Part 20

For a little while all went well. Where the banks were low and free from tall trees the level rays of the rising moon threw a faint light upon the water, enabling Ferrier to use his pole with more confidence. But on entering a narrower reach where the trees came down to the water's edge, the sudden passage from comparative light to absolute darkness prevented him from seeing a rocky ledge jutting out from the right bank. The raft scraped it for a few feet, then stuck fast. The second raft, coming directly in its wake, did not this time sweep by, but bumped the first, and both were now end to end on the rock. The most energetic work with the poles failing to dislodge them, John said--

"Let's have a rest. There's no sign of the enemy, and I'm desperately hungry."

"That's all very well," replied Ferrier, "but the longer we delay the worse off we shall be presently. It gives the enemy time to get ahead of us, and they'll be waiting for us at the pool. I rather fancy they've already outstripped us by cutting across country; the river winds a good deal."

"All the same, we shan't be any the better off for being famished when we meet them. Besides, I want to talk to you; we haven't settled what we're going to do."

"Very well; we'll have a tuck-in. What's the time? My match-box is empty."

John struck a match. His watch had stopped.

"The spring must have broken when I toppled over," he said. "Isn't yours going?"

"It hasn't been going for a couple of days. We can't tell how far we've come. How is our direction?"

"We're pointing north-west," replied John, after a glance at his compass. "There must be a big curve here. I fancy we must have just about got to the place where Bill and I launched our raft. If so, it will be getting light by the time we reach the pool. What do you think of doing then?"

"That depends on the look of things when we get there. How long are the rapids?"

"About half-a-mile, I should think."

"Any rocks?"

"Upon my word I don't know. I was too anxious about holding on to notice. But judging from the battering we got I should say plenty."

"Then the safest course would be to unload the rafts when we get to the head of the rapids and make a portage--carry the things along the bank until we come to the pool. We can't do that if the enemy are in force. We shall simply have to shoot the rapids and take our chance."

"I'm sorry for us. If my little raft was nearly smashed, what condition will these clumsy things be in when we get through!"

"Well, I can only do my best. Left to themselves they'd be smashed up in no time, but if I can manage to steer clear of the rocks we may get through. It won't be safe to go roped together, though. You had better moor yours while I take down the first; then I'll go ashore and come back for you."

"Rather dangerous, that, if the enemy are about."

"Perhaps. But I'm inclined to think they'll wait for us lower down. In that case I should be back before they could catch me. But really it's not much good settling on anything until we see how the land lies. The most important thing will be to take care we are not caught in the rapids before we know it. If we are, we can only let ourselves go and trust to luck."

After a delay of nearly an hour, during which the whole party made a meal of the fruits they had brought with them, they strove again to pole the rafts off the rock. The task was an impossible one while the vessels were so heavily laden. Accordingly the breastwork was removed from the shoreward side of each, and a portion of the goods was conveyed to the bank. Thus lightened, the rafts were got off by vigorous poling, and allowed to drift a few yards down-stream until they came once more into the moonlight. Then they were run into the bank and moored while the stores were fetched and the breastwork replaced. This took up a considerable time, and it could no longer be doubted that the enemy, unless they had halted, must arrive at the pool long before the rafts.

As the moon rose higher in the sky the voyage became easier, and it was continued without incident until there were signs that day was breaking. Feeling sure that the rapids could not be far ahead, Ferrier steered into the right bank, followed by John.

"I must take a look round before we go any farther," said Ferrier. "I don't hear anything of the enemy; perhaps they are behind us after all."

He set off alone, making his way cautiously among the trees. It seemed hours before he returned, in almost broad daylight.

"We're in for it," he said as he came up. "We're within six hundred yards of the rapids. I went on round the curve until I got a view of the pool. The fort is manned. Juma must have got well ahead of us and crossed the river somewhere. But I don't think the others have arrived on the scene yet."

"Have they left nobody on the right bank?"

"Nobody at all. They're very poor tacticians. I suppose they rely on our being smashed up in the rapids, and think they'll have us at their mercy. They ought to have held both banks. It gives us a chance. We may have time for a portage, but only to the pool. We can't hope to get past the second rapids on land; but as we shall be hidden from the enemy until we actually come to the pool, there ought to be time to load up again there before they can get round to us."

"What then?"

"We shall have to shoot the second rapids in the rafts just as we are. Can't stop for another portage. From my recollection as we came up past the gorge, they're much longer and swifter than the first, besides being straighter and less rocky. I had a good look at the first as I went down the bank. There's a nasty bit about half-way through: a narrow channel between two irregular lines of sunken rocks. But it's no worse than the Long Saut on the St. Lawrence; not so bad, indeed; and I'm going to run through all right. The only doubt I have is whether we can get to the second rapids before the enemy occupy the bluff above the gorge."

"If we can't----!"

"We shall have the pleasure of being targets for at least ten minutes for bullets and arrows and stones. But we must just go through with it now; there's no retreat for us. Now we'll unload my raft and send the men along with the ivory. When we've given them time to get half-way to the pool, I'll go down with the raft."

"Alone?"

"Yes. It won't do for you to come, and leave the men, in case they're attacked; and I don't think any of them would be much help to me. Coja and two or three of the askaris can escort the convoy. We must make 'em understand they are to wait for me when they get to the pool; unless, indeed, I'm there first: the current is pretty swift."

"There's bush enough to hide them, but you're bound to be spotted from the fort as soon as you get to the end of the rapids."

"It will take Juma a long time to get round with his men."

"But they can swim it!"

"They won't! They can't attack us when swimming, and they'll be afraid of getting their heads broken against the raft."

During this conversation the men had already begun the work of unloading the first raft. The breastwork on the right-hand side was removed, and the ivory conveyed tusk by tusk to the bank. Enough was left at the rear to balance Ferrier's weight at the forward end. When all was ready, the men set off with their loads, Coja and two askaris with rifles going ahead.

"Get your raft unloaded while I'm gone, old chap," said Ferrier. "In fact, the men had better start with it straight away; if Juma has the sense to come round at once to meet us it'll be a very near thing to get loaded up again."

"All right. I'll go with them myself and leave a couple of men to guard the raft."

"On second thoughts I think you had better go after the first lot at once. Everything depends on their keeping under cover until I arrive with the raft, and you know how rash they are. Go and keep an eye on them. I'll see to the unloading here and send the men after you."

Accordingly John hurried in the track of the ivory-carriers, whom he overtook by the time they reached the head of the rapids. Leading them carefully through the wood, where they would be invisible to any of the enemy who might be moving along on the other side of the river, he came opposite to the point where the rapids entered the pool. There he ordered them to set down their loads, and sent Bill back to guide the second party over the same course.

Ferrier had resolved not to begin his adventurous voyage until all the men were gathered under John at the head of the pool. The actual passage of the rapids would take but a minute or two, and the time necessary for reloading the first raft would be halved if the whole party were employed in the work. The second convoy having arrived, John left them safely under cover while he retraced his steps for a short distance to a spot where he could witness his friend's performance. He held his breath and felt his skin creep as the raft came into view, shooting down at a furious rate to what appeared certain destruction. Ferrier had removed the upper part of the framework, and stood with pole in hand, bending low, his whole attention fixed on his task. Now he prodded to the right, now to the left: at one moment the raft swerved, having evidently scraped a rock, and he almost lost his balance; but recovering himself instantly, he dexterously slipped his pole over in the direction to which the raft had been driven, and came again into mid-current. John feared lest he should be carried far into the pool, beyond the spot where the loads were laid; but when the raft came into smooth water, and its momentum was checked, Ferrier flung a rope to the shore, and the craft, uninjured except for some chips at the edges, was hauled in.

"Splendid!" said John. "It would be a stunning sport if----"

But before he could complete the sentence Ferrier was running hard up-stream. There was a shout from the fort; the raft had been discovered; the second raft was still to be brought down. John instantly set the men to load up the first raft. Every movement was visible to the men in the fort. There were loud shouts; a few shots were fired; but the range was too long for inefficient marksmen. To John's consternation and alarm there came an echo to these shouts from up-stream. The warriors from the village were evidently within striking distance. Had they discovered Ferrier? Urging the men to hasten with the work of loading, he ran along the bank to see whether the second raft was on the way. Yes; it was sweeping down like the first, and on the opposite bank a crowd of yelling negroes rushed along, dodging the trees, and trying to keep pace. Ferrier paid no attention to them, his whole energy absorbed in his task. John sent a warning shot among the enemy, and they darted out of sight. The raft leapt and dashed and jolted down, and in little more than a minute after it passed John it lay moored beside the other at the shore of the pool.

The men having not yet finished the loading of the first raft, Ferrier had leisure to observe what the enemy were about. The warriors from the village, who had marched along the left bank of the river, were rushing round the northern shore of the pool towards the causeway. It was impossible to see what they would do when they reached it, and, to judge by the uproar in the fort, there was more excitement than cool calculation among Juma's party. But by the time the rafts were loaded, the breastworks replaced, and the ropes attached, the enemy's intention became clear. Before the rafts were loosed from their moorings and poled into the gentle current of the pool, a large number of negroes, with one or two Swahilis, emerged into view from behind the intervening island, and were seen hastening along the path which led from the causeway up the bluff.

"They've got a good start of us," Ferrier called from the leading raft. "We must run the gauntlet."

But now that the critical moment had arrived, John was setting his wits to work. In all the encounters with the enemy hitherto, success had been gained by the exercise of superior intelligence rather than superior force. Was there not a chance of outwitting them even now at the eleventh hour? Could they not be withdrawn from their threatening position above the gorge? An idea suggested itself: to let the rafts drift on until they came opposite the fort, and then to change their direction and pole them across the pool as if with the intention of landing on the western shore of the island and storming the fort. If the ruse succeeded, the enemy would rush back and swarm within the walls again.

John imparted his scheme to Ferrier in a few hurried sentences.

"It's worth trying," said Ferrier, "but can we get back into the current in time?"

"Yes; it begins to flow swifter, as you know, opposite the island. If only the men are drawn back into the fort, we shall have time to come back into the current and make straight for the rapids, and then they may run their hardest but won't overtake us."

"Well, you pole back first, so as not to change our order. They surely won't be such idiots!"

The rafts passed slowly along, hailed with derisive yells from the few men left in the fort, and by a shower of arrows, which flew harmlessly over the breastworks, the men having all lain down as before. Then suddenly they ceased to move; but in a few moments started ponderously in the reverse direction. John and Ferrier had exchanged places with their two steersmen, and while they poled on the bottom in the manner of punters, Coja and Said Mohammed thrust their poles into the water at an angle which would bring the rafts round to the western end of the island. It was exceedingly hard work to force the heavy vessels against the current, slight though that was; but they did move slowly, away from the gorge, and that was enough for the defenders of the fort. Alarmed at the prospect of having to repel an assault from the wasungu, they shouted vociferously to their fellows on the shore to return and help them.

"It's working!" cried John in delight. "I only wish we could see round the island. We shall have to guess when it's time to be off."

But there was little chance of their being left in ignorance of the enemy's movements. The din was tremendous, far and near. Soon the uproar within the fort increased, and men were seen swarming on to the edges of the western wall, some scrambling over and running down the slope to meet the expected attack. The situation of the rafts was too close to be pleasant to their occupants. Arrows flew over and between them, some sticking in the meshes of the breastwork. The men flat on the decks of the rafts were out of harm's way; but the two white men and their assistants were partly exposed to the flying missiles, since they could not manage the clumsy rafts unless they stood nearly upright. For some minutes they cruised along the shore, as if seeking a convenient landing-place, until they were screened from the enemy by the fringe of trees. At last, having allowed sufficient time for the greater part of the enemy's force to regain the fort, or at least the causeway, John and Ferrier again changed places with Said Mohammed and Coja, and began to pole vigorously in the opposite direction. Being hidden by the trees, the rafts, helped by the current, had gained some speed before the change of direction was perceived. Even then the meaning of it did not at once strike the enemy. Those who had come down to the shore ran back to the fort; those within manned the southern and eastern parts of the wall, anticipating an assault at the spot where it had been partially demolished. But the rafts were increasing their distance from the island; they were also increasing their speed; and as they were now heading straight for the mouth of the gorge Juma at last recognized how he had been duped.

The voyagers were now in full view of the causeway. It was covered with men returning at a run to the fort. But Juma, the moment he saw his mistake, hastened to the gate and shouted to the men to right-about and make for the gorge. The causeway was too long for his words to be heard distinctly at the shore end, and there was a minute's confusion among the negroes before they grasped what was intended--a precious minute to the voyagers, for at the end of it the rafts were swept into the full current. When the men on the causeway, yelling with rage, at last set off to run back to the shore, John saw with a leaping heart that they were too late. A few of the enemy who had not yet reached the causeway when the retirement was countermanded, rushed along the shore and came level with the rafts as these began the descent of the rapids. But they had to run uphill: the speed of the current was at least fifteen miles an hour; before they could gain the summit of the bluff the rafts would be a mile or more downstream.

As John's raft was swept along in the wake of Ferrier's, he wondered whether the rafts, when they reached the end of the rapids, would be in splinters, and the men battered corpses. When he had shot the upper rapids with Bill, the darkness had concealed the full extent of his peril; but now in broad daylight it was brought alarmingly home to him. Ferrier's raft was swinging before him, and John heard his shouts as he instructed Coja how to move his pole for steering. John stuck to his post, almost at his wit's end, but trying desperately to follow in Ferrier's wake, and shouting instructions to Said Mohammed, who steered accordingly.

All at once he saw with terror a large rock almost in midstream, over which the water swirled and dashed with clouds of spray. He felt that nothing could avert disaster. Ferrier was safely past; John, grasping his pole, cried to the Bengali to steer to the right. The rock seemed to approach him with terrible speed; in a moment the raft would surely be dashed against it and shivered to splinters. But the force of the current, and a timely thrust of the pole--how he made it in time John could never understand--carried the raft clear of the barrier. John's shove was indeed more vigorous than was necessary, for it swung the stern of the raft partly across the current, and caused it to scrape the edge of the rock, with a jar that sent John and the Indian headlong among the men who lay on the deck. There was a howl of dismay, and John sprang up, expecting to find himself whirling to destruction. But to his unspeakable relief he saw that the perilous voyage was over. The raft had shot clear of the gorge, and was floating with almost oily smoothness on the river below the escarpment.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIFTH--The Fight in the Swamp

"By George!" cried John, breathless, as he poled his raft up to Ferrier's, "I don't think I could have faced it if I had known what to expect."

"You did famously," said Ferrier, laughing. "I was afraid you'd come a cropper on that rock. How are your men? Mine are positively sea-sick."

"I didn't give them a thought. They'll be all right now, at any rate. Coja stuck to his job gamely, and so did Said Mohammed. We'll have to do something for them when we get home."

"Do you think we have seen the last of Juma's lot now?"

"Surely they'll have had enough of it by this time?"

"But if your guess is correct, the fellow has missed the aim of his life in losing the ivory. If I were in his place I'd certainly have another try. The current is getting slower and slower; they could easily outstrip us on the bank."

"That might be awkward for us. We don't know anything about the river a few miles down-stream. There may be more rapids. And look: d'you see men coming over the bluff behind us?"

"Yes, swarming like ants. Evidently they mean to chase us, and they'll catch us in an hour at this rate. We had better try punting."

The rate of the current here was probably not more than two or two and a half miles an hour. Vigorous poling increased the speed of the rafts slightly, but they were too heavy to move above a walking pace. A bend in the river hid the pursuers from view. When next seen they were considerably nearer.

"We could get on faster if the men walked," said Ferrier. "Let us land them on the right bank. The enemy appear to be all on the left, and we can take them in again if they come to too close quarters."

The suggestion seemed a good one, and was quickly put in effect. The men, who had had a fright and thorough drenching, were glad enough to stretch their legs on dry land again, and the rafts, relieved of their weight, responded more readily to the sturdy thrusts of the poles. Again the enemy were hidden, but catching sight of them presently through the trees, John cried--

"I say, they are cutting off to their left. The river makes another bend, I suppose, and they're going to post themselves before we arrive."

"I only hope the bank isn't high," said Ferrier. "If it is they can fire down on us, and the mischief is, we can't reply and attend to the rafts as well. Hadn't we better chuck the ivory into the river and take our own things and make a bolt for it?"

"Not I," said John. "I don't like the idea of skedaddling at all, and I'm not going to lose the ivory now. That would bring Juma out on top, and he could crow over us after all."

"There's a good deal of obstinacy in you, John," said Ferrier, smiling. "We shall have to fight, and I shouldn't be surprised if our hottest time is yet to come."

They went steadily down the river, the men keeping pace with them as closely as possible, though the nature of the ground caused them sometimes to leave the bank and march at a considerable distance from it. For nearly two hours, as they guessed, they did not catch a single glimpse of the enemy, and hoped that they had tired of the pursuit. But presently they had reason to suspect that they were not to be allowed to escape so easily. The river spread out into a kind of swamp, apparently almost half-a-mile in breadth. About half that distance ahead it was studded with small wooded islands, and Ferrier, who was still leading, was puzzled as to which of the channels into which the stream was divided was the safest to attempt. The enemy were not in sight, but from somewhere ahead came the sound of chopping wood.

"What are they up to?" said John.

"Can't tell. Making a boma perhaps. Don't you think we had better take the men on board before we get fairly into the swamp? If the enemy are hidden on those islands we had better have them with us."

John hailed the marching men, who came at his call and were soon ensconced on the rafts again. They punted along, looking ahead warily for signs of the enemy. The current became more and more sluggish, and there was at times scarcely enough water to float the rafts, now again weighted by their passengers. Ferrier scanned the river in search of a practicable channel. In the channels on the left he saw mud-banks rising just above the surface. A wider channel to the right, about twenty yards broad, gave the best promise of a safe passage, and towards this he steered. While still some distance from it, however, he saw some figures emerge from the wooded island on the left, wade hurriedly across, and enter a similar wood on the right bank of the river, both the island and the bank being here slightly above the level of the water. The greater number of the waders were negroes, but among them were the white-clad forms of Swahilis.

"This is nasty," said John. "We can't go back."

"Nor forward either, except at a snail's pace," said Ferrier. "Confound it! We're stuck again. Look out, John: I'm on a mud-bank. Pull up till I'm free."

By dint of energetic poling he managed to get his raft clear. John avoided the obstacle by slightly changing his course.