"Sure 'twill be our salvation, sorr. There'll be a power uv food on those canoes, and 'twill come in the nick uv time to save us from famine."
"But we've got to capture it first!"
"And won't it be aisy, sorr? It won't drop into our mouths, to be sure, but there's niver a doubt we'll get it by this or that."
Jack smiled at Barney's confidence, which he could hardly share. He estimated that he had about a week's grace before the State troops could arrive, unless they made a forced march ahead of their stores, which was not very likely. He could not look forward without misgiving. Elbel's troops, strongly reinforced and commanded by an experienced military officer, would prove a very different enemy. He doubted whether it would be wise to wait the issue of a fight. Apart from the risk of being utterly crushed, there was a strong political reason against it, as Mr. Arlington did not fail to point out. Hitherto Jack had been dealing with an officer of the Société Cosmopolite, and he could argue reasonably that he was only opposing unwarranted interference. But if he resisted an armed force of the State, it became at once open rebellion.
"You render yourself liable to the punishment of a rebel, Mr. Challoner," said Mr. Arlington, "and your British nationality will not help you. You might be shot or hanged. What I suggest to you is this. When the State forces appear, let me open negotiations with them. They will probably know my name; I have a certain influence in high quarters; I could probably make terms for you."
"But the people, Mr. Arlington! You could not make terms for them. What would happen to them? They would fall into the power of their oppressors, and the old tale would be continued—illegal demands and exactions, floggings, maimings, murders. It was a solemn charge from my uncle to stand by the defenceless negroes; it is no less the dictate of humanity: we, they and I, are in the same boat, sir, and we must sink or swim together."
As it was of supreme importance to Jack to know at what rate the hostile column was moving, he sent out that night Samba, Makoko, and Lingombela with orders to report the progress of the expedition from day to day. By taking the road through the forest they should get into touch with the enemy by the time they reached the place where Mr. Martindale had left his canoes. If the scouts should find themselves unable to return to the fort they were to light a large fire on the spot whence Samba had seen Barney's flag flying, as a signal that the expedition had passed the place in question. If a small column should be coming on in advance they were to light two fires a little apart from one another. Samba was even more light-hearted than usual when he left the fort with his comrades. He seemed to feel that this was a mission of special importance, the prelude to a final victory for Lokolobolo; for the possibility of defeat for Lokolobolo never suggested itself to any man in Ilombekabasi. Mboyo and Lukela were at the wall to bid their son goodbye. He laughed as he slipped down into the darkness.
"Ekeke e'afeka!"[[2]] he whispered gleefully, and hastened to overtake Makoko and Lingombela, who were already some distance up the gully.
Shortly after dawn next day the sentries reported a sound as of a large body of men moving up the hill. Jack instantly called the garrison to arms. There was a good deal of noise in the darkness above the fort. Here and there a dim light showed for a few moments, and was promptly fired at. When day broke Jack saw that the enemy had built a rough wall of stones loosely piled up, some fifty yards long and about four feet high, parallel with the north wall of the fort, one end resting on the edge of the gully. From a convenient spot in the gully, about two hundred yards above the fort, the enemy could creep to the extremity of the wall without coming under the fire of the garrison. It had evidently been erected to screen some operations going on behind it. To guard against a sortie from the fort a covering force had been placed on the hill a quarter of a mile farther up; and between the ill-fitting stones there were small gaps which would serve as loopholes for the riflemen.
During the day the enemy were hard at work digging a trench under cover of the wall. Jack wondered at first whether Elbel was going to make approaches to the fort by sap and mine, in the manner he had read of in histories of the great sieges. But another and still more disturbing thought occurred to him. Would the trench cut across the line of his conduit? Had Elbel at last fathomed the secret of his water supply? He anxiously examined the landmarks, which had been disturbed somewhat by the construction of the wall. As nearly as he could judge, the spring was a few yards south of the wall, and neither it nor the conduit would be discovered by the men digging the trench. Yet he could not but feel that Elbel's latest move was not so much an attempt to undermine the defences of the fort as to discover the source of its water supply. If he should have hit upon the fact that the water was derived, not from a well inside the walls, but from a spring outside, he would not be long in coming to the conclusion that it must be from a spot opposite the northern face; and by cutting a trench or a series of trenches across the ground in that direction he must sooner or later come upon the conduit.