For the Term of His Natural Life
Page 56
Between Eaglehawk and Signal Hill were, for the absconders, otherdangers. Along the indented coast of Port Bunche were four constables'stations. These stations--mere huts within signalling distance of eachother--fringed the shore, and to avoid them it would be necessary tomake a circuit into the scrub. Unwilling as he was to lose time, JohnRex saw that to attempt to run the gauntlet of these four stations wouldbe destruction. The safety of the party depended upon the reaching ofthe Neck while the guard was weakened by the absence of some of the menalong the southern shore, and before the alarm could be given fromthe eastern arm of the peninsula. With this view, he ranged his men insingle file; and, quitting the road near Norfolk Bay, made straight forthe Neck. The night had set in with a high westerly wind, and threatenedrain. It was pitch dark; and the fugitives were guided only by the dullroar of the sea as it beat upon Descent Beach. Had it not been forthe accident of a westerly gale, they would not have had even so muchassistance.
The Crow walked first, as guide, carrying a musket taken from Harry.Then came Gabbett, with an axe; followed by the other six, sharingbetween them such provisions as they had obtained at Signal Hill. JohnRex, with the carbine, and Troke's pistols, walked last. It had beenagreed that if attacked they were to run each one his own way. In theirdesperate case, disunion was strength. At intervals, on their left,gleamed the lights of the constables' stations, and as they stumbledonward they heard plainer and more plainly the hoarse murmur of the sea,beyond which was liberty or death.
After nearly two hours of painful progress, Jemmy Vetch stopped, andwhispered them to approach. They were on a sandy rise. To the left was ablack object--a constable's hut; to the right was a dim white line--theocean; in front was a row of lamps, and between every two lamps leaptand ran a dusky, indistinct body. Jemmy Vetch pointed with his leanforefinger.
"The dogs!"
Instinctively they crouched down, lest even at that distance the twosentries, so plainly visible in the red light of the guard-house fire,should see them.
"Well, bo's," said Gabbett, "what's to be done now?"
As he spoke, a long low howl broke from one of the chained hounds, andthe whole kennel burst into hideous outcry. John Rex, who perhaps wasthe bravest of the party, shuddered. "They have smelt us," he said. "Wemust go on."
Gabbett spat in his palm, and took firmer hold of the axe-handle.
"Right you are," he said. "I'll leave my mark on some of them beforethis night's out!"
On the opposite shore lights began to move, and the fugitives could hearthe hurrying tramp of feet.
"Make for the right-hand side of the jetty," said Rex in a fiercewhisper. "I think I see a boat there. It is our only chance now. We cannever break through the station. Are we ready? Now! All together!"
Gabbett was fast outstripping the others by some three feet of distance.There were eleven dogs, two of whom were placed on stages set out in thewater, and they were so chained that their muzzles nearly touched. Thegiant leapt into the line, and with a blow of his axe split the skull ofthe beast on his right hand. This action unluckily took him within reachof the other dog, which seized him by the thigh.
"Fire!" cried McNab from the other side of the lamps.
The giant uttered a cry of rage and pain, and fell with the dogunder him. It was, however, the dog who had pulled him down, and themusket-ball intended for him struck Travers in the jaw. The unhappyvillain fell--like Virgil's Dares--"spitting blood, teeth, and curses."
Gabbett clutched the mastiff's throat with iron hand, and forced himto loose his hold; then, bellowing with fury, seized his axe and sprangforward, mangled as he was, upon the nearest soldier. Jemmy Vetch hadbeen beforehand with him. Uttering a low snarl of hate, he fired, andshot the sentry through the breast. The others rushed through the nowbroken cordon, and made headlong for the boat.
"Fools!" cried Rex behind them. "You have wasted a shot! LOOK TO YOURLEFT!"
Burgess, hurried down the tramroad by his men, had tarried at SignalHill only long enough to loose the surprised guard from their bonds, andtaking the Woody Island boat was pulling with a fresh crew to the Neck.The reinforcement was not ten yards from the jetty.
The Crow saw the danger, and, flinging himself into the water,desperately seized McNab's boat.
"In with you for your lives!" he cried. Another volley from the guardspattered the water around the fugitives, but in the darkness theill-aimed bullets fell harmless. Gabbett swung himself over the sheets,and seized an oar.
"Cox, Bodenham, Greenhill! Now, push her off! Jump, Tom, jump!" and asBurgess leapt to land, Cornelius was dragged over the stern, and thewhale-boat floated into deep water.
McNab, seeing this, ran down to the water-side to aid the Commandant.
"Lift her over the Bar, men!" he shouted. "With a will--So!" And, raisedin twelve strong arms, the pursuing craft slid across the isthmus.
"We've five minutes' start," said Vetch coolly, as he saw the Commandanttake his place in the stern sheets. "Pull away, my jolly boys, and we'llbest 'em yet."
The soldiers on the Neck fired again almost at random, but the blaze oftheir pieces only served to show the Commandant's boat a hundred yardsastern of that of the mutineers, which had already gained the deep waterof Pirates' Bay.
Then, for the first time, the six prisoners became aware that John Rexwas not among them.
CHAPTER XXIV. IN THE NIGHT.