The Boss of Taroomba
Page 14
CHAPTER XIV
THE RAID ON THE STATION
Those same dark hours of this eventful night were also the slowest andthe dreariest on record in the mind of Naomi Pryse. She too had waitedfor the moon. At sundown she had stabled her horse, and left it with afine feed of chaff and oats as priming for the further work she had inview. This done, she had consented, under protest, to eat somethingherself; but had jumped up early to fill with her own hands a water-bagand a flask of which she could have no need for hours. It made nomatter. She must be up and doing this or that; it was intolerablesitting still even to eat and drink. Besides, how could she eat, howcould she drink, when he who should have shared her meal was perhapsperishing of hunger and thirst in Top Scrubby? It was much morecomforting to cut substantial slices of mutton and bread, to put them upin a neat packet, and to set this in readiness alongside the flask andthe water-bag. Then came the trouble. There was nothing more to be done.
It was barely eight o'clock, and no moon for two hours and a half.
Naomi went round to the back veranda, picked up the book she had beenreading the day before, and marched about with it under her arm. She hadnot the heart to sit down and read. Her restless feet took her manytimes to the kitchen and Mrs. Potter, who shook her good gray head andremonstrated with increasing candor and asperity.
"Go to look for him?" she cried at last. "When the time comes for that,you'll be too dead tired to sit in your saddle, miss. If you startbefore the moon's well up, there'll be no telling a hoof-mark from afoot-print without getting off every time. You've said so yourself, MissNaomi. Then why not go straight to your bed and lie down for two orthree hours? I'll bring you a cup of tea at half-past eleven, and youcan be away by twelve."
Naomi sighed.
"It is so long to wait--doing nothing! He may be dying, poor fellow; andyet what can one do in the dark?"
"Lie down and rest," said Mrs. Potter, dryly.
"Well, I will try, but not on my bed--on the sitting-room sofa, I think.Will you light the lamp there, please? And bring the tea at eleven; I'llstart at half-past."
Naomi took a short stroll among the darkling pines--the way that she hadtaken the piano-tuner in the first moments of their swiftfriendship--the way that he had taken alone last night. She reached thesitting-room with moist, wistful eyes, which startled themselves as sheconfronted the mirror over the chimney-piece whereon stood the lamp. Shestood for a little, however, looking atherself--steadfastly--inquisitively--as though to search out the secretsof her own heart. She gave it up in the end, and turned wearily away.What was the use of peering into her own heart now, when so oftenaforetime she had seemed to know it, and had not? There was no use; andas it happened, no need. For the first thing her eyes fell upon, as sheturned, was the pile of music lying yet where Engelhardt had placed it,on the stool. The next was his little inscription on the uppermost song.She knelt to read it again; when she had done so the two uncertain,left-handed, pencilled lines were wet and blotched with her tears, andshe rose up knowing what she had never known before.
At eleven-thirty--she had set her heart upon that extra half hour if letalone--Mrs. Potter rattled the tea-tray against the sitting-room doorand entered next moment. She found her mistress on the sofa certainly,but lying on her back and staring straight at the ceiling. Her face wasvery white and still, but she moved it a little as the door opened. Shehad not slept? Not a wink. Her book was lying in her lap; it had neverbeen opened. Mrs. Potter was not slow to exhibit her disappointment, notto say her disgust. But Naomi sprang up with every sign of energy, andfinished her tea in five minutes. In ten she had her horse saddled. Intwelve she had cantered back to the veranda, and was receiving from Mrs.Potter the water-bag, the flask, and the packet of bread and meat.
"Have his room nice and ready for him," said the girl, excitedly, "andthe kettle boiling, so that we may both have breakfast the instant weget in. It will be a pretty early breakfast, you'll see! Do you thinkyou can do without sleep as long as I can?"
"Well, I know I sha'n't lie down while you're gone, miss."
"Then I'll be tremendously quick, I will indeed. I only wish I'd startedlong ago. The moon is splendid now. You can see miles----"
"Then look there, Miss Naomi!"
"Where?"
"Past the stables--across the paddock--toward the fence."
Naomi looked. A black figure was running toward them in the moonlight.
"Who can it be, Mrs. Potter? Not Mr. Engelhardt----"
"Who else?"
"But he is reeling and staggering! Could it be some drunken roustabout?And yet that's just his height--it must be--it _is_--thank God!"
Her curiosity first, and then her amazement, kept Naomi seated immovablein her saddle. She wondered later why she had not cantered to meet him.She did not stir even when his stertorous breathing came painfully toher ears. It was only when the quivering, spent, and speechless youngman threw his arms across the withers of her horse, and his white facefell forward upon the mane, that Naomi silently detached the water-bagwhich she had strapped to her saddle, and held it to his lips with atrembling hand. At first he shook his head. Then he raised his wild eyesto hers with a piteously anxious expression.
"You have heard--that they are coming?"
"No--who?"
"You have heard, or why are you on horseback?"
"To look for you. I was on the point of starting. I made sure you mustbe bushed."
"I was. But I got to a camp. They looked after me; I am all right. Andnow they are coming in here--they're probably on their way!" Each littlesentence came in a fresh gasp from his parched throat.
"But who?"
"Those two tramps who came the other day, and Simons, the ringer of theshed. Villains--villains every one!"
"Ah! And what do they want?"
"Can't you guess? The silver! The silver! That fat brute who insultedyou so, who do you suppose he is? Tigerskin's mate--just out ofprison--the man whose finger your father shot off ten years ago! Youremember how he kept his hands in his pockets the other day? Well, thatwas the reason. Now there isn't a moment to lose. I listened to theirplans. Half an hour ago--or it may be an hour--they lay down for aspell. They were drunk, but not very. They only meant to rest for a bit;then they're coming straight here. They left me tied up--they were goingto bring me with them--I'll tell you afterward how I got loose. Idaren't stop a moment, even to cut adrift their horses. I just boltedfor the moon--I'd heard them say the station lay due east--and here Iam. Thank God I've found you up and mounted! It couldn't have beenbetter; it's providential. Now you mustn't get off at all; you must justride right on to the shed."
"Must I?" said Naomi, with a tight lip and a keen eye, but a touch ofthe old banter in her tone.
"We could follow on foot. Meanwhile you would rouse them out at theshed----"
"And my silver?"
Engelhardt was silent. The girl leant forward in her saddle, and laid ahand upon his shoulder.
"No, no, Mr. Engelhardt! Captains don't quit their ships in such ahurry as all that. I'm captain here, and I'll stick to mine. It isn'tonly the silver. Still my father smelt powder for that silver, and theleast I can do is to follow his lead."
She slid to the ground as she spoke.
"You will barricade yourself in the store?" said Engelhardt.
"Exactly. It was fixed up for this very kind of thing, after the firstfuss with Tigerskin. They'll never get in."
"And you mean to stick to your guns inside?"
"To such as I have--most certainly."
"Then I mean to stick to you."
"Very well."
"But think--think before it's too late! They are devils, MissPryse--beasts! I have seen them and heard them. Better a hundred timesbe dead than at their mercy. For God's sake, take the horse before theyare upon us!"
"I stop here," said Naomi, decidedly.
"Yet Mrs. Potter and I could hold the store as easily as you could. Theyshall not get your silver while I'm alive."
"Equal to it! It's so likely I would ride off and leave two women to themercy of those brutes! If it really must be so, then I think the soonerwe all three get into the store----"
It was Mrs. Potter who here put in her amazing word. While the youngpeople stood and argued, her eyes had travelled over every point of thesaddled horse. And now she proposed that she should be the one to rideto the shed for help.
"You!" the two cried in one breath, as they gazed at her ample figure.
"And why not?" said the hardy woman. "Wasn't I born and bred in thebush? Couldn't I ride--bareback, too--before either of you was born? I'mnot so light as I used to be, and I haven't the nerve either; but what Ihave is all there in the hour of need, Miss Naomi. Let me go now. I'mready this minute."
Naomi had seemed lost in thought.
"Very well!" cried she, whipping her eyes from the ground. "But youdon't know the way to the shed, and I must make your directions prettyplain. Run to the back of the kitchen, Mr. Engelhardt, you'll see a lotof clothes-props. Bring as many as you can to the store veranda."
Engelhardt darted off upon his errand. Already they had wasted too manyminutes in words. His brain was ablaze with lurid visions of theloathsome crew in Top Scrubby; of the murderous irruption imminent atany moment; of the unspeakable treatment to be suffered at thoseblood-stained hands--not only by himself--that mattered little--but by awoman--by Naomi of all women in the world. God help them both if thegang arrived before they were safe inside the store! But until the worsthappened she need not know, nor should she guess, how bad that worstmight be. Poor Rowntree's fate, and even his own ill-usage by thosemasterless men, were things which Engelhardt was not the man to tell towomen in the hour of alarm. He was clear enough as to that; and havingdone up to this point all that a man could do, he jumped at the simpletask imposed by Naomi, and threw himself into it with immense vigor anda lightened heart. As he dropped his first clothes-prop in the storeveranda, Naomi and the housekeeper were still talking, though thelatter was already huddled up in the saddle. When he got back with asecond, both women were gone; with a third, Naomi was unlocking thestore door; with the fourth and last, she had lit a candle inside, andwas sawing one of the other props in two.
"That'll do," she said, as her saw ran through the wood. "Now hold thisone up for me."
She pointed to another of the stout poles. She made him hold it with oneend inside, and the other protruding through the opening. Then she madea mark on the prop at the level of the door, sawed it through at hermark, and cut down the other two in the same fashion. In less than fiveminutes the four poles had become eight, which cumbered the floorwithin. Then Naomi rose from her knees, flung the saw back into thetool-box, and made a final survey with the candle. A few flakes ofsawdust lay about the shallow veranda. She fetched a broom from a cornerof the store and whisked them away. Then she removed the key to theinside, and was about to lock the door upon herself and Engelhardt whenhe suddenly stopped her.
"Hold on!" he cried. "I want your boots."
"My boots?"
"Yes, those you've got on--with the dust on 'em, just as they are. Theymust be left outside your door, and your door must be locked; you mustkeep the key."
Naomi gave him a grateful, an admiring smile.
"That _is_ a happy thought. I'll get it myself. While I'm gone you mightfetch in the axe from the wood-heap; I'd almost forgotten it."
They ran off in different directions. Next minute they were both back inthe store, Engelhardt with the axe. Naomi took it from him, and set itaside without a word. Her face was blanched.
"I heard something," she whispered. "I heard a cry. Oh, if they've seenme!"
"We'll lock the door as quietly as possible."
This was done.
"Now the props," said Naomi.
Engelhardt had guessed what they were for. He helped her to fix them,with one wedged between floor and counter, and the other pressing theheavy woodwork of the door. It now appeared how craftily Naomi had cuther timbers. They met the door, two at the top, two at the bottom, andfour about the centre. Still the brave engineer was distressed.
"I meant to hammer them down," she murmured. "Now I daren't."
"We'll put all our weight on them instead," said Engelhardt. They did sowith a will, until each prop had creaked in turn. Then they listened.
"Out with the light," said Naomi. "There are no windows to give usaway--but still!"
He blew it out. As yet his own ears had heard nothing, and he wasbeginning to wonder whether Naomi had been deceived. They listened alittle longer. Then she said:
"We're provisioned for a siege. Did you see the flask and things on thecounter?"
"I did. How in the world did you find time to get them ready?"
"I had them ready before you came. They were for you."
The two were crouching close together between the props. It was anatural though not a necessary attitude. The moon was shining throughthe skylight upon one of the walls; the multifarious tins and bottles onthe shelves made the most of the white light; and faint reflectionsreached the faces of Naomi and the piano-tuner--so close to each other,so pale, so determined, and withal so wistful as their eyes met.Engelhardt first looked his thanks, and then stammered them out in abroken whisper. Even as he did so the girl raised a finger to her lips.
"Hark! There they are."
"Yes, I hear them. They won't hear us yet a bit."
"They mustn't hear us at all; but off with your boots--we may have tomove about."
She had already kicked off her shoes, and now, because he had only oneof his own, she pulled off his boots with her two hands.
"You should not have done that!"
"Why not?"
"It's dreadful! Just as though you were my servant."
"Mr. Engelhardt, we must be everything to each other----"
She shot up her hand and ceased. The voices without were nowdistinguishable.
"To-night!" he muttered, bitterly, before heeding them.
Naomi, on the other hand, was at the last pitch of attention; but not tohim. She inclined her head as she knelt to hear the better. The voiceswere approaching from one side.
"Ay, that's where he dropped--just there!" said one. It was Tigerskin'smate, Bill.
"Take the key from the door!" Engelhardt whispered to Naomi, who was thenearer it. They had forgotten to do this. For one wild moment the girlhesitated, then she cautiously reached out her hand and withdrew the keywithout a scratch.
"So this is the crib!" they heard Bo's'n say.
"The same old crib," said Bill. "Same as it was ten years ago, onlyplastered up a bit. I suppose it _is_ locked, mate?"
The handle was tried. The door shook ever so little. The two insidegazed at the props and held their breath. If one of them should beshaken down!
"Ay, it's locked all right; and I reckon it's true enough about the girlsleeping with the key under her pillow, and all."
"Blast your reckonings!" said Bill. "Make sure the key ain't in the dooron t'other side."
The thimbleful of starlit sky which Naomi had been watching for the lastminute and a half was suddenly wiped away. She heard Bo's'n breathinghard as he stooped and peered. The key grew colder in her hand.
"No, there ain't no key, Bill."
"That's all right. They're both in their beds then, and that littlesuck-o'-my-thumb hasn't got here yet. When he does, God 'elp him!"
The voices were those of Bill and Bo's'n. For the moment these twoseemed to be alone together.
"Ay, ay, we'd string the beggar up fast enough another time!"
"String him up? Yes, by his heels, and shoot holes through him while hedangled."
"Beginning where you don't kill. Holy smoke! but I wish he'd turn upnow."
"So do I--the swine! But he
re comes the ringer. What cheer, matey?"
"It's right," said Simons. "The little devil's locked her door; butthere are her boots outside, same as if she was stoppin' at a blessed'otel. A fat lot she cared whether her precious pal was bushed orwhether he wasn't! We thought you was telling us lies, mother, but, bycripes, you wasn't!"
"I should think not!" said a fourth voice. "She wouldn't believe he waslost, but I knew he was; so I just saddled the night-horse after shewas in bed and asleep, and was going straight to the shed to raise asearch-party!"
The pair within were staring at each other in dumb horror. That fourthvoice was but too well known to them both. It was Mrs. Potter's.