Nora Sayers and the excited, chattering brown children rejoined them, and presently their noon meal was ready. Barnes sent up a call, which was answered from the depths of the green jungle, but the meal was half over when Li Fu and Hi John appeared. They were hot and bedraggled, but exultantly produced two admirable spars of bamboo, each of the right size, for mast and sprit.
Nora Sayers, energetic and vigorous despite the heat, went exploring and announced the discovery of a little cove, just around a sandy point. So, taking the children, she and Ellen Maggs presently departed thither, and the joyful shrieks of splashing youngsters soon echoed through the lagoon.
Jim Barnes lighted his pipe and fell to work on the spars, at which the quartermasters joined him after their meal. It was no light job, since he was determined to have everything shipshape for the proper handling of the boat, and the sheath-knives made slow work of the fibrous bamboo. It was an hour before the mast was stepped and rigged to his satisfaction. Then he enjoyed a quick dip, and was dressed again when the others returned. The Chinese went in search of crabs, to vary their diet.
The two women found Barnes sitting on the sand, his pipe alight and a frown on his face, as he studied the opposite shore of the lagoon.
"Are you all ready to get off?" asked Nora.
"Ready and waiting." Barnes grinned cheerfully. "Look at the channel over there, by which we came in. Notice anything funny about it?"
Both women looked, perplexed, but could find no explanation of his words. Barnes pointed to the sand about the bow of the boat.
"There's the answer, girls. Tide! It must have been on the ebb when we got here. Now she's gone down, and there isn't three inches of water over the bar. We're stuck until about five o'clock, that's all! I'm taking no chances with a thin-skinned whaleboat."
"We can't get out, then?" queried Ellen Maggs.
"Right. We can fish and sew and smoke and talk, and hunt crabs, but we can't leave. By four or five o'clock we may scrape over. Why worry? We're a lot better off than we might have been. Not often you strike a sand beach along these mangrove swamps, I can tell you! We'll stretch the spare sail as an awning for the kids and let 'em sleep."
Using the broken spars, and Nora Sayers aiding him, he stretched the canvas from the side of the boat and the three children were soon asleep in the shade. Retiring to the edge of the trees, the three awaited the return of the quartermasters. Barnes sighed luxuriously.
"Golly! This is the first vacation I've had in a long while. Hope you girls won't lose your jobs if you don't get back to China on schedule?"
"I guess not," said Ellen Maggs. "What brought you on that awful ship, Mr. Barnes?"
Barnes gave her a look of whimsical reproach.
"Now, now, I'm surprised at you! My name isn't Mister—it's Jim! Make believe we're on a desert isle, can't you?"
Ellen Maggs blushed faintly, but her eyes were sparkling when she responded.
"All right—Jim! Now what brought you on that ship?"
"Fate," said Jim Barnes, grinning. "Do you girls remember that morning you came into the consul's office in Hong Kong?"
Both women glanced at him, surprised.
"Were you there?" demanded Nora Sayers. "We didn't see you?".
"I was there when you left, after talking with the consul about theSulu Queen" he responded. "You were too excited to notice me, though. The consul's a good sport. He knew the old hooker was no ship for me, but he said you girls were stubborn and were going to take the trip aboard her——"
"The rates," put in Ellen Maggs meekly, "were half what the other steamers wanted."
"Sure. So's the pay they offered me. 'You go along on that houseboat of corruption, Barnes,' the consul said. 'She needs a second, and there ought to be one white man aboard her if those fool girls are determined to sail.' So, having seen you girls, I agreed with him—and here we are! And believe me, I'm tickled to death that I shipped aboard her."
"So am I," said Nora Sayers laughing frankly. Ellen Maggs said nothing at all, but Barnes caught a look from her eyes that set his pulses leaping.
Li Fu and Hi John returned with a mighty loot of crabs and sea-slugs garnered from the outer reef, and reported that no sail was in sight, nor was any trail of smoke along the horizon. While the women shudderingly eyed the hideous slugs and the children poked at them with sticks, Barnes got a fire going from dry driftwood and the crab-meat was cooked. The two Chinese squatted over another fire and prepared the slugs after their own fashion.
The repast was flavored with curiosity rather than hunger. By the time it was done, Nora Sayers announced the hour as nearly four. Jim Barnes glanced out at the bar, and nodded. The tide was creeping in.
"All aboard! We'll try it, anyhow. Unship the tiller, Li! She steers and handles much better with the oar."
Thankful to escape from the unstirred, stagnant heat of the lagoon, the women and children were aided into the boat after it had been shoved clear. Barnes took the stern; the quartermasters ran her out and leaped aboard, getting out oars.
"Wind's going down outside," announced Barnes, as they neared the opening. "We'll keep along the coast during the night, however, and with morning ought to run into some native fishing boats. We can soon find where the nearest Dutch post is located. Here we are, now! In oars, men! Stand by the centreboard, John. Li Fu, take care of the sheets!"
The boat's keel touched the mud of the bar lightly, very lightly, and then was over. There had been surf in the morning, but now it was gone, except for a line of breakers fifty feet away. The sails caught the breeze, the boat heeled over, and a moment later Barnes luffed and drove her through the surf, to fall away on the other tack and head out to the southward.
Then, as he stood watching the sails, his eyes widened. Before him, seemingly without cause, had appeared a little round hole in the mainsail. An instant later the crack of a rifle came on the wind. He turned, as a shout broke from Li Fu, and perceived what none of them had observed in the moment of getting through the surf.
Half a mile to the north along the mangrove reef was the same junk they had encountered earlier in the day; and, between her and them, bearing down upon them and booming along with the breeze, were three ship's boats with canvas set.
"Our boats!" cried Jim Barnes. "They sank the ship and came along in the boats. Down, everybody! John, get those water breakers aft to trim ship. Down!"
Another rifle-crack emphasized his words, and then the sharp song of the bullet whining overhead, followed by a chorus of yells from the three boats.
Barnes stood at the steering oar, holding the long ash deep and giving the whaleboat every ounce of windage that would drive her forward. Shot after shot rang out from the pursuing boats, which were filled with men.
He could picture well enough what had happened. Lim Tock, unable to repair the smashed engines of theSulu Queen, had sunk her. Into the boats had piled the lascars and the yellow men, with their loot and opium, and started for the coast. They must have met the junk during the day, put the loot aboard her, heard of the whaleboat, and had come to seek her. Lim Tock would not dare to let her escape to carry tales.
"And now they've found us right enough!" he thought. "Caught us, confound it! If they didn't have rifles, I'd run out to sea and fight 'em with seamanship. Those lascars can't begin to handle whaleboats. If we only had a good mile between us! But the wind's falling. It'll die out, and won't come up again until after sunset. And by that time they'll crawl up on us with the oars. Damn it!"
The bullets droned overhead. One man at a time seemed to be firing until his magazine emptied. There were good shots among the pursuers, too; several holes were visible in the mainsail, and twice Barnes had felt hot lead come close. It dawned upon him that they were firing at his figure.
"Are we beating them?" called Nora Sayers.
"No," said Barnes grimly. In his appraisal he found the case hopeless, desperate; and he put it bluntly enough, explaining that the oarsmen aboard the pursuing boats, and the calm that was certain to fall, insured their being overtaken. The Chinese listened calmly, with clear understanding; the two women comprehending well enough, but urging him desperately with their eyes.
The whaleboat was reaching out on the starboard tack, as she had left the lagoon opening. The land fell away to the southwest, so that she was standing practically out to sea while running almost before the wind.
"We'll have to run for the land, and do it quick," said Barnes. "We don't dare to tack; we'll have to wear. The breeze is still pretty fresh, and they're apparently badly out of trim; good! Now you'll see some fun, girls. I'll bet a trade dollar that one of 'em gets spilled. Nora, come a bit aft and sit on the lee thwart—that's right. Revolvers loaded, men?"
The quartermasters answered with a nod. Barnes commanded Li Fu to stand by the fore sheet and, when the helm was put up, to empty his weapon at the nearest of the three boats.
"You take charge of the main sheet, John. Those lascars will imitate us, and we'll give 'em something to imitate, or I'm a Dutchman! All right, John—slack away, roundly! Haul in—haul in! Let her gybe, now—smart does it! Ease away, now——"
The staccato reports of Li Fu's revolver cracked emptily down the wind. The boat went off before the wind, and the mainsail was hauled in and gybed dangerously, then was eased away as she paid off on the new tack. Li Fu, dropping his weapon, handled the fore sheet smartly to meet her by the wind.
A jubilant yell broke from Barnes as he glanced backward. The foremost pursuer, confused by Li Fu's bullets, tried to wear hastily and suddenly. Her mainsail hauled around in a terrific jibe that sent her flat over. Heads dotted the water about the craft, but the other two boats managed the trick safely and stood away without halting to pick up their companions. A renewed rifle-fire opened from them.
"Fire and be damned to you!" shouted Barnes in delight. "If I had you out at sea and the wind steady, I'd show you tricks, you dogs! That's one of you gone, and the junk will be delayed picking up——"
The words seemed suddenly checked on his lips; a grunt broke from him, an abrupt ejaculation of surprise and almost alarm. The occasion of it did not appear.
"Can either of you men steer with the oar?" he demanded.
Li Fu shook his head. Hi John assented with a nod, and Barnes beckoned him. Picking his way aft, Hi John took over the oar.
"You see that point dead ahead, with what seems to be a river-mouth on the other side? Head for it, or a couple of points to starboard of it to allow for leeway. And make the river, John—good man——"
Barnes spoke jerkily. For an instant he changed countenance; an expression of agony leaped across his face. He started forward. A cry broke from Ellen Maggs.
"Catch him, Li Fu!"
But Jim Barnes sank down on the thwart beside Nora Sayers, and, smiling a little, reached up one of his automatics to Li Fu.
"Here, Li! Go aft to keep her trimmed, and let 'em have it. Fire low; those bullets will smash through the boat."
Li Fu stepped past him. Barnes, disregarding the hand of Nora Sayers, lifted himself forward a little and dropped near the bow thwart, beside Ellen Maggs. The three children were up in the bow, chattering away and delighted with the chase.
"You're hurt?" cried Ellen Maggs, leaning toward Barnes. He laughed lightly, though his lips were graying, as he looked into her eyes.
"Aye. Nora, pass up that little black medicine chest, will you? It's stowed under your thwart, I think, with the lantern and other stuff that was in the boat. Does either of you girls know anything about surgery?"
"I do," said Ellen Maggs. Her cheeks were very white, her eyes large. "Only a little——"
Barnes put his hand under his shirt and examined his side gingerly. Then, with a grimace, he wriggled out of his jacket. He took the sheath-knife which Li Fu tossed forward on demand, and cut at the right side of his shirt. Nora Sayers, her face drawn and anxious, would have come with the medicine case, but Barnes checked her.
"Stay where you are, Nora. We're fighting to reach land ahead of those devils, and every bit of trim to the boat counts a lot. Throw it; that's right. Now Ellen, the bullet went in under the right arm and is bulging out the skin here on my right side. Cut the skin and it'll pop out. I'm not left-handed or I could do it. Then douse on plenty of iodine fore and aft, and clap on some kind of a bandage."
He lay back and threw up his arms, gripping the corks outside the gunwale, and so lay motionless, waiting. The girl leaned forward, her lips clenched.
"Don't worry; it won't hurt," he said easily. "You, Li Fu! Open up. Are they gaining on us, or holding steady?"
"Plenty steady," responded the quartermaster. At the next wave-crest he fired.
His feet braced, Barnes lay motionless, and a smile crept to his pallid lips as he noted the deft certainty with which the girl attacked her task. Twice she started to cut, and flinched; then, desperately, she set the keen steel to the white skin. In five seconds it was done. The bullet fell from her reddened fingers and bounced on the thin sheathing.
"Steady, steady!" said Barnes quietly, seeing her lips quiver. "Now the smelly stuff and the bandages, girl." A sudden exclamation from the Chinese made him glance up. "What is it, men? What is it?"
"That last shot plenty damn good; first-chop!" responded Li Fu, staring out. "Hai! Catchum bottomside one time!"
"Fine work!" cried Barnes. "That's two out of the race. Ripped through her sheathing, eh? Anybody hurt?"
"My no can see—catchum one damn coolie, mebbeso. Bail like hellee!"
"Good! Do the same to the other boat if you can."
"Can do," asserted Li Fu confidently, but he failed to make good his promise. The one shot that caused one of the two pursuers to limp behind was doubtless sheer luck.
"Turn over, please," came the voice of Ellen Maggs.
Barnes obeyed. The girl caught her breath as his blood-soaked back was revealed, while Nora Sayers leaned forward and directed her, aiding as best she could.
"How's the wind?" demanded Barnes, while the bandage was being wrapped in place.
"Go down plenty quick," responded Li Fu, examining the empty weapon. "No can do. I think Lim Tock in this boat. Plenty joss."
"Huh! Joss won't save him if I get a good crack at the devil," commented Barnes, as he lay face-down. "Going to make the river, John?"
"Aye. Can do."
"It's done," said Ellen Maggs, her voice very faint.
Barnes lifted himself stiffly and sat up. He saw the girl smile tremulously. Then her face went ashen and she dropped back against the lee gunwale and lay quiet. Barnes looked up at Nora Sayers.
"Leave her be," he said quietly. "Poor girl! Must have been hell for her."
"It was," agreed Nora Sayers, regarding him almost savagely. "Why didn't you let me do it? She wasn't made for that sort of thing, although she's a wonderful surgical assistant. I saw her faint twice, one morning at Tientsin, when they were working on the wounded men. She ought to be cooking and tending babies, instead of messing around blood and wounds!"
"Good lord, don't take it out on me!" said Barnes, and smiled a little. "I didn't send her out to China, did I? But it won't be my fault if she ever goes back, I can tell you that! Come on, swap places with me and mother her a bit. I've got to see what's doing. We've got a darned slim chance even if we do get ashore, and we can't overlook any bets."
He dragged himself painfully to the thwart, Nora Sayers aiding him. Then, as he sat up, she took the head of Ellen Maggs in her lap.
To his infinite relief, Barnes perceived that they were more than holding their own in the chase, and, if the wind had held, might have run for it successfully. But the wind would not hold. Already it was dying out. Looking back, he could see the brown matting sails of the junk flapping idly as she lay to, picking up the men from the capsized boat. The second boat, half submerged, was heading back for her.
Only the third boat held on its course. As nearly as Barnes could tell, there were a dozen men aboard her, but without glasses he could not distinguish figures to the extent of identifying them. He took the empty weapon from Li Fu and began to reload.
"None too many cartridges left; we didn't figure on a little war," he commented, and turned his attention to the shore.
A breath of relief escaped him. The shore was a scant quarter-mile away, and the wind would get them to it. Hi John had made the promontory, a low, mangrove-rimmed tongue of land, and was heading toward the river-mouth which had disclosed itself beyond. The stream was one of some size, thickly girt by trees and jungle.
A single line of surf, breaking across the bar, was divided by a small, narrow island of white sand, where a few trees struggled. With extra high tides the island would be covered, Barnes decided, but not at present.
"Right-hand channel, John," he directed. "Then beach her on that island. If we don't get that boat stopped, she'll do for us; but we can stop her. Ellen waked up yet?"
"Not yet," said Nora Sayers.
"Then leave her alone. The next ten minutes tells the tale. Give me that gun of hers."
The girl obeyed. A shrill cry from Hi John heralded the surf-line, and as the boat rose to it, the sail began to flap. The wind was down.
Sunset was at hand. The red ball of the sun, blurred out of rotundity by the haze, hovered at the purple rim of the western mountains as though hesitating to depart.
The boat was through the surf, carried forward by the white crest in a surging rush. A last puff of wind filled her sails and gave her way enough to get over the bar and go in upon the sandy shore of the islet. Here the trees and brush, while nothing like the tangled mass of jungle ashore, were thick enough to afford concealment. This was not the aim of Barnes, however.
"Haul her up, lads!" To his order the quartermasters leaped out. "You girls stay here and keep the kids quiet. If they have the nerve to rush, we're gone; but they won't. Here, John, give me a hand! Quick!"
He was helped ashore, finding himself very weak but clear-headed. Each of the Chinese had a revolver. Barnes had two automatics and the one belonging to Ellen. He gave his directions swiftly, and the two men darted into the brush. Barnes leaned against the nearest tree and waited, watching the canvas of the pursuing boat come flying in with the last dregs of the breeze.
At last she came, rising on the gathering surge of the breaking surf, bow flinging high, steersman standing at the straining, oar in the stern. As she lifted against the flaming sky, Barnes threw up his automatic and fired. The oarsman crumpled up. From three points the islet spat bullets at the nearing boat, sweeping her with the hot lead.
By some miracle, the expected did not happen. Instead of capsizing, the boat swept in on the surf, and paused. A rifle spat response vainly. Men were tumbling, falling over the thwarts, shrieking and yelling oaths. The figure of Lim Tock, in the bow, staggered and went down, but his voice pierced through the din continually.
An oar was put out, and another. Of the dozen men aboard her, not half survived that blasting welcome. Revolvers and pistols had been emptied. Frantically the gasping men got the boat headed around to meet the surf. Two more oars jabbed out. Barnes lifted Ellen Maggs' pistol and shot with deliberate aim. Two of the oarsmen sprawled down. Somehow the boat crawled out again, in an interval of the surf, and began to draw away. Barnes, disappointed and raging, emptied his last bullets at her. For a while she floated there, until the oars bit at the water and pulled her slowly away.
"Damn it!" said Barnes bitterly, as the quartermasters came back, reloading. "Came within an ace of capsizing him; came within an ace of getting him and bagging his rifles! And missed. Now we've lost the whole trick after all."
"Plenty joss along Lim Tock," commented Hi John.
Barnes wearily turned to the boat and seated himself on the gunwale, while at his order the two men unshipped the spars and canvas. Ellen Maggs still lay unconscious, her head in the lap of Nora Sayers, who, was looking up at Barnes with glad eyes.
"We've won? You beat them off?"
Barnes mechanically felt for his pipe, filled it, and held a match to it.
"No," he said, his voice bitter. "We'd have won if we'd got their rifles and killed that devil, Lim Tock. We only drove him off—and we've lost, absolutely. Leave the spars here ashore, John; put the canvas aboard—that's right. Lay her on the canvas, Nora, and take it easy. You'll need the sails for a covering against the night-mist."
When she had made the unconscious girl comfortable with the canvas, Nora Sayers rose and stepped ashore, where the three children were already ranging happily.
"What do you mean?" she demanded. "How have we lost?"
Barnes jerked his pipe to seaward.
"They're bound to silence us at all costs, aren't they? Sure. They've plenty of men aboard the junk and those other boats. It'll probably remain calm until sunrise, now, and we can't possibly get to sea. We can use only two oars. The inference is obvious."
She could not mistake it, and nodded slowly. Barnes turned to the two Chinese.
"Any idea where we are, John?"
Hi John nodded, and squatted in the sand with a stick. In the sand he drew several converging lines, designed to represent the delta and mouths of a large river. He pointed to one, then indicated the river beside them.
"I think Bulungan River," he said. "We go up, bimeby we come topside. Big river."
"You may be right, John—and look here! There's a Dutch post somewhere up the Bulungan——"
"Two," said the quartermaster. "Plenty big river, topside."
Barnes looked at the recumbent figure of Ellen Maggs in the boat, looked at the three children playing in the sand. In the warm, clear light of the sunset, the perplexed frown of his face was plain to be seen. He looked anxious, yet his blue eyes were stormy and filled with a passionate anger as though he were rebelling against something that he saw was unavoidable. He came to his feet and paused.
"Dutch posts?" cried Nora Sayers eagerly. "Then we can row up the river!"
Barnes looked at her, and under the regard of his eyes she fell silent.
"Yes, you can," he said. "Sure. And so can those devils, unless there's something right here to stop 'em! Besides, it's a long chance. We don't know for sure that it's the Bulungan River, or one of the mouths. That's the devil of destiny; it never gives a man a fair show for his white alley! The cards are stacked every time."
He glanced at the sky. There was yet half an hour of daylight, for the sun was down behind the western mountains of Borneo, and the afterglow would linger for a while.
"You mean," questioned the girl, "that they can row so much faster than we can?"
"Exactly. A dozen oars to our two. The Dutch posts, if they're here, are probably miles up-river. They are trading posts, you know, in touch with the natives. We might hide somewhere along the river, only to die slowly. Lim Tock will search every inch of the stream, you may be sure. His own life depends on it."
"If we could get a messenger up the river——"
"Yes," said Barnes, and laughed. Nora Sayers bit her lip.
For a moment he puffed at his pipe, then drew a deep breath and beckoned the two quartermasters. They came, watching his face calmly, without emotion.
"You men will take this boat and row up the stream," he said quietly. "I confide to your care these two women, and these children. You are to protect them at all costs. This is——"
"But—wait!" exclaimed Nora Sayers in dismay.
"Shut up!" snapped Barnes. "Now, men, this is your duty. They must be taken up to the Dutch post, wherever it is. It means you must row most of the night, understand? I shall remain here and stop Lim Tock's men. I'm no good for rowing—and I can do that. Now, do you understand?"
"My savvy. Aye," they responded together.
"Good. Get to work and lighten the boat, then."
Barnes put his pipe between his teeth and stepped toward the trees. He found himself halted, the girl's hand on his arm. He turned, and was astonished by the emotion that was in her face and eyes.
"Please!" she said brokenly. "You must not do this. You must not deliberately sacrifice yourself——"
"Cut it out, will you?" he roughly intervened. "I know what must be done here, Nora. I'm not making any grandstand play, either. I can hold 'em up, and you can send down a Dutch launch with a gun in her. They have 'em with machine-guns and pom-poms. One o' their launches could sink that blamed junk in a jiffy! They'll come quick enough, too! Believe me, those Dutchmen like nothing better than wiping out pirates, unless it's wiping out plague-ships. They do both jobs up brown."
"Stop evading, please," she broke in. "Why are you doing this? Why don't you leave one of those Chinese here, and go with us?"
The face of Barnes twisted wryly.
"Gosh, I wish that I could!" he said almost wistfully. "Nope. Whoever stays here will have a sweet time of it. Besides, I'm good for nothing else. Those quartermasters are darned fine men, Nora; they'll see you through safe. You've got to realize that we're up against a desperate affair, and no half-way measures will serve!"
She stared into his eyes for a moment.
"Is it for the children that you're doing it?" she asked. "They aren't worth it, I tell you! Three Arab children—they aren't worth the loss of a man like you!"
"You know better, girl," he said quietly, and she shivered.
"Is it—us? Is it for her? Then, do you think she'd want to leave you? Do you think she'd want to live and know that you had died here——"
"Shut up; you'll be hysterical if you keep up this gait," interrupted Barnes. "Now, young lady, you can gamble good and hard that I don't want to stay here! Not much. If there was any way out of it, I wouldn't. I'm not hankering for a martyr's crown or any of that hero stuff, not for a minute! I'm for keeping Jim Barnes topside every time. It hurts like hell to realize that there's no other way out. But here are you girls, and the kids, and somebody has to wait here. See? It just has to be done, that's all."
"Then—then you don't believe that—we can reach the post in time?"
"Well, anything's possible," said Barnes dryly. "Sure, there's a chance! Now, I want you to get off before Ellen wakes up, see? Let her sleep as long as she will; this faint of hers is liable to go into sleep."
Meantime, the two quartermasters, while lightening the boat of everything except food and a breaker of water, had been drinking in what they could understand of this conversation. Their work finished, they stood by the bow of the boat and looked at each other for a moment, silent. At length Li Fu spoke, impassively, unconcerned.
"To the superior man, duty is as a clear star shining in the night."
"So it is written," agreed Hi John. "Give me your revolver and cartridges."
"Haste treads upon the tail of a tiger," dissented Li Fu reflectively. "Here is the revolver. Let us see to whom the gods assign it. Shall a white man be braver than we?"
"Very well."
Li Fu tossed his revolver in the air. It spun, end over end, and spinning, fell down into the sand. The butt fell toward Li Fu, who stooped and picked it up.
"Now give me yours," he said.
Hi John obeyed without protest, passing over his revolver and what spare cartridges he had in his pockets. Then he turned and walked to Barnes and Nora Sayers, who had watched this scene curiously. He addressed the girl.
"Missee, I think mebbeso you can row plenty good?"
"Of course!" she exclaimed. "Of course I can!"
"Then you row along me," said Hi John. "Li Fu, he stop here."
Barnes growled something under his breath, and walked over to Li Fu.
"What's this mean?" he demanded. "You get in that boat and row, d'you understand?"
Li Fu regarded him placidly, without emotion, his yellow features very composed.
"You go hellee," he said, and then grinned. "My stop along you. Savvy? Missee plenty stlong, use oar plenty good! You go hellee."
What he saw in those calm eyes checked the words on the lips of Barnes. He turned and went to the boat, and waded out along the gunwale until he was beside the figure of Ellen Maggs. With an effort, he stooped and touched his lips to her still cheek.
"Good-by, girl!" he whispered, and then straightened. "Get the kids, Nora! Come on, pile in; time to get off! Get as far as you can before it gets dark. Wrap a cloth about your hands, too; they'll be blistered quick enough."
Collecting the children, Nora Sayers got into the boat. She held out her hand to Barnes, who gripped it and smiled cheerfully.
"Good-by," she said, her voice breaking. "I wish you'd let me wake her up! She'd want to say—
"She'd say I needed a shave damn bad," and Barnes chuckled as he made reply. "You settle down on this thwart. All ready, men? Shove off. Good luck to you, Nora! Wrap your hands, now, before you get started. See you later!"
The boat glided out, Hi John scrambling aboard as she cleared the sand. Nora Sayers tried to answer, but could not. Barnes stood beside Li Fu and waved his hand.
The boat slowly drew up-river under the pull of the two oars and vanished around the head of the islet.
"Watch and watch, Li Fu," said Barnes, when night settled down on the islet, the river-mouth and the booming surf. "I'm done in. Wake me at midnight; they'll not come until then."
"Not then, I think," said Li Fu. "China boys not like night devils. Plenty devils in liver."
"All right," Barnes laughed as he stretched out in the warm sand. "Let the river-devils fight for us, then!"
About midnight the quartermaster wakened him. There had been no alarm, no sound or sight of the enemy. Only the continuous rolling crash of the surf, regular and unceasing, conflicted with the noises of nightbirds from the jungle. The starlight and thin glow of the sickle moon faintly illumined the white sands and the glittering waters, where the waves curled and broke in running lines of phosphorescent radiance.
At first Barnes found Li Fu's conviction incredible. It was hard to believe that Lim Tock's lascars and Chinese, the latter probably predominating, would relinquish the opportunity to sweep in upon the islet with their boats and finish everything with one determined rush. The Chinese firmly credited the existence of water-devils, however, and river-devils in particular, whose power at night was invincible.
Barnes sat through his lonely watch, stiff and aching from his wound, and found no indication of alarm out on the surging waters, where a heavy ground-swell kept the rollers tumbling in along the shoreline. He began to think that he had wasted himself, despite all. Had he stayed in the boat, it by this time would be far up the river.
He laughed and shook off the thought. After all, he had no assurance of that! The boat, with only two oars, might be a day or two in reaching the main river above the delta, where the Dutch post would be placed. With dawn, the pirates would sweep down on the island. If they found it deserted, they would go up the river with a rush. No, the effort was not wasted; was far from wasted!
Toward dawn he roused Li Fu, and lay down once more to get all the rest possible. When the quartermaster again wakened him, it was to point out dark dots on the waters, now overcast with the graying dawn. The boats, four of them, were scattered a quarter-mile from the river mouth, up and down from the bar. Jim Barnes laughed softly.
"They think we'll come out with the first breath o' wind; that we've been waiting here for the breeze! And they're waiting to riddle us with their rifles, then close in. Good! Let 'em wait. Every minute gained puts the whaleboats farther up the river. Suppose we make some tea, Li Fu. The fire will show that we're here and encourage 'em to wait."
Chuckling at all this, Li Fu gathered wood and soon had a fire going. Hot tea and biscuit invigorated Barnes hugely, and he was much himself again by the time the reddening dawn and freshening daylight betrayed to the waiting boats that the fugitives were not setting forth from shore. No doubt they considered that Barnes had laid up the whaleboat and was prepared to fight it out.
"They're closing in," said Barnes suddenly. "Oars are out. The junk is coming down the coast, too. She'll probably anchor off the river, and they'll pour in a hot rifle-fire before making a rush. Dig for cover, Li!"
Grasping the idea, Li Fu took his knife to the sand and prepared two long, deep depressions at the edge of the brush.
Meantime, one of the boats drew in closer than the others as though to test the presence of those on the islet. Barnes sighed unavailingly for a rifle, as his pistols were of small value at such distance. He tried two shots, however, and by sheer luck dropped the boat's helmsman, so that she sheered off promptly. The boats opened a dropping rifle-fire, and Barnes retired to the position prepared. Lying beside Li Fu, he waited. He had three automatics and several spare clips. The quartermaster had two revolvers and a handful of loose cartridges.
Under the urge of the ground-swell, surf was now breaking in a heavy line at the bar, an outer line of breakers stretching twenty yards farther seaward. While the boats kept up their intermittent fire, bullets crashing across the island, the junk came slowly along with the morning breeze. Outside the first line of surf she dropped anchor and hauled down the brown matting sails, and the boats converged upon her. Streamers and fingers of flame were reaching across the whole eastern sky.
"Plenty of men aboard her," said Barnes. "They'll crowd into the boats and pull for us. Catch the first boat as she rises, Li, like we did last night. If one of them goes over in that surf, not a man will reach shore. Good gosh, look at her rise up! They're fools if they try it."
To the two men lying on the sandy islet, the surf promised indeed to be an excellent protection. The roaring breakers swept on and hurled up into a great wall of white and crimson spray, against the sunrise, a ten-foot wall of curling, foaming water whose impact as it came down made the islet shake and sent a booming roar echoing along the coast. The tide was coming in, and there was a strong rip along the bar.
Now the sun was up, in a gleaming splendor of golden glory.
As each glittering line of surf swept up and curled, it hid from sight the boats and all save the upper masts of the junk herself. Between the surges, the rifle-fire was maintained steadily, but Li Fu and Barnes were well protected against the ripping storm of lead that devastated the foliage above and ploughed the sand into ripples of dancing grains.
"They come," said Li Fu suddenly.
The next surf-interval showed a crowded boat leaving the junk. The craft damaged on the preceding evening by Hi John's bullet must have sunk, for it appeared that now there were but two whaleboats among the four approaching craft. One of those, however, would do the business, thought Jim Barnes grimly.
Covered by a hot fire from the rifles, the first boat reached in for the surf, her oars dipping strongly, the other boats following her. She was a bluff-jawed longboat belonging to the junk, dangerously crowded with men, and Barnes caught the flame of naked steel as she lifted on a crest. He thrilled to the possibility of sending her over as she struck the white wall to cleave a way through. Not a man would reach shore through the pounding maelstrom of those waters.
Thundering and shuddering, a long breaker smashed and swirled across the bar, and now the longboat dipped oars and gathered way to rise on the next crest and come over. A whirl of bullets heralded her coming. Then, as the riotous crest closed in and lifted her and the shots ceased, Barnes came to one knee. He had her position absolutely fixed, and aimed carefully, firing even before she came into sight.
She heaved and lifted, cleaving the water. Barnes fired again and again, hearing the bark of Li Fu's revolver at his side. A mad yell broke from the Chinese. Barnes lowered his arm and stared, wide-eyed.
That first shot of his, perhaps, had done the work; had sent a rower headlong at the crucial instant. At the very crest of the giant wave, the boat broached, was sent stern-first. A shriek burst from the score of men crowded into her, a fearful, splitting shriek that wrenched through the roar of the surf. Then she was picked up, hurled end over end from the crest of the wave, flung sideways, and went upside down beneath the terrific smash of that falling pinnacle of water.
A lather of foam spread out from the sweeping rush of the breaker, but not a man showed in it. They were held down, dragged out with the backlash, gripped and flung about with the mad swirl under the surface. The boat itself, a crushed and broken thing, came into sight, was tugged out and into the next surf-crest, to be whirled horribly aloft and buried again; but no man of all her crew appeared.
The whiff of a bullet made Barnes wake up, and he flung himself into the sand. Li Fu was yelling in an ecstasy of delight. Then, at the next interval, Barnes realized that the other boats were coming forward—two whale-boats, and a smaller craft.
"Lascars!" yelled Li Fu. "Plenty joss along Lim Tock!"
The Malays were rowing these boats; seamen unsurpassed. Well, this was the end of it; useless everything that had been done, once these boats came through. Barnes caught the arm of the yellow man.
"Empty one gun—then reload and wait. Savvy?"
Li Fu nodded hastily. The two whale-boats came on abreast, rowed with precision, a brown Malay at each steering crutch, the long oars rising and dipping and hurling her forward with absolute surety. Up they rose and up, then forward and down, as though leaping from that high curling wall into the water beyond!
Barnes found himself firing mechanically, firing until the hammer clicked on nothing and he slipped one of his extra clips into the weapon. Useless! A sudden inarticulate cry escaped his lips. The last bullet had brought down the steersman of the boat to the left. Almost through, she broached and swerved. The water swung her about, caught up her keel and spilled her men into the smother. She was sent rolling along, crushing the men beneath her, pounding on the sand until the undertow dragged her out and away.
But the other boat was through. It drove forward toward the islet with a wild yell lifting from the men aboard, and rifles spattering lead. And now the smaller boat was in the surf, and riding it.
"Back!" shouted Barnes. "Back to cover, Li! Fire and reload while I fire."
From the shelter of the brush, Li Fu emptied his two revolvers into the boat. He could hardly miss at this distance, as she came foaming to the shore. Barnes could see the figure of Lim Tock crouching amidships, a bandage about his head. Men went down, brown and yellow men crowded between her thwarts. Rifles and revolvers sent bullets hailing at the trees, and with the impetus that was upon her, she came in and her nose touched the beach.
Barnes was ready, cool, imperturbable. The first man that leaped from her, he dropped; and the second, and the third. Then the boat tipped, and brown and yellow came ashore in a mass, Lim Tock heading them. Krisses and knives flamed in the sunlight. The smaller boat was reaching into the shore now. The end was at hand.
Into the mass Barnes planted his bullets steadily. One gun was empty, now the other. No time to reload—he dropped them and seized that of Ellen Maggs. Only three or four men left, Lim Tock heading them! Then a new burst of yells, and from the last boat poured a dozen fresh assailants, with the serang Gajah at their head, his unhealed scalp wound red and ominous in the sunlight.
A scream of battle-madness burst from Li Fu. He leaped forward, out into the open, and ran at the newcomers. Pistols barked; krisses glittered. Barnes saw the quartermaster come to grips with Gajah, and the two men went rolling in the sand. Then, smiling, he lifted his weapon and shot.
Lim Tock took the bullet between the eyes, and sprawled forward. Barnes laughed, and shot again. Then he ducked back into the brush. An instant later, the brown and yellow men came on in a wave, mad with the battle fury, blind and deaf to everything around them, intent only upon the white man who had eluded them.
From among the trees the weapon of Barnes barked out its last shots.
The patrol launch belonging to the Bulungan River post, commanded by. Controleur Opdyke and manned by stalwart Achinese sepoys, sped swiftly down the northern branch of the mighty river. The controleur was highly nervous, for this navigation in the early dawn was an unaccustomed and perilous thing; further, the girl who stood beside him, and the tall Chinese at her elbow, were continually urging him to greater speed.
Then came the first gleams of sunrise, and the spattering of shots from below—and the prim, alert controleur needed no further urging. At his swift command the speed was increased, and the brown sepoys stripped the cover from the one-pounder up forward.
Rifles were brought up and loaded.
They burst into full view of the river-mouth just as the smaller boat came to the islet and poured forth her men and the wild charge forward was begun. Controleur Opdyke perceived instantly that he could not get through the surf to the junk. Being a man of distinct character, he did not hesitate. Two orders passed his lips. At the first, the gun crew threw in a shell and sighted; at the second, the rifles began to speak along the forward deck.
The little pom-pom barked, and the shell exploded above the junk. It barked again, and scored a hit. Again, and the junk reeled and staggered. Then the Achinese were leaping overboard and pouring ashore, and among them Hi John.
And after them, despite the imploring commands of the officer, Ellen Maggs.
Jim Barnes came face to face with her as he squirmed out of the brush and brushed the blood from his eyes. A kris had slithered athwart his scalp; for a moment he thought she was a vision, standing there in the fresh sunlight, her eyes fastened upon him, her hands outreaching. Then he heard her voice.
"Oh, Jim, Jim! If you had only known—it was barely five miles up to the post! And we were hours getting there. Thank God, you're alive!"
It was quite as a matter of course that Jim Barnes took her in his arms and held her close to him for a long moment. Speech came hard. There was everything to say, and nothing. Suddenly he realized that she was trembling.
"Oh, Jim! You'll have to help me. I—I told an awful lie——"
She was frightened, nervous, tearful, and yet a smile crept into her-blushing cheeks as she looked up into his eyes.
"Who to, me?" he asked, returning the smile.
"No. To—to the controleur. Controleur Updyke. He was terribly severe about it all. He wouldn't bring Nora, and he wasn't going to bring me——"
"What was the lie?" asked Barnes, puzzled.
Then he looked up to see the officer striding toward them. He realized abruptly that the little brown soldiers had been very busy all over the islet.
"Der junk hass sunk," said the controleur, taking off his helmet. "Diss iss Mynheer Parnes? I am pleassed to meet you, sir."
"Same to you," and Barnes grinned as he put out his hand. Even the primness of Opdyke could not meet that grin without an answering smile. "Controleur Opdyke? I'm sure much obliged to you. Just came along in time."
"Ja. I am glad. Your vrouw, Madame Parnes, she hurried us. Dat wass goot, too."
"Oh, so that's it!" Barnes laughed out suddenly, and caught Ellen Maggs to him. "You little rascal, you! Told him you were my wife, eh? Well, you will be as quick as it can be managed—won't you? Say yes!"
"Yes, Jim,"-she murmured.
Suddenly Barnes turned.
"Where's Li Fu?" he demanded. "That Chinese chap who stayed with me——"
"He iss badly hurt, but all right," said Opdyke, beginning to understand things a little. "Sir, dere must be reports made, und prisoners must be——"
"Forget it, forget it!" said Barnes, and laughed happily. "This is Miss Maggs, Controleur. She told you a lie. She's not my wife, but is going to be. Will you forgive her?"
Controleur Opdyke met the eyes of Ellen Maggs. Suddenly he smiled, and tendered her a very deep bow.
"Diss young man, he iss very lucky," he said. "Mejuffvrouw, shall I make you happy, yes? Den, dere iss a missionary at de post. Now, if you eggscuse me, I must look after dese t'ings."
He turned and walked stiffly away toward his men, who were rounding up sullen captives. But Jim Barnes looked-down into the shining eyes of the girl.
"Ellen! Remember that bungalow on the hill above Sausalito that I told you about? Do you really want it—and a husband who's a sailor and hasn't a lot o' money? Or would you sooner go back to China?"
A smile lightened in her face.
"I'm tired of China, Jim," she said.
Delightedly, Barnes caught her to him again and stooped to her lips. Then, with a happy laugh, he straightened up.
"Missionary at the post, eh? Hurray! Let's go!"
"Aye, aye, sir," she said obediently. "Go it is, sir—steady as she is!"
THE END