Part 34 (1/2)
Bray, too, had his thoughts upon their position. In spite of his rage, he knew that he would fight to the death in Katie's defence; but it was gall and bitterness to him to see the gentle care she bestowed upon his rival; and more than once, with a vengeful curse, he turned from them to make his way lower down the gully, and sit there brooding over his wrongs.
No suns.h.i.+ne fell where the fugitives sat; but the heights around grew radiant; and poor Katie shuddered as they reminded her of her bright and peaceful home, over which so fearful a change had been brought.
Feeling the impossibility of making farther progress, Murray was surprised to see Wahika, after a little reconnoitring, begin to climb the face of the precipice, finding foothold in tiny crevices, and grasping at tufts of gra.s.s, till he had surmounted an almost perpendicular portion of the face of the rock. But his object soon became plain: some thirty feet up there appeared to be a shelf and a dark opening, but so full of verdure that it was impossible to make out its extent; and here, it seemed, that the savage intended to make his stronghold, for, having reached the shelf, he drew out his knife, and, in a very short time, from the hanging creepers had woven a kind of rough rope, sufficiently strong to bear the weight of his companions; and this he at length let down.
Katie shrank from it at first; but a whisper from Murray sufficed. The loop made was pa.s.sed over her, so that she was seated within it; a couple of handkerchiefs bound her securely, lest her courage should fail; and then the young men watched her, trembling, as Wahika stood striding on the crag above, his brow knit, and the muscles upon his arms standing out like knotted cords, as he, by sheer strength, hand-over-hand, drew up the frightened girl.
Twice Murray, his heart beating rapidly, stood with outstretched hands to break her fall; for it seemed that Wahika had over-rated his powers, and that he must be drawn over the edge. But slowly and steadily he hauled up his rough cord, Katie swinging to and fro, and clinging with closed eyes the while, till by an effort the savage drew her to the edge; and the next instant she was in safety.
In a few minutes the rope was lowered; and Murray tied to it the guns and such provisions as still remained; and when, once more, the rope descended, Bray seized it, and half drawn, half climbing, reached the top, just as a shout from below told that not only had the gully been discovered, but that he had been seen.
The next instant a bullet flattened itself against the stone, a little below the edge, and fell at Murray's feet, while the rocks above echoed and re-echoed the report with a roll as of thunder.
Wahika would have lowered the line again; but Bray held to it, and kept him back; for the temptation was strong upon him to leave Murray to his fate. They had there, where he was, the arms and provisions; and it was impossible for the convicts to reach them. Help must come sooner or later; and then there was the future. Should he not be successful in winning Katie, he would be revenged, and he would not have the agony of seeing her in his rival's arms. The temptation was strong, and he yielded to it. Murray might die. But Wahika, too, was strong, and heedless of a couple more shots fired, he struggled hard for the rope, sending Bray back upon the precipice, so that it seemed that both must fall; but by an effort Bray recovered himself, and the savage was forced back; when, with a harsh cry, he loosened his hold of the rope, and darted to Katie, whose agitation had alarmed him, for she had seemed as if about to leap down to her lover.
But if such had been her intention, Wahika restrained her, pulling her down into shelter; and, seizing his gun, he took rapid aim, fired; and one of the convicts who was about to fire at Murray bounded into the air, and then fell into the little trickling stream.
Imitating his example, Bray too fired; and another man sank into a sitting posture, and then crawled into the shelter of the rocks; while half-a-dozen shots fired at the defenders of the gully flattened themselves on the rock, or dislodged little clouds of dust and stones.
Knowing his peril, Murray sank at the first discharge, and behind a ma.s.s of rock crouched with anxious heart, waiting for the coming of his executioners. For it seemed to him that, sooner or later, they would dash on, ignorant of the inaccessible ma.s.s of rock, and then, in their rage and disappointment, kill him upon the spot.
He smiled bitterly as he thought of this new act of treachery; and as he watched the barrels protruded above his head, he would have felt little surprise had that of Bray covered him; and a thrill of rage ran through him as he thought of his helpless position--weak and unarmed, and waiting for his end.
But would not aid come? The news of such an outrage, as spread by Mr Meadows, must bring the settlers of the whole district down to the destruction of the villainous crew. But would the aid come in time to save Katie?
As for Bray, he lay there watching the coming on of the convicts, as they now grew more cautious, and darted from stone to stone for protection. Twice he withheld his hand when he might have slain an enemy; for he told himself savagely that it was not for him to stay them from reaching his rival. And then as to Wahika--what was he, that he should oppose his will? There was his home in ruins; but he could build another; his cattle and sheep were uninjured; and here, miles away from another station, and with her friends cut off, Katie must gladly accept of his protection and become his wife; and the past would soon be forgotten. He knew nothing of Mrs Lee's escape, nor of the sought-for aid; and silent and thoughtful he lay there, almost a spectator of the little siege.
Twice his barrel covered Murray, and he took deadly aim at the young man; but the blenching was not on the sailor's side. He saw his peril; but he trembled not, but gazed full up at his rival with a calm untroubled mien, almost a smile of contempt upon his lip, when the fierce eyes of his enemy were withdrawn, the barrel of the gun pointed in another direction, and Bray's conscience told him that he dared not fire.
Meanwhile precipice and crag sent thundering back the echoes of the discharged guns; for every time Wahika, from his more exposed position, showed hand or head, bullet after bullet was sent whistling through the air; but except being struck and bleeding from the rocky splinters, he was but little injured. Not so, though, his enemies; for more than one poor wretch, on rising to fire, from what he conceived to be a place of safety, received his death wound, and staggered down the gully, to fall with a crash over some fragment of rock, and then dye the streamlet with his heart's blood. Now the strife would seem to cease, and attacker and defender would remain in concealment; but only for the convicts to renew their a.s.sault, coming in their rage nearer and nearer, until, but for Wahika's well-plied gun, they must have reached the spot where Murray lay sheltered by the rock.
He did not want for food; for there was a portion of the provision dropped at his feet; but while the stream trickled close by where he sat, and he could quench his thirst and lave his heated brow, those above him on the rock suffered severely from want of water, as the sun beat down upon their heads, and the stone grew hotter and hotter, till the verdure around them flagged and drooped.
The times of cessation were, if possible, more trying than those of the active firing; for when the enemy was invisible, the dread was always great that they had scaled the sides of the gorge, and would before long reach them by some side-path, or, climbing far above where they lay hid, would hurl down huge stones and crush them as they sought in vain to avoid each ponderous ma.s.s. But no such thoughts seemed to trouble Wahika, who, with his gun-barrel commanding the pa.s.s, lay there watchful and patient, the barrel at times growing so hot that it seemed within the range of probability that the charge might explode. In his rough way he comprehended to a great extent the cause of the enmity between the young men, and placing Katie in a rift, half chasm, half cavern, behind where he knelt, he kept a double watch, and waited patiently for the help that he, too, felt must soon come. As the heat grew more intense, reflected back as it was from the rocks, but never reaching the hollow where Murray was concealed, the savage picked and chewed leaves to allay his thirst, offering some, too, to the trembling girl behind him.
The shades of evening began at last to fall, and to Murray it was an anxious time, for he rightly guessed that the convicts would take advantage of the obscurity to close up and attack their enemies hand to hand; for since daylight had enabled them to discover the gully by which the fugitives had escaped, every check received had tended to madden them and make them reckless of consequences. Not that they dreaded attack themselves--the country had seemed too spa.r.s.ely inhabited; therefore as each man fell, his comrades had sworn the most binding oath each to avenge him; and as soon as darkness closed in, they began to creep cautiously from rock to rock, higher up the gully. In spite of their caution, though, they had not made much progress, when a heavy stone was dislodged, and, as if in consequence, a gun was seen to send forth its messenger of death, and the convicts once more halted.
STORY THREE, CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
ATTACK AND DEFENCE.
It was bitter work sitting there beneath the shelter of that stone, striving with his thoughts; and Edward Murray's heart sank as the darkness increased, and he reflected on his situation. Yet, in spite of his anxiety of mind, that day's rest had not been without its good effects. The stiffness had to some extent worn off, and at last, when the night had quite closed in, and the darkness rendered such a proceeding safe, Murray rose, and began to search along the side and face of the precipice for a spot whence he might contrive to scale the crag, and reach the shelf where his companions were concealed.
He moved cautiously, for it struck him that he had heard the sound of approaching enemies in the gully below, though the darkness was too profound for anything to be seen; but though he tried all along to find the spot where Wahika has ascended, it was in vain, and he turned to regain the spot where he had lain, when, almost simultaneously, he heard the rolling down of a dislodged stone, and the sharp crack of a rifle, when a bullet whizzed by his ear, and seemed to strike the spot where he had so lately rested, the loose stones flying in all directions, and then pattering down.
A pang shot through Murray's breast, as he thought of whose hand must have fired that shot; and then listening for a while for sounds from below, he stepped back to the face of the precipice, eager now to confront the treacherous villain who thus again sought to take his life, after having threatened it twice before during the day. He pa.s.sed along the face of the rock, stumbling heavily amidst the loose stones; and then his hand encountered something that made his heart leap, and seizing it with both hands, he climbed slowly and painfully, higher and higher, till his feet rested on a loftier ledge; and he stopped, panting, and wondering whose was the hand that had let down the rope.
Was it Wahika? or was it a fresh act of treachery on the part of Bray?
Was he to climb nearly to the top, and then feel his support suddenly slacken, that he might fall a heavy, helpless ma.s.s upon the cruel rocks beneath? He could not help it; he feared that it was so, and for a few moments felt disposed to slide down again. But no! only a few feet above him he knew that Katie needed his protection. He would persevere at all hazards; and once more the rough rope quivered beneath his weight, as slowly he clambered higher and higher, till with a violent effort he got one knee upon the edge, and grasped a tuft of herbage; when, just as a hand was gliding down his arm--that of the savage--there rang from beneath a loud shout--six or eight shots were fired from close at hand--and then, with the aid suddenly withdrawn, Murray's knee slipped from the edge, and he had only time to loose the slackened rope, and force his bleeding fingers into the crevices of the rock, to save himself from falling.