The Approach to the Prison.—Baldabella's Stratagem.—The Release of the Captive.—Wilkins's Tale of Trials.—A Well.—The Potato Crop.—The Flying Opossum.—The Salt Plant.—Preparations for a Siege.
Cautiously and quietly the party wound, under the cover of the trees and bushes, across the plain, till they reached the wood that enclosed the abode of the savages. Then the peril increased. Jack led the way, and one after another they followed, step by step, through, under, or over the matted brush; and, finally, the leader placed his party in a position where they could all command a view of the rocky cave, though they stood at a short distance from each other. On the cleared ground before the cave two women were seated, bruising nuts between two stones; and several children were playing round them. The anxious young men watched for some minutes, but none of the men appeared; then Baldabella proposed to go forward to introduce herself to the women, her friends promising to rescue her if they attempted to detain her.
Disencumbering herself from the light robe she condescended to wear in civilized life, and retaining only her cloak of furs, she took her fish-spear in her hand, and penetrated to a distant part of the wood, from whence she made her appearance on the charred glade, many yards from the ambush of her friends, and with slow steps, counterfeiting great fatigue, she walked up to the women, to demand, as she had arranged with her friends, food and repose. As soon as they perceived her, the women rose and looked round anxiously, and the young men expected every moment to hear the signal call for them; but the solitary feeble form of Baldabella seemed to re-assure them. She drew near and talked for some minutes to her dark sisters; and the soft and pathetic inflections of her voice convinced the concealed party that she was appealing to that compassionate feeling which is ever so strong in the heart of woman.
The women listened, and invited the stranger to sit down by them; they fed her with the rich kernels of the nuts, and, the rain beginning to fall again, they took her with them into the cave for shelter. How anxiously the young men waited, at one moment prompted to burst out and free the captive, who seemed to have no gaoler but the women, and then resolving to leave the whole affair to the shrewd management of Baldabella. Arthur was anxiously examining the state of his rifle and ammunition, which he had carefully shielded beneath his fur cloak, when they were roused to force their way through the bush by the loud and triumphant voice of Wilkins, the low and apparently smothered coo-ee of the women, and, finally, by the appearance of Baldabella, rushing wildly from the cave, followed by Wilkins, excited, tattered, and emaciated. He carried a gun in his hand, and staggered up to his friends as if intoxicated.
"Take this, and load it directly," said he, giving Hugh the gun. "My hands are so cramped wi' them tough bands, that it'll be long afore I have any use on 'em. Rascals! rogues! Come on, I say; march while we can; yon screeching jins will soon bring a wasp's-nest round us."
Not caring for caution now, they hacked and burst through the thick wood, till they reached the plain; and then the coo-ee of the duped women rang alarmingly on their ears, and was soon answered by a faint and distant cry from the absent men. Poor Wilkins, whose legs had been bound till they were numbed, made but slow progress; and Arthur ordered O'Brien and Jack, with Baldabella, to move rapidly forward, to guard, or, if necessary, to close the pass, while Hugh and he protected the slow retreat of Wilkins.
They made no use of their arms till they saw the whole body of the savages appear outside the wood, and spears were falling round them. Then Hugh and Arthur fired their guns simultaneously into the midst of the foes, who plunged screaming into the woods. Two men lingered outside, but another volley from the second barrel, struck down one, and his companion disappeared in a moment.
"Now, Mr. Arthur," cried Wilkins, as he hurried forward, "now don't ye trust 'em. They're watching us; we'se be done if we make straight to our cutting. They're sharp-eyed chaps; we'se have to bubble 'em a bit."
Wilkins was right; and though it occupied some time, they made the circuit of the forest, before they ventured to enter; after which, they lost no time in closing up the opening with great art and care. Then the rescued prisoner was conducted to the cave, welcomed with great joy, fresh clad, and fed with pheasant, biscuit, and the unfailing tea; and his friends gathered round him to hear the tale of his hardships and trials.
"Ay, ay! this is all as it ought to be," said he; "and God be thanked I'se out on t'clutches of them unnat'ral dogs. They tied me hand and foot, all 'cause I couldn't be made to swear as how I'd turn bush-ranger, and start by robbing and murdering them as had cared for me and given me meat and claithes and good advice. That brute Peter bullied me, and kicked me when he knew I was tied fast; and he'd have put a knife into me, but likely he thought to bring me into his ways; and he were feared his blackeys might turn round on him, for they'd no ill blood again me. Then he ordered as how I were to have nought given me to eat, and sure enough I'd been starved afore this; but them poor jins, 'whiles, popped a few bites into my mouth, and brought me a sup of water, when I were like to go mad for want on't. A hempen rope wouldn't have held me, afore I lost my strength; but them stringy bark cords are like iron.
"It were dowly wark, and mony and mony a time, master, I thought over your words, and all my bad life, and my coward's death, and God's judgment to come. And then and there I settled it in my mind, if He pleased to set me free again, I'd niver swear another oath, I'd niver tell another lie, and I'd niver miss praying for strength, when bad thoughts came into my mind. I see, Miss, ye'r crying over my black sins, and well ye may, God help me. After this, I felt a bit more cheery, and I were sure some on ye would see after me; but I niver reckoned on her to be t'first, and were quite stunned when I saw her come in with t'other jins. But I plucked up my heart; I kenned she'd mind my words, and I just said,—
"'Yer knife—cut these ropes!' and as sharp as a needle she was up to me, pulled out a knife from under her cloak, and cut me loose. But poor creaters as we are, I couldn't move arm or leg for a good bit, and her there, hauding a hand on one woman's mouth, and a hand on t' others, flayed as how they'd shrike out, till I come round a bit, and got my arms worked round from behind me, and my feet to shuffle on. Then I thanked God in my heart, and off we came, and here we are; God bless ye all. I'se niver leave ye, whiles I have life. But, Mr. Arthur, we're not safe; Peter's a cunning fish."
"There's one comfort, Wilkins," said Arthur; "they do not like to face the heavy rain, which is now very welcome; and before it ceases, we must make ready for a siege; unfortunately, we want provisions."
Ruth placed herself uneasily before her poultry hutch, and Wilkins said, "There's lots of pigeons amang yon trees; I can soon trap a lot, and fetch 'em down here alive, and we'll fit up a dove-cote, and have tame birds to eat. We'se be forced to care nought for a drop of rain, but set off and forage about inside of t' wood."
To be besieged in a subterranean cave, from whence there was no retreat, was truly an alarming prospect; and several plans of fortification and defence were projected during the continuance of the heavy rain; while, regardless of the weather, the active youths left the cave to forage for stores, and to survey the plains that divided them from their enemies.
"Do look at our potatoes, Arthur," said Hugh; "how they have sprung up the last month. In another week they will be fit to eat, and we shall have a plentiful crop of these useful roots."
Though they saw all was still on the moist plain, they did not venture beyond the wood, but easily procured birds, figs, and oats in abundance; and after Wilkins had placed his traps for pigeons, and Hugh had taken up a root of the still small potatoes, they returned to the cave, heavily laden with good things.
Day after day they brought in fruit and grain to add to the stores, and captured a number of fine pigeons, for which Jack wattled off a niche in the cave, and they were supplied with grass and brushwood for nests, and grain for food, to induce them to settle quietly. It was impossible in this climate to keep animal food eatable for more than two days; but so long as they had grain and potatoes they knew that they could live, provided they could secure a constant supply of water.
This was their most perplexing difficulty; and even amidst the rain the stony lining of the reservoir was taken up that they might bore the ground beneath it with long poles. Up to the waist in water, they bored ineffectually for an hour, the pole always striking against the solid rock. At length the pole passed through, there was an accidental opening in the rock, and the party who watched in the caves below, saw, with delight, the water trickle through into a recess some distance from the entrance. Then they all descended, to sink a well in the soft sandy floor of the cave, which they lined with slabs, and looked on with pleasure as this little reservoir gradually filled from the pool above, which the continual rains kept constantly filled with water.
It was ten days before all these labors were fully accomplished; then a dry day succeeded, and every hand was actively employed in digging up, carrying off, and storing the potatoes, which were of good size, and an abundant crop. They had made a number of bags of a flexible bark for containing stores; but now so many were filled that Margaret was afraid, if they had to set out soon, they should be unable to carry all off.
Then, after ascertaining the undisturbed solitude of the plain beyond the wood, Arthur and Wilkins set out in hopes of procuring a change of food; but no kangaroos or emus were in sight, and they feared to venture far from their place of refuge. They shot some opossums, filled one bag with the leaves of the tea-shrub, at the particular request of Jenny, and another with the leaves of a salt plant, which seemed to have sprung up after the rain, and which Arthur was glad to carry off, that he might try an experiment of which he had read.
"But, I say, Mr. Arthur," said Wilkins, "we've gone and made a bad job of it; just look ye here, we've niver thought that we were leaving a track, and here it is on this plashy bog, and no mistake. We might just as well have hung out a sign-post, to ask blacky to walk in."
Arthur was much vexed at his own carelessness, but he saw nothing could now be done but to endeavor to confuse the track as much as possible, and he arranged with Wilkins that they should separate, branch off in different directions, and finally they made a circuit opposite to each other round the wood, that the weak point might not be discovered.
"Ye see, Mr. Arthur," said Wilkins before they separated, "if Peter has an inkling that we're aback of these trees, he'd soon cut his way through, with a bit of help. But then, them fools of black fellows are as bad as our fond lass Ruth; they're flayed out of their wits of this wood, and they'll be shy of coming nigh hand it. I ken a good bit of their talk, ye see, but I'se a bad hand at framing their queer chirruping words. I heard 'em tell of bad sperrits as haunted this wood. But Black Peter's set on getting haud of t' master's money, and guns, and powder, and such like, and he's not good to put down. I seed Master Hugh's rifle as soon as they pulled me into that hole, and kept an eye on't. It were no use to them, for they'd no powder; and I said to myself, if God please to loose me, that gun goes wi' me."
They then parted to move round the dark forest, and during his walk, Arthur was alarmed to see smoke from the wood in which the cave of the savages lay; and before he reached the opening, he heard their curious and unwelcome cry, which proclaimed that the foe was near, and he feared, watching their movements, and now deeply regretted that they had left their retreat. Gladly they returned to it, and doubly secured the entrance, determining to keep an incessant watch, lest they should be surprised in their citadel.
On their return they found that Jack, assisted by Hugh and Gerald, had formed an oven, lined with slabs, on the hearth where the cooking-fire was usually made, and Jenny was preparing cakes of bruised oats, and a pigeon-pie made in a large oyster-shell, and covered with potatoes, to be baked in the new oven. The flesh of the opossum was not relished by any of the party. Jenny declared she would just as soon eat a monkey; Ruth was afraid to touch one, even before it was cooked; and Mr. Mayburn, after a long lecture to prove that the flesh must certainly be wholesome, from the habits and the vegetable diet of the class of animals to which it belonged, concluded by declining, himself, to eat of it.
"Nevertheless," he said, "I am not prejudiced by the vulgar error of confounding this little creature with the ugly opossum of America, to which it bears no resemblance, except in its marsupial formation and its playful habits. In fact, the graceful form, delicate color, and extraordinary agility of this beautiful animal, seem to rank it rather with the squirrels; and from the lateral folds of membrane, which it has the power to expand, in order to support its flying leaps through the air, it has been named by some travellers the 'flying squirrel,' though distinct from the American squirrel, and, like all the quadrupeds of the country, exclusively Australian."
The pretty delicate gray skins were carefully preserved, to be sewed together for cloaks; and the hungry boys did not disdain a stew of opossums, which they declared was quite as good as rabbit. But previous to the cookery, Arthur showed his father the new salt-shrub; and the large and peculiar form of the leaves enabled them to decide that it must be Brown's Rhagodia Parabolica, the leaves of which are edible. Anxious to make the experiment, the leaves were boiled for some time, strained, and the liquor filtered and evaporated several times, and at length the exposure to great heat produced some crystals of salt, to the delight of the young chemists, and still more to the content of Jenny, who treasured the precious salt, which had so long been the grand deficiency in her cookery. The leaves themselves were added to the stew, and not only communicating a salt flavor to the insipid meat, but formed a tender vegetable, tasting like spinach; and it was determined to omit no opportunity of searching for this valuable plant.
In the preparation and enjoyment of their abundant food, they did not neglect the necessary precautions for concealing their retreat. All the potato stalks were thrown into the cave, for fuel, and the ground was smoothed over as much as possible, and strewn with stones, that the traces of cultivation might haply escape observation; a watch was continually kept on the heights, and every opening that lighted the cave, with the exception of some narrow crevices, was carefully covered with a slab of stone beneath the brush, lest an accident similar to that which befell O'Brien should lead their enemies to discover the subterranean hollow.
This precaution rendered their abode gloomy, though they left the principal opening—the entrance—uncovered till any serious cause of alarm should render it prudent to enclose themselves entirely; and when a cessation of the rain permitted them, they all gladly remained in the open air, enjoying the perfume of the revived vegetation, and the joyful notes of thousands of birds which sported in the air, fluttered on the trees, or clamored noisily round the pools of water, plunging their beaks into the mud for the worms and reptiles on which they fed. These creatures supplied the family with unfailing food, and afforded Mr. Mayburn constant amusement in studying their various habits.
But a cessation of rain brought to them also a certain increase of peril. The natives were seen spreading over the plain below, hunting the kangaroo or opossum; and Black Peter, himself, easily distinguished, as Gerald said, because he was white, was observed stooping down, as Arthur suspected, to scrutinize the track, which he feared the rain had failed to obliterate. Still, occasionally heavy showers fell, and dispersed the people, who shrink from rain; and it was not till one morning, when none was actually falling, though dark clouds hid the sun, that the whole force of the savages, certainly exceeding fifty men, appeared crossing the plain; following slowly, and it seemed reluctantly, their debased chief, Black Peter.
When they had approached within a hundred yards of the forest, the natives halted at once, and Peter, after speaking some words to them, began again to examine the perplexed track, and drawing close to the trees, followed it round the whole boundary, apparently puzzled and enraged. At length he paused not far from the real entrance, and swinging round his axe above his head, he called out loudly to the people. They answered by throwing their axes on the ground, and remaining erect and motionless. The watchers above distinctly heard repeated strokes of the axe on the hard pine-trees; but they were well convinced that the efforts of one man alone could not accomplish an entrance, even for many days, and therefore felt comparatively tranquillized.
Still there was the absolute conviction that they were in a state of siege; that this man was of indomitable determination, of cruel and depraved nature, and that ultimately his obstinacy might bend even the timid savages to his will. And at this thought, fear and anxiety stole over every heart. Mr. Mayburn was persuaded to remain in the cave with Margaret and the three women, the sentinels promising to send reports of the progress of affairs to them, while, with tears and prayers they waited the result.
"Now, Mr. Arthur," said Wilkins, "just let me say my say. We've t' best on't yet: let's keep yon pass again all them rogues, and see which side tires first. We'll cut a canny hole to fire through at 'em, and load one gun after another; and as ye 're a bit soft-hearted yersel', ye maun just let me be front-rank man, and I'se pick off my chaps, reet and left, till there's not a rogue can stand again us. Folks say as how Peter's charmed; but I'se have a blaze at him, onyhow, and see if I can't stop his mischief."
"That will be capital!" cried Gerald. "And let us dig trenches, Arthur, and then won't we pepper the rascals snugly."
"But these savages are not rascals, Gerald," said Arthur; "they are only ignorant wretches, misled by a rascal. To fire on them from an ambush would be cold-blooded murder, which papa would never sanction. We have no right deliberately to destroy so many human lives."
"Ye're a real soft un, master," said Wilkins. "What's a few savages? Bless ye, t' country round about teems with 'em; they'll niver be missed!"
Nevertheless, Arthur could not be persuaded that it was expedient or excusable to destroy the surplus population of savages; and he preferred to reserve his charges for absolute defence.