CHAPTER XXVII
THE POISONED DARTS
It was after a brief, hurried conversation that Dave and Daley began aninspection of their surroundings.
"You ask what next?" said Dave, stirring about to ease his cramped limbsand snapping a match. "I think we had first better learn the conditionof the enemy."
"Hey, don't do that, lad!" called out Daley quickly, as Dave moved as ifto open the barred door and peer out.
"There's no other way of finding out what we want to know," said Dave.
"Yes, there is!" declared Daley. "I just saw a ladder in a corner here.It leads to the roof, I think."
"Try it and see," suggested Dave, which they did.
"All right," announced Daley, as they came out on a square roof like aplatform, "we can get a famous idea of the rights of things from here."
Dave surveyed the prospect in great curiosity. The roof resembled anarsenal. There were hundreds and hundreds of all kinds of spears,pikes, and darts.
Some were made up in bundles, some were leaning against the risingparapet as if slanted to catch the sunlight. In the center of the roofwas a little raised platform. This held a lot of spears and darts, theheads resting in a big flat bowl full of some dark-colored liquid.
"There they are," announced Dave, glancing down at the spot where theyhad last seen his recent captors.
Daley, too, viewed the quartette. Two of them had fully recovered fromtheir injuries. One was squatted on the ground, holding his head betweenhis knees and rocking to and fro and moaning.
The fourth lay flat on the ground, still insensible, but the two ablenatives were rubbing him to restore him to consciousness.
"We're safe enough here," remarked Daley, with some satisfaction. "Theycan't possibly get in--they won't try."
"No, we seem to have a whole armory at our disposal," said Dave."Stoodles taught me to use the dart pretty well."
"We could hold those fellows at bay for a long time."
"Just so," nodded Dave, "provided we are not starved out. You know itis folly to think of staying here if we can possibly get away. Theywould soon bring an army to surround us, and then all chances of escapewould be gone."
"I knocked them out once," said Daley. "We'll try it again if you sayso. It would be equal chances if those two cowards, Jones and Lewis,hadn't shown the white feather, after promising to join me and help me.The minute I pointed out the natives here to them, they cut stick fordear life."
"Well, they must take care of themselves, after this. Wait, we won'tventure out yet, Mr. Daley. See, the fellows have got in trim tochallenge us."
The four natives were now fully recovered from Daley's vigorousonslaught, it seemed.
They consulted and chattered, with frequent glances up at the enemy inpossession of their stronghold.
One of them, evidently the leader of the group, worked himself up into aperfect fever of excitement and rage.
He approached nearer to the hut and shouted up a loud rigmarole to Daveand Daley. Suddenly wheeling around, he seized a dart from the heap onthe litter.
So rapid and expert was he that even though the man dodged, it piercedDaley's cap through and through, showing its tremendous force bycarrying the headgear fully twenty feet beyond the roof of the hut.
"Aha, two can play at that game, my friend," said Daley.
He seized a dart and hurled it back at the men. They laughed at himderisively as it struck the ground lightly and harmlessly beyond them.Even Dave had to smile at the sailor's sheer clumsiness.
Now the refugees had to duck down frequently, for all four of thenatives began to shower the darts at them.
"I will try a hand," suggested Dave at last. "These on this littleplatform seem better made than the others. Hi-aa-ooa!" yelled Dave,standing up and poising the dart. He used the great war-cry of thetribe that Pat Stoodles had taught him in a moment of leisure.
The minute Dave raised the weapon a frightful uproar arose from the fourmen. Their eyes seemed fixed in horror on the poised dart. Likelightning they turned. In a flash they took to the nearest covert andhid themselves.
"Well, well!" cried the amused Daley, "that's a sudden change of front.Lad, there's some meaning to that move."
"Why, yes," said Dave thoughtfully; "they acted as if they were scaredto death. I wonder why?"
He paused and turned the dart over in his hand, studying it critically.
"Say, Mr. Daley," he observed, "do you suppose this is some peculiarkind of a weapon that they attach taboo or some of their queeroutlandish superstitions to?"
"Drop it!" all of a sudden almost screamed Daley.
He dashed the dart from the hands of his companion in a most startlingway.
"Why, Mr. Daley----" began Dave in astonishment.
"Don't you ever go to feeling the points of those darts again, boy,"said Daley seriously. "Look here."
He drew Dave nearer to the little platform in the center of the roof.
"I've guessed it out," said Daley. "Yes, it must be so. See thatliquid stuff the dart heads are resting in--see the rattlesnake heads ina heap yonder?"
"Why," exclaimed Dave comprehendingly; "poison!"
"Poison of the most deadly kind, lad!" declared Daley. "We've got themnow. They won't dare to show their heads as long as we shake one ofthose poisoned darts at them. Only be careful how you handle them. Theyare sure, sudden death. One of the _Raven_ crew was struck with one ofthem in an attack the first time we landed here. He died in an hour."
The camp-fire burned down gradually. Their enemies remained under cover.The clouds grew heavier, and there was finally no moonlight or otherillumination of the scene.
"It will be daylight soon," remarked Dave, after a long spell ofsilence. "Mr. Daley, we mustn't stay here."
"Right, mate. I've been thinking of that myself."
"See here," said Dave, going to the remotest corner of the roof awayfrom the front of the hut. "There's a tree with some branches in reach.Let us take that route. The trees are thick, clear over to what lookslike some kind of a corral yonder."
"An excellent idea," voted Daley. "Well, try it, lad."
Dave's suggestion was a pronounced success. They got to the first tree,to a second, to a third. Apparently their escape was unobserved by thenatives.
"We're safe enough now," said Daley. "I say, lad, look down. Whateverare those queer-looking animals?"
"Horses," said Dave, straining his gaze at a kind of corral, inside ofwhich half a dozen animals were tethered.
"They don't look United States like," observed Daley.
"No; they are called _dadons_. They are very rare here, Stoodles toldme. I never saw but one before."
"Suppose----" began Daley, descending to the ground. Then suddenly heexclaimed: "They're after us!"
From the nearest bushes some darts cut the air as the two refugeesreached the ground. The next moment, showing that they had been aware oftheir movements all along and were awaiting just this opportunity toattack them, the four weapon-makers burst into view.
"Run for it!" shouted Daley.
"This way," directed Dave, dashing towards the corral. "Out with yourknife, Mr. Daley. Cut the tether of one of those _dadons_. I'll do thesame. We may escape those natives yet."