“Won’t you give us the order to let ’em have it again, sir, without waiting till the first luff comes back?” whispered the sailor.
“Isn’t he there, Tom?”
“No, sir, he’s gone off with them poor shivering niggers, sir, to try a bit o’ manoeuvring o’ some kind; but he won’t do no good, sir. They arn’t got a bit o’ fight in ’em. But what can you expect of a poor beggar as lives on yam and a chew o’ sugar-cane? It don’t give a man pluck, sir. If I had ’em fed up a bit on salt horse and weevly biscuit I’d make ’em something like in a few weeks. There, sir; hear that?”
“Yes,” whispered Murray. “Ah, they’re getting ready to fire. Make ready. Each man aim at where he thinks they’re coming on. Fire!”
A capital volley was the result, followed by the rush of feet of those who had been creeping up through the trees; and then above the crackling and breaking of leaf and twig, arose a furious yell and the groaning of human beings in intense pain.
“How horrible it sounds!” said Murray, as the thudding of ramrods arose.
“Does it, sir?” grunted Tom May. “Oh, I dunno, sir. Sounds to me black. Dessay it would ha’ seemed to me horrid if it had been white. There, sir; Mr Anderson don’t seem to think bad on it,” growled the man.
For at that moment the chief officer hurried up to where they stood, uttering a few quick enquiries and listening to the results.
“No one hurt then?” he said, with a sigh of satisfaction. “That’s good, Mr Murray. Oh, by the way, Thomas May, I shall want a word or two with you when this business is over. Mr Murray, you will bring up the rear. Keep together, and follow me as silently as you can. Mr Murray, the blacks are well together now, following the planter’s man, and we have to follow him, for I have to depend upon him to lead us back. I need not say that you must keep your ears well open, for in spite of the checks we have given them the enemy may come on again.”
“The first luff don’t seem to think it’s very horrible, Mr Murray, sir,” whispered the big sailor, as he trudged as silently as he could beside his companion of the rear-guard.