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Mass' George: A Boy's Adventures in the Old Savannah, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 34 |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR. It was a miserable scene upon which I gazed, in spite of its being a bright clear morning; but as I grasped where I was, and shook off the drowsy confusion, there was a feeling of thankfulness in my heart, for the dark night had passed away, and we had not been attacked by the Indians. But the moment I had felt more cheerful, down came a depressing cloud, as I remembered our row for life, our narrow escape, and the reflection of the fire I had seen. "Poor old house!" I sighed to myself, for it was so terrible that the beautiful little home should have been utterly destroyed; and it all seemed to come up before me with its high-pitched gable ends, the rough pine porch, the lead-paned windows that came over from England; and as I saw it all in imagination once more, I fancied how the passion-flowers and other creepers must have looked crisping and curling up as the flames reached them; and what with my miserable thoughts, the stiffness I felt from my previous day's exertions, and the pain from my little wound, if ever I had felt horribly depressed, I did then. "Mass' George hungly?" said a familiar voice; and there was Pomp's contented face before me, as he came up hugging to him some slices of bread. "No," I said, ill-humouredly, "I can't eat; my leg hurts me so." "Pomp can," he said; "and him hand hurt too. Missie Morgan want to see Mass' George." I took one of the pieces of bread Pomp gave me, and began to eat mechanically as I walked across the enclosure by the various little groups of settlers and their families, to where my father was busy with the other officers superintending the construction of a barricade outside the gate, so as to divide the Indians in case of an attack, and force them to come up to the entrance one by one. "Ah, my boy," said my father, quickly, "how is the leg?" "Hurts," I said, in an ill-used tone. "Naturally," he cried with a laugh. "There, don't be down-hearted about a little pain. I came and had a look at you, but you were asleep. There, do you see how we are getting ready for your Indian friends? We hope to give them such a severe lesson that they will leave us alone in future." "Then you think they will attack us, father?" I said. "Some one just now told me that all was quiet, and that the Indians had gone." "That is the very reason why I think they will attack us, my boy, and the sooner the better, George. It must come, and I should like them to get their sharp lesson and go; for I want to hang this up for an ornament or to turn it into a pruning-hook." He touched his sword as he spoke, and turned to Morgan, who came up. "How is she?" "Doctor says she's very feverish, sir, but he thinks she is going on all right." "I am very, very sorry, Morgan," said my father, sadly. "I feel as if I were to blame for bringing you people out to this wilderness." "I teclare to cootness, sir," began Morgan, in a high-pitched Welsh fashion; but he checked himself and smiled. "There, sir, don't you talk like that. Wilderness? Why, it's a pleasure to do a bit of gardening here. See what rich deep soil it is, and how the things rush up into growth." "Very poor consolation for your wife, Morgan," said my father, dryly. "All that does not make her wound the more bearable." "Bah! Nonsense, sir! She don't mind. Why, as she said to me just now, she wouldn't have got a wound from an Indian's arrow if she had stopped at home, but the knife might have slipped, and she might have cut herself, or upset a pot of boiling water over her, or failed down the cellar steps and broken a dish and run a piece into her side." "Well, that's good philosophy, Morgan, and very comforting to me. What do you say, George, are you sorry you came?" "No, father, not at all," I replied, for unwittingly I had finished the big slice of bread, and felt all the better for the food. "I only wish I were a man, and could fight." "Don't wish that, my lad," he said quickly. "There is nothing more glorious in life than being a boy. But there, I have no time to waste in preaching to you about that," he said, laughing. "It would be labour thrown away. No boy can believe it. He has to grow into a man, and look back: then he does. There, don't worry yourself till your leg is better, but do any little thing to be useful, and if an attack is made, keep with Morgan. You can load." "Yes, I can load," I said to myself, as I limped off with Pomp following me, looking very proud of his hand being in a sling, and we went into the part of the block-house where poor Sarah was lying. As I crossed the enclosure I seemed to understand now why it had been contrived as it was to form an outer defence, which, if taken, only meant that the enemy had a more formidable place to attack, for the block-house seemed to my inexperienced eyes to be impregnable. As I quietly entered the place, I encountered the doctor. "Ha!" he said; "come to see me?" I explained that I had come to see our housekeeper. "Asleep," he said. "Don't disturb her. Let's have a look at your wound." He drew me into his rough room, and gave me no little pain as he rebandaged my leg, Pomp standing by and looking on. "Oh, that's all right, my lad," said the doctor. "Smarts, of course, but you'll soon mend up. Very different if it had gone into your chest. Now, Ebony, let's look at your hand." "Pomp, sah," said the boy with dignity, "not Eb'ny." "Oh, well then, Pomp. Now then. How's the hand?" "On'y got lil hole in um, sah. Hurt lil bit. Oh! Hurt big bit, you do dat." "Yes, I suppose so," said the doctor, examining and rebandaging the wound. "There, that will soon be well if you do not use it. Well, young Bruton, so they burnt you out, did they, last night?" "Yes," I said, bitterly. "Oh, never mind. You heard what was said. Well, let's go and see what they are doing. We're non-combatants, eh?" We walked out into the open square, after the young doctor had admonished the black woman who had been appointed the first nurse to be watchful and attentive to her patient. There was something going on down by the gate, and I forgot all about the pain in my leg as I accompanied the doctor there, continuing my breakfast on the second slice of bread Pomp handed to me. We soon learned what caused the bustle. A strong party of well-armed scouts was out in the direction of the forest, which lay some distance back from the block-house now, as clearing after clearing had been made, and turned into plantations; and these scouts, with a second line in support, were ready to give the alarm and arrest the first attack, their orders being to fall back slowly to the gate, so that ample time would be given at the alarm of the first shot for the busy party now being sent out to retreat and get under cover. For now that every one was safe, it had been decided to try and bring in, as far as was practicable, the most valuable things from the nearest houses. I was not long in mounting to a good place inside the great palisade, where I could command a view of what was going on, and soon saw that a couple of lines of men had been made with military precision, extending from the gate to the General's house, which had been voted the first to be cleared; and between these lines, under the command of Colonel Preston, a strong body of the slaves--men only at first, but as the work went on women too--were soon going and coming, bearing the most valuable of the household chattels, and these were so stacked in the centre of the enclosure that they would be safe so long as the palisade kept the enemy at bay, and would afterwards act as a line of defence. In little over half an hour another house was treated in the same way, and all through that day the work went on, till a goodly stack of the best of the things had been brought in, along with stores of provisions, that in the first hurry had been left behind. As this went on the people who had been sick at heart and despondent began to look more hopeful, and family after family had their goods arranged so that they were able to make comfortable bivouacs out in the middle of the square; but these were all arranged under the orders of the General and his officers, so as to form places of defence, to which the defenders of the palisade could flee and be under cover, the whole of the new barricade being arranged so that a way was left leading up to the main entrance of the block-house. I grasped all this from my position of looker-on, Pomp never leaving my side, and asking questions which I tried to answer, so that he could understand. And he did comprehend too, much better than I should have expected, for toward evening, after the day had passed, with the scouts relieved twice over without having seen the slightest token of Indians being near, all at once he said to me-- "When Injum come an' shoot an' get over de big fence, all dat make great big fire." My father's words about the great enemy we had to fear came back to me at this, and it was with a curiously uncomfortable feeling that I left my look-out place for the second time to go and partake of the food that had been prepared. For the garrison of the fort were rapidly settling down to make the best of their position, and all was being done as to the serving out of food with military precision, the General having drilled his followers in the past, so that they might be prepared for such an emergency as this; and it was quite wonderful how soon the confusion and disorder of the first hours had changed to regular ways. And now the night would soon be here--a time looked forward to with the greatest of anxiety by all. The scouts were called in by sound of bugle, and at sundown the gates were barricaded, and sentries placed all round our defences. Fires were put out, and as darkness fell, and the customary chorus of the reptiles arose from the forest and distant swamps, a curious feeling of awe came over me where I sat watching by my father, who, after a long and arduous day's work was sleeping heavily, Morgan close at hand, with Pomp and Hannibal too. I could not sleep, for there was a dull, gnawing pain in my wound; and so I sat in discomfort and misery, thinking that though the sentries were all on the watch, the place would not be so safe now that my father was asleep. The moon was hidden, but the stars shone down brightly, and I sat back, leaning against Sarah's big bundle, in which some of the arrows were still sticking, gazing up at the spangled heavens, listening to the bull-frogs, and thinking how far off they sounded as compared to when I had heard them at home. I was listening and wondering whether the Indians would come, when I heard a rustling sound close by, and directly after a low muttering. But I did not pay any heed, thinking that Morgan or one of the blacks had turned in his sleep; but the noise came again and again, and then there was a loud ejaculation, and directly after I heard a familiar voice exclaim-- "Bodder de ole han'! Oh, how um do hurt!" "Can't you sleep, Pomp?" I whispered, as I crept softly to his side. "Dat you, Mass' George?" "Yes; I say, can't you sleep?" "Yes, Mass' George. Pomp can't sleep ebber so, but dis 'tupid han' won't let um." "Does it hurt?" "Yes. Big hot fly in um keep goin' froo. Pomp goin' take off de rag." "No, no; let it be; it will soon be better. Go to sleep." "Han' say no go sleep. Let's go an' try find de coon." "No, no; we are not at home now. We can't go out of the fort." "Out ob de fort?" "Well, outside of the big fence." Pomp gave a little laugh. "Why, Pomp go over easy 'nuff." "But it's against orders," I said. "Here, I can't sleep either. Let's go and have a talk to the sentries." Pomp jumped up at once, and without waking the others, we walked slowly to the gate, where one of the sentries challenged us and let us go on, after recognising me, the man saying with a laugh-- "That anybody with you, sir?" "Yes," I said; "our boy Pompey." "Oh! Shouldn't hardly have thought it. Looks like a bit o' the black night out for a walk in a pair o' white cotton drawers." "Him laugh at Pomp," said the boy, as we went on. "Yes; it was only his fun." "But what um mean 'bout de dark night in cottum drawer?" "Oh, nothing. Nonsense!" "Yes, nonsense; Pomp know better. Night can't wear cottum drawer. All 'tuff." "Hush! Don't talk so loud." "Den why say dat, an' make fun ob poor lil nigger? I know dat man. Wait bit; I make fun ob him, an' Mass' George an' me laugh den." "Will you be quiet, Pomp?" "Yes; Pomp be ebber so quiet. Wait till laugh at him." "Who goes there?" came from just ahead, out of the darkness. "Mass' George an' me," said Pomp, promptly. I hastened to give the word, and we were allowed to pass on, to be challenged again and again, till we reached the part of the palisade on the farther side of the block-house. Here the sentry proved to be one of the men who had rowed out to us in Colonel Preston's boat; and as he asked about my wound and Pomp's hand, we stopped by him where upon the raised platform he stood, firelock in hand, gazing over the great fence toward the forest. "So your hurts wouldn't let you sleep, eh?" he said. "Well, we must pay the Indians off for it if they come nigh; but it's my belief that they won't." Then he fell to questioning me in a low tone about my adventures, and I had to tell him how Pomp and I escaped. "I should have liked to have been with you, my lad," he said. "I'm not fond of fighting; had too much along with Colonel Preston; but I should have liked to have been with you when the arrows were flying." "I wish you had been," I said. "Do you? Well, come, I like that; it sounds friendly. Yes, I wish I'd been there. The cowards, shooting at people who've been soldiers, but who want to settle down into peaceable folk, and wouldn't interfere with them a bit. I only wish they'd come; I don't think they'd want to come any more." "That's what my father says," I observed. "He thinks the Indians want a good lesson." "So they do, my lad, so they do. Let's take, for instance, your place, which they burned down last night. Now what for, but out of sheer nasty mischief! There's plenty of room for them, and there's plenty of room for us. If they think they're going to frighten us away they're mistaken. They don't know what Englishmen are, do they, little nigger?" "How Pomp know what de Injum tink?" said the boy, promptly. The man turned to me and gave me a nudge, as he laughingly continued, in the whisper in which the conversation was carried on-- "Ah, well, they don't know, but if they'd come, I think we should teach them, for every one here's fighting for his home, without thinking about those who are fighting for their wives and children as well. You don't understand that yet, squire." "I think I do," I said. "I suppose a man would fight for his wife and children in the same way as I would try and fight for my father." "Well, suppose it is about the same. You'll have to fight some day, perhaps." "Mass' George fight dreffle," put in Pomp. "Shoot lot of Injum." "Nonsense, Pomp!" I said, hurriedly. "Not nonsense. Pomp see um tummle down when. Mass' George shoot um." "Why, you didn't fire on the Indians, did you, squire?" said the man. "Lot o' times," said Pomp, quickly. The man let his firelock go into the hollow of his left arm, and he shook my hand warmly, as Pomp stood staring over the fence into the darkness. "I like that," he said, as I felt very uncomfortable and shrinking. "But then I might have known it. Your father and Colonel Preston didn't hit it very well together, but the colonel always said your father was a very brave officer, quiet as he seemed--and like father, like son. Feel chilly?" "No," I said. "Well, it isn't cold, but after being so hot all day it feels a bit different. Heigho! I shouldn't at all mind having a good sleep. One gets tired of watching for nothing." "Sit down and have a sleep," I said. "I'll hold your gun and keep guard." "Will you, my lad?" he said, eagerly. "Yes; I can't sleep, and I'll wake you directly if there is anything wrong." "Come, that's friendly," said the man. "I like that, and I'd give anything for an hour's sleep. Catch hold; I'll lie down here. You'll be sure and call me?" "You may trust me." "Bah!" cried the man in an ill-used tone, and snatching back his firelock, "that's done it." "What is the matter?" I said, wonderingly. "You said you may trust me." "Yes; I did." "That did it. It's just what I said to the colonel when he asked me if I could keep on sentry without going to sleep." "But you would not go to sleep without leaving some one else to watch." "No," he said, sternly, "and I won't skulk. I've been digging and planting so long that I've forgotten my soldiering. No, sir, a man who goes to sleep at his post when facing the enemy ought to be shot, and," he added with emphasis, "he deserves it." "Here um come, Mass' George," whispered Pomp just at that moment. "What--to relieve guard?" I said, quickly, as I thought of the sentry's mistake. "No, Mass' George, de Injum." _ |
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