In a flash the man was alive and electrified. All the nerves in his body tightened like harp-strings, and the breath of life swept over them, leaving his heart singing of Naomi and his mother and the deeds to be done in this world. And the thrill remained; for the light was no phantom of a rocking brain, but a glorious reality that showed brighter and lighter every moment.
Yet it was a very long way off. He might never reach it at all. But he rushed on with never a look right or left, or up or down, as if his one chance of life lay in keeping his grip of that light steadfast and unrelaxed. His headlong course brought him twice to his knees with a thud that shook him to the very marrow. Once he ran his face into a tangle of small branches, and felt a hot stream flowing over his lips and chin; he sucked at it as it leapt his lips, and reeled on, thanking heaven that he could still see out of his eyes. The light had grown into a camp-fire, and he could hear men’s voices around it. Their faces he could not see — only the leaping, crackling fire. He tried to coo-ee, but no sound would come. The thought crossed him that even now, within sight and ear-shot of his fellow-men, he might drop for good. His heart kept throbbing against his ribs like an egg boiling in a pan, and his every breath was as a man’s last gasp. He passed some horses tethered among the trees. Then before the fire there stood a stout figure with shaded eyes and pistols in his belt; another joined him; then a third, with a rifle; and the three loomed larger with every stride, until Engelhardt fell sprawling and panting in their midst, his hat gone, his long hair matted upon his forehead, and the white face beneath all streaming with sweat and blood.
“By God, he’s dying!” said one of the men, flinging away his fire-arm. “Yank us the water-bag, mate, and give the cuss a chance.”
Engelhardt looked up, and saw one of his two enemies, the swagmen, reaching out his hand for the bag. It was the smaller and quieter of the pair — the man with the weather-beaten face and the twinkling eye — and as Engelhardt looked further he saw none other than Simons, the discharged shearer, handing the dripping bag across. But a third hand stretched over and snatched it away with a bellowing curse.
“What a blessed soft pair you are! Can’t you see who ‘e is? It’s ‘is bloomin’ little nibs with the broke arm, and not a damned drop does he get from me!”
“Come on, Bill,” said the other tramp. “Why not?”
“He knows why not,” said Bill, who, of course, was the stout scoundrel with the squint. “Don’t you, sonny?” And he kicked Engelhardt in the side with his flat foot.
“Easy, mate, easy. The beggar’s dying!”
“All the better! If he don’t look slippy about it I’ll take an’ slit his throat for him!”
“Well, give him a drop o’ water first.”
“Ay, give ‘im a drink, whether or no,” put in Simons. “No tortures, mate! The plain thing’s good enough for me.”
“And me, too!”
“Why, Bo’s’n,” cried Bill, “you’ve got no more spunk than a blessed old ewe! You sailors and shearers are plucky fine chaps to go mates with in a job like ours! You wouldn’t have done for poor old Tigerskin!”
“To hell with Tigerskin,” said Simons, savagely. “We’ve heard more than enough of him. Give the beggar a drink, or, by cripes, I’m off it!”
“All right, boys, all right. You needn’t get so scotty about it, matey. But he sha’n’t drink more than’s good for ‘im, and he sha’n’t drink much at a time, or ‘e’ll burst ‘is skin!”
As he spoke Bill uncorked the water-bag, hollowed a filthy palm, flooded it, and held it out to the piano-tuner, who all this time had been sitting still and listening without a word.
“Drink out o’ my hand,” said he, “or not at all.”
But Engelhardt could only stare at the great hairy paw thrust under his nose. It had no little finger. He was trying to remember what this meant.
“Drink out o’ that, you swine,” thundered Bill, “and be damned to you!”
Human nature could endure no more. Instead of drinking, Engelhardt knocked the man’s hand up, and made a sudden grab at the water-bag. He got it, too, and had swallowed a mouthful before it was plucked away from him. The oaths came pouring out of Bill’s mouth like sheep racing through a gate. But the piano-tuner had tasted what was more to him than blood, and he made a second dash at the bag, which resulted in a quantity of water being spilled; so without struggling any more, he fell upon his face with his lips to the wet sand.
“Let the joker suck,” said Bill; “I’ll back the sand!”
But Engelhardt rolled over on his left side and moved no more.
Simons knelt over him.
“He’s a stiff ‘un, mates. My blessed oath he is! That’s number two, an’ both on ‘em yours, Bill.”
Bill laughed.
“That’ll be all right,” said he. “Where’s my pipe got to? I’m weakenin’ for a smoke.”
CHAPTER XII FALLEN AMONG THIEVES
There was life in Engelhardt yet, though for some time he lay as good as dead. The thing that revived him was the name of Naomi Pryse on the lips of the late ringer of the Taroomba shed. The piano-tuner listened for more without daring to open his eyes or to move a muscle. And more came with a horrifying flow of foul words.
“She had the lip to sack me! But I’ll be even with her before the night’s out. Yes, by cripes, by sunrise she’ll wish she’d never been born!”
“It’s not the girl we’re after,” said Bill’s voice, with a pause and a spit. “It’s the silver.” And Engelhardt could hear him puffing at his pipe.
“It’s gold and silver. She’s the gold.”
“I didn’t dislike her,” said the sailor-man. “I’d leave her be.”
“She didn’t sack you from the shed. Twelve pound a week it meant, with that image over the board!”
“Bo’s’n’d let the whole thing be, I do believe,” said Bill, “if we give ‘im ‘alf a chance.”
“Not me,” said Bo’s’n. “I’ll stick to my messmates. But we’ve stiffened two people already. It’s two too many.”
“What about your skipper down at Sandridge?”
“Well, I reckon he’s a stiff ‘un, too.”
“Then none o’ your skite, mate,” said Bill, knocking out a clay pipe against his heel. “Look ye here, lads; it’s a blessed Providence that’s raked us together, us three. Here’s me, straight out o’ quod, coming back like a bird to the place where there’s a good thing on. Here’s Bo’s’n, he’s bashed in his skipper’s skull and cut and run for it. We meet and we pal on. The likeliest pair in the Colony! And here’s old Simons, knocked cock-eye by this ‘ere gal, and swearing revenge by all that’s bloody. He has a couple of horses, too — just the very thing we wanted — so he’s our man. Is he on? He is. Do we join hands an’ cuss an’ swear to see each other through? We do — all three. Don’t we go to the township for a few little necessaries an’ have a drink on the whole thing? We do. Stop a bit! Doesn’t a chap and a horse come our way, first shot off? Don’t we want another horse, an’ take it, too, ay and cook that chap’s hash in fit an’ proper style? Of course we do. Then what’s the good o’ talking? Tigerskin used to say, ‘We’ll swing together, matey, or by God we’ll drive together in a coach-and-four with yeller panels and half-a-dozen beggars in gold lace and powdered wigs.’ So that’s what I say to you. There’s that silver. We’ll have it and clear out with it at any blessed price. We’ve let out some blood already. A four-hundred-gallon tankful more or less can make no difference now. We can only swing once. So drink up, boys, and make your rotten lives happy while you have ‘em. There’s only one thing to settle: whether do we start at eleven, or twelve, or one in the morning?”
Engelhardt heard a pannikin passed round and sucked at by all three. Then a match was struck and a pipe lit. His veins were frozen; he was past a tremor.
“Eleven’s too early,” said Simons; “it’s getting on for ten already. I’m for a spell before we start; there’s nothing like a spell to steady y
our nerve.”
“I’d make it eight bells — if not seven,” argued the Bo’s’n. “The moon’ll be up directly. The lower she is when we start, the better for us. You said the station lay due east, didn’t you, Bill? Then it’ll be easy steering with a low moon.”
The other two laughed.
“These ‘ere sailors,” said Bill, “they’re a blessed treat. Always in such an almighty funk of getting bushed. I’ve known dozens, and they’re all alike.”
“There’s no fun in it,” said the Bo’s’n. “Look at this poor devil.”
Engelhardt held his breath.
“I suppose he is corpsed?” said Bill.
“Dead as junk.”
“Well, he’s saved us the trouble. I’d have stuck the beggar as soon as I’d stick a sheep. There’s only one more point, lads. Do we knock up her ladyship, and make her let us into the store — —”
“Lug her out by her hair,” suggested Simons. “I’ll do that part.”
“Or do we smash into it for ourselves? That’s the game Tigerskin an’ me tried, ten years ago. It wasn’t good enough. You know how it panned out. Still, we ain’t got old Pryse to reckon with now. He was a terror, he was! So what do you say, boys? Show hands for sticking-up — and now for breaking in. Then that settles it.”
Engelhardt never knew which way it was settled.
“The she-devil!” said Simons. “The little snake! I can see her now, when she come along the board and sang out for the tar-boy all on her own account. That little deader, there, he was with her. By cripes, if she isn’t dead herself by morning she’ll wish she was! I wonder how she’ll look to-night? Not that way, by cripes, that’s one thing sure! You leave her to me, mates! I shall enjoy that part. She sha’n’t die, because that’s what she’d like best; but she shall apologize to me under my own conditions — you wait and see what they are. They’ll make you smile. The little devil! Twelve pound a week! By cripes, but I’ll make her wish she was as dead as her friend here. I’ll teach her — —”
“Stiffen me purple,” roared Bill, “if the joker’s not alive after all!”
The rogues were sitting round their fire in a triangle, Simons with his back to the supposed corpse; when he looked over his shoulder, there was his dead man glaring at him with eyes like blots of ink on blood-stained paper.
Engelhardt, in fact, had been physically unable to lie still any longer and hear Naomi so foully threatened and abused. But the moment he sat up he saw his folly, and tried, quick as thought, to balance it by gaping repeatedly in Simons’s face.
“I beg your pardon, I’m sure,” said he, in the civilest manner. “I’d been asleep, and couldn’t think where I was. I assure you I hadn’t the least intention of interrupting you.”
His voice was still terribly husky. Bill seized the water-bag and stuck it ostentatiously between his knees. Simons only scowled.
“Please go on with what you were saying,” said Engelhardt, crawling to the fire and sitting down between these two worthies. “All I ask is a drink and a crust. I’ve been out all day without bite or sup. Yes, and all last night as well! That’s all I ask. I am dead tired. I’d sleep like a stone.”
No one spoke, but presently, without a word, Bill took a pannikin, filled it from the water-bag, and sullenly handed it to the piano-tuner. Then he knifed a great wedge from a damper and tossed it across. Engelhardt could scarcely believe his eyes, so silently, so unexpectedly was it done. He thanked the fellow with unnecessary warmth, but no sort of notice was taken of his remarks. He was half afraid to touch without express permission the water which he needed so sorely. He even hesitated, pannikin in hand, as he looked from one man to the other; but the villanous trio merely stared at him with fixed eyeballs, and at last he raised it to his lips and swallowed a pint at one draught.
Even the mouthful he had fought for earlier in the evening — even that drop had sent a fresh stream of vitality swimming through his veins. But this generous draught made a new man of him in ten seconds. He wanted more, it is true; but the need was now a mere desire; and then there was the damper under his eyes. He never knew how hungry he was until he had quenched his thirst and started to eat. Until he had finished the slice of damper, he took no more heed of his companions than a dog with a bone. Bill threw him a second wedge, and this also he devoured without looking up. But his great thirst had never been properly slaked, and the treatment he was now receiving emboldened him to hold out the pannikin for more water. Even this was granted him, but still without a word. Since he had arisen and joined them by the fire, not one of the men had addressed a single remark to him, and his own timid expressions of thanks and attempts at affability had been received all alike in impenetrable silence. Nor were the ruffians talking among themselves. They just sat round the fire, their rough faces reddened by the glow, their weapons scintillating in the light, and stared fixedly at the little man who had stumbled among them. Their steady taciturnity soon became as bad to bear as the conversation he had overheard while feigning insensibility. There was a kind of sinister contemplation in their looks which was vague, intangible, terrifying. Then their vile plot ringing in his ears, with dark allusions to a crime already committed, made the piano-tuner’s position sickening, intolerable. He spoke again, and again received no answer. He announced that he was extremely grateful to them for saving his life, but that he must now push on to the township. They said nothing to this. He wished them good-night; they said nothing to that. Then he got to his feet, and found himself on the ground again quicker than he had risen. Bill had grabbed him by the ankle, still without a syllable. When Engelhardt looked at him, however, the heavy face and squinting eyes met him with a series of grimaces, so grotesque, so obscene, that he was driven to bury his face in his one free hand, and patiently to await his captors’ will. He heard the Bo’s’n chuckling; but for hours, as it seemed to him, that was all.
“Who is the joker?” said Bill, at last. “What does he do for his rations?”
“They say as ‘e tunes pianners,” said Simons.
“Then he don’t hang out on Taroomba?”
“No; ‘e only come the other day, an’ goes an’ breaks his arm off a buck-jumper. So they were saying at the shed.”
“Well, he enjoyed his supper, didn’t he? It’s good to see ‘em enjoying theirselves when their time is near. Boys, you was right; it would have been a sin to send ‘im to ‘ell with an empty belly an’ a sandy throat. If ever I come to swing, I’ll swing with a warm meal in my innards, my oath!”
Engelhardt held up his head.
“So you mean to kill me, do you?” said he, very calmly, but with a kind of scornful indignation. Bill gave him a horrible leer, but no answer.
“I suppose there’s nothink else for it,” said Simons, half-regretfully; “though mark you, mates, I’m none so keen on the kind o’ game.”
“No more ain’t I,” cried the Bo’s’n, with vigor. “I’d give the cove a chance, Bill.”
“How?” said Bill.
“I’d lash the beggar to a tree and leave him to snuff out for hisself.”
Engelhardt laughed aloud in mock gratitude.
“Oh, I ain’t partickler as to ways,” said Bill. “One way’s as good as another for me. There’s no bloomin’ ‘urry, any’ow. The moon ain’t up yet, and before we go this beggar’s got to tell us things. He heard what we was saying, mates. I seen it in his eye. Didn’t you, you swine?”
Engelhardt took no kind of notice.
“Didn’t you — you son of a mangy bandicoot?”
Still Engelhardt would have held his tongue; but Bill started kicking him on one side, and Simons on the other; and the pain evoked an answer in a note of shrill defiance.
“I did!” he cried. “I heard every word.”
“We’re after that silver.”
“I know you are.”
“You’ve seen it?”
“I have.”
“Tell us all about it.”
“Not I!”
For this he got a kick on each side.
“Is it in the store yet?”
No answer.
“Is the chest easy to find?”
No answer.
“Is it covered up?”
“Or underground?”
“Or made to look like something else?”
Each man contributed a question; none elicited a word; no more did their boots; it was no use kicking him.
There was a long pause. Then Bill said:
“You’ve lost your hat. You need another. Here you are.”
He had blundered to his feet, stepped aside out of the ring of light, and spun a wide-awake into Engelhardt’s lap. He started. It was adorned with a blue silk fly-veil.
“Recognize it?”
He had recognized it at once; it was Sam Rowntree’s; and Sam Rowntree had been missing, yesterday, before Engelhardt himself said his secret farewell to the homestead.
He looked for more. No more was said. The villains had relapsed into that silence which was more eloquent of horror than all their threats. But Bill now flung fresh branches on the fire; the wood crackled; the flames spurted starward; and in the trebled light, Engelhardt, peering among the trees for some further sign of Sam, saw that which set the pores pringling all over his skin.
Complete Works of E W Hornung Page 45