Part 10 (1/2)
CHAPTER SEVEN.
FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED.
”I don't like the news, Johnnie,” said our hero, one day, some weeks later, when he had quite settled down to his duties at the mine. ”You say you saw some men encamped five miles and more away. Tell me all about them.”
The native lad, an inhabitant of the coast near Sierra Leone, who had come from that part with Mr Pepson, and who had been left to keep d.i.c.k company and to tend to the launch, put the short black pipe which he was smoking into the other corner of his mouth, and turned his eyes up till the whites alone showed, a trick of which he was very fond. He was, in fact, a comical-looking fellow. Short and square for a native, with woolly hair, and a few stray wisps of beard at his chin, he was dressed in a much patched pair of breeches, with ragged edges, the tags hanging about his naked toes. These same breeches were suspended from his shoulders by an ancient pair of braces, a gift from d.i.c.k himself, while a soiled and disreputable jacket, smeared with many a patch of grease, was over his back, serving for s.h.i.+rt as well as coat. He held a rifle in his hand, and the state of his feet showed that he had just come in from the forest.
”Me go dere, as you say,” he said, taking the pipe from his mouth. ”Me look for something to eat, for ma.s.sa want fresh meat. And then me see smoke. 'Dat strange,' say Johnnie. On de coast where me lib noting wrong in dat. Fires eberywhere. Smoke all de time. But here--”
Again his eyes turned up as if to show that this smoke was a matter for astonishment.
”Exactly so. Here one would feel surprised and alarmed. Go on.”
”Den Johnnie tink, and say, 'dese surely bad men, not like Johnnie,' so me start to run 'way. Den me creep back, and soon me see better. Dere ten, tirty, yes, fifty big native, all wid sword and gun, and dey sit round de fire cookin' and eatin'. Me look for dat scoundrel, dat white man who attack us below. But no, he not dere. Den me come 'way and tell ma.s.sa.”
It was serious news, and for a long while our hero was silent. For three weeks he had gone about his work at the mine till he was thoroughly acquainted with it. He had been down each one of the shafts, and had ingratiated himself with the men. It happened that in two of the shafts a rich deposit of nuggets had been come upon, not an uncommon find in the goldfields of Ashanti; and that, together with the increased comfort given by the winding gear, all of which was now in place, had so heartened the miners that he was more than popular amongst them. But he was still haunted with the fear of attack.
”There must be people who know that we are here, practically with no means of defence,” he had said over and over again to himself. ”And no doubt the news of a rich find will in time be circulated. What is to prevent a ruffian like James Langdon making a raid upon us? I am here, in charge, and I must take steps.”
That same evening he went to the miners when they had come up from the shafts, and told them the news.
”Our brothers are at war. There is nothing in this camp to alarm us or you,” said their leader, when d.i.c.k had made himself understood, a somewhat difficult matter, considering his small knowledge of the language. ”The Ashantis will not touch us. The Fantis would if they could, for we are weak, and should fall an easy prey to them. But these were Ashantis.”
”And to-morrow a force of Fantis might come, too,” added d.i.c.k. ”Then what could we do?”
”We should be killed, the gold would be taken, and there would be an end of the matter.”
”Then as I have no wish to be killed, I suggest that we take steps to protect ourselves,” said d.i.c.k. ”I have rifles at the stockade for all, and will arrange a signal. You say that you can all shoot. That makes matters better. We will practise to-night. There is a tomtom at the stockade, left there by one of yourselves perhaps. I will beat that as the signal, and all will at once rush to the place, bringing their store of gold with them.”
The miners looked at one another when they heard his words, and then commenced to discuss the matter together; for it was difficult for them to understand the need for such precautions. They had been at this mine for some months now, and they had never been disturbed. At the same time rumour had reached them that their countrymen were at war with the Fantis, and that being the case, the latter would treat them as enemies.
There was a big store of gold, the result of the last month's labour, and that would certainly go. They would be killed, too, and even if they were not, they would lose their wages, now owing for some months.
”We will do as you ask,” said their chief, half an hour later. ”There may be need for these precautions, and in that case we may have cause to be glad. On the other hand, the time wasted will be only short, and will not matter. What else shall we do?”
”Make for the stockade, as I have said, and when there we will arrange the method of defence,” answered d.i.c.k. ”Keep your ears open for the signal.”
He left them, and an hour later, having seen Johnnie again in the meanwhile and instructed him to sound the alarm, he retreated to the stockade with the men, waiting till the last to see how they carried out the movement.
”That will do very well,” he said, as they arrived, panting, in the stockade. ”Now for other orders. The last man in throws the doors to and is helped by his friends. That is right. We are now safely behind stout walls, and can fetch our rifles. They are kept in this rack in the hut, and a bag of ammunition is hung to the muzzle of each. Let every one go in and help himself, and then run out to the walls.”
He watched as the miners, a group of intelligent men, carried out his orders. Then as they came hustling from the hut, pus.h.i.+ng each other aside in their eagerness, he arrested them with a shout and with uplifted hand.
”Some one will be shot very soon,” he said. ”Some of you have already loaded, and guns go off sooner than they are wanted to under these circ.u.mstances. We must do things in an orderly manner, and each must have an allotted place. Tell your men off to a loophole apiece, chief,”
he shouted. ”Now, that is better, and we will practise the move again.”
Several times they carried out the exercise, d.i.c.k making them emerge from the stockade, and then, at a beat on the tom-tom, rush in, close the gates, and go in search of their rifles. No man was allowed to load till he was at his loophole, and then the order was that there should be no firing unless the enemy were clearly seen.
”We have a fair store of cartridges,” said d.i.c.k, ”but we may have to stand a siege. That being the case, we must not throw them away. Now let each man pick out a tree or some object, and aim at it. I'll give the order to fire.”
By now the miners were beginning to take more than a pa.s.sing interest in these manoeuvres of their young chief. They had been talking the thing over, and had come to the conclusion that it would be worth while to safeguard their own interests. They had been away from their friends for a long time, and it might be that there was a war of considerable proportions raging, for the Ashantis were at daggers drawn with the Fantis, and took every opportunity of attacking them.