“No dlinkee much; no get more till pilate gone.”
I shuddered as I thought of the consequences of being without water in that stifling place, but the simple refreshments did me a wonderful amount of good, and, after dipping my handkerchief in the vessel and squeezing a few drops from time to time between Tom Jecks’ lips as he began to mutter, he dropped off to sleep again.
I sat listening then to the smothered sounds from without, where the enemy were evidently very busy, and I was just dropping off again into an uneasy slumber, when I started into wakefulness, for there was a loud shout from the opening we had blocked up, and I felt that all was over. They had found the way in, and in a few moments we should be dragged out.
Directly after there was the babble of several other voices, and a discussion went on in Chinese, not a word of which could I understand. Then, to my utter wonder, the voices which had come over the top as if speaking close by me, suddenly ceased, and I could hear the pad pad of bare feet on the sands.
“Velly neally catchee catchee, and choppee off head,” said Ching softly. “Begin to be velly solly for poor Mis’ Hellick. Pilate say, ‘Heah good place, make hole s’eep in.’ ’Nothee pilate say, ‘Big fool; allee wet damp; wildee beast live in hole, and allee ’tink. Come back, makee better place.’”
It was a narrow escape, and it was long enough before my heart calmed down, left off throbbing, and I fell asleep.
Utter exhaustion had done its work, and my sleep was deep and dreamless. Once my eyes had closed, they did not open again till long after sunrise the next morning, when I lay there puzzled, and wondering where I was and what was the meaning of the murmur of voices apparently from somewhere overhead.
Ching’s voice chased away the remaining mists.
“You had velly good s’eep?” he whispered. “Feel muchee better?”
I did not answer, only squeezed his hand, and turned to see how Tom Jecks was, but he did not seem to have stirred, and we then ate sparingly of our biscuits, and drank more sparingly of the water.