“Don’t be a fool, comrade,” he said at last. “He can’t hear you. Poor old Job Tipsy! He always said me and the governor were just like a couple of schoolboys with our games and larks, and I suppose he was right. Poor old Bully Bounce! But I do wish he was here now to help us two out of this hole, and a dozen of our chaps at his back, for it’s rather a different sort of game to what it used to be when we got found out. Here’s poor Mister Archie lying down below badly hurt, and me stretched on the top of this attap roof, pinned out like a jolly old cock butterfly meant for a specimen. Think of it,” he muttered, as he sat up and began feeling down his leg. “Shied a spear at me. It hurts, too. Good job it didn’t hit me in the middle. It’s a bit wet, but it can’t be bad. Scratted a bit, and then it went through the leg of my trousers. Well, I call that a narrow escape.”
As he muttered to himself he began tugging at the spear-shaft, only about two feet of which stood out above the cloth; and from his cramped position the young private found that, tug as he would, the weapon was too deeply buried in the thick thatch for him to draw it out.
“Well, this ’ere’s a nice game,” said the lad softly. “Won’t come out, won’t you? All right! More ways of killing a cat than hanging it. Go in, then;” and reaching upward with both hands, he began to press upon the butt of the spear, and drove it a little farther in. “If you can’t pull a spear or a harrer out, the best thing to do is to shove it through. That’s what I’m a-doing; only, as you may say, I’m walking off it.” As he spoke he raised his leg up, holding on to the attap roof the while, gave two or three sharp kicks, and threw his leg off the spear-shaft and let it fall free upon the slope, where he lay now upon his back shaking with laughter.
“Oh dear! Oh dear!” he said. “What a game! Pinned down like a specimen! I can’t stop it. Just like it’s often been when we have been on the march, feeling half-starved and empty, and I have made the lads turn savage, and bang me on the back, and call me all the fools they could lay their tongues to, as they kept telling me to leave off, when I couldn’t. Pinned down like a cockchafer! ’Tention! Oh, I say,” he gasped out excitedly, “I never thought of that! Here was I wondering how I was to get hold of another spear, and it’s come flying at me. Where are you?”
He felt about till his hand came in contact with about two feet of the haft standing out of the thatch, and he began tugging at it to draw it forth. “Won’t come, won’t you? All right, then, go;” and catching hold of the bamboo staff with his left hand, he doubled his fist and turned his right into a mallet, thumping the butt, which readily yielded and went farther and farther through, till he struck the bamboo and mat together, when a final blow sent the weapon right through, and it was gone.
“My!” he muttered at last. “Suppose Mister Archie was just underneath, listening! Not he, poor chap! He’ll be fast asleep,” thought Peter. “Well, there’s no considering what I ought to do next. I have just got to get back and pick up that there spear. Mr Sentry will never think it’s gone through, and if to-morrow he comes to look for it, he will think that there monkey has carried it away sticking in his back. Phew! My leg smarts; and that ain’t the worst of it. I have got to get up to the ridge here, and down the other side to where I crept out; and that’s where there’s snakes.”
It took a little resolution when the lad had reached the loose portion of the mat, and he hesitated and kicked about a bit, to scare any enemy away, before raising the mat, passing his legs through, and lowering himself partly down.
A few minutes later he was holding on with one arm, having wedged his toes into the side of the stable wall, while he carefully drew back the thatch into its place.
Directly after, he stood listening amongst the rustling palm-leaves, then crept to Archie’s side, to hear him breathing heavily, fast asleep; and then, after refreshing himself with a draught of water, he began to search for the fallen spear. This he passed several times before he found it sticking upright in the floor, gave it a hug of delight, and was about to carry it to thrust it in beside its fellow, when he paused.
“That means if they find one they will find t’other,” he said to himself, “so that won’t do.”