Part 30 (2/2)
We'll lie up for a month, till things get blown over a little, and until people have begun to forget that dollar notes were taken; then we'll get aboard the launch, steam out from the lagoon, and take one of the pa.s.sing traders. There won't be no difficulty about that. Guess we're armed, and the folks aboard the traders don't carry a weapon. Once we've got a boat, we'll sail to the nearest port, trans.h.i.+p to New Orleans, and from there to France. Paris will take every dollar we have, even though the numbers of the bills have been published. In six months' time we shall have enough to make a tidy sum for each of us when the stuff's divided.”
He led his little following through the forest till they arrived at an open, rocky s.p.a.ce, where the blackened ground showed that a fire had been made on a former occasion. Indeed it was a spot which Jaime knew well, for he had travelled this route many times now. Here saddles were taken from the horses, while the beasts were given a drink at a tiny stream which trickled from the rocks; then they were tethered to long ropes, which would allow them to graze. Sadie was not treated unkindly.
Indeed, hardened villain though he was, Jaime had some pity for the child. He had her placed near the fire, and saw to it himself that food and drink were given her.
”You'd best get settled down in one of the blankets and take a sleep,”
he advised. ”I ain't goin' to put any ropes on you, and I'll tell you why. If you were to try to make off into the jungle, you'd just get lost, and there's wild things in the forest that would scare the life out of you; so be sensible, and take a sleep.”
Sadie was, in fact, far too frightened by her surroundings to venture to move. To speak the truth, the trying scenes through which she had pa.s.sed had practically unnerved her, though the child had plenty of courage; but she was a sensible child too, and saw the futility of attempting escape at this moment.
As to Jim and his little band, they had no idea where the party they were in pursuit of had camped, if, indeed, they had camped at all. They pressed on slowly through the jungle, Sam leading with the lantern, and Tom bringing up the rear, slas.h.i.+ng a tree every few paces as he pa.s.sed.
It was perhaps an hour later before the little negro came to a sudden halt, and lifted his head in the air.
”Smell hosses!” he whispered, snuffing at the breeze for all the world as if he were a dog. ”Sartin sure I smell hosses!”
Promptly his hand went to the lamp and extinguished it. Jim heard the catch click to, and found himself in utter darkness. But though he held his head erect, and sniffed with all his power, he could detect nothing but the strong, aromatic scent of some tropical creeper clinging to the trees near at hand, and supporting from the finest tendrils some magnificent blossoms.
”Horses? You're sure?” he asked.
”Sartin sure,” came the confidant whisper. ”Listen to dat!”
Through the silence of the forest there came of a sudden a dull cough, and then a loud neigh. It was followed by a second, and then, faintly to Jim's ears, but with startling loudness to Sam's, there came the sound of stamping.
”I'se tell yo' all about it,” whispered the little negro. ”One ob de hosses restless; de flies trouble him. He cough fust ob all, den he neigh. Now he stampin'. Dat all simple, simple as A B C. But him very close; too close. S'pose dem sc.u.m hab seen de lantern.”
They crouched in the jungle in death-like silence for the s.p.a.ce of ten minutes, fearful lest what Sam had suggested were the case; but though they listened there came no other sound than the stamp of the restless horse which had first attracted their attention--that and an occasional cough from the same animal. As to Sam's statement that he could smell horses, a statement which must have been true, and which had undoubtedly saved Jim and his party from blundering into the enemy's camp, our hero could not even now detect the characteristic smell. Nor could Ching nor Tom.
”But dem dere all de same,” whispered Sam, chuckling at the recollection of his own sharpness, ”and precious near too. What yo do, sah? Wait here and listen.”
”No; I shall creep forward at once. We'll all go, for if we were to divide we might never find one another. Wasn't there a moon when we started?”
Sam took his young master by the sleeve and pulled his arm towards the right, to a spot where the trees gave back from one another, and a long ghostly stream of pure white light broke in from above and bathed the tree trunks.
”What dat say?” he asked. ”Yo can see fo' yoself dat dere's a moon; but down here dark as a ditch, black as de hat. Out in de open splendid light; see to read if yo like to.”
”Then we may be able to see them. Lead along, Sam; clear the ground before you as much as you can.”
They set forward again, this time on hands and knees, and slowly, inch by inch, approached the clearing where Jaime had made his camp. Not that they could see it yet; but Sam proclaimed the fact that they were nearer with his usual a.s.surance.
”Tell dat by the sniff ob de hosses,” he said shortly; ”anyone can say dat fo' sure. In ten minute yo see dese sc.u.m, and den know what to do.”
True enough, that number of minutes brought the whole party to the edge of the jungle, though as to their knowing how to act, that was a very different matter. Jim stared out into the open, and saw there five figures, huddled within a few feet of one another, wrapped from head to foot in blankets. Farther away were the horses, half-hidden in the shadow cast by the far edge of the jungle, while to one side was a pile of bags and kit, amongst which were the saddles. And little by little, as the scene unfolded itself to our hero, and from gazing at the whole he was able to concentrate his attention on each individual item, he was able to decide which of the five figures was that of his sister.
”She lies to this side of what has been a fire,” he told himself, ”while those rascals are on the far side. That is in our favour at any rate; but to reach her will be a bother. How's it to be done?”
Once more his eyes pa.s.sed round the clearing. They went from the figure of Sadie to those of the band of ruffians, and from the latter to their saddles and other possessions. Then they pa.s.sed to the horses, and so round the edge of the clearing till he found himself leaning far out from the undergrowth and staring into the faces of his own followers.
There was Sam's, his eyes twinkling as ever in the moonlight, every feature denoting eagerness, while the broad line across the forehead, and beneath the tattered peak of his dirty cap, seemed to show that he, too, was puzzling his brains as to how to act. And there was Ching's Oriental countenance next to Sam's, the slant-like eyes gazing upon the scene as if it were one of the most ordinary, as if he could see nothing before him to arouse unusual interest, nothing to disturb his accustomed equanimity. The man was actually toying with the end of his pigtail, as if he could find nothing better to do. But who could really read those features? Not Jim, nor Sam, nor Tom; not even a European accustomed to China and its natives. The face was inscrutable; those blank, immobile features hid a mind which, for all its seeming somnolence, was working fiercely, relentlessly, and shrewdly to provide a solution for this difficulty. For Ching was possessed of a doglike faithfulness; he would gladly have given his life for that of ”the missie” or for that of his master. And Tom--what did his expression show? The thick lips were moving as Jim looked, while the alae of his wide nostrils were dilated widely, pulsating as if with excitement. The usually merry, childish face was set with an expression so severe that our hero was astonished.
It brought a gulp to his throat as he suddenly realized to the full what he had known now for so long, that these three men were such true comrades. Then back went his eyes to the figure of his sister.
”I'll risk it,” he whispered to himself. ”I'll creep out there and bring her back with me. But supposing they awake, supposing Jaime or one of the others suddenly sits up and lets drive with a shooter?”
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