which I stood was gradually growing deeper. Another instant, and I knew the reason as I levelled my heavily loaded double gun.

Was I to destroy life? my heart seemed to ask me, but only for the reply to come instantly. Yes, if I wished to help and save the women beneath our charge; and then I drew rapidly, one after the other, both triggers.

There was a gurgling, gasping cry, and the darkness grew less dense.

"Crack--crack!" both barrels again from Tom's part of the house. It was evident, then, that we had neither of us returned to our old posts too soon.

I hastily reloaded, wondering from whence would come the next attack; but I had not long to wait, for three or four sharp discharges came through the window, striking the plaster of wall and ceiling, so that it crumbled down upon me in showers.

Again and again I trembled for those in the kitchen; but the recollection of my uncle's words encouraged me; and, trusting in the strength of its stone walls, I began to grow excited, firing and loading, till all at once, as if by common consent, there was a cessation of the discharges, followed by an ominous silence.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

FLIGHT AND ITS ARREST.

I would have given anything to have left my post just then, so as to have seen after the welfare of those who were anxiously awaiting the result of the attack; but I felt that such a proceeding might prove dangerous, and an entry be made during my brief absence.

But a minute had not elapsed before my uncle was at my side.

"They are all safe in the kitchen, Harry," he said. "But what does this mean?"

"Only a minute or two's halt before they make a fiercer attack," I said.

"No 'tain't," said Tom, who had stolen up un.o.bserved; "they're a-going to set us alight, and I've come to tell you."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed my uncle. "They'll never burn the place till they have searched and plundered it."

"I quite think with you, Uncle," I said.

"But they're a striking lights round my side," said Tom. "Come and look!"

We hurriedly pa.s.sed round to Tom's post, just in time to see the truth of his words, for as we peered cautiously from his window there was a little flickering tongue of flame apparently dancing towards one end of an outhouse. Then it was applied to the thatched roof, and a howl of joy arose as the flame ran rapidly up towards the ridge.

Directly after, though, there arose a shout of rage, and more than one voice, so my uncle said, crying out for the fire to be extinguished; amongst which voices that of Garcia could plainly be heard.

The firing was evidently premature, and efforts were directly made to extinguish it.

A glance, though, showed that the attempt would be in vain; for, with a sharp hissing and crackling noise, the light material began to blaze rapidly, and my uncle gave a groan as he saw that his house was doomed to destruction.

A loud voice now shouted what were evidently orders, and a pattering of feet succeeded, as a fierce struggle now began, to tear out the blazing part of the outhouse before it reached the hacienda, against whose sides it was reared.

"Now is the time for escaping, Uncle," I whispered, as I thought how easily we could have brought down a dozen or so of our a.s.sailants, whose dark figures stood out well against the fire.

"Yes," he said slowly; "we must make the venture now, for in an hour the old place will be level with the ground."