Chapter Six.“Better, my boy?”“Yes. What is it? I felt so sick and strange.”I was lying on my back looking up at my father, who was bending over me bathing my forehead with cold water.“The sun—a little overdone. There, you are better now.”“Ah, I recollect,” I said, “Where are the Indians?”“Hush! Don’t get excited. They are gone now.”“Yes, I know,” I said; “gone to Colonel Preston’s.”“Hist!” he cried, as I heard steps close by, and Morgan came hurrying up.“Couldn’t get far, sir. I was making haste, and getting close up to the last man as I thought, when three of the savages jumped up just in my path, and held up their bows and arrows in a way that said, plain as any tongue could speak, ‘go back, or we’ll send one of these through you.’”“The chief knows what he is about,” said my father, “and we cannot communicate. Now then, get inside, and we will barricade the place as well as we can, in case of their coming back. Can you walk now, George?”“Yes, father, the giddiness has gone off now,” I said; and I sprang up, but reeled and nearly fell again.“Take my arm, boy,” he said, as he helped me toward the window, and I climbed in by it, when the first thing my eyes lighted upon was the figure of our Sarah, down on her knees behind the door with her eyes shut; but a gun was leaning up against the wall; and as she heard us she sprang up, seized it, and faced round.“Oh! I thought it was the Indians,” she said, with a sigh of relief.“Perhaps we have been frightening ourselves without cause,” said my father, helping Morgan to fix up the strong shutter with which the window was provided. “The Indians are gone now.”“Yes,” muttered Morgan, so that I could hear, “but they may come back again. I don’t trust ’em a bit.”“Nor I, Morgan,” said my father, for he had heard every word; “but a bold calm front seems to have kept them from attempting violence. If we had been shut up here, and had opened fire, not one of us would now have been alive.”“Never mind, sir,” said Morgan. “If they come back let’s risk it, and show a bold front here behind the shutters, with the muzzles of our guns sticking out, for I couldn’t go through another hour like that again. I was beginning to turn giddy, like Master George here, and to feel as if my head was going to burst.”“Go up into the roof, and keep a good look-out from the little gratings; but keep away, so as not to show your face.”“Then you do think they’ll come back, sir?”“Yes, I feel sure of it. I am even now in doubt as to whether they are all gone. Indians are strangely furtive people, and I fully expect that a couple of them are lying down among the trees to watch us, for fear we should try to communicate with the others. I am afraid now that I made a mistake in settling down so far from the rest. Ah! Listen! A shot. Yes; there it is again.”“No, sir,” said Morgan, “that wasn’t a shot: it was—there it goes again!—and another.”Two distant sounds, exactly like shots, fell again upon our ears.“Yes,” cried my father, excitedly, “the fight has begun.”“Nay, sir, that was only a big ’gator threshing the water up in some corner to kill the fish,” cried Morgan; and he passed up through the ceiling into the roof.As Morgan went out of sight, and took his place in the narrow loft between the sloping rafters, my father busied himself loading guns, and placing them ready by the openings in the shutters which I had always supposed were for nothing else but to admit the light. And as he worked, Sarah stood ready to hand him powder or bullets, or a fresh weapon, behaving with such calm seriousness, and taking so much interest in the work, that my father said, gravely—“Hardly a woman’s task this, Sarah.”“Ah, sir,” she replied, quietly; “it’s a woman’s work to help where she is wanted.”“Quite right,” said my father. Then, turning to me, he went on, “I am a soldier, George, and all this is still very horrible to me, but I am making all these preparations in what I think is the right and wisest spirit; for if an enemy sees that you are well prepared, he is much less likely to attack you and cause bloodshed. We are safe all together indoors now, and with plenty of protection, so that if our Indian visitors come again, we are more upon equal terms.”“Do you really think they will come again, father?” I said.“I’m afraid so. We have been living in too much fancied security, and ready to think there was no danger to apprehend from Indians. Now we have been rudely awakened from our dream.”“And if they come shall you shoot, father?”“Not unless it is absolutely necessary to save our lives. I cannot help feeling that we ought to be up at the settlement, but I should have been unwilling to leave our pleasant home to the mercy of these savages; and, of course, now it is impossible to go, so we must make the best defence we can, if the enemy returns.”All this was very startling, and from time to time little shudders of dread ran through me, but at the same time there was so much novelty and excitement, that I don’t think I felt very much alarmed. In fact, I found myself hoping once that the Indians would come back, so that I could see how they behaved now that we were shut up tightly in our house, all of which was very reprehensible no doubt; but I am recording here, as simply and naturally as I can, everything that I can remember of my boyish life.The preparations for attack were at last ended, and after securing and barricading door and window in every way possible, we sat down to wait for the first sign of the enemy, and I was wondering how long it would be before we saw the Indians return, when I suddenly awoke to the fact that I was terribly hungry.I don’t suppose I should have thought of it, though, if Sarah had not made her appearance with bread and meat all ready cut for us, and very welcome it proved; Morgan, on receiving his share passed up to him in the loft, giving me a nod and a smile before he went back to continue his watch.And this proved to be a long and weary one. The afternoon sun slowly descended; and as it sank lower, I could see that my father’s face grew more and more stern.I did not speak to him, but I knew what it meant—that he was thinking of the coming darkness, and of how terribly difficult our watch would be.“Yes,” he said, suddenly, just as if he had heard my thoughts; “they are naturally quiet, stealthy people, and the darkness will give them opportunities which would be full of risk by day. I am afraid that they are waiting in ambush for the night, and that then they will come on.”“I hope not,” I thought; but I would not have let my father see how frightened I was for all the world; and trying to be as cheerful as I could under the circumstances, I went up and joined Morgan to help him watch from the latticed openings in the roof, with the garden gradually growing more gloomy, and the trees of the forest beyond rapidly becoming black.Then darker and darker, and there was no moon that night till quite late.Beyond the possibility of there being some reptile about that had crawled up from the river, hungry and supper-hunting, there had never seemed to be anything about home that was alarming, and night after night I had stolen out to listen to the forest sounds, and scent the cool, damp, perfumed air; but now there was a feeling of danger at hand, lurking perhaps so close that it would not have been safe to open the door; and as I watched beside Morgan from between the window-bars, we were constantly touching each other, and pointing to some tree-stump, tuft, or hillock, asking whether that was an Indian creeping cautiously toward the house.Somehow that seemed to me the darkest night I could remember, and the various sounds, all of which were really familiar, seemed strange.Now there was the plaintive cry of one of the goat-suckers which hawked for moths and beetles round the great trees; then, after a silence so profound that it was painful, came the deep croak of the bullfrog rising and falling and coming from a hundred different directions at once. Then all at once their deep croaking was dominated by a loud barking bellow; and as I listened with my hands feeling cold and damp, I caught hold of Morgan.“What’s that?” I whispered, excitedly.“My arm,” he replied, coolly. “Don’t pinch, lad.”“No, no; I mean the sound. What noise was that?”“Oh! Why, you know. That was a ’gator.”“Are you sure? It sounded like a man’s voice.”“Not it. Who did you think could be there? Nobody likely to be out there but Indians, and they wouldn’t shout; they’d whisper so that we shouldn’t know they were near.”I was silent again, and sat watching and listening as sound after sound struck my ear, making it seem that the wilds had never been so full before of strange noises, though the fact was that nothing was unusual except that I did not realise that I had never been in danger before, and sat up to listen.All at once I jumped and uttered a cry, for something had touched me.“Hush! Don’t make a noise,” said a familiar voice. “I only wanted to know whether you could make out anything.”“No, father. Only the frogs and alligators are barking and bellowing.”“Can’t see any sign of Indians, nor any red light from over toward the settlement?”“No, father.”“No, sir. All’s quiet,” said Morgan.“It isn’t, father,” I whispered. “I never heard so much noise from out by the river before. There, hark!”We all listened in silence as a loud bellowing sound came from a distance.“There!” I whispered, in awe-stricken tones.“Only one of the reptiles by the stream,” said my father, quietly.“But don’t you think it’s because some one is there?”“No; certainly not. Keep a sharp look-out on both sides, Morgan, and warn me if you see the slightest movement, for it may be a crawling, lurking Indian.”“We’ll keep a good look-out, sir, never fear,” said Morgan, and we resumed our watch—if watch it could be called, where we were more dependent upon our ears than upon our eyes.Morgan was very silent and thoughtful till I spoke to him.“What did my father mean about the red glare over at the settlement?”“Hah!” he ejaculated, and he was again silent for a minute or two. Then in a quick whisper, “I was just thinking about that, Master George, when you spoke, and that it was the enemy we had to fear the most.”“What do you mean?” I asked.“Fire, my lad, fire. I dare say that with our guns and swords we may keep them off; but that’s how they’ll get the better of us.”“By fire?”“Yes; they’ll get something blazing up against the house, and the moment it catches fire it’s all over with us.”“What! Set fire to the house?”“Yes, Master George, that’s what your father’s afraid of. No; I’m wrong there. I was at the wars with him, and I never saw him afraid—not even to-day. Takes a bold man to come out of his fort and go up to the enemy as he did—twelve to one—expecting every moment a crack from a tomahawk. He hasn’t got any fear in him; but he thinks about the fire all the same. Now then, don’t talk, but keep a sharp look-out, or they may steal on to us without our seeing them.”All this was said in a low whisper as we tried to keep a good look-out from the little trellised dormers; and the minutes stole on and became hours, with the darkness seeming to increase till about midnight. Then all looked darker, when Morgan pressed my arm, and I gave, a violent start.“’Sleep, sir?”“I? Asleep? No! Yes; I’m afraid I must have been,” I said, feeling the colour come burning into my face.“Look yonder,” he whispered.I looked from the grating and saw that, all at once, as it appeared to me, the tops of the trees were visible out to the east, and it grew plainer and plainer as I watched.“Moon’s getting very old, Master George,” whispered Morgan, “but yonder she comes up.”“Then it will soon be light.”“No; but not so dark.”“Then the Indians won’t come now?” I said eagerly.“I don’t know much about them, Master George, but from what I’ve heard say from those who do, Indians always comes when they’re not expected, and if you’re to be ready for them you must always be on the watch.”The overpowering sense of sleep which had made me lose consciousness for a few minutes ceased to trouble me now, and I stood watching eagerly for the time when the moon would rise above the trees, and send its light across the clearing in front of the house. I waited anxiously, for there had been the lurking dread that the Indians might creep up to the garden through the darkness, unseen, and perhaps strike at my father down below before he could be on his guard.Once the moon was up, I felt that we should have light till daybreak, and with that light a good deal of the shivering dread caused by the darkness would pass away.It was a long, very long while before the moon reached the tops of the trees, but when it did, the clearing and the gardens seemed to have been transformed. Long shadows, black as velvet, stretched right away, and trees were distorted so that I felt as if I was dreaming of seeing a garden upon which I had never set eyes before.At last, almost imperceptibly, the moon, well on to its last quarter, appeared above the edge of the forest, and I was in the act of drawing myself back with a feeling of satisfaction that all was safe, when I saw something dark lying close to the shadow cast by a tree.“Would Indians lie down and crawl?” I whispered.“More likely to than walk, if all I hear’s true, Master George.”“Then look there!” I whispered, as I pointed to the dark, shadowy figure.“Where, lad? I can’t see anything.”“There; just at the edge of that long, stretched-out shadow.”Morgan drew in his breath with a faint hiss.“It’s moving—he’smoving,” he whispered; “crawling right along to get round to the back, I should say. And look, sir, look!—another of ’em.”I just caught sight of the second figure, and then crept to the rough trap-door opening.“Father,” I whispered, “come up here. Bring a gun.”He was beneath the opening in a moment.“Take hold of the gun,” he said. “Mind!—be careful”—and he passed the heavy weapon up to me.The next moment he was up in the rough loft, and I pointed out the figures of the Indians.I heard him too draw in his breath with a faint hiss, as he stretched out his hand for the gun, took it, softly passed the barrel out through the open window and took aim, while I stood suffering from a nervous thrill that was painful in the extreme, for I knew that when he fired it must mean death.I involuntarily shrank away, waiting for the heavy report which seemed as if it would never come; and at last, unable to bear the suspense longer, I pressed forward again to look hesitatingly through the window, feeling that I might have to fire a gun myself before long.All at once, as the suspense had grown unbearable, the barrel of the firelock made a low scraping noise, for my father was drawing it back.“A false alarm, George,” he said, gently.“No, no,” I whispered; “look—look!” for I could see both figures crawling along slowly, flat on their breasts.“Yes, I see them, my boy,” he said; “and I was deceived too, for the moment, but we must not waste shot on creatures like these.”“Why, if it arn’t a pair o’ ’gators,” said Morgan, with a suppressed laugh. “Well, they did look just like Injins, and no mistake.”I felt so vexed at making so absurd a mistake, that I remained silent till my father passed the gun to me.“Take hold,” he said, gently. “It was a mistake that deceived us all. Better be too particular than not particular enough.”He lowered himself down into the room below, and I passed him the gun before going back to where Morgan leaned against the window.“There they go, Master George,” he said, laughing. “You and me must have a new pair o’ spectacles apiece from the old country if we have to do much of this sort of thing.”“I did not think I could have been so stupid,” I said, angrily; and going away to the other window, so that I should not have to listen to my companion’s bantering, which I felt pretty sure would come, I stood gazing at the beautiful scene without, the moon making the dark green leaves glisten like silver, while the shades grew to be of a velvety black. Every here and there patches of light shone on the great trunks of the trees, while their tops ran up like great spires into the softly-illumined sky.The excitement had driven away all desire for sleep, and we watched on listening to every sound and cry that came from the forest surrounding, wonderfully plain in the silence of the night, which magnified croak, bellow, or faint rustling among the leaves or bushes, as some nocturnal creature made its way through the trees.At times the watching seemed to be insufferably dreary and wearisome; then something startling would send the blood thrilling through my veins again; and so on and on, till the moon began to grow pale, the light to appear of a pearly grey in the east, golden flecks glistened high all above the trees, and once more it was new day, with the birds singing, and a feeling of wonder impressing me, it appeared so impossible that I could have been up and watching all night.
“Better, my boy?”
“Yes. What is it? I felt so sick and strange.”
I was lying on my back looking up at my father, who was bending over me bathing my forehead with cold water.
“The sun—a little overdone. There, you are better now.”
“Ah, I recollect,” I said, “Where are the Indians?”
“Hush! Don’t get excited. They are gone now.”
“Yes, I know,” I said; “gone to Colonel Preston’s.”
“Hist!” he cried, as I heard steps close by, and Morgan came hurrying up.
“Couldn’t get far, sir. I was making haste, and getting close up to the last man as I thought, when three of the savages jumped up just in my path, and held up their bows and arrows in a way that said, plain as any tongue could speak, ‘go back, or we’ll send one of these through you.’”
“The chief knows what he is about,” said my father, “and we cannot communicate. Now then, get inside, and we will barricade the place as well as we can, in case of their coming back. Can you walk now, George?”
“Yes, father, the giddiness has gone off now,” I said; and I sprang up, but reeled and nearly fell again.
“Take my arm, boy,” he said, as he helped me toward the window, and I climbed in by it, when the first thing my eyes lighted upon was the figure of our Sarah, down on her knees behind the door with her eyes shut; but a gun was leaning up against the wall; and as she heard us she sprang up, seized it, and faced round.
“Oh! I thought it was the Indians,” she said, with a sigh of relief.
“Perhaps we have been frightening ourselves without cause,” said my father, helping Morgan to fix up the strong shutter with which the window was provided. “The Indians are gone now.”
“Yes,” muttered Morgan, so that I could hear, “but they may come back again. I don’t trust ’em a bit.”
“Nor I, Morgan,” said my father, for he had heard every word; “but a bold calm front seems to have kept them from attempting violence. If we had been shut up here, and had opened fire, not one of us would now have been alive.”
“Never mind, sir,” said Morgan. “If they come back let’s risk it, and show a bold front here behind the shutters, with the muzzles of our guns sticking out, for I couldn’t go through another hour like that again. I was beginning to turn giddy, like Master George here, and to feel as if my head was going to burst.”
“Go up into the roof, and keep a good look-out from the little gratings; but keep away, so as not to show your face.”
“Then you do think they’ll come back, sir?”
“Yes, I feel sure of it. I am even now in doubt as to whether they are all gone. Indians are strangely furtive people, and I fully expect that a couple of them are lying down among the trees to watch us, for fear we should try to communicate with the others. I am afraid now that I made a mistake in settling down so far from the rest. Ah! Listen! A shot. Yes; there it is again.”
“No, sir,” said Morgan, “that wasn’t a shot: it was—there it goes again!—and another.”
Two distant sounds, exactly like shots, fell again upon our ears.
“Yes,” cried my father, excitedly, “the fight has begun.”
“Nay, sir, that was only a big ’gator threshing the water up in some corner to kill the fish,” cried Morgan; and he passed up through the ceiling into the roof.
As Morgan went out of sight, and took his place in the narrow loft between the sloping rafters, my father busied himself loading guns, and placing them ready by the openings in the shutters which I had always supposed were for nothing else but to admit the light. And as he worked, Sarah stood ready to hand him powder or bullets, or a fresh weapon, behaving with such calm seriousness, and taking so much interest in the work, that my father said, gravely—
“Hardly a woman’s task this, Sarah.”
“Ah, sir,” she replied, quietly; “it’s a woman’s work to help where she is wanted.”
“Quite right,” said my father. Then, turning to me, he went on, “I am a soldier, George, and all this is still very horrible to me, but I am making all these preparations in what I think is the right and wisest spirit; for if an enemy sees that you are well prepared, he is much less likely to attack you and cause bloodshed. We are safe all together indoors now, and with plenty of protection, so that if our Indian visitors come again, we are more upon equal terms.”
“Do you really think they will come again, father?” I said.
“I’m afraid so. We have been living in too much fancied security, and ready to think there was no danger to apprehend from Indians. Now we have been rudely awakened from our dream.”
“And if they come shall you shoot, father?”
“Not unless it is absolutely necessary to save our lives. I cannot help feeling that we ought to be up at the settlement, but I should have been unwilling to leave our pleasant home to the mercy of these savages; and, of course, now it is impossible to go, so we must make the best defence we can, if the enemy returns.”
All this was very startling, and from time to time little shudders of dread ran through me, but at the same time there was so much novelty and excitement, that I don’t think I felt very much alarmed. In fact, I found myself hoping once that the Indians would come back, so that I could see how they behaved now that we were shut up tightly in our house, all of which was very reprehensible no doubt; but I am recording here, as simply and naturally as I can, everything that I can remember of my boyish life.
The preparations for attack were at last ended, and after securing and barricading door and window in every way possible, we sat down to wait for the first sign of the enemy, and I was wondering how long it would be before we saw the Indians return, when I suddenly awoke to the fact that I was terribly hungry.
I don’t suppose I should have thought of it, though, if Sarah had not made her appearance with bread and meat all ready cut for us, and very welcome it proved; Morgan, on receiving his share passed up to him in the loft, giving me a nod and a smile before he went back to continue his watch.
And this proved to be a long and weary one. The afternoon sun slowly descended; and as it sank lower, I could see that my father’s face grew more and more stern.
I did not speak to him, but I knew what it meant—that he was thinking of the coming darkness, and of how terribly difficult our watch would be.
“Yes,” he said, suddenly, just as if he had heard my thoughts; “they are naturally quiet, stealthy people, and the darkness will give them opportunities which would be full of risk by day. I am afraid that they are waiting in ambush for the night, and that then they will come on.”
“I hope not,” I thought; but I would not have let my father see how frightened I was for all the world; and trying to be as cheerful as I could under the circumstances, I went up and joined Morgan to help him watch from the latticed openings in the roof, with the garden gradually growing more gloomy, and the trees of the forest beyond rapidly becoming black.
Then darker and darker, and there was no moon that night till quite late.
Beyond the possibility of there being some reptile about that had crawled up from the river, hungry and supper-hunting, there had never seemed to be anything about home that was alarming, and night after night I had stolen out to listen to the forest sounds, and scent the cool, damp, perfumed air; but now there was a feeling of danger at hand, lurking perhaps so close that it would not have been safe to open the door; and as I watched beside Morgan from between the window-bars, we were constantly touching each other, and pointing to some tree-stump, tuft, or hillock, asking whether that was an Indian creeping cautiously toward the house.
Somehow that seemed to me the darkest night I could remember, and the various sounds, all of which were really familiar, seemed strange.
Now there was the plaintive cry of one of the goat-suckers which hawked for moths and beetles round the great trees; then, after a silence so profound that it was painful, came the deep croak of the bullfrog rising and falling and coming from a hundred different directions at once. Then all at once their deep croaking was dominated by a loud barking bellow; and as I listened with my hands feeling cold and damp, I caught hold of Morgan.
“What’s that?” I whispered, excitedly.
“My arm,” he replied, coolly. “Don’t pinch, lad.”
“No, no; I mean the sound. What noise was that?”
“Oh! Why, you know. That was a ’gator.”
“Are you sure? It sounded like a man’s voice.”
“Not it. Who did you think could be there? Nobody likely to be out there but Indians, and they wouldn’t shout; they’d whisper so that we shouldn’t know they were near.”
I was silent again, and sat watching and listening as sound after sound struck my ear, making it seem that the wilds had never been so full before of strange noises, though the fact was that nothing was unusual except that I did not realise that I had never been in danger before, and sat up to listen.
All at once I jumped and uttered a cry, for something had touched me.
“Hush! Don’t make a noise,” said a familiar voice. “I only wanted to know whether you could make out anything.”
“No, father. Only the frogs and alligators are barking and bellowing.”
“Can’t see any sign of Indians, nor any red light from over toward the settlement?”
“No, father.”
“No, sir. All’s quiet,” said Morgan.
“It isn’t, father,” I whispered. “I never heard so much noise from out by the river before. There, hark!”
We all listened in silence as a loud bellowing sound came from a distance.
“There!” I whispered, in awe-stricken tones.
“Only one of the reptiles by the stream,” said my father, quietly.
“But don’t you think it’s because some one is there?”
“No; certainly not. Keep a sharp look-out on both sides, Morgan, and warn me if you see the slightest movement, for it may be a crawling, lurking Indian.”
“We’ll keep a good look-out, sir, never fear,” said Morgan, and we resumed our watch—if watch it could be called, where we were more dependent upon our ears than upon our eyes.
Morgan was very silent and thoughtful till I spoke to him.
“What did my father mean about the red glare over at the settlement?”
“Hah!” he ejaculated, and he was again silent for a minute or two. Then in a quick whisper, “I was just thinking about that, Master George, when you spoke, and that it was the enemy we had to fear the most.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Fire, my lad, fire. I dare say that with our guns and swords we may keep them off; but that’s how they’ll get the better of us.”
“By fire?”
“Yes; they’ll get something blazing up against the house, and the moment it catches fire it’s all over with us.”
“What! Set fire to the house?”
“Yes, Master George, that’s what your father’s afraid of. No; I’m wrong there. I was at the wars with him, and I never saw him afraid—not even to-day. Takes a bold man to come out of his fort and go up to the enemy as he did—twelve to one—expecting every moment a crack from a tomahawk. He hasn’t got any fear in him; but he thinks about the fire all the same. Now then, don’t talk, but keep a sharp look-out, or they may steal on to us without our seeing them.”
All this was said in a low whisper as we tried to keep a good look-out from the little trellised dormers; and the minutes stole on and became hours, with the darkness seeming to increase till about midnight. Then all looked darker, when Morgan pressed my arm, and I gave, a violent start.
“’Sleep, sir?”
“I? Asleep? No! Yes; I’m afraid I must have been,” I said, feeling the colour come burning into my face.
“Look yonder,” he whispered.
I looked from the grating and saw that, all at once, as it appeared to me, the tops of the trees were visible out to the east, and it grew plainer and plainer as I watched.
“Moon’s getting very old, Master George,” whispered Morgan, “but yonder she comes up.”
“Then it will soon be light.”
“No; but not so dark.”
“Then the Indians won’t come now?” I said eagerly.
“I don’t know much about them, Master George, but from what I’ve heard say from those who do, Indians always comes when they’re not expected, and if you’re to be ready for them you must always be on the watch.”
The overpowering sense of sleep which had made me lose consciousness for a few minutes ceased to trouble me now, and I stood watching eagerly for the time when the moon would rise above the trees, and send its light across the clearing in front of the house. I waited anxiously, for there had been the lurking dread that the Indians might creep up to the garden through the darkness, unseen, and perhaps strike at my father down below before he could be on his guard.
Once the moon was up, I felt that we should have light till daybreak, and with that light a good deal of the shivering dread caused by the darkness would pass away.
It was a long, very long while before the moon reached the tops of the trees, but when it did, the clearing and the gardens seemed to have been transformed. Long shadows, black as velvet, stretched right away, and trees were distorted so that I felt as if I was dreaming of seeing a garden upon which I had never set eyes before.
At last, almost imperceptibly, the moon, well on to its last quarter, appeared above the edge of the forest, and I was in the act of drawing myself back with a feeling of satisfaction that all was safe, when I saw something dark lying close to the shadow cast by a tree.
“Would Indians lie down and crawl?” I whispered.
“More likely to than walk, if all I hear’s true, Master George.”
“Then look there!” I whispered, as I pointed to the dark, shadowy figure.
“Where, lad? I can’t see anything.”
“There; just at the edge of that long, stretched-out shadow.”
Morgan drew in his breath with a faint hiss.
“It’s moving—he’smoving,” he whispered; “crawling right along to get round to the back, I should say. And look, sir, look!—another of ’em.”
I just caught sight of the second figure, and then crept to the rough trap-door opening.
“Father,” I whispered, “come up here. Bring a gun.”
He was beneath the opening in a moment.
“Take hold of the gun,” he said. “Mind!—be careful”—and he passed the heavy weapon up to me.
The next moment he was up in the rough loft, and I pointed out the figures of the Indians.
I heard him too draw in his breath with a faint hiss, as he stretched out his hand for the gun, took it, softly passed the barrel out through the open window and took aim, while I stood suffering from a nervous thrill that was painful in the extreme, for I knew that when he fired it must mean death.
I involuntarily shrank away, waiting for the heavy report which seemed as if it would never come; and at last, unable to bear the suspense longer, I pressed forward again to look hesitatingly through the window, feeling that I might have to fire a gun myself before long.
All at once, as the suspense had grown unbearable, the barrel of the firelock made a low scraping noise, for my father was drawing it back.
“A false alarm, George,” he said, gently.
“No, no,” I whispered; “look—look!” for I could see both figures crawling along slowly, flat on their breasts.
“Yes, I see them, my boy,” he said; “and I was deceived too, for the moment, but we must not waste shot on creatures like these.”
“Why, if it arn’t a pair o’ ’gators,” said Morgan, with a suppressed laugh. “Well, they did look just like Injins, and no mistake.”
I felt so vexed at making so absurd a mistake, that I remained silent till my father passed the gun to me.
“Take hold,” he said, gently. “It was a mistake that deceived us all. Better be too particular than not particular enough.”
He lowered himself down into the room below, and I passed him the gun before going back to where Morgan leaned against the window.
“There they go, Master George,” he said, laughing. “You and me must have a new pair o’ spectacles apiece from the old country if we have to do much of this sort of thing.”
“I did not think I could have been so stupid,” I said, angrily; and going away to the other window, so that I should not have to listen to my companion’s bantering, which I felt pretty sure would come, I stood gazing at the beautiful scene without, the moon making the dark green leaves glisten like silver, while the shades grew to be of a velvety black. Every here and there patches of light shone on the great trunks of the trees, while their tops ran up like great spires into the softly-illumined sky.
The excitement had driven away all desire for sleep, and we watched on listening to every sound and cry that came from the forest surrounding, wonderfully plain in the silence of the night, which magnified croak, bellow, or faint rustling among the leaves or bushes, as some nocturnal creature made its way through the trees.
At times the watching seemed to be insufferably dreary and wearisome; then something startling would send the blood thrilling through my veins again; and so on and on, till the moon began to grow pale, the light to appear of a pearly grey in the east, golden flecks glistened high all above the trees, and once more it was new day, with the birds singing, and a feeling of wonder impressing me, it appeared so impossible that I could have been up and watching all night.
Chapter Seven.“Master George!—Master George!”The call was repeated, for I did not answer the first, my mouth being expanded to its fullest stretch in a tremendous yawn.“Come down, and have some breakfast. You must want it sore.”The very fact of Sarah mentioning it made me feel a horrible sinking sensation, and as soon as my father gave leave for one of us to leave the post at the window, I came down to find that, though we up in the narrow loft had heard nothing, Sarah had been for some time preparing a good meal, which, whatever might be the perils awaiting us later on, we all ate with the greatest of enjoyment.We had hardly finished when Morgan gave the alarm, and my father hurried to his post of observation, but only to conceal his piece directly, as he uttered the word “Friend!”For our nearest neighbour, Colonel Preston, a tall, stern, rather overbearing man, came up, followed by a couple of men.“I’ve come to give you warning, Bruton,” he said.“I tried to send you warning last night,” replied my father.“What! You know?”“Do you not see how we are barricaded?”“Oh, I thought it was because you were just getting up. The Indians came by here then?”“Yes,” said my father; and he briefly told of our adventure, and the watch we had kept.“Well,” said the colonel, sharply, and as I thought in rather a dictatorial way; “it all goes to prove that it was a mistake for you to isolate yourself here. You must move close up to us, so that in a case of emergency we can all act together.”“It would be better,” said my father, quietly.“Then you will come?”“No; I selected this place for its beauty, as you chose yours. I should not like to give it up.”“You’ll repent it, Bruton. You must have had a narrow escape last night.”“I do not know,” said my father, thoughtfully. “Of course we were very suspicious of the reason for the Indians’ visit, but they did us no harm.”“Nor to us. Our numbers overawed them, I suppose.”“Our numbers did not overawe them here,” said my father, smiling; but he added rather bitterly, “If they had meant mischief, we could not have counted on your help.”“Nor we on yours,” said the colonel, in a rather irritable manner. “Well, of course I have no right to dictate to you; but I may as well tell you that as soon as the Indians left us, we met together, and determined to erect a block-house or fort ready to flee to in case of emergency. It is for you to chose whether you will join us in the work.”“I shall join you, of course,” said my father, quietly; and, refusing any refreshment, evidently to the great disgust of his men, who exchanged glances which evidently meant breakfast, the colonel walked off.“See those two fellows, Master George?” whispered Morgan, as my father stood gazing thoughtfully after the colonel.“Yes; why?”“Never see two look more hungry in my life. They’d have cleared us out, see if they wouldn’t. Good job there arn’t many in the settlement like ’em.”“Why?” I said.“Because we should soon be having a famine in the land. What are you laughing at, lad?”“You,” I said, as I recalled a number of Morgan’s performances with the knife and fork.He looked at me fiercely, and as if he were terribly offended; for Morgan’s Welsh blood had a way of bubbling up and frothing over like mead; but directly after there was a bit of a twitch at one corner of his mouth, then a few wrinkles started out at each side of his face about the eyes, and began to spread all over till he was showing his teeth.“Ah, well, Master George,” he said, “I can see through you. Perhaps I aren’t such a very bad trencherman. Sarah says I do eat. But what’s the harm? Man can’t work well without; nor more can’t a fire burn without you keeps on putting plenty o’ wood. But I say, my lad, when those Injin fellows came down upon us, I began to think I should never be hungry again. Did I look very much frightened?”“No; I thought you looked very brave.”“Did I? Did you think so, Master George?”“Yes; certainly.”“Now, you’re not making fun of me, are you?”“Certainly not.”“Well, come, I’m glad of that,” said Morgan, brightening up; “because do you know, Master George, ’twix’ you and me, I don’t think I’m quite so good that way as I ought to be. I tried hard not to seem in a fright, but I was in one all the same, and seemed to feel arrows sticking into me, and them chopping at me with tomahawks. Wasn’t pleasant, look you, was it?”“No, and it was no wonder.”“No, sir, it warn’t. But I say, Master George, you didn’t feel so bad as that, did you?”I glanced round to see if my father was within hearing, and then said with a laugh—“I’m afraid I felt ever so much worse.”“Then we’ll shake hands over it,” said Morgan; “but I say, Master George, I’d give everything to know whether the master felt scared too.”“I don’t think he did. Oh, I’m sure he did not. See how erect and firm he was.”“Ah, that’s being a soldier, sir. They drill ’em up into being as stiff as can be, and to look as if they like it when they’re being shot at. That’s what makes English soldiers such fine fellows in a battle.”Further discussion was put an end to by the coming up to us of my father.“You heard what Colonel Preston said, George?”“Yes, father.”“About being safe, and the risk of fresh attacks by the Indians?”“Yes, father; we heard every word—didn’t we, Morgan?”“Oh yes; everything, sir.”“Well,” said my father, “it is quite possible that this party came to spy out the land so as to prepare for a descent. If this is so, there is a good deal of risk in staying here. I have made up my mind what to do under the circumstances.”“Oh, master! Oh, Captain Bruton!” broke out Morgan; “don’t say that after the pains we took in getting our garden in order, and in helping to build the house, and never happy unless I was going to do something to make it look pretty, you’re thinking of moving and letting some one else come in?”“I think the risk is very great in staying; and that for your wife’s sake, my son’s, and yours, I perhaps ought to give up this, and go and take up fresh land close to my brother settlers.”“But, begging your pardon, sir, don’t you think nothing of the sort again. What do you say, Master George?”“Oh, I shouldn’t like to go away from here,” I said.“There, sir! Hear that?” cried Morgan. “Why, if you come to reckon it up, how do you know that you’re going to be safer there than here? If the Injins come, that’s where they’ll go for first, and we’re just as likely to be killed there as here.”“Possibly, Morgan.”“And then look at the place, sir, all along by the big river. It arn’t half so healthy as this. I never feel well there, and I know the land arn’t half so rich.”“But we must study safety, my man,” said my father.“Of course we must, sir, so what’s the good of being scared about some Injins, who may never come again, and running right into where there’s likely to be fevers—and if some day there don’t come a big flood and half drown ’em all, I’m a Dutchman, and wasn’t born in Carnarvon after all.”“But there is another consideration, Morgan; we have some one else to look after—your wife.”“Oh, don’t you trouble about me, sir,” cried Sarah; and we looked up in astonishment. “I came out here to look after you and Master George, not for you to look after me.”“Why, what are you doing up there?” said my father, as Sarah’s nose showed between the bars of the window of the loft.“Keeping a sharp look-out for Indians, sir.”“That’s right Sarah,” cried Morgan. “And, I say, you don’t think we had better go, do you?”“Certainly not,” said Sarah, sharply. “Just as we’re getting the place and my kitchen so snug and comfortable. I should think not indeed.”“There, sir,” cried Morgan, triumphantly.“Well,” said my father, “I had made up my mind to stop, at any rate as far as I was concerned, but I wished to give you all the opportunity of going up to the settlement.”“’Tchah, sir! I don’t call that a settlement. But, begging your pardon, captain, speakingasan old soldiertoan old soldier,” continued Morgan, “what you say is ridickerlus.”“Morgan!” cried my father, sternly.“Can’t help it, sir, even if you order me pack-drill, or even black-hole and a flogging. Why, its ridickerlus for you as an officer to tell your men to forsake you and leave you in the lurch.”“But, my good fellow—”“Ah, I haven’t done yet, captain. You’ve worried me and gone on till it’s mutiny in the ranks, and I refuse to obey.”“Well, George,” said my father, “you hear this; what do you say?”“I say it would be a horrid pity to go away and leave the place, father. Oh, don’t! I like it ever so! And we’re so happy here, and I don’t believe the Indians will come again.”“Then you would not be afraid to stay here and take our chance? No,” he said, reverently, “place ourselves in His hands, my boy, and be content.”“Amen to all that, sir, says I,” cried Morgan, taking off his hat; and then I saw him close his eyes, and his lips were moving as he turned away.“Thank you, Morgan,” said my father, quietly; “and thank you too, my boy. We will not give up our restful, beautiful home for a scare. Perhaps if the Indians find that we wish to be at peace with them, they may never attempt to molest us. We will stay.”Morgan gave his leg a slap, and turned round to me.“There, Master George!” he cried. “Why, with all these fruit and vegetables coming on, I should have ’most broke my heart, and I know our Sarah would have broken hers.”That day was after all a nervous one, and we felt as if at any moment an Indian might appear at the edge of the wood, followed by a body perhaps a hundred strong. So our vigilance was not relaxed, neither that day nor during the next week; but nothing occurred to disturb our peace, and the regular routine went on.From what we heard at the settlement the idea of building a block-house had been for the present given up; but Morgan came back one morning, after a visit to the colonel’s man, with some news which rather disturbed my father.“Small schooner in the river?”“Yes, sir.”“And you say that several of the gentlemen have been buying?”“Yes, sir; that’s right,” said Morgan, “and the blacks are put to work in their plantations.”My father frowned and walked away, while I eagerly turned to Morgan for an explanation.“Oh, it’s all right enough, sir, what I tell you,” said Morgan; “and seems to me they’re right, so long as they treat ’em well. Here’s lots of land wants clearing and planting, and one pair of hands can’t do it, of course, and there’s no men to be hired out here, so the gentlemen have been buying slaves.”“What a shame!” I cried. “How would you like to be bought for a slave?”Morgan looked at me, then at the sky, then down at the ground; then away straight before him, as he took off his hat and scratched one ear.“Humph!” he ejaculated, suddenly; “that’s a puzzler, Master George. Do you know I never thought of that.”“It seems to me horribly cruel.”“But then, you see, Master George, they’re blacks, and that makes all the difference.”I could not see it, but I did not say so, and by degrees other things took my attention. There was so much to see, and hear, and do, that I forgot all about Indians and blacks; or if they did come to mind at all as time went on, I merely gave them a passing thought, and went off to talk to Morgan, to set a trap, to fish, or to watch the beautiful birds that came into the sunny clearing about my home.
“Master George!—Master George!”
The call was repeated, for I did not answer the first, my mouth being expanded to its fullest stretch in a tremendous yawn.
“Come down, and have some breakfast. You must want it sore.”
The very fact of Sarah mentioning it made me feel a horrible sinking sensation, and as soon as my father gave leave for one of us to leave the post at the window, I came down to find that, though we up in the narrow loft had heard nothing, Sarah had been for some time preparing a good meal, which, whatever might be the perils awaiting us later on, we all ate with the greatest of enjoyment.
We had hardly finished when Morgan gave the alarm, and my father hurried to his post of observation, but only to conceal his piece directly, as he uttered the word “Friend!”
For our nearest neighbour, Colonel Preston, a tall, stern, rather overbearing man, came up, followed by a couple of men.
“I’ve come to give you warning, Bruton,” he said.
“I tried to send you warning last night,” replied my father.
“What! You know?”
“Do you not see how we are barricaded?”
“Oh, I thought it was because you were just getting up. The Indians came by here then?”
“Yes,” said my father; and he briefly told of our adventure, and the watch we had kept.
“Well,” said the colonel, sharply, and as I thought in rather a dictatorial way; “it all goes to prove that it was a mistake for you to isolate yourself here. You must move close up to us, so that in a case of emergency we can all act together.”
“It would be better,” said my father, quietly.
“Then you will come?”
“No; I selected this place for its beauty, as you chose yours. I should not like to give it up.”
“You’ll repent it, Bruton. You must have had a narrow escape last night.”
“I do not know,” said my father, thoughtfully. “Of course we were very suspicious of the reason for the Indians’ visit, but they did us no harm.”
“Nor to us. Our numbers overawed them, I suppose.”
“Our numbers did not overawe them here,” said my father, smiling; but he added rather bitterly, “If they had meant mischief, we could not have counted on your help.”
“Nor we on yours,” said the colonel, in a rather irritable manner. “Well, of course I have no right to dictate to you; but I may as well tell you that as soon as the Indians left us, we met together, and determined to erect a block-house or fort ready to flee to in case of emergency. It is for you to chose whether you will join us in the work.”
“I shall join you, of course,” said my father, quietly; and, refusing any refreshment, evidently to the great disgust of his men, who exchanged glances which evidently meant breakfast, the colonel walked off.
“See those two fellows, Master George?” whispered Morgan, as my father stood gazing thoughtfully after the colonel.
“Yes; why?”
“Never see two look more hungry in my life. They’d have cleared us out, see if they wouldn’t. Good job there arn’t many in the settlement like ’em.”
“Why?” I said.
“Because we should soon be having a famine in the land. What are you laughing at, lad?”
“You,” I said, as I recalled a number of Morgan’s performances with the knife and fork.
He looked at me fiercely, and as if he were terribly offended; for Morgan’s Welsh blood had a way of bubbling up and frothing over like mead; but directly after there was a bit of a twitch at one corner of his mouth, then a few wrinkles started out at each side of his face about the eyes, and began to spread all over till he was showing his teeth.
“Ah, well, Master George,” he said, “I can see through you. Perhaps I aren’t such a very bad trencherman. Sarah says I do eat. But what’s the harm? Man can’t work well without; nor more can’t a fire burn without you keeps on putting plenty o’ wood. But I say, my lad, when those Injin fellows came down upon us, I began to think I should never be hungry again. Did I look very much frightened?”
“No; I thought you looked very brave.”
“Did I? Did you think so, Master George?”
“Yes; certainly.”
“Now, you’re not making fun of me, are you?”
“Certainly not.”
“Well, come, I’m glad of that,” said Morgan, brightening up; “because do you know, Master George, ’twix’ you and me, I don’t think I’m quite so good that way as I ought to be. I tried hard not to seem in a fright, but I was in one all the same, and seemed to feel arrows sticking into me, and them chopping at me with tomahawks. Wasn’t pleasant, look you, was it?”
“No, and it was no wonder.”
“No, sir, it warn’t. But I say, Master George, you didn’t feel so bad as that, did you?”
I glanced round to see if my father was within hearing, and then said with a laugh—
“I’m afraid I felt ever so much worse.”
“Then we’ll shake hands over it,” said Morgan; “but I say, Master George, I’d give everything to know whether the master felt scared too.”
“I don’t think he did. Oh, I’m sure he did not. See how erect and firm he was.”
“Ah, that’s being a soldier, sir. They drill ’em up into being as stiff as can be, and to look as if they like it when they’re being shot at. That’s what makes English soldiers such fine fellows in a battle.”
Further discussion was put an end to by the coming up to us of my father.
“You heard what Colonel Preston said, George?”
“Yes, father.”
“About being safe, and the risk of fresh attacks by the Indians?”
“Yes, father; we heard every word—didn’t we, Morgan?”
“Oh yes; everything, sir.”
“Well,” said my father, “it is quite possible that this party came to spy out the land so as to prepare for a descent. If this is so, there is a good deal of risk in staying here. I have made up my mind what to do under the circumstances.”
“Oh, master! Oh, Captain Bruton!” broke out Morgan; “don’t say that after the pains we took in getting our garden in order, and in helping to build the house, and never happy unless I was going to do something to make it look pretty, you’re thinking of moving and letting some one else come in?”
“I think the risk is very great in staying; and that for your wife’s sake, my son’s, and yours, I perhaps ought to give up this, and go and take up fresh land close to my brother settlers.”
“But, begging your pardon, sir, don’t you think nothing of the sort again. What do you say, Master George?”
“Oh, I shouldn’t like to go away from here,” I said.
“There, sir! Hear that?” cried Morgan. “Why, if you come to reckon it up, how do you know that you’re going to be safer there than here? If the Injins come, that’s where they’ll go for first, and we’re just as likely to be killed there as here.”
“Possibly, Morgan.”
“And then look at the place, sir, all along by the big river. It arn’t half so healthy as this. I never feel well there, and I know the land arn’t half so rich.”
“But we must study safety, my man,” said my father.
“Of course we must, sir, so what’s the good of being scared about some Injins, who may never come again, and running right into where there’s likely to be fevers—and if some day there don’t come a big flood and half drown ’em all, I’m a Dutchman, and wasn’t born in Carnarvon after all.”
“But there is another consideration, Morgan; we have some one else to look after—your wife.”
“Oh, don’t you trouble about me, sir,” cried Sarah; and we looked up in astonishment. “I came out here to look after you and Master George, not for you to look after me.”
“Why, what are you doing up there?” said my father, as Sarah’s nose showed between the bars of the window of the loft.
“Keeping a sharp look-out for Indians, sir.”
“That’s right Sarah,” cried Morgan. “And, I say, you don’t think we had better go, do you?”
“Certainly not,” said Sarah, sharply. “Just as we’re getting the place and my kitchen so snug and comfortable. I should think not indeed.”
“There, sir,” cried Morgan, triumphantly.
“Well,” said my father, “I had made up my mind to stop, at any rate as far as I was concerned, but I wished to give you all the opportunity of going up to the settlement.”
“’Tchah, sir! I don’t call that a settlement. But, begging your pardon, captain, speakingasan old soldiertoan old soldier,” continued Morgan, “what you say is ridickerlus.”
“Morgan!” cried my father, sternly.
“Can’t help it, sir, even if you order me pack-drill, or even black-hole and a flogging. Why, its ridickerlus for you as an officer to tell your men to forsake you and leave you in the lurch.”
“But, my good fellow—”
“Ah, I haven’t done yet, captain. You’ve worried me and gone on till it’s mutiny in the ranks, and I refuse to obey.”
“Well, George,” said my father, “you hear this; what do you say?”
“I say it would be a horrid pity to go away and leave the place, father. Oh, don’t! I like it ever so! And we’re so happy here, and I don’t believe the Indians will come again.”
“Then you would not be afraid to stay here and take our chance? No,” he said, reverently, “place ourselves in His hands, my boy, and be content.”
“Amen to all that, sir, says I,” cried Morgan, taking off his hat; and then I saw him close his eyes, and his lips were moving as he turned away.
“Thank you, Morgan,” said my father, quietly; “and thank you too, my boy. We will not give up our restful, beautiful home for a scare. Perhaps if the Indians find that we wish to be at peace with them, they may never attempt to molest us. We will stay.”
Morgan gave his leg a slap, and turned round to me.
“There, Master George!” he cried. “Why, with all these fruit and vegetables coming on, I should have ’most broke my heart, and I know our Sarah would have broken hers.”
That day was after all a nervous one, and we felt as if at any moment an Indian might appear at the edge of the wood, followed by a body perhaps a hundred strong. So our vigilance was not relaxed, neither that day nor during the next week; but nothing occurred to disturb our peace, and the regular routine went on.
From what we heard at the settlement the idea of building a block-house had been for the present given up; but Morgan came back one morning, after a visit to the colonel’s man, with some news which rather disturbed my father.
“Small schooner in the river?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you say that several of the gentlemen have been buying?”
“Yes, sir; that’s right,” said Morgan, “and the blacks are put to work in their plantations.”
My father frowned and walked away, while I eagerly turned to Morgan for an explanation.
“Oh, it’s all right enough, sir, what I tell you,” said Morgan; “and seems to me they’re right, so long as they treat ’em well. Here’s lots of land wants clearing and planting, and one pair of hands can’t do it, of course, and there’s no men to be hired out here, so the gentlemen have been buying slaves.”
“What a shame!” I cried. “How would you like to be bought for a slave?”
Morgan looked at me, then at the sky, then down at the ground; then away straight before him, as he took off his hat and scratched one ear.
“Humph!” he ejaculated, suddenly; “that’s a puzzler, Master George. Do you know I never thought of that.”
“It seems to me horribly cruel.”
“But then, you see, Master George, they’re blacks, and that makes all the difference.”
I could not see it, but I did not say so, and by degrees other things took my attention. There was so much to see, and hear, and do, that I forgot all about Indians and blacks; or if they did come to mind at all as time went on, I merely gave them a passing thought, and went off to talk to Morgan, to set a trap, to fish, or to watch the beautiful birds that came into the sunny clearing about my home.
Chapter Eight.“There,” said Morgan, one day, as he gave the soil a final pat with his spade, “that job’s done, and now I’m going to have a bit of a rest. Leaving-off time till the sun gets a bit down.”“What have you been planting?” I asked.“Seeds, my lad; flower seeds, as I’ve picked myself. I like to keep raising the useful things, but we may as well have some bright flowers too. Where’s the master?”“Indoors, writing.”“Then what do you say to a bit of sport?”“Another rattlesnake?” I cried.“No, thank ye, my lad; meddling with rattlesnakes may mean bringing down the Indians, so we’ll let them alone.”“Nonsense!”“Well, perhaps it is, my lad.”“But what have you found?”“What do you say to a ’coon?”“Oh, they get into the hollow trees, where you can’t catch them.”“Well then, a bear?”“A bear!” I cried; “a real wild bear?”“Ah, I thought that would set you off; but it arn’t a bear; they’re up among the hills.”“What is it then? How you do hang back from telling!”“Course I do. If I let you have it all at once, you wouldn’t enjoy it half so much.”“Oh, I know,” I cried, “it’s going to fish after those ridiculous little terrapins, and they’re such horrid things to take off the hook.”“Guess again.”“Birds? An eagle?”“No; guess again, nearly right; something as lays eggs—”“A turtle?”Morgan shook his head.“Not an alligator, is it?”He wrinkled up his face in a hearty laugh.“Alligator it is, sir. I found a nest yesterday.”“And didn’t tell me. I want to see an alligator’s nest. I never could find one.”“Ah, you didn’t look in the right kind of tree, Master George.”“Don’t talk to me as if I were a baby, Morgan,” I said; “just as if I didn’t know better than that.”“Oh, but you don’t know everything. I got awfully laughed at once for saying squirrels build nests in trees.”“Oh, but they do,” I said; “I’ve seen them.”“’Course you have; but when I said so, some one laughed, and asked how many eggs you can find in a squirrel’s nest.—So you don’t believe the ’gators build in trees, don’t you?”“No; but I believe they lay eggs. How many are there in this?”“Oh, it isn’t that sort of nest. I mean a nest where he goes to sleep in; and you and me’s going to wake him up, and try if we can’t catch him and bring him home.”I could not help thinking of the Indians, as I went with Morgan to make the preparations, which were simple enough, and consisted in arming himself with a long pole and giving me one similar, after which he put a piece of rope in his pocket, and declared himself ready.We went off in the same direction as that chosen when we killed the rattlesnake, but turned off to the left directly, and made for the bank of the river, that bore away from the landing-place, towards a low, moist part, intersected by the meandering stream which drained the marshy part.Here we had to proceed rather cautiously, for the place was full of decayed trees covered with brilliant green and grey moss, and looking solid, but which crumbled away at a touch from the foot, and often concealed holes into which it would have been awkward to fall, since we did not know what kind of creatures lived therein.“Seem to have lost the place,” said Morgan, after we had been going along for some time pretty well parallel with the river.“Oh, Morgan!” I exclaimed, impatiently.“No; I have it,” he cried. “I remember that tree with the long moss hanging down so far. The ground’s harder here too. More to the left, Master George. There you are at last.”“But where’s the nest?” I said.“Why, there it is, my lad; can’t you see?”I looked round, but there was nothing visible but a few footprints in a muddy spot, and a hole of very moderate size, evidently going some distance down into the moist, boggy soil.“Is this it?”“Yes, of course.”“But you said a nest.”“Well, I meant, as I told you, his nest, his snuggery. Now I’m going to see if he’s at home.”I looked on full of doubt, for the whole proceeding seemed to me to be very absurd, and I felt sure that Morgan was mistaken.“I don’t believe he knows any more about alligators than I do,” I said to myself, as I saw him thrust the long pole down into the hole.“I tried this game on yesterday, Master George, and he said he was at home.”“Nonsense!” I cried, pettishly.“But I’m afraid he has gone out for a walk this time, and it’s a case of call again to-morrow. No,” he added, energetically, “it’s all right. Says he’s at home.”“Why, what do you mean?” I cried.“Got a bite,” said Morgan, grinning. “You try. But mind he don’t come out with a rush. He might be nasty.”I hesitated for a moment, then leaning my own pole against a bush, I took hold of the one Morgan gave into my hands, and moved it slightly.“Well?” I said. “I don’t feel anything.”“Give it a bit of a stir round, my lad,” he said.I moved the pole a little, and then jumped and let go.“What’s the matter?” cried Morgan, laughing.“Something bit the pole, and made it jar right up my arm.”“That’s him. I told you he was at home. Now then, you aren’t afraid, are you?”“Not a big one, is it?”“No, not very; only tidy size; but we shall see if we get him out.”I looked rather aghast at Morgan, for the idea of getting a large alligator out there in the marshy place, and both of us unarmed, was rather startling.“Now then, give him a good stir up.”Sooner than seem afraid, but with my heart beating heavily, I took hold of the pole, and gave it a good shake, and left go again, for it seemed as if some one had given it a good rap with a heavy stick, and a jarring sensation ran up my arm.“No mistake about it this time,” said Morgan, grinning. “Puts me in mind of sniggling for eels, and pushing a worm at the end of a willow-stick up an eel’s burrow in a muddy bank. They give it a knock like that sometimes, but of course not so hard. Well, why don’t you go on?”“Go on with what?” I cried, wishing myself well out of the whole business.“Stirring of him up, and making him savage. But stop a moment, let’s have this ready.”He took out the piece of rope, and made a large noose, laying it on some thick moss, and then turning to me again.“Now then, my lad, give him a good stir up. Don’t be afraid. Make him savage, or else he won’t hold on.”With a dimly defined notion of what we were aiming at, I gave the pole a good wrench round in the hole, feeling it strike against something, and almost simultaneously feeling something strike against it.“That’s the way, sir. Give it him again.”Growing reckless now, and feeling that I must not shrink, I gave the pole another twist round, with the result that it was snatched out of my hand.“He has it,” cried Morgan, excitedly. “Feel if he has got it fast, Master George.”I took hold of the pole, gazing down with no little trepidation, in the expectation of at any moment seeing some hideous monster rush out, ready to seize and devour me.But there was no response to my touch, the pole coming loosely into my hand.“Give him another stir up, Master George. They tell me that’s the way they do it to make them savage.”“But do we want to make the creature savage?” I said.“Course we do! There, you do as I tell you, my lad, and you’ll see.”I gave the pole a good poke round in the hole again, just as if I was stirring up something in a huge pot, when almost before I had gone right round—Whang! The pole quivered in my hand, and a thrill ran through me as in imagination I saw a monstrous beast seize the end of the stick in its teeth and give it a savage shake.“Hurrah!” cried Morgan. “He has got it tight now. That’s right, Master George; let me come. We’ll soon haul him out.”“No, no,” I said, as excited now as the Welshman. “It may be dangerous.”“We’ll dangerous him, my lad.”“But he may bite.”“Well, let him. ’Gators’ bites arn’t poisonous, like snakes. I should just like to see him bite.”“I shouldn’t,” I said, mentally, as Morgan pushed me a little on one side, and took hold of the pole.“Now then, don’t you be scared; I’ll tackle him if he’s vicious. Both pull together. He’s so vexed now that he won’t leave go if his teeth ’ll hold.”“No,” I said, setting my own teeth fast, but not in the pole. “Am I to pull?”“To be sure. Both pull together. It’s like fishing with a wooden line. Now then, haul away!”There was a length of about ten feet of the pole down in the hole as we took hold together and began to haul, feeling something very heavy at the end, which came up in a sullen, unresisting way for some distance, giving me courage and making me nearly as eager and excited as our man.“That’s the way, sir. We’ll soon— Hi! Hold tight! Wo—ho, there; wo—ho! Ah!”For all at once the creature began to struggle furiously, shaking the pole so that we dragged at it with all our might; and then—Whoosh! The alligator left go, and we went backward on the soft mossy earth.“Iamglad!” I thought, as we struggled up.“There, Master George, what d’yer think o’ that? Can’t have such games as this at home in the old country, eh?”“No,” I said. “But you’re not going to try again, are you?”“Not going to try again? I should think I am, till I get the great ugly creature here at the top. Why, you’re not skeart of him, are you?”“Wait till he’s out, and then we’ll see,” I replied, as I thrust the pole down again, giving it a fierce twist, and felt it seized once more.“That’s the way. This is a bit of the finest sport I ever had, and it’s just dangerous enough to make it exciting. Haul away, my lad.”I set my teeth and hauled, the reptile coming up quickly enough half-way, and then beginning to writhe and shake its head furiously, every movement being communicated to our arms, and giving us a good notion of the strength of the enemy we were fighting, if fighting it could be called. Up we drew it inch by inch, and I must confess that with every change of the position of my hands I hoped it would be the last, that the creature would leave go, and drop back into the hole, and that Morgan would be so disappointed that he would not try any more.That is just how I felt, and yet, odd as it may sound, it is not as I felt, for mingled with that series of thoughts—just as a change of position shows another set of colours on a bird’s back or in a piece of silk—there was another, in which I was hoping the alligator would hold on tightly, so that we might get it right out of the hole, and I could attack and kill it with the pole, so that I could show Morgan and—much more important—myself that I was not afraid to behave as boldly as the man who had hold with his hands touching mine.My last ideas were gratified, for as we hauled together there was another savage shaking of the pole, which quivered in our grasp; then a strong drag or two, and we knew by the length of the pole that we must have the reptile within a yard of the surface, when Morgan looked down where a bright gleam of the sunlight shot from above.“All right, Master George,” he cried; “this way—over with you!” and setting the example, he dragged the pole over in the opposite direction to that in which we had it bent, when I perforce followed with him, and the next moment we were dragging a great alligator through the wet moss and black mud, the creature making very little resistance, for it was on its back, this being the result of Morgan’s last movement when he dragged the pole across the hole.The shape of the reptile’s head and back made our task the more easy, and we had run with it a good fifty feet before it recovered from its surprise, loosened its hold of the pole, and began to writhe and thrash about with its tail as it twisted itself over into its proper position, in a way that was startling.“Now, Master George, we’ve got him. I’ll keep him from running back into his hole; you go and get the rope.”I could not stir for a few moments, but stood watching, as I saw Morgan raise up the pole, and bring it down bang across the alligator’s back, but without doing it the slightest injury, for the end struck a half-rotten log, and the pole snapped off a yard above Morgan’s hands.“Never mind! I’ll keep him back,” roared Morgan, as the reptile kept facing him, and half turning to strike at him with its tail. “Quick, lad! The rope—the rope!”I started off at once, and picked up the rope with its noose all ready, and then seized my pole as well, too much excited now to think of being afraid. Then I trotted back to Morgan just as he was having a fierce fight with the creature, which kept on snapping and turning at him in a way that, to say the least, was alarming.“Ah, would you!” Morgan kept crying, as the brute snapped at him, and he presented the broken pole, upon which the reptile’s teeth closed, giving the wood a savage shake which nearly wrenched it out of Morgan’s hands; but he held on, and had all his work to do to avoid the tangled growth and the blows of the creature’s tail.“That’s it, Master George. Now quick: drop that rope, and next time he opens his pretty mouth give him the pole. Aren’t afraid of him, are you?”I did not answer.I did not want to answer just then, but I did exactly as I was told, dropping the rope and standing ready with my pole on one side, so as to thrust it into the brute’s mouth.I did not have long to wait for my opportunity, and it was not the alligator’s fault that he did not get right hold, for through nervousness, I suppose, I thrust short, and the jaws came together with an ugly snap that was startling.“Never mind; try again; quick, my lad, or he’ll get away back to the hole.”To prevent this Morgan made a rush, and gave the brute a sounding thwack with his broken pole, sufficiently hard to make it turn in another direction, when, thoroughly excited now, I made a poke at it with the pole, and it snapped at it viciously.I made another and another, and then the teeth closed upon the end, and the pole quivered in my grasp.“Well done! Brave lad!” shouted Morgan, for he did not know I was all of a tremble. “That’s the way; hold on, and keep him thinking about you just a moment. Pull! Let go! Pull again!”As he gave me these directions, he got the end of the pole from me for a moment so as to pass the noose of the rope he had picked up over it, and then once more shouting to me to pull, he boldly ran the wide noose down over the pole; and as the brute saw him so near, it loosed its hold to make a fierce snap; but Morgan was too quick for the creature, and leaped away with a shout of triumph, tightening the rope, which was right round the reptile’s neck, and running and passing the other end about a tree.“Got him now,” panted Morgan, as the alligator thrashed at the rope with its tail, and tugged and strained with all its might, but of course only tightening the noose with every effort.“Yes,” I said, breathlessly, as I stood now well out of danger; “we’ve got him now.”“Yes, we’ve got him now,” said Morgan again, as we made the end of the rope fast to a branch. “That would hold one twice as big. Let’s see; ’bout how long is he?”“Seven feet,” I said, making a rapid guess.“Well,” said Morgan, in a slow, hesitating way; “here, hi! Keep your tail still, will you, while you’re being measured.”But the reptile seemed to thrash all the harder, dragging the noose tight, and flogging at the rope in a way which promised, if time enough was given, to wear it through.“Oh, well, if you won’t, I must guess. Yes, sir, he’s quite seven feet long—nearer eight; but he must be pretty young, for he’s a lean, lizardly-looking brute. Not nice things to tackle, are they? Look ye here at the marks of his teeth.”As he said this, Morgan held up his broken pole, first one piece then the other. “I say, Master George, he can nip. If that had been your leg or my arm, we should have wanted a bit or two of sticking-plaster, even if we hadn’t had the bone cracked in two.”“It’s a horribly ugly brute,” I said, as I approached it a little nearer, and examined it by the warm ruddy glow which shone down here and there into the gloomy swamp forest.“Yes; his mother ought to be very proud of him,” said Morgan, laughing; “wonder what his brothers and sisters are like. Ha! Ha! Ha!”“What are you laughing at?” I said.“I was only thinking, Master George. The idea of me coming out of Carnarvonshire across the sea to find things like that!”“Yes; it’s different to home,” I said.“This is home,” replied Morgan, stolidly—“home now. I’ve set and tended many a lot of eggs; but I say, Master George, only think of a thing like that coming out of a new-laid egg. Do rattlesnakes!”I could not help smiling at the idea, but my face felt strange, and there was a twitching about my temples as the last words fell upon my ears.“Halloa! What’s the matter, lad?”“You—you said rattlesnakes,” I whispered hoarsely.“Well, what of it? This is ’gator country. Rattlesnakes, they tell me, likes the high, dry, hot, stony places.”“Yes—father said so,” I replied in a whisper, as I looked cautiously round.“Well then, what are you looking for?”“Indians,” I whispered, for I had recalled how the savages had surrounded us while our attention was taken up by the last noxious creature we had attacked.At my words Morgan made a bound, and then began to move past a tree. But he stopped short, and returned to my side, looking wildly round the while.“See ’em—see any of ’em?” he whispered.“No; but suppose they have stolen upon us again as they did before!”“Yah! What do you mean by frightening a man? I teclare to cootness it’s too bad of you, Master George.”I smiled once more, for Morgan’s speech had sounded very droll and Welsh, as it often was when he grew excited.“You tit it to scare me,” he said, angrily.“Indeed, no.”“Yes, inteet,” he said; “and look you—I say, Master George, was it meant for a choke?”“Indeed, no, Morgan; I really felt startled.”“Then it’s all right,” he said. “There’s none of ’em here, so let’s get home.”“But what are you going to do with the alligator?”“Eh? Oh, I never thought of that. I wanted to catch him so that you might have a bit of fun.”“But now we have caught him?”“Well, dunno, my lad. Might take him home and chain him up. Turn down a barrel to make him a kennel; he can bark.”“Oh, nonsense! We can’t do that.”“He’s no good to eat, though they say the savages eat ’em. Here, I know; let’s take him home, and ask master what’s to be done with him.”“Take him home?” I faltered.“Ay, to be sure. I’ll lead him by the string, and you can come behind and give him a poke with the pole when he won’t go. Ought by rights to have two ropes, like they do at home with a vicious cow; then when he ran at me, you could pull; and when he ran at you, I could pull him back.”“But we haven’t two ropes. That isn’t long enough to cut, and I can’t stop him if he runs at you.”“Might pull his tail,” said Morgan.“Ugh!” I ejaculated, as I recalled the use the creature could make of it, giving blows that I knew would knock me off my feet.“Well then, I tell you what; let’s leave him tied up as he is, and get back. The master will be wondering where we are, and fancying all sorts of trouble.”“Seems cruel,” I said. “The creature will be strangled.”“Not he. If he does, he’ll strangle himself. I never feel very merciful to things that go about doing all the harm they can as long as they live. Say, shall I kill him at once?”“No; let’s leave him, and see what my father says.”Morgan examined the knot he had made, and then started away, for the reptile made a lash at him with its tail, and in retort he took out his big-bladed knife, opened it, and held it out threateningly.“It’s all very well, look you,” he said; “but if you’d hit me with that tail of yours, I’d have had it off as sure as you’re alive.”It was Morgan’s farewell to the alligator as we turned off with our poles, broken and sound, and hurried back to find my father with a gun over his arm, fast coming in search of us.
“There,” said Morgan, one day, as he gave the soil a final pat with his spade, “that job’s done, and now I’m going to have a bit of a rest. Leaving-off time till the sun gets a bit down.”
“What have you been planting?” I asked.
“Seeds, my lad; flower seeds, as I’ve picked myself. I like to keep raising the useful things, but we may as well have some bright flowers too. Where’s the master?”
“Indoors, writing.”
“Then what do you say to a bit of sport?”
“Another rattlesnake?” I cried.
“No, thank ye, my lad; meddling with rattlesnakes may mean bringing down the Indians, so we’ll let them alone.”
“Nonsense!”
“Well, perhaps it is, my lad.”
“But what have you found?”
“What do you say to a ’coon?”
“Oh, they get into the hollow trees, where you can’t catch them.”
“Well then, a bear?”
“A bear!” I cried; “a real wild bear?”
“Ah, I thought that would set you off; but it arn’t a bear; they’re up among the hills.”
“What is it then? How you do hang back from telling!”
“Course I do. If I let you have it all at once, you wouldn’t enjoy it half so much.”
“Oh, I know,” I cried, “it’s going to fish after those ridiculous little terrapins, and they’re such horrid things to take off the hook.”
“Guess again.”
“Birds? An eagle?”
“No; guess again, nearly right; something as lays eggs—”
“A turtle?”
Morgan shook his head.
“Not an alligator, is it?”
He wrinkled up his face in a hearty laugh.
“Alligator it is, sir. I found a nest yesterday.”
“And didn’t tell me. I want to see an alligator’s nest. I never could find one.”
“Ah, you didn’t look in the right kind of tree, Master George.”
“Don’t talk to me as if I were a baby, Morgan,” I said; “just as if I didn’t know better than that.”
“Oh, but you don’t know everything. I got awfully laughed at once for saying squirrels build nests in trees.”
“Oh, but they do,” I said; “I’ve seen them.”
“’Course you have; but when I said so, some one laughed, and asked how many eggs you can find in a squirrel’s nest.—So you don’t believe the ’gators build in trees, don’t you?”
“No; but I believe they lay eggs. How many are there in this?”
“Oh, it isn’t that sort of nest. I mean a nest where he goes to sleep in; and you and me’s going to wake him up, and try if we can’t catch him and bring him home.”
I could not help thinking of the Indians, as I went with Morgan to make the preparations, which were simple enough, and consisted in arming himself with a long pole and giving me one similar, after which he put a piece of rope in his pocket, and declared himself ready.
We went off in the same direction as that chosen when we killed the rattlesnake, but turned off to the left directly, and made for the bank of the river, that bore away from the landing-place, towards a low, moist part, intersected by the meandering stream which drained the marshy part.
Here we had to proceed rather cautiously, for the place was full of decayed trees covered with brilliant green and grey moss, and looking solid, but which crumbled away at a touch from the foot, and often concealed holes into which it would have been awkward to fall, since we did not know what kind of creatures lived therein.
“Seem to have lost the place,” said Morgan, after we had been going along for some time pretty well parallel with the river.
“Oh, Morgan!” I exclaimed, impatiently.
“No; I have it,” he cried. “I remember that tree with the long moss hanging down so far. The ground’s harder here too. More to the left, Master George. There you are at last.”
“But where’s the nest?” I said.
“Why, there it is, my lad; can’t you see?”
I looked round, but there was nothing visible but a few footprints in a muddy spot, and a hole of very moderate size, evidently going some distance down into the moist, boggy soil.
“Is this it?”
“Yes, of course.”
“But you said a nest.”
“Well, I meant, as I told you, his nest, his snuggery. Now I’m going to see if he’s at home.”
I looked on full of doubt, for the whole proceeding seemed to me to be very absurd, and I felt sure that Morgan was mistaken.
“I don’t believe he knows any more about alligators than I do,” I said to myself, as I saw him thrust the long pole down into the hole.
“I tried this game on yesterday, Master George, and he said he was at home.”
“Nonsense!” I cried, pettishly.
“But I’m afraid he has gone out for a walk this time, and it’s a case of call again to-morrow. No,” he added, energetically, “it’s all right. Says he’s at home.”
“Why, what do you mean?” I cried.
“Got a bite,” said Morgan, grinning. “You try. But mind he don’t come out with a rush. He might be nasty.”
I hesitated for a moment, then leaning my own pole against a bush, I took hold of the one Morgan gave into my hands, and moved it slightly.
“Well?” I said. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Give it a bit of a stir round, my lad,” he said.
I moved the pole a little, and then jumped and let go.
“What’s the matter?” cried Morgan, laughing.
“Something bit the pole, and made it jar right up my arm.”
“That’s him. I told you he was at home. Now then, you aren’t afraid, are you?”
“Not a big one, is it?”
“No, not very; only tidy size; but we shall see if we get him out.”
I looked rather aghast at Morgan, for the idea of getting a large alligator out there in the marshy place, and both of us unarmed, was rather startling.
“Now then, give him a good stir up.”
Sooner than seem afraid, but with my heart beating heavily, I took hold of the pole, and gave it a good shake, and left go again, for it seemed as if some one had given it a good rap with a heavy stick, and a jarring sensation ran up my arm.
“No mistake about it this time,” said Morgan, grinning. “Puts me in mind of sniggling for eels, and pushing a worm at the end of a willow-stick up an eel’s burrow in a muddy bank. They give it a knock like that sometimes, but of course not so hard. Well, why don’t you go on?”
“Go on with what?” I cried, wishing myself well out of the whole business.
“Stirring of him up, and making him savage. But stop a moment, let’s have this ready.”
He took out the piece of rope, and made a large noose, laying it on some thick moss, and then turning to me again.
“Now then, my lad, give him a good stir up. Don’t be afraid. Make him savage, or else he won’t hold on.”
With a dimly defined notion of what we were aiming at, I gave the pole a good wrench round in the hole, feeling it strike against something, and almost simultaneously feeling something strike against it.
“That’s the way, sir. Give it him again.”
Growing reckless now, and feeling that I must not shrink, I gave the pole another twist round, with the result that it was snatched out of my hand.
“He has it,” cried Morgan, excitedly. “Feel if he has got it fast, Master George.”
I took hold of the pole, gazing down with no little trepidation, in the expectation of at any moment seeing some hideous monster rush out, ready to seize and devour me.
But there was no response to my touch, the pole coming loosely into my hand.
“Give him another stir up, Master George. They tell me that’s the way they do it to make them savage.”
“But do we want to make the creature savage?” I said.
“Course we do! There, you do as I tell you, my lad, and you’ll see.”
I gave the pole a good poke round in the hole again, just as if I was stirring up something in a huge pot, when almost before I had gone right round—Whang! The pole quivered in my hand, and a thrill ran through me as in imagination I saw a monstrous beast seize the end of the stick in its teeth and give it a savage shake.
“Hurrah!” cried Morgan. “He has got it tight now. That’s right, Master George; let me come. We’ll soon haul him out.”
“No, no,” I said, as excited now as the Welshman. “It may be dangerous.”
“We’ll dangerous him, my lad.”
“But he may bite.”
“Well, let him. ’Gators’ bites arn’t poisonous, like snakes. I should just like to see him bite.”
“I shouldn’t,” I said, mentally, as Morgan pushed me a little on one side, and took hold of the pole.
“Now then, don’t you be scared; I’ll tackle him if he’s vicious. Both pull together. He’s so vexed now that he won’t leave go if his teeth ’ll hold.”
“No,” I said, setting my own teeth fast, but not in the pole. “Am I to pull?”
“To be sure. Both pull together. It’s like fishing with a wooden line. Now then, haul away!”
There was a length of about ten feet of the pole down in the hole as we took hold together and began to haul, feeling something very heavy at the end, which came up in a sullen, unresisting way for some distance, giving me courage and making me nearly as eager and excited as our man.
“That’s the way, sir. We’ll soon— Hi! Hold tight! Wo—ho, there; wo—ho! Ah!”
For all at once the creature began to struggle furiously, shaking the pole so that we dragged at it with all our might; and then—Whoosh! The alligator left go, and we went backward on the soft mossy earth.
“Iamglad!” I thought, as we struggled up.
“There, Master George, what d’yer think o’ that? Can’t have such games as this at home in the old country, eh?”
“No,” I said. “But you’re not going to try again, are you?”
“Not going to try again? I should think I am, till I get the great ugly creature here at the top. Why, you’re not skeart of him, are you?”
“Wait till he’s out, and then we’ll see,” I replied, as I thrust the pole down again, giving it a fierce twist, and felt it seized once more.
“That’s the way. This is a bit of the finest sport I ever had, and it’s just dangerous enough to make it exciting. Haul away, my lad.”
I set my teeth and hauled, the reptile coming up quickly enough half-way, and then beginning to writhe and shake its head furiously, every movement being communicated to our arms, and giving us a good notion of the strength of the enemy we were fighting, if fighting it could be called. Up we drew it inch by inch, and I must confess that with every change of the position of my hands I hoped it would be the last, that the creature would leave go, and drop back into the hole, and that Morgan would be so disappointed that he would not try any more.
That is just how I felt, and yet, odd as it may sound, it is not as I felt, for mingled with that series of thoughts—just as a change of position shows another set of colours on a bird’s back or in a piece of silk—there was another, in which I was hoping the alligator would hold on tightly, so that we might get it right out of the hole, and I could attack and kill it with the pole, so that I could show Morgan and—much more important—myself that I was not afraid to behave as boldly as the man who had hold with his hands touching mine.
My last ideas were gratified, for as we hauled together there was another savage shaking of the pole, which quivered in our grasp; then a strong drag or two, and we knew by the length of the pole that we must have the reptile within a yard of the surface, when Morgan looked down where a bright gleam of the sunlight shot from above.
“All right, Master George,” he cried; “this way—over with you!” and setting the example, he dragged the pole over in the opposite direction to that in which we had it bent, when I perforce followed with him, and the next moment we were dragging a great alligator through the wet moss and black mud, the creature making very little resistance, for it was on its back, this being the result of Morgan’s last movement when he dragged the pole across the hole.
The shape of the reptile’s head and back made our task the more easy, and we had run with it a good fifty feet before it recovered from its surprise, loosened its hold of the pole, and began to writhe and thrash about with its tail as it twisted itself over into its proper position, in a way that was startling.
“Now, Master George, we’ve got him. I’ll keep him from running back into his hole; you go and get the rope.”
I could not stir for a few moments, but stood watching, as I saw Morgan raise up the pole, and bring it down bang across the alligator’s back, but without doing it the slightest injury, for the end struck a half-rotten log, and the pole snapped off a yard above Morgan’s hands.
“Never mind! I’ll keep him back,” roared Morgan, as the reptile kept facing him, and half turning to strike at him with its tail. “Quick, lad! The rope—the rope!”
I started off at once, and picked up the rope with its noose all ready, and then seized my pole as well, too much excited now to think of being afraid. Then I trotted back to Morgan just as he was having a fierce fight with the creature, which kept on snapping and turning at him in a way that, to say the least, was alarming.
“Ah, would you!” Morgan kept crying, as the brute snapped at him, and he presented the broken pole, upon which the reptile’s teeth closed, giving the wood a savage shake which nearly wrenched it out of Morgan’s hands; but he held on, and had all his work to do to avoid the tangled growth and the blows of the creature’s tail.
“That’s it, Master George. Now quick: drop that rope, and next time he opens his pretty mouth give him the pole. Aren’t afraid of him, are you?”
I did not answer.
I did not want to answer just then, but I did exactly as I was told, dropping the rope and standing ready with my pole on one side, so as to thrust it into the brute’s mouth.
I did not have long to wait for my opportunity, and it was not the alligator’s fault that he did not get right hold, for through nervousness, I suppose, I thrust short, and the jaws came together with an ugly snap that was startling.
“Never mind; try again; quick, my lad, or he’ll get away back to the hole.”
To prevent this Morgan made a rush, and gave the brute a sounding thwack with his broken pole, sufficiently hard to make it turn in another direction, when, thoroughly excited now, I made a poke at it with the pole, and it snapped at it viciously.
I made another and another, and then the teeth closed upon the end, and the pole quivered in my grasp.
“Well done! Brave lad!” shouted Morgan, for he did not know I was all of a tremble. “That’s the way; hold on, and keep him thinking about you just a moment. Pull! Let go! Pull again!”
As he gave me these directions, he got the end of the pole from me for a moment so as to pass the noose of the rope he had picked up over it, and then once more shouting to me to pull, he boldly ran the wide noose down over the pole; and as the brute saw him so near, it loosed its hold to make a fierce snap; but Morgan was too quick for the creature, and leaped away with a shout of triumph, tightening the rope, which was right round the reptile’s neck, and running and passing the other end about a tree.
“Got him now,” panted Morgan, as the alligator thrashed at the rope with its tail, and tugged and strained with all its might, but of course only tightening the noose with every effort.
“Yes,” I said, breathlessly, as I stood now well out of danger; “we’ve got him now.”
“Yes, we’ve got him now,” said Morgan again, as we made the end of the rope fast to a branch. “That would hold one twice as big. Let’s see; ’bout how long is he?”
“Seven feet,” I said, making a rapid guess.
“Well,” said Morgan, in a slow, hesitating way; “here, hi! Keep your tail still, will you, while you’re being measured.”
But the reptile seemed to thrash all the harder, dragging the noose tight, and flogging at the rope in a way which promised, if time enough was given, to wear it through.
“Oh, well, if you won’t, I must guess. Yes, sir, he’s quite seven feet long—nearer eight; but he must be pretty young, for he’s a lean, lizardly-looking brute. Not nice things to tackle, are they? Look ye here at the marks of his teeth.”
As he said this, Morgan held up his broken pole, first one piece then the other. “I say, Master George, he can nip. If that had been your leg or my arm, we should have wanted a bit or two of sticking-plaster, even if we hadn’t had the bone cracked in two.”
“It’s a horribly ugly brute,” I said, as I approached it a little nearer, and examined it by the warm ruddy glow which shone down here and there into the gloomy swamp forest.
“Yes; his mother ought to be very proud of him,” said Morgan, laughing; “wonder what his brothers and sisters are like. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
“What are you laughing at?” I said.
“I was only thinking, Master George. The idea of me coming out of Carnarvonshire across the sea to find things like that!”
“Yes; it’s different to home,” I said.
“This is home,” replied Morgan, stolidly—“home now. I’ve set and tended many a lot of eggs; but I say, Master George, only think of a thing like that coming out of a new-laid egg. Do rattlesnakes!”
I could not help smiling at the idea, but my face felt strange, and there was a twitching about my temples as the last words fell upon my ears.
“Halloa! What’s the matter, lad?”
“You—you said rattlesnakes,” I whispered hoarsely.
“Well, what of it? This is ’gator country. Rattlesnakes, they tell me, likes the high, dry, hot, stony places.”
“Yes—father said so,” I replied in a whisper, as I looked cautiously round.
“Well then, what are you looking for?”
“Indians,” I whispered, for I had recalled how the savages had surrounded us while our attention was taken up by the last noxious creature we had attacked.
At my words Morgan made a bound, and then began to move past a tree. But he stopped short, and returned to my side, looking wildly round the while.
“See ’em—see any of ’em?” he whispered.
“No; but suppose they have stolen upon us again as they did before!”
“Yah! What do you mean by frightening a man? I teclare to cootness it’s too bad of you, Master George.”
I smiled once more, for Morgan’s speech had sounded very droll and Welsh, as it often was when he grew excited.
“You tit it to scare me,” he said, angrily.
“Indeed, no.”
“Yes, inteet,” he said; “and look you—I say, Master George, was it meant for a choke?”
“Indeed, no, Morgan; I really felt startled.”
“Then it’s all right,” he said. “There’s none of ’em here, so let’s get home.”
“But what are you going to do with the alligator?”
“Eh? Oh, I never thought of that. I wanted to catch him so that you might have a bit of fun.”
“But now we have caught him?”
“Well, dunno, my lad. Might take him home and chain him up. Turn down a barrel to make him a kennel; he can bark.”
“Oh, nonsense! We can’t do that.”
“He’s no good to eat, though they say the savages eat ’em. Here, I know; let’s take him home, and ask master what’s to be done with him.”
“Take him home?” I faltered.
“Ay, to be sure. I’ll lead him by the string, and you can come behind and give him a poke with the pole when he won’t go. Ought by rights to have two ropes, like they do at home with a vicious cow; then when he ran at me, you could pull; and when he ran at you, I could pull him back.”
“But we haven’t two ropes. That isn’t long enough to cut, and I can’t stop him if he runs at you.”
“Might pull his tail,” said Morgan.
“Ugh!” I ejaculated, as I recalled the use the creature could make of it, giving blows that I knew would knock me off my feet.
“Well then, I tell you what; let’s leave him tied up as he is, and get back. The master will be wondering where we are, and fancying all sorts of trouble.”
“Seems cruel,” I said. “The creature will be strangled.”
“Not he. If he does, he’ll strangle himself. I never feel very merciful to things that go about doing all the harm they can as long as they live. Say, shall I kill him at once?”
“No; let’s leave him, and see what my father says.”
Morgan examined the knot he had made, and then started away, for the reptile made a lash at him with its tail, and in retort he took out his big-bladed knife, opened it, and held it out threateningly.
“It’s all very well, look you,” he said; “but if you’d hit me with that tail of yours, I’d have had it off as sure as you’re alive.”
It was Morgan’s farewell to the alligator as we turned off with our poles, broken and sound, and hurried back to find my father with a gun over his arm, fast coming in search of us.