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Trapped by Malays: A Tale of Bayonet and Kris, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 20. Archie Thinks |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY. ARCHIE THINKS "Hoomph! Phoonk!" "What say?" cried Peter, springing up in a sitting position, to find it was daylight once more. "Oh, it's you, is it?" he cried, for there was a crackling by the door, and the great, tapering, serpent-like trunk of an elephant was waving to and fro and reaching towards the water-jar. "Yahhh! Burrrr!" came from outside, and there were steps as if somebody were rushing towards the door to chase the intruder away. The utterer of the yell seemed to have been successful, for the trunk was drawn back quickly, the elephant trumpeted, there were the footsteps of a man, and the shuffling sound of the gait of the great beast, as, springing up, Peter Pegg ran to the door and climbed up to place his eye where the trunk had been, so that he could see what was taking place. "My! Look at that!" cried Peter cheerily. "That ain't the way to drive a helephant away. You are going all wrong, comrade." For, instead of suffering himself to be driven, the elephant opened his mouth, curved up his trunk into something the shape of the letter S, and displaying two finely produced, sharply pointed tusks, he was starting in full chase of the stumpy underling who had been driving him down to the river, but only to turn back and make a call on his new friend for refreshment. "What a lark!" said Peter, as the elephant disappeared after his quarry. "It makes me feel as if I should like to keep helephants, if I get to be Field-Marshal and they make me Governor-General of Injy and Malay; for they are such rum beggars. They look just as if when they died they would do to cut up for injy-rubber. And they seem so friendly, too, with any one they like. Sort of things as you can't drive, but have to lead. I should like a good helephant for a pet, but I suppose he would be expensive to keep; and I don't suppose that there grubby-looking little chap feels very comfortable with that one chivying him. Here, I never thought of that," continued Peter, as he dropped down amongst the palm-leaves. "My lord was reaching out that big leech of his after our rations. Lucky he couldn't get at them. I ought to have remembered to put them away;" and, to guard against any mishap, Peter Pegg hastened to place jar and basket in the right-hand corner of the building, where they would be handy for replenishing, and out of reach and out of sight of his huge visitor. This done, the young private crossed over to where he had thrust and covered over the spear, and, to his intense satisfaction, he found that unless a searcher well turned over the dried leaves, it would be impossible to find the concealed weapon. "Is that you, Pete?" said a faint voice; and Archie's fellow-prisoner literally rushed to the speaker's side. "Me it is, sir. England for ever, and hooray! Oh, do say you are better, sir!" cried the lad, ending in a half-squeak as if there were tears in his throat or he was trying to imitate an elephant. "Better? Yes, I think I'm better, Pete," said the poor fellow feebly. "But my head aches dreadfully, and--and--I'm so weak." "Ah, I've got to bathe that head, sir." "Yes, I think that would do it good. Yes, I am better, Pete, for I can think. We are prisoners, aren't we?" "Yes, sir, at present," said Pete confidently. "Just till we are exchanged, or escape." "Ah!" ejaculated Archie. "I said I could think now, and I was forgetting. Look here, have you found Miss Minnie?" "Now, now, now, sir," cried the young private in a tone full of remonstrance; "you have been very ill, and off your head. It's very horrid, I know, but you have got to get better, and not make yourself worse with thinking about that." "Yes, yes, I know," said Archie excitedly. "But you don't tell me. Have you found out where she is?" "No, sir; not yet. I couldn't leave you." "Not leave me, man? You must get out of this place as soon as you can, and either find her or make your way to headquarters, and let the Doctor and Major Knowle--oh, and Sir Charles too--know what has happened." "Mister Archie, sir," said the lad, laying a cool hand on his young officer's burning brow, "don't, sir--please, don't! They must know all you want to say long enough ago, and before now they have got all our brave lads out searching the country; and you may lie still, sir, and think to yourself that nobody will rest until Miss Minnie is found." There was silence for a few minutes, during which Peter Pegg half lay beside his wounded officer, listening to words uttered in command that sounded familiar. They were evidently orders addressed to the elephant, which was shuffling by the great stable, making a whining sound as if protesting against being driven. Then all was still again, till Archie said quietly: "Yes, Pete, you are quite right, and I pray Heaven that she may be quite safe by now. But tell me, do you think I--I mean we--did all we could?" "Mister Archie, sir, once more, don't, please! I am only a poor, ignorant chap, but I do know this, through having been in horspittle, that you have got to keep quiet and not worry yourself if you are going to get well. First thing, sir, is that you have got to get strong enough so that we can escape." "Yes, yes, Pete; that's right! Escape!" cried Archie excitedly. "Take it coolly, sir," remonstrated the lad. "Well, I will be cool, Pete." "That's right, sir. We've got to escape, and I have begun preparations already." "Yes, that's right. What have you done?" "Got a spear to begin with, sir." "Ah, well, that's something." "Yes, sir--something for you to handle like a bay'net if they won't let us go quietly." "Right--right!" "And the next thing, sir, is for you to get strong to handle it." "Ah, and I am so weak!" "Of course you are, sir, when you have had nothing but a drop of water for days." "For days!" "Yes, sir; and now your breakfast's waiting. It's only bread and fruit and water, but it's wonderful stuff to put strength in a man, and you have got to begin getting it into you at once." "No, no; not yet," pleaded Archie. "Let me lie and think a bit first." "Not a minute, sir," cried the poor fellow's nurse. "You feel as if you couldn't touch anything, of course, but your horspittle orderly says it is only making a beginning; and here you are--cocoa-nutful clear, fresh water, so tip it down at once." Archie protested feebly, and then obeyed; and after taking a sip or two from the thick-lipped vessel, he ended by finishing the cooling draught with something like avidity. Shortly after Peter Pegg was watching his patient crumbling some of the bread-cake and dipping pieces in a fresh supply of water and beginning to eat. _ |
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