At Dick’s call they poured a volley into space, and looked round for more orders.
“That will do very well for to-day. We will practise again every day, and I want to see that the men at the top of the shaft shout the alarm to their friends below and wait to haul them up. There must be no desertion of comrades.”
Dick was as good as his word, too. The following morning, when he had carefully inspected the surroundings, and had seen that the miners were busily at work, he caused Johnnie to sound the alarm again, and stood in the neighbourhood of the shafts till all the men were up. Then the proceedings of the previous evening were repeated.
“That part of our precautions is arranged,” he said to himself, as he smoked a meditative pipe. “Now I must look to another matter. Johnnie and I must take it in turns to go abroad into the forest.”
It was a wise precaution, and from that day, turn and turn about, he or the native stoker, as soon as breakfast was ended, and while the day was still cool, would take a rifle and stalk away towards the forest. Sometimes they would go towards the river, to see that no one had tampered with the launch, and at others they would make in the opposite direction. But whichever road they followed, they were careful not to penetrate too deeply into the jungle, and to take their bearings before entering the bush.
“We might get lost,” said Dick, “and besides, it is really laborious work cutting a path, however narrow. The main thing is to circle all around the mine, looking for traces of a possible enemy, and, of course, shooting any game we may come upon, for fresh meat is a luxury.”
One day, a week later, when our hero was out on his tramp, and had proceeded a couple of miles from the mine, he suddenly came to a halt, and stood there listening intently, for a sound had come to his ear.
“The tom-tom!” he exclaimed. “I feel sure, and from the direction of the stockade. Can the place be attacked?”
The thought threw him into a fever of apprehension, for supposing an enemy had appeared, and his men were within the stockade, what would happen to them without their leader? They were excellent fellows, but Dick had come to know that, without some one to direct them, they were useless.
“They would be all right for an hour or two if not pressed,” he said. “But if they were rushed by a strong force—well, it would go hard with them. I must return. But can it be that that tom-tom was not from the mine?”