Part 32 (2/2)
”The girl?” he demanded. ”She has gone too? With the Chinaman?”
”With another man. I just caught a glimpse of him; he was standing in the centre of the hollow that carries the stream.”
Slowly the matter dawned on Jaime in its true light. He came to see that this attack was not what he had at first suspected--a sudden raid made by natives living in the forest, a raid led by some stray Chinaman, who had taken service with them. It was an organized raid, an attack made by those men from Colon. In a flash he realized that his carefully laid schemes had come to naught, that his track through the forest had been discovered, and that already his enemies were about him. The thought sent the blood flying from his swarthy face till the skin looked ashen grey and lifeless. He growled out violent exclamations beneath his breath, and for a while paced to and fro restlessly. Then--for custom is so strong that few can resist it--the fingers of his right hand dived into his pocket, and within a moment he was rolling a cigarette.
”I see this,” he said at last, when the weed was lighted, and he had puffed some clouds of smoke into the air; ”the men who just now took the girl away, and stole our money, were not strong enough to capture our whole party. We were but four, so that we may argue that their numbers were no greater. It follows that if we get on their track and pursue we may find ourselves the stronger party, and so may retake our possessions. I will tell you something. I feared some sort of trouble, and before we set out on this journey I forwarded a warning to our friends the natives. I asked them to come towards the zone, so as to meet us. They will not be far away; to-morrow we may meet them. Then they will pick up the tracks of these rascals and follow. To-morrow will be soon enough, for none but a native can pa.s.s through the forest swiftly in the darkness. Besides, these men who attacked us will be tired; and, also, they have the girl with them.”
In the course of a life which had been evilly spent almost from the beginning Jaime de Oteros had met with much good fortune. On this occasion he seemed to be in luck's way as much as ever. For those two shots fired in the clearing had reached the ears of the party of natives waiting his arrival, and to his huge relief they put in an appearance within some twenty minutes of Jim's retreat into the jungle.
”Get the lamps lighted at once,” commanded Jaime, beckoning the native chief to come to him, and addressing him as if he--Jaime himself--were king of the race. ”Now, my friend, let us have the best trackers, and put them on the trail of these people. There must be no delay; take care of that. I'll give fifty guns, with powder and bullets, if we retake the girl and the booty these rascals stole from us.”
The promise of such a rich reward caused the chiefs eyes to dilate, and at once he set his men to accomplish the task before them. Within the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes the sharp eyes of the natives had discovered the track made by Jim and Ching as they escaped with Sadie. Swiftly it was learned that two others were of the party--one a small man, and a second of abnormal proportions. Then the chase began in earnest, Jaime and his comrades following the party, while three of the natives came behind with the horses. So rapidly, in fact, did the trackers amongst the tribe who had come to Jaime's help pick up the trail left by our hero, that but a couple of miles separated the two parties. Indeed, within half an hour of Jim's entering camp, and being greeted by Phineas and the others, Tomkins reported that he had seen a lamp swinging in the forest.
Sam declared within the minute that he could hear men moving, while hardly had the words left his lips when a number of men burst into the moonlit opening. There came at once a sharp fusillade, while bullets spluttered about the heads of Jim and his comrades. Then Tomkins shouted, and without a second's hesitation threw himself face downward on the ground, and jerked his rifle into position.
”Get down close, every mother's son of you,” he called out, while the lock of his weapon clicked sharply. The b.u.t.t came to his shoulder, his cheek fell upon it, and then a stream of flame issued from the muzzle.
Nor were his comrades slow to follow his example. Before the enemy were halfway towards them all the members of the party save Jim and Sadie were using their rifles.
”They'll never face a fire like that,” called out our hero, standing to his full height and watching the horde of natives rus.h.i.+ng forward. ”Keep peppering them. I will look for some spot where we can get shelter.”
He took his sister with him, and clambered towards the centre of the rocky elevation which cropped up in the middle of the clearing; then he shouted again.
”Mr. Phineas,” he called out.
”Aye, aye,” came back the cheerful answer. ”We drove 'em off easy. Guess they've left a few kicking the dust down there.”
Jim had, in fact, seen the swarm of natives, with three white men amongst them, suddenly turn tail and run, and his watchful eye had also observed the figures lying p.r.o.ne not far from the edge of the forest.
But he had some intelligence of his own to communicate, and shouted back to Phineas.
”Bring the whole party right away up here,” he said. ”There are boulders hereabouts which will shelter us and help to keep off their bullets.
Make a run for it; bring all our baggage.”
He left Sadie in a large hollow on the summit of the eminence, and returned to his comrades. By then bullets were coming thick from the depths of the jungle, and here and there queer little jets of dust spurted up from the ground, while there was a strange whistling in the air. But our hero had been under fire before, and took not the smallest notice of the missiles. He reached the camping ground which he and his friends had been occupying but a short while before, and at once s.n.a.t.c.hed up the two black bundles which contained the store of notes which Jaime and his rascals had stolen. Then, waiting to see that the others were already running up the hill, he followed swiftly, the huge Tom bearing a case of ammunition just before him. Two minutes later all were under cover.
”What now?” said Phineas, wiping the sweat from his forehead. ”I never did come across such a fellow as you are, Jim. Always getting into sc.r.a.pes, and dragging your friends into them with you. But what now?
Here we are under cover, and I ain't so sorry. But there must have been fifty of those natives down below, as well as the three white men. Jaime and his crew, I suppose?”
”Jaime for sure, and sorry he'll be that he ventured to follow,”
answered Jim curtly. ”I tell you straight, that fellow has been no end of a bother to me. And now, to add to all the mischief he's done, he deliberately fires at Sadie. Luckily the bullet just missed her. But there you are! I say he'll live to be sorry. I'll teach him a lesson this time that he won't forget.”
They were big words, spoken in a moment of intense vexation; but big words for all that, as Jim was the first to acknowledge when his temper had cooled a little. Here was his slender little party surrounded, and the enemy were by no means to be laughed at; for Jaime and his comrades had been busy on those occasions when they had been away from the Panama zone. They had done a big trade in rifles, or, rather, in obsolete muzzle loaders, with which almost every one of the natives accompanying them was armed; while the latter began to prove already that, obsolete though their weapons might be, they could at that range make fine practice with them. Indeed, every second now a ball struck the boulders behind which Jim and his friends were crouching, while before many minutes had pa.s.sed the shots came from almost the entire circle of jungle. The party who had come to rescue Sadie was, in fact, practically surrounded.
”Which don't say as they're goin' to take us,” growled Tomkins, who was endowed with splendid pluck. ”Now that we've got this shelter, and each man has selected a spot from which to fire, I guess we'll give a good account of ourselves. But what are the orders?”
He appealed as if by custom to our hero, and Jim answered promptly.
”We lie just as we are,” he said. ”I see that each one has taken up a position, and the only alteration I can suggest is that the four policemen separate and place themselves between the others. They are used to rows more than we are, and will be able to give advice. For the rest, reckon we'll sit tight.”
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