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To The West, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 43. Our Warning |
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_ CHAPTER FORTY THREE. OUR WARNING After a whispered consultation we crept on again through the trees, until we could see a good-sized fire blazing and sparkling close down by the side of the pool, and about it--some asleep, some sitting resting, and others talking--were a group of rough-looking men, whom we had not much difficulty in making out to be our visitors at the Fort. It was plain enough. They had come down after leaving us, and had camped there for the night, perhaps found gold there; and this was their station. If so, Gunson must be higher up and safe. I whispered my ideas to Esau, who thought for a few minutes before speaking. "No," he said, "I don't believe they'd stop here. But p'r'aps they're quite new-comers. What shall we do?" "Get by them," I said resolutely. "We must hurry on to Mr Gunson now." "But how?" he whispered. "Ain't they stopping up all the road?" "Not all," I said. "Let's go down on our hands again, and creep by." "All right, only you go first, and be careful. Mind, if they see us they'll fire." I don't know whether it was recklessness or desperation. I had felt timid, and had shrunk from the task at first; but now that I felt I must go on, the dread had pretty well passed away. Going down on my hands and knees, I found to my great satisfaction that the fire was invisible; and if so, of course we must be out of sight of the men about it. I whispered this to Esau, who responded by a grunt, which, added to his position, made him bear a strong resemblance to an animal, and for the moment it amused me, and took my attention from the difficulty of my task. We had had to leave the track, and our way was amongst blocks of stone covered with moss, between which short stiff patches of bush grew, making our passage difficult, and not to be accomplished without noise. But I kept on with the light on my left, knowing that if I kept it in that position I must be going in the correct direction; and it was necessary to keep this in mind, as every now and then a tree or a block of stone forced me to diverge. The men were talking loudly, and now and then there arose a rough burst of laughter, while there was no doubt about who the party were, for I heard an allusion made to the Fort. Just then, as we were about level with the fire, a piece of a branch upon which I pressed my knee gave a loud crack, and the conversation ceased instantly. We neither of us moved, but crouched there, listening to our beating hearts, and expecting to have either a shot sent in our direction, or to see part of the men come rushing toward us. At last, after what seemed to be quite ten minutes, a voice said-- "Hear that?" "Yes," was growled. "What was it?" "Don't know." They began talking again slowly, and by degrees the conversation grew general and loud. "Go along," I whispered, after carefully removing the dead branch, and once more our rustling progress began. Oh, how slow it was, and how I longed to jump up and run. But we were in the opening of the little valley now, and our only chance was to creep on till we were well beyond the light cast by the fire, and so we persevered. At last, after creeping along inch by inch, we paused, for in front of us the undergrowth ceased, and I saw an open patch of sand faintly lit by the fire, and across this we must pass to reach the shelter beyond. "Go on first," whispered Esau, and, drawing a _long_ breath, I started, going as silently and quickly as I could into the darkness of the shelter beyond, and turned to look at Esau. From where I knelt I could see the fire clearly, and as he came across, I was thinking how animal-like he looked, when I fancied I saw a movement, and before I could be sure, there was a flash, a loud report, and a twig dropped from over my head upon one of my hands. "Bear! bear!" shouted a voice, and the men sprang to their feet. But by this time Esau was alongside of me, and rising up we hurried along in a stooping position, leaving the eager voices more and more behind, the men being evidently hunting for the bear one of them believed that he had shot. "Was he firing at me?" said Esau. "Yes; he saw you, I suppose." "But he might have hit me," cried Esau, indignantly. "Chaps like that have no business to be trusted with guns." "Hist!" "Come on, lads," we heard plainly. "I'm sure I hit him." "Don't be a fool," cried another voice. "Wait till daylight. Do you want to be clawed?" "Shall I roar?" whispered Esau. "Don't--don't, whatever you do," I whispered back in alarm, for I had not the slightest faith in my companion's imitation, and felt certain that we should be found out. The men too seemed to be coming on, but in a few minutes the rustling and breaking of wood ceased, and we crept on again for a little way; and then, with the light of the fire reduced to a faint glow, we stood upright and began to ascend the little valley at a fairly rapid rate for the darkness. "What an escape!" I said, breathing more freely now. "That's what I ought to say," grumbled Esau. "That bullet came close by me." "And by me too," I replied. "I felt a twig that it cut off fall upon me. But never mind as we were not hit." "But I do mind," grumbled Esau. "I didn't come out here to be shot at." "Don't talk," I said. "Perhaps we shall come upon another camp before long." I proved to be right, for at the end of an hour we came upon a rough tent, so dimly seen that we should have passed it where it stood, so much canvas thrown over a ridge pole, if we had not been warned by a low snoring sound. We crept down to the waterside, and slowly edged our way on; but when we were some fifty yards farther we stopped to consider our position. "S'pose that's old Gunson," said Esau, "and we're going away from him now?" The idea struck me too, but I set it triumphantly aside directly. "If it were Mr Gunson there would be a fire, and most likely Quong keeping watch. Besides, we don't know that he had a tent like that." "No, he hadn't got a tent," assented Esau; and we went on, to find that at every quarter of a mile there was a tent or a fire; and it soon became evident that the solitary little valley we had explored on the day of my accident was rapidly getting to hold a population of its own. We had passed several of these busy encampments, and were beginning to despair of finding Mr Gunson, when, as nearly as we could guess in the darkness, just about where we washed the gold, we came upon a fire, whose warm yellow glow lit up a huge pine, and at the scene before us we stopped to reconnoitre. "That's where I was cutting the tree," muttered Esau; "and--yes, there's old Quong. Look!" Sure enough there was the yellow-faced, quaint little fellow coming out of the darkness into the light to bend down and carefully lay some fresh wood upon the fire, after which he slowly began to walk back. Mr Gunson must be here, I thought, for Quong would naturally be drawn to him as a strong man who would protect him. "Come along," I said; "we are right after all." "No, no, stop!" he cried, seizing me and holding me back, for Quong evidently heard our voices, and darted back among the trees. "Nonsense," I said, struggling. "Keep back, I tell you. 'Tain't safe. They don't know it's us, and somebody may shoot." It was a foolish thing to do, but I wrested myself free and ran forward. As I did so I heard the ominous _click click_ of a gun-lock, and stopped short. "Halt! Who's that? Stand!" cried a deep voice; and the effect was so great upon me, that I felt like one in a nightmare trying to speak, but no words came. Esau was not so impressed, however, for he shouted wildly-- "Hi! Don't shoot. It's only us. Mr Gunson there?" The boughs were parted, and the familiar figure of the prospector came out into the light, rifle in hand. "Why, Gordon!" he cried. "You? Glad to see you; you too, Dean. But that's risky work, my lad. Don't you know the old proverb--'Let sleeping dogs lie'? I did not know you were friends, and these are dangerous times; I might have tried to bite." He shook hands with us both as he spoke, and Quong came cautiously out from among the trees. "Ay, ay, ay!" he cried, beginning to caper about. "You come along? How de-do-di-do. Quong make hot flesh tea." "No, no; they don't want tea at this time of night." "Yes, please give me some," I said, for I was hot and faint with exertion. "I shall be glad of a mug." "Hot flesh tea," cried Quong, beginning to rake the fire together. "Makee cakee dleckly." "Why, Gordon, what brings you here?" cried Mr Gunson. "You belong to the opposite camp. Raydon hasn't let you come gold-washing?" "No," I said, hurriedly. "Have you seen those men?" "What men? There are plenty about here." "I mean those men you quarrelled with on the steamer about Quong." "Eh? 'Bout Quong?" cried the little Chinaman, looking up sharply. "Bad man on puff-boat pullee tail neally off. No." "Yes; they have been at the Fort to-day--yesterday--which is it--and they are down below yonder now." "What, those fellows?" cried Gunson, excitedly; and he gave vent to a long low whistle. "That's awkward." "I was afraid you did not know," I said, hurriedly. "I knew you were here, and I came to warn you. Mr Raydon--" "Sent you to warn me?" interrupted Gunson. "No," I said; "we had to break out of the Fort to-night and come. Mr Raydon is not good friends with me." "Humph!" ejaculated Gunson. "So you came to let me know?" "To put you on your guard," I said. "Yes." I saw him look at me fixedly for a few moments, and then in a half-morose way he nodded his head at me, saying-- "Thank you, my lad--thank you too, Dean." "Warn't me," said Esau, sourly. "It was him. I only come too." "Well, it is awkward," continued Gunson, after a few moments' thought, "for I have got to the spot now that I have been looking for all these years." "Then you're finding lots of gold?" cried Esau, eagerly. "I am finding a little gold," replied Gunson, quietly; "and Quong is too." "Eh? Me findee gole?" cried Quong, looking up from the half-boiling kettle, and hastily-made cakes which he had thrust in the embers to bake. "Yes; findee lil bit, and put um in littlee bottle." "But these men--will they attack you?" I said, anxiously. "Yes, if they find that I have a good claim. More than two, you say?" I told him all about the coming to the Fort, and how we had passed them down below. Gunson looked very serious for a while; then with a smile he said quietly-- "Well, union is strength. Now you two lads have come, my force is doubled. You will stay with me now?" "No," I said, firmly. "As soon as it is light I must go back to the Fort to our friends." "But you have quarrelled with Mr Raydon, and after this night's business he will not have you back." "No," cried Esau, eagerly. "Let's stop and wash gold." "And leave your mother," I said, "for the sake of that." "I wish you wouldn't be so nasty, Mayne Gordon," cried Esau. "Who's a-going to leave his mother? Ain't I trying to get a lot o' money so as to make her well off?" "We cannot stay," I said. "I don't want Mr Raydon and my friends--" "They have arrived then?" "Yes," I said. "What would they think if I ran off like this?" "Humph! you're a strange lad. You take French leave, and come to warn me. They fire at you, and hunt you with that great hound, and yet you are going back!" "Yes," I said, "as soon as it is light; Esau too." "And suppose old Raydon won't have us back?" cried Esau. "But he will when he knows why I came." "I am not so sure," said Gunson. "Well, I suppose you are right." "No, no," cried Esau. "I meant to stop along with you. I shan't go. If I do, it'll be to fetch mother." I told Esau I did not believe him, and Gunson went on-- "It's awkward about those fellows, for at present might is right up here. The worst of it is, Quong can't fight." "No fightee," said Quong, looking up sharply. "Melican man fightee. Quong makee flesh tea, talkee ploper English. Makee flesh blead all hot. Hot closs bun." "I should like to stay with you, Mr Gunson," I said; "and it is very tempting. But I must go back." "And if Mr Raydon refuses to have you, my lads, come back, and I'll make you as welcome as I can." "Flesh tea all leady," said Quong; and I was soon after gladly partaking of the simple meal, close to the spot where I had met with the terrible accident six months before. Before we lay down for a few hours' rest, I wanted to tell him more about my trouble, and how Mr Raydon suspected me. I wanted to ask him too how he had found out about this spot. But Esau was lying close by me, and I suspected him of playing a double part. I felt sure just then that he had been Gunson's informant, so I had to put it all off till a more favourable opportunity; and while I was thinking this I dropped off fast asleep. _ |
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