Part 27 (1/2)
He seized the opportunity when their backs were turned to slip down from his perch and run to the village: would not the wasungu even now strike a blow for him?
This was a staggering piece of news. The knoll was up-stream; there was not much doubt that downstream the warriors whose village had been captured were marching up in pursuit of the safari. Probably they had already been met by fugitives from the village and informed of what had happened. It struck John that Juma and the chief might have fallen out, and that the Swahili had made a rapid dash northward to possess himself of the treasure while the ”bad men” were absent from the neighbourhood.
However that might be, there was no question but that both the Swahilis and the villagers were dangerous enemies, and would join forces to crush the little band who had defied and routed them.
”We're in the tightest place we have ever been in yet,” said John.
”They've got us between them. What on earth are we to do?”
”Slip away, west or east?” suggested Ferrier.
”Hopeless! Loaded as we should be, we couldn't escape them. It's too late to get on to the river now. This one raft won't hold us all. We are done at last!”
They looked at each other in speechless anxiety. The men had ceased work on the second raft; they all knew what had occurred, and gazed at their white leaders with troubled countenances.
”There's one desperate chance,” said Ferrier at length. ”Juma is nearest. Deal with him before the others come up.”
John stared at him for a moment with brightening eyes. Then he sprang up.
”Right!” he cried. ”It's the one chance. But we can't risk it without knowing a little of the ground. I'll go out with Bill and have a look at it, if you'll stay and keep a look-out for the down-stream lot.”
The two set off at once. Bill led the way rapidly round the village and further up the hill until they reached the summit. From this point the ground fell away to the plain, and rather less than a mile away John descried the knoll of which Bill had spoken, the peninsula from which it rose jutting out into the river. It was densely covered with vegetation, and on the other side of the stream there was a similar screen. Only a short reach of the river was visible, but here he saw negroes wading waist-deep. They were crossing, however, not to the far side, but from it. Juma had thought it better to bring his porters to the ivory than the reverse. Apparently none of it had yet been transported from bank to bank; but it was all laid in readiness.
Bill gazed at the scene with an expression of mingled grief and rage.
Suddenly he stretched forth his hand, pointing towards the trees on the near side of the river. At first John could not see anything but the dense ma.s.s of foliage; but presently he discerned two negroes standing motionless at the foot of the knoll. Clearly Juma had posted them as scouts to give warning of any movement from the village. So many years had pa.s.sed since the defeat of his safari that the likelihood of the people suspecting his search for the treasure was small, especially since they were obviously unaware of its location. But with the remembrance of their hostility in his mind he was evidently uneasy.
John's guess at the course of events was very near the mark. Ever since the defeat of the Arabs, Juma, the sole survivor of their hapless safari, had lived for nothing else than the recovery of the ivory, which would make him a millionaire according to the native standard of wealth.
But the store lay in the enemy's country; he had the best of reasons for knowing how formidable they were, and what his fate would be if he was discovered by them when removing the ivory. He had recognized that there was little chance of obtaining possession of it unless he came with sufficient force to repel attack. Its transport would demand a large number of porters, and a still larger number of armed men to protect them. It had therefore been the work of his life to organize such a party. For this he had become a porter himself, to avail himself of opportunities of stealthy pilfering. For this he had established himself in the island fort, hoping to seize an occasion when the villagers were absent on a raid or a hunting expedition to make a dash up the river and achieve the aim of his ambition.
The unexpected series of events that culminated in the capture of the fort had interposed a check at the very moment when he saw success within his grasp. But his cunning mind conceived the scheme which he had carried out: to form an alliance with the very tribe with whom he had expected to come into conflict. He seized upon the presence of the white men as a rational basis for their alliance, intending, when the white men and their safari had been annihilated, to turn his arms against his allies, and having overthrown them, to secure the prize he had so long coveted.
Again he was baulked by the prolonged resistance of the white men. But it happened that the combined force of natives which he had gathered about him ran short of food. In this circ.u.mstance he saw his opportunity. On the morning after John had left the fort, Juma set off with his own contingent before the escape had been discovered, ostensibly to go hunting for game. He took with him almost all the men who had rifles, and a large party to carry the game he promised to shoot. Striking at first to the west, he turned sharply northward, and pushed on with all speed towards the knoll where the h.o.a.rd of ivory lay concealed. Had he secured it, his whilom enemies, his present allies, would have seen him no more. He would have taken the shortest route to the coast, to dispose of the ivory at one of the ports. His approach was hidden from the people in the village by the hill rising behind it, and being quite unaware that the village was now held by the white men, he felt that he had nothing to fear except chance discovery by some one who might happen to stray up the hill. To provide against this he had posted the two scouts whom John saw at the base of the knoll.
John perceived in a moment that the work of transporting the ivory across the river gave him an opportunity of taking the enemy at a disadvantage. Running back to the top of the hill, careful not to come within sight of the scouts, he reached a point whence he could overlook the village and where he was himself in full view from it. The moment he arrived there he knew that he had been seen, for Ferrier waved his hand above his head. John immediately semaph.o.r.ed with his arms, asking Ferrier to bring out all the men except a few left to guard the village, and to join him on the hill-top. In ten minutes they were with him.
Then, descending the western slope of the hill, invisible to the enemy, they worked their way through the belt of trees on the river-bank until they arrived within a furlong of the ford. Juma's porters were staggering down the knoll under their loads--great tusks from six to nine feet long. To advance further without being discovered was impossible: the two scouts were full in the path.
John gathered his party just within the belt of trees, and in a whisper told them what to do. Then, at his word, they dashed after him from cover, yelling at the top of their voices, the askaris firing their rifles as they ran, and reloading. There was little chance of the shots taking effect, but John reckoned on them to demoralize the enemy. The result surpa.s.sed his antic.i.p.ations. The scouts stood for a moment as if rooted to the ground with amazement; then they flung down their rifles and fled like hares to the spot where Juma was indicating the ford. At the same instant the porters dropped their loads with a yell of fright, and made for the river, into which they cast themselves, careless of its depth, and of the crocodiles that might be lurking expectant of a victim. Juma had his arm in a sling: the other Swahilis raised their rifles, and fired, each one wild ineffectual shot, at the advancing company. Then, utterly confounded by this amazing attack from an enemy whom they supposed to be far away, they rushed in a body to the river, sped by a volley of bullets and arrows. Half wading, half swimming, they gained the further bank, and by the time John and his men came to the ford, they had disappeared with all their men into the undergrowth.
Bill ran from one tusk to another, frantic with joy. But John was too much concerned with the serious work that lay before him to trouble himself for the present with the ivory, however valuable it might be. He saw at once that he must remove all his men from the village to the knoll if the plan of floating down the river was to be successfully initiated. After their fright, Juma and his men might for a time be disregarded; but the war-party of villagers could not now be far away, and the interval before their arrival might be all too short. The knoll not only formed a good defensible position, but it was the most convenient spot for the launching of the rafts, and the timber upon it offered material for the second raft yet to be constructed. Keeping part of his men to hack branches from the trees with their knives, he asked Ferrier to return with the rest to the village and bring over the hill the first raft and all the stores.
”Get the women to help,” he said. ”Promise that we'll do no more harm to the village if they'll work for us. They'll be glad enough to get rid of us, no doubt. I'd go myself, Charley, only my back is bothering me again, confound it.”
Ferrier hurried off. In little more than half-an-hour he reappeared on the shoulder of the hill, followed by a long line of the men of the safari and the women of the village, carrying the loads of provisions, the impedimenta of the camp, and the raft, a c.u.mbersome object which required twenty men to carry it. As they descended the slope, shots were fired at them from the trees bordering the river, but manifestly at so long a range that they were little likely to do any harm. They reached the knoll in safety; the baggage was piled up a short distance from the bank to form a sort of rampart: and then the whole party, including a crowd of women who were impressed to fetch and carry, worked rapidly at the construction of the raft.
”There'll be mighty little protection if they fire at us on the way down,” said John gloomily.
”Yes,” replied Ferrier, ”we haven't got enough baggage to screen us. But look here! Why not make a sort of fence to go all round?”
”The very thing! The men are so used to making bomas that it won't give them any trouble.”