Under the Waves - Robert Michael Ballantyne (red queen ebook .TXT) 📗

wander away from them.

"Sure it's a quare thing that I can't git howld of the road I comed by," he muttered, as with a look of perplexity he paused and listened.

Faint shouts were heard on his left, and he was about to proceed in that direction, when distinct cries arose on his right. He went in _that_ direction for a time, then vacillated, and, finally, came to a dead stand, as well as to the conclusion that he had missed his way; which belief he stated to himself in the following soliloquy:--

"Rooney, me boy, you've gone an' lost yoursilf. Ah, bad scran to 'ee. Isn't it the fulfilment of your grandmother's owld prophecy, that you'd come to a bad ind at last? It's little I'd care for your misfortin myself, if it warn't that you ought to be helpin' poor Mr Hazlit, who's gone as mad as blazes, an' whose daughter can't be far off. Och! Man alive," he added, with sudden enthusiasm, "niver give in while there's a purty girl in the case!"

Under the impulse of this latter sentiment, Rooney started off at a run in a new and totally unconsidered direction, which, strange to say, brought him into sudden and very violent contact with some of those individuals in whom he was interested.

Here we must, in hunters' language, "hark back" on our course for a few minutes--if, indeed, that _be_ hunters' language! We do not profess to know much thereof, but the amiable reader will understand our meaning.

Just after the attack had begun, and Mr Hazlit had sallied from the hut with his war-club, as already related, Aileen became deeply impressed with the fact that all the women and children who had been wont to visit and gaze at her in wonder had vanished. The rattling of shot over her head, too, and the frequent rush of pirates past her temporary abode, warned her that the place was too much exposed in every way to be safe. She therefore sought to rouse her companion to attempt flight.

"Laura," she said, anxiously, as a round shot cut in half the left corner-post of the building, "come, we must fly. We shall be killed if we remain here."

"I care not," exclaimed Miss Pritty, clasping her friend closer than ever, and shuddering; "my worst fears have been realised. Let me die!"

"But _I_ don't want to die yet," remonstrated Aileen; "think of _me_, dear, if you can, and of my father."

"Ah, true!" exclaimed Miss Pritty, with sudden calmness, as she unclasped her arms and arose. "Forgive my selfishness. Come; let us fly!"

If the poor lady had owned a private pair of cherubic wings, she could not have prepared for flight with greater assurance or activity. She tightened her waist-belt, wrapped her shawl firmly round her, fastened her bonnet strings in a Gordian knot, and finally, holding out her hand to her friend, as if they had suddenly changed characters, said, "Come, are you ready?" with a tremendous show of decision. She even led the wondering Aileen along a winding path into the jungle for a considerable distance; then, as the path became more intricate, she stopped, burst into tears, laid her head again on its old resting-place, and said in a hollow voice:--"Yes; all is lost!"

"Come, Laura, don't give way; there's a dear. Just exert yourself a little and we shall soon be safe at--at--somewhere."

Miss Pritty made a vigorous struggle. She even smiled through her tears as she replied:--"Well, lead on, love; I will follow you--to death!"

With her eyes tightly shut, lest she should see something hideous in the woods, she stumbled on, holding to her friend's arm.

"Where are we going to?" she asked, feebly, after a few minutes, during which Aileen had pulled her swiftly along.

"I don't know, dear, but a footpath _must_ lead to something or somewhere."

Aileen was wrong. The footpath led apparently to nothing and nowhere. At all events it soon became so indistinct that they lost it, and, finally, after an hour's wandering, found themselves hopelessly involved in the intricacies of a dense jungle, without the slightest clew as to how they should get out of it.

Aileen stopped at last.

"Laura," she said, anxiously, "we are lost!"

"I told you so," returned Miss Pritty, in a tone that was not quite devoid of triumph.

"True, dear; but when you told me so we were _not_ lost. Now we _are_. I fear we shall have to spend the night here," she added, looking round.

Miss Pritty opened her eyes and also looked round. The sight that met her gaze was not encouraging. Afternoon was drawing on. Thick bushes and trees formed a sort of twilight there even at noon-day. Nothing with life was visible. Not a sound was to be heard, save such little rustlings of dry leaves and chirpings as were suggestive of snakes and centipedes. The unhappy Laura was now too frightened to shudder.

"What shall we do?" she asked; "shriek for help?"

"That might bring pirates to us instead of friends," said Aileen. "Listen; do you hear no sound?"

"Nothing," replied Miss Pritty, after a few moments of intense silence, "save the beating of my own heart. Aileen," she continued, with sudden anxiety, "are there not serpents in these woods?"

"Yes, I believe there are."

"And tarantulas?"

"Probably."

"And tortoises?"

"I--I'm not sure."

"Darling, how _can_ we sleep among tortoises, tarantulas, and serpents?"

Even Aileen was at a loss for a reply, though she smiled in spite of herself.

"I'll tell you what," she said, cheerfully, "if we _must_ spend the night in the bush we shall get into a tree. That will at least save us from all the venomous creatures as well as dangerous beasts that crawl upon the ground. Can you climb?"

"Climb!" repeated Miss Pritty, with a hysterical laugh, "you might as well ask me if I can dive."

"Well, you must learn. Come, I will teach you. Here is a capital tree that seems easy to get into."

Saying this, Aileen ran to a gnarled old tree whose trunk was divided into two parts, and from which spread out a series of stout branches that formed a sort of net-work of foliage about eight or ten feet from the ground. Climbing actively up to these branches, she crept out upon them, and from that position, parting the twigs, she looked down laughingly at her friend.

Her bright spirit was contagious. Miss Pritty almost forgot her anxieties, smiled in return, and walked towards the tree, in doing which she trod on something that moved in the grass. A piercing shriek was the result. It was immediately replied to by a wild yell at no great distance.

"It was only a frog; look, I see it now, hopping away. Do be quick, Laura; I am sure that was the yell of a savage."

No further spur was needed. Miss Pritty scrambled up into the tree and crept towards her friend with such reckless haste that one of her feet slipped off the branch, and her leg passing through the foliage, appeared in the regions below. Recovering herself, she reached what she deemed a place of security.

"Now, dear, we are safe--at least for a time," said Aileen, arranging her friend's disordered dress. "Take care, however; you must be careful to trust only to limbs of the tree; the foliage cannot bear you. Look, you can see through it to the ground. Lean your back against this fork here; sit on this place--so; put your foot on this branch, there--why, it is almost like a chair--hush!"

It was quite unnecessary to impose silence. They both sat among the branches as motionless as though they had been parts of the tree. They scarce dared to breathe, while they peered through the foliage and beheld the dim form of a man advancing.

Whoever he was, the man seemed to growl as though he had been allied to the beasts of the jungle. He came forward slowly, looking from side to side with caution, and, stopping directly under the tree of refuge, said--

"Musha!" with great emphasis, then placing both hands to his mouth he gave vent to a roar that would have done credit to a South African lion.

As neither of the ladies understood the meaning of "Musha," they listened to the roar with a thrill of unutterable horror. Miss Pritty, as if fascinated, leant forward, the better to observe her foe. Suddenly, like the lightning-flash, and without even a shriek of warning, she lost her balance and dived head-foremost into the bosom of Rooney Machowl!

Well was it for the bold Irishman that Miss Pritty was a light weight, else had he that day ended his career in the jungles of Borneo. As it was he went down like a shock of corn before the scythe, grasped Miss Pritty in an embrace such as she had never before even imagined, and proceeded to punch her poor head.

Then, indeed, she made herself known by a powerful scream that caused the horrified man to loose his hold and spring up with a torrent of apologies and self-abuse.

"Och! it's not possible. Baste that I am! Oh ma cushla astore, forgive me! It's a gorilla I thought ye was, sure, for I hadn't time to look, d'ee see. It's wishin' you had staved in my timbers intirely I am."

Rooney's exclamations were here cut short, and turned on another theme by the sudden appearance of Aileen Hazlit, who soon found that her friend was more alarmed than hurt.

"I _am_ so glad you have found us, and so surprised," said Aileen, who had met Rooney in England during one of her visits to Joe Baldwin's abode, "for we have quite lost ourselves."

Rooney looked a little awkwardly at the fair girl.

"Sure, it's glad I am myself that I've found you," he said, "but faix, I'm lost too! I do belave, howiver, that somebody's goin' to find us."

He turned his head aside and listened intently. Presently a cry was heard at no great distance. It was replied to by another.

"Pirates," said Rooney, in a hoarse whisper, drawing a cutlass from his belt.

As he spoke another cry was heard in an opposite direction.

"Friends!" exclaimed Rooney. "Sure we're surrounded by friends and foes! Come, git into the tree, ladies. I'll give a hail, an' if the varmin should come up first, I'll kape them in play. Don't show yer purty faces dears, an' be as aisy as ye can."

So saying, Rooney gave vent to a true British cheer, while the ladies ascended once more into the tree.

The cheer was instantly replied to by counter-cheers and howls. A minute more and two half-naked Malays, armed with spears and long shields, bounded into the clear space and attacked the Irishman, but Rooney had placed his back to the tree and was ready for them. Although he was scarcely a match for two such men, whose peculiar and bounding mode of fighting he did not understand, Rooney nevertheless quickly disabled one by the sheer strength of a blow, which cut through the shield and wounded his enemy's head. The other he sprang upon like