Part 1 (2/2)

”What's to be done now, Hockins?” he asked sharply, turning to the sailor.

”Die!” replied Hockins, in a tone of savage bitterness.

”Stuff an' nonsense! we no' die yit,” said the negro, pointing to the snake-like branches of a climbing plant which, spreading over the naked face of the cliff, turned into a crevice and disappeared round a jutting point.

”Will it bear our weight, lad?” asked the sailor doubtfully.

”It leads to nothing that I can see,” said the young doctor, ”and would only ensure our being dashed to pieces instead of speared.”

”Nebber fear, ma.s.sa Breezy. Dis not de fus' time I's hoed troo de forests. If you stop here you die. James Gingah he go on an' lib.”

”Go on then, Ebony; we will follow,” returned Breezy, slinging his gun on his shoulder so as to leave his hands free.

A yell of disappointment on the cliffs above accelerated their movements. It was evident that the pursuers had come out on the open plateau, but had not observed the path by which they descended. As it was certain, however, that they would find it in a few minutes, Ebony sprang upon the creeping plant and clambered along its tortuous limbs like a monkey. Young Breezy followed, and Hockins came last.

The plant was tough. It stood the strain well. If it had given way, death on the jagged rocks below would have been the result. But death by savage spears was behind them, so they did not hesitate. A few seconds and all three had pa.s.sed round the jutting rock and into the crevice, where they were completely hidden from the view of any one standing on the path they had just left.

In the crevice they found a ledge or platform sufficiently large to admit of their standing together. They had scarcely obtained a footing on it when another shout announced that the pursuer had traced their trail to the head of the track.

We know not, reader, whether you have ever experienced that heart-melting qualm which comes over one at the sudden and unexpected approach of what, at least, appears to be death. If you have, you will be able to understand the intense relief and thankfulness felt by the fugitives when, safe from immediate danger, they listened to their pursuers as they held excited conversation at the end of the broken track. Not knowing the language they could not, of course, understand what was said, and being just beyond the range of vision--owing to the jutting cliff that concealed them--they could not see what their pursuers were doing, but they heard a suggestive crash and a sharp exclamation.

Had they been able to see, they would have understood the situation well enough without the aid of language.

Two of the natives, who were dark-skinned and almost naked savages, had come to the place where the track had been broken away. They gazed at the profound depths on the left and the inaccessible cliffs on the right, and then glanced at each other in solemn surprise.

No doubt the creeping plant would in a few seconds have attracted special attention, had not an incident turned their minds in another direction. While the foremost savage was craning his neck so as to see as far round the projecting cliff as possible, the piece of rock on which his advanced foot was dislodged, and he had the narrowest possible escape from plunging headlong after the rock, which went bounding and cras.h.i.+ng into the gulf below.

Instantly the faces of the two men gleamed with intelligence; they nodded with energy, grinned with satisfaction, and pointed to the abyss in front of them with the air of men who had no doubt that their enemies were lying down there in quivering fragments.

Something of this James Ginger did indeed manage to see. Curiosity was so powerfully developed in that sable spirit, that, at the imminent risk of his life, he reached out by means of a branch, and so elongated his black neck that he got one of his brilliant eyes to bear for a moment upon his foes. He appreciated the situation instantly, and drew back to indulge in a smothered laugh which shut up both his eyes and appeared to gash his face from ear to ear.

”What's wrong with you, Ebony?” whispered Mark Breezy, who was in anything but a laughing mood just then.

”Oh! nuffin', nuffin', ma.s.sa; only dem brown n.i.g.g.e.rs are sitch a.s.ses dat dey b'lieve a'most anyting. Black n.i.g.g.e.rs ain't so easy putt off de scent. Dey tinks we's tumble ober de precipis an' busted ourselbes.”

”Lucky for us that they think so,” said Hockins, in a soft tone of satisfaction. ”But now, what are we to do? It was bad enough clamberin' up here in blazin' excitement to save our lives, but it will be ten times worse gettin' down again in cold blood when they're gone.”

”Time enough to consider that when they _are_ gone,” muttered Breezy.

”Hus.h.!.+ Listen!”

The sounds that reached their place of concealment told clearly enough that a number of the savages had descended the cliffs, presumably to look at the place over which the white men had fallen. Then there was much eager conversation in an unknown tongue, mingled with occasional bursts of laughter--on hearing which latter the huge mouth of our negro enlarged in silent sympathy. After a while the voices were heard to retire up the narrow track and become fainter until they died away altogether, leaving no sound save the murmur of the rus.h.i.+ng river to fill the ears of the anxious listeners who stood like three statues in a niche on the face of that mighty precipice.

”Now, you know,” said Breezy, with a sigh of relief, ”this is very satisfactory as far as it goes, and we have reason to be thankful that we are neither speared nor dashed to pieces; nevertheless, we are in an uncomfortable fix here, for night is approaching, and we must retrace our steps somehow or other, unless we make up our minds to sleep standing.”

”That's so, doctor. There's not room to lie down here,” a.s.sented the sailor, glancing slowly round; ”an', to tell 'ee the plain truth, I feel as funky about trustin' myself again to that serpent-like creeper as I felt the first time I went up through the lubber-hole the year I went to sea.”

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