Part 11 (1/1)
RESCUED AT LAST
”The savages,” continued Ben, ”in their rapid onslaught on us, fortunately, h the body, the rest of their weapons expending their force harmlessly in the bush, and by the tio at us ere better prepared to receive the in thea knife This he at once dreever, while the rest of us, using the sticks we had previously cut in the forest, as I had forgotten to tell you previously, hting to the last
”But, Je at one of the natives before he was apparently aware of his intention, he stabbed hi hi his body as a club, he floored three others in rapid succession We, too, were not behindhand with our sticks; and the savages--struck th, for he was built like a giant, and stood over six feet high, than by our prowess--ran away back into the jungle as fast as they had co soround, besides the one Jem had first settled, and whom the club exercise to which his body had been subjected had knocked out of any seinally possessed to the hue was over, for it ork while it lasted; and then, our sadly-lessened little party thinking discretion the better part of valour, and that our foes et reinforced and return to attack us in nued to the body assailing us, we too took to our heels in the opposite direction This was the very one, indeed, in which our proper course lay; and we ran on without giving a thought as to whether any of those we had knocked on the head would coain or not, or that we had to answer for their deaths
”It would weary you to hear all the further trials we had to go through
We had three other rivers to ford before reaching the base of the nextto clietation that it was i us al that our route southwards was i the track of the last river we had crossed so as to gain the beach again, which latter course seemed to offer now the best chance of escape
”Arrived here, we sat down facing the sea, without a single sail passing by within hail, as we had hoped would soon have been the case, for two long weary days and nights--one of us always keeping watch that we should not miss a vessel, in the first place, and, secondly, for fear of another attack fro to eat since ed the last fragment of the solitary parrot that poor Denis Brown had knocked down, although plenty of brackish water was at our disposal fro, however, just ere pretty nigh done up with the heat and hunger, thinking each moment would be our last, an Arab dhow passed by close inshore to where ere stretched al the monotonous sea that broke with a heavy wash on the beach
”We hailed the people on board, but they took no notice of us, and we abandoned ourselves to despair However, another trading dhow came by soon afterwards, luckily for us, and the skipper of this showed more sy to our appeals for help, he said he would lie to for us, but as he had no boat ould have to swi our fear of the sharks, though we had seen plenty of the at the sea; and, plunging into the waves, were soon hauled aboard in safety, the revulsion of feeling at being thus saved fro us helpless at the last!
”The captain of the dhoas in the ea, where ereset apart for our acco down provisions for our use during our stay there I recollect, on the very day of our arrival, she despatched three casks of rice, along with a dozen ducks and twelve fowls, for us to have a feast with; and I don't think we had left a bone of the poultry or a grain of rice by the end of the following day
”I shall never forget the kindness we all a It is an Arab colony, with lots of Hindoos and Portuguese there besides, although only a small mud town It was this place that the French bombarded the other day for no cause whatever that I can see save to get a foothold on the island and establish their blessed republic there But then, we need not talk I've known English st the islands in the South Pacific just to avenge a fancied insult which so schooner had once received when its creere trying to kidnap the natives, and I have known cruelties coet the proper price for their Manchester cottons and Bru on the west coast of Africa, up the Congo river, I have seen whole colonies of poor niggers annihilated, with their little torecked over their heads, simply because they did not choose to do exactly e told theht to do as they have done and are doing in Madagascar; but circumstances alter cases, sir We only think these bo schemes bad when they are carried out by other nations; e do siht and just”
”Did you rejoin your shi+p ultimately?” I asked, when Ben had finished his little bit of , apropos of international differences
”Oh yes, sir The _Dolphin_ ca the second slaver and settling all her business at Zanzibar; and, on her putting in to Majunga, of course ent on board, reporting the accident that had happened to the pinnace The excitement had borne us up to then; but, soon after we found ourselves once more in the old shi+p, the whole lot of us broke down and went raving ellan and the others recovered out there, but I was invalided ho ultimately allowed to leave the service on a pension before I had quite finishedashore in the Mozah the bush afterwards I have quite recovered since, however, and am now as hale and hearty a lad to hear that,” said I cordially
”Aye, I am,” he repeated, as if to iat my watch, he asked me what the hour was
”Just eleven o'clock,” I answered
”Lord bless us!” he exclaimed, ”I'd no idea what time it was Why didn't you stopI'ht, sir Hope I haven't wearied you with my yarn?”
”Oh no,” I said, ”I have not found it a bit too long Good-night” And so ends Ben Campion's story of ”The Lost Pinnace”
THE END