Part 1 (1/2)
The Fugitives.
by R.M. Ballantyne.
PREFACE.
It is almost allowable, I think, to say that this is a true story, for fiction has only been introduced for the purpose of piecing together and making a symmetrical whole of a number of most interesting facts in regard to Madagascar and the terrible persecutions that took place there in the early part and middle of the present century.
I have ventured to modify time and place somewhat, as well as to mix my characters and their deeds a little, in order to suit the conditions of my tale; but in doing so I have striven to avoid exaggeration and to produce a true picture of the state of affairs, at the period treated of, in what may be styled one of the most interesting and progressive islands of the world.
I take this opportunity of thanking the Rev George Cousins, of the London Missionary Society, and formerly of Madagascar, for kindly supplying me with much valuable information, and of acknowledging myself indebted, among others, to the works of Messrs. Sibree, Ellis, and Shaw.
R M Ballantyne.
Harrow-on-the-Hill, 1887.
CHAPTER ONE.
INTRODUCES THE CHIEF ACTORS AND A FEW MYSTERIES.
Intense action is at all times an interesting object of contemplation to mankind. We therefore make no apology to the reader for dragging him unceremoniously into the middle of a grand primeval forest, and presenting to his view the curious and stirring spectacle of two white men and a negro running at their utmost possible speed, with flas.h.i.+ng eyes and labouring chests--evidently running for their lives.
Though very different in aspect and condition, those men were pretty equally matched as runners, for there was no apparent difference in the vigour with which they maintained the pace.
The track or footpath along which they ran was so narrow as to compel them to advance in single file. He who led was a tall agile youth of nineteen or thereabouts, in knickerbocker shooting-garb, with short curly black hair, pleasantly expressive features, and sinewy frame. The second was obviously a true-blue tar--a regular sea-dog--about thirty years of age, of Samsonian mould, and, albeit running for very life, with grand indignation gleaming in his eyes. He wore a blue s.h.i.+rt on his broad back, white ducks on his active legs, and a straw hat on his head, besides a ma.s.s of s.h.a.ggy hair, which, apparently, not finding enough of room on his cranium, overflowed in two brown cataracts down his cheeks, and terminated in a voluminous beard.
The third fugitive was also a young man, and a negro, short, thickset, square, tough as india-rubber, and black as the Emperor of Zahara.
Good-humour wrinkled the corners of his eyes, the milk of human kindness played on his thick lips and rippled his sable brow, and intense sincerity, like a sunbeam, suffused his entire visage.
James Ginger--for that was his name, though his friends preferred to call him Ebony--scorned a hat of any kind; his simple costume consisting merely of two garments--canvas trousers and a guernsey s.h.i.+rt.
The sailor wore a cutla.s.s in his belt. Ebony was unarmed. The youthful leader carried a short fowling-piece.
A yell in the far distance, as if from a hundred fiends, told that the pursuers had discovered the trail of the fugitives, and were gaining on them.
”We'll have to fight for it, doctor,” growled the sailor in a savage tone, ”better stop while we've got some wind left.”
”The wood seems more open ahead,” replied the youth, ”let's push on a bit further.”
”Hi!” exclaimed the negro in surprise, not unmingled with alarm, as they suddenly emerged on an open s.p.a.ce and found themselves on the edge of a stupendous precipice.
The formation of the region was curious. There was a drop in the land, as it were, to a lower level. From their elevated position the three men could see a turbulent river rus.h.i.+ng far below, at the base of the cliffs on the edge of which they stood. Beyond lay a magnificent and varied stretch of forest scenery, extending away to the horizon, where the prospect terminated in a blue range of hills. No path was at first visible by which the fugitives could reach the plain below. The precipice was almost perpendicular. They were about to leap recklessly over, and trust to descending by means of an occasional bush or shrub which grew on the rocky face, when the negro uttered one of his falsetto exclamations.
”Hi! here am a track.”
He dashed aside the branches of an overhanging bush, and ran along a narrow path, or ledge, which sloped gently downwards. It was a fearfully giddy position, but this in the circ.u.mstances, and to men accustomed to mast-heads and yard-arms, was of small moment. On they ran, at a more cautious pace indeed, but still with anxious haste, until about a quarter of the distance down the face of the precipice, when, to their horror, they came to a turn in the path where it suddenly ended.
A ma.s.s of rock, apparently detached from the cliff by recent rains, had fallen from above, and in its thundering descent had carried away fully ten yards of the path into the stream below, where they could see its shattered fragments in the rus.h.i.+ng river. The gap in front of them was absolutely impa.s.sable. On the right, the cliff rose sheer upwards. On the left, it went sheer down.
A sort of groan escaped from the doctor.