The League of the Leopard

  CHAPTER XXIV

  THE ESCAPE

  Dane was mistaken when he said he could not sleep, for hardly had Amadureturned to report his failure to find any trace of the fugitive than hesank into deep slumber. This was not strange. He had lived for some timeunder a constant strain, sleeping very little; and now that part atleast of his task was accomplished nature had her way. It was true thatRideau had escaped him, but Dane believed that if he was alive theymight still overtake him. He decided that Rideau's life would no longerbe worth a day's purchase in the Leopards' country, and he would head atonce for the coast.

  Events proved him right, for when he opened his eyes the next morningAmadu stood beside his couch to say that Rideau had left a trail it waseasy to follow across the creek, and that the boys were ready to march.They started forthwith, and that was the beginning of a memorable chase.Every indispensable pound of weight, including the weapons, wasruthlessly flung away once they entered a settled country. The time forfood and sleep was cut down, and the camp boys, seeing that the road ledsouth toward the sea, vied with each other in their efforts to shortenthe journey. The forest rolled behind them, as did miles of dusty grass;but the chase never slackened, and, for this region was populous, theyhad news of the fugitive. One morning Dane reached a village he hadpassed the previous night. At another they missed him by a few hours,and found two lame men he had hired and left behind.

  Dane's own men had flung themselves down panting in the shade, but mostof them rose cheerfully in answer to his summons, while Monday usedforcible arguments to encourage the rest, and in ten minutes all were ontheir way again. They lost the path in a morass, and at the next villagethey found that Rideau had increased his lead; but Dane knew that theywere near the coast, and that he held his enemy between him and the sea.So the chase went on, until they reached a native market on the banks ofa broad stream. A white man, so its ruler stated, had seized a canoethere a few hours earlier.

  "Say dam low t'ief man done go chop one canoe and lib for get out likethe debbil down them river," explained a negro who seemed proud of hislinguistic abilities.

  "Tell your headman I'll pay twice its value for the best craft he has,"said Dane; and then consulted with his subordinates, for it was evidentthat they must divide forces here. It was not more than three days'journey to the coast, the headman said; and taking Amadu, Bad Dollar,and six picked Krooboys with him in the big canoe, he left Monday tofollow with the rest to Little Mahu. Dane felt sorely tempted to leavethe gold with the headman, under guard, but thought better of it.

  The Kroos were skilled with the paddle, the canoe was long and fast, andDane's spirits rose as he felt the thin shell surge forward at everysturdy stroke. All that day the dusky bodies, stripped to the costumeof Eden, swayed athwart his vision over the flashing blades, as hestared forward with aching eyes down the long vista of dazzling waterthat unrolled itself before him. Palms, cottonwoods, creeper festoons,mud banks, fled astern. The temperature grew suffocating under the glareof afternoon, but still the thudding paddles rose and fell, while frothlicked the bows and the paddling song rose in spasmodic gasps. At sunsetthey met a big trade canoe toiling upstream; and, excited by promises ofrich reward, the crew roused themselves to fresh effort when itshelmsman told them that another craft with three men in it, one of whomwas dressed as a white man, had passed him an hour earlier.

  A full moon rose over the forest presently, and they pushed on acrossstretches of glistening silver and breadths of inky gloom. The Kroos haddone gallantly, but they were only beings of flesh and blood, and theirstrength was ebbing fast. One who had dropped his paddle lay idle in thebows, another appeared to be choking, and fouled his comrade's blade,while the paddles of the rest dipped at steadily increasing intervals;so seeing that neither bribes nor threats could stir them, Danedesisted, almost too hoarse to make his voice audible. His hands wereraw and bleeding where the haft of his paddle had eaten into them. Thestream, however, ran with them, and they still made headway, while hestrained his heavy eyes, expecting each moment to see a canoe ahead.

  Dane, however, even yet had not gaged his enemy's ingenuity.

  They ran the craft alongside the landing of a native village in anotherhour or two, crawled out of her very stiffly, and were told by theheadman that two negroes had come ashore from a passing craft topurchase food a little earlier, while a white man lay still in herbottom. Dane concluded from this that the fugitive had slightlyincreased his lead, and he was wondering whether he could by main forceget his boys on board again, or could engage a fresh crew, when a negrowho spoke English plucked his sleeve.

  "I go look them white men in canoe soffly, soffly. What you lib for dashme if I tell you something, suh?"

  Dane had nothing left to offer as a present, and seizing the man by theshoulder, shook him violently.

  "Tell me at once, and you shall have whatever you want if you will go toMahu for it," he said.

  The headman protested, but the negro only grinned when Dane slackenedhis grip.

  "I not fool man, sah. The Lord he give me sense too much. You done dashme them jackus you have on now."

  Dane's duck jacket was badly rent, but it was garnished with ornamentalmetal buttons such as the black man loves. Tearing it off, he flung itat the speaker. The heathen, finding himself successful, desired thewhite man's trousers too; but this time Dane, disregarding the headman,shook him savagely.

  "I go look them white man, sah. He was a black man in white man'sclofes."

  Dane stared at the man stupidly; and then clustering huts, red fires,and wondering negroes, grew hazy before him, as choking with fury he sawwhat had happened. Rideau had changed clothes with one of hisfollowers, and sending him on for the pursuers to follow, had landedand vanished into the forest. It was of the first importance to decidewhere he would make for. Mastering himself with an effort, Dane managedto obtain some useful information from the headman. Mahu, beingpartially sheltered, was the only port in that vicinity where any onewould be likely to find surf-boats, or canoes suitable for a coast trip,he said; for the bar of the river they had descended was generallyimpassable. It seemed hardly probable that Rideau would turn north againwithout equipment or escort; and deciding that he would endeavor toescape from the colony before the authorities heard his pursuer's story,Dane determined to push on at once for Redmond's factory. His men,however, were utterly worn out, and finally declined to drag themselvesa yard farther. Bad Dollar lay down, and was either unwilling or unableto get up again; only Amadu remained unbeaten. Finally the headman wasprevailed upon to provide carriers, and Dane and Amadu were borne out ofthe village in lurching hammocks.

  At first the motion of a hammock is soothing, but though very weary Danecould not sleep. The boys marched well; but consumed with impatience, helay wide awake peering into the darkness, and striving to encourage themto more determined effort. They ceased the carrying song from sheer lackof breath, and the white man could hear them panting beneath him. Thesun rose, but there was no halt for rest; and the men were stumblingwhen one shouted excitedly, and not far ahead low whitewashed buildingsrose dazzlingly against the sea.

  When the carriers halted in front of them, two traders whom Danerecognized from Maxwell's description met him at the compound gate, andstared wonderingly when, watching them with bloodshot eyes, the newcomertold his name.

  "Where are the rest of you, and Maxwell?" asked Redmond. "You can't havelost the whole of them; though there's no need to tell me something hasgone wrong. Few men come home from the back country looking as thoughthey had enjoyed the experience, but you're almost as bad as the lastone."

  "I have not enjoyed mine," Dane answered huskily; for he remembered withwhat hopes and in whose company he had first marched from the sea, andthe contrast was bitter. "Maxwell has made his last journey."

  "Dead?"

  Dane nodded; and Gilby laid a hand on his shoulder with a gesture ofsympathy which touched him.

  "He was a wonderful man--but all the rest of them are not dea
d, too?"

  "We lost too many. The rest are following. I will try to tell you all ingood time. Has Rideau arrived here lately?"

  Gilby smiled dryly.

  "He has; and the way he did it coupled with your own appearance wouldstir up any man's curiosity. Rideau came in dressed like a nigger thismorning, in the hottest hurry, saying he'd important business down thecoast, and offered me my own price for the loan of our big surf-boat togo there in."

  "You didn't let him have it!" Dane gasped.

  "We don't often let business pass us; but I told him to go to perdition,if he could find his way swimming." Gilby chuckled. "I also told himseveral things that needn't be repeated."

  "Gilby never had any sense to spare," interjected his comrade. "He wasso proud of the speech he made that instead of warning the niggers notto help him, he did nothing except tell me how he said it; and Rideaugot some fishermen to take him east in their canoe. They'll be well awayto leeward now. What did the brute do?"

  "Instigated my partner's murder, and twice attempted my own life," Daneanswered in breathless haste. "But I'm in no mood to waste time. Willyou hire me that surf-boat?"

  "If you want her to follow Rideau you shall have the boat for nothing,and we'll both come along," said Redmond. "Gilby, get down to the beachand see to the gear and crew. Meantime, you are coming straight into thefactory to get some food. Where is Rideau making for? That I don't know,but he'll probably try to get on board the _Minella_ if he's afraid ofyou. She's billed on a stopping trip for Lagos, but she'll edge closeround Twin Point Bluff, and he'll no doubt try to board her there.There's a nice southwester blowing now, and under the big lugsail weought to overhaul the canoe before he does so. She can't have got faruntil the breeze sprang up."

  Dane had eaten little of late, but the food forced upon him almostchoked him now; and leaving most of it untasted, he drank feverishly;then finding himself almost too exhausted to pace the veranda, he flunghimself impatiently into a chair.

  "Will that boat never be ready?" he asked.

  "I'm hurrying her," replied Gilby, who also seemed impatient. "Oneboy's sewing a new cloth in the sail, and as she's too big to paddlefar, we can't start until it's finished. She wants some pitch run intoher bilge seams, too, and won't be ready for an hour or longer. Still,I'm hoping to overhaul Rideau early to-morrow--and he won't enjoy themeeting, by the look of you."

  After some discussion Redmond reluctantly agreed to remain behind incharge of the gold Dane brought down; and it was nearly dark when,without shipping overmuch water, the surf-boat cleared the beach, andwith tall lugsail straining, lurched away eastward over the moonlitswell. It was then that, lying in the stern to rest and gather strengthfor what might yet be required of him, Dane told Gilby his detailedstory. He could afterward recall the intent face fixed upon him, thecrash of breakers throbbing through the haze that hid the shore, and thelisting craft's swift rise and fall. At the time, however, he wasconscious of nothing except that they were speeding east, and that thetrader assured him the slender native canoe dare carry very little sailin such a strength of breeze. Gilby held the tiller, a big Krooboy saton the weather gunwale slacking off the lugsail sheet each time the boatdipped her side to a stronger puff of breeze, and Amadu lay on theweather floorings, deadly sick and groaning horribly, to the amusementof the amphibious heathen.

  "It will be remembered that I have suffered these torments for mymaster's sake," he said in a mixture of several tongues. "Still, once weland I will beat the life out of some of these dogs."

  The craft traveled fast, for the off-shore breeze blew fresh abeam; andthough at times it lashed the waters into foam, the helmsman daringlyheld on to the whole lugsail; and so at last, when the moon hung low inthe west, and pearly streaks brightened over her starboard bow, a tallbluff loomed blackly through the haze ahead.

  "Twin Point," said Gilby, shaking the spray from his jacket. "I havekept her well inshore for a purpose, but now we'll ease the sheet off.We should see the canoe once we round the head. The _Minella_ can't befar off by this time, either."

  Dane rose stiffly, but he could see little except the belts of thinninghaze which dimmed the waters ahead. He could hear the thunder ofbreakers on the invisible foot of the cliff. The light was growing eachmoment, the breeze dying fast, and presently the damp lugsail slattedagainst the mast.

  "Get out your paddles!" ordered Gilby.

  The lugsail rustled down, the mast was lowered. Muscular black menperched themselves on the gunwales, and the paddles beat the water,while, when they had brought the head abeam, the mist rolled back, andthe red track of the sunrise streaked the heaving sea. A low, black blurand a smear of smoke crawled athwart it; while nearer the shore, andseen only when the surf-boat climbed the long undulations, a duskystrip, with moving figures silhouetted against the radiant sea, lurchedtoward the approaching steamer.

  "There he is!" Dane shouted. "Gilby, promise those boys anything if weovertake him! Pull up your tiller and swing her farther off-shore! If wepass out of hailing distance I shall miss the steamer."

  "You are right; and that's the _Minella_," was the answer. "Still, ifyou wish to meet Mr. Rideau you had better let me arrange things foryou. We can see him out there, but he won't see us under the high bluffas yet, and his boys don't seem to be killing themselves yonder. He'llexpect us coming up from the southwest, and that is why I edged in alongthe shore. Besides, there's a nasty piece of stone lying off the FalsePoint which, as the stream sets strong over it, it's wiser to keep wellclear of."

  Straining his eyes, Dane could see the surf on the Twin promontory somedistance away; and while he watched it a long undulation outshore of itwas rent asunder and a column of foam rushed aloft. It dissipated intofilmy spray, and a dull roar reached the listeners faintly. The steepswell of the southern ocean breaks heavily along the coast.

  "That's Sunk Reed," said Gilby. "A steam-boat went ashore there threeyears ago and smashed most of her bottom out in less than five minutes.Since then careful skippers coming round False Point haul out fromshore. By the way the _Minella_'s steering, it's not certain that eitherRideau or ourselves will catch her. Paddle, you black devils, paddle!"

  Dane fancied the boys were doing their utmost, but the progress theymade appeared distressfully slow. The steamer was rising higher all thetime, but thin haze still clung about the rocks, and the surf-boatprobably remained unseen against the towering background. The canoe alsowas growing larger, and Dane could plainly see the sunken reef hurlingclouds of spray aloft ahead of her, for the flood-tide joining the usualeastward current was setting strong across it. Presently a figure wavinga white cotton cloth rose upright in the craft and the paddles whirledfaster, but there was no answering hoot from the steamer's whistle.

  "The _Minella_'s deep, and her skipper wouldn't stop long for aColonial Governor when he has a full cargo on board," explained Gilby."It will be a tight fit to catch her; but we could head off Rideau, whodoesn't see us yet. I don't think his boys, being strangers, know howfar that reef runs out. Only the steeper seas break on the outer end ofit."

  "Head him off. Never mind the steamer," Dane said hoarsely.

  The boys made further efforts. Foam lapped about the bows, the splash ofpaddles swelled into a resonant thudding, and Gilby pulled hard upon hishelm.

  "They see us at last!"

  Dane stood upright, cheering on the paddlers, who broke into a gaspingsong, and both craft went flying across the swell; but as they edgedoutshore it became evident that Rideau must pass the reef closely toreach the steamer. Rolling heavily, she still came on, perhaps a mileaway, with unslackened speed. The spouting on the reef drew nearer, andDane's voice seemed to break up in his throat, for unless Rideau couldclear it during the next few minutes the pursuers felt sure of him. Danehad no paddle, and there being nothing he could do, he stared forward,moistening his parched lips with his tongue. Quickening a trifle, thepaddles flashed and fell, while the lurching hull leaped forward atevery impetus; but it seemed to the anxious man
that she was merelycrawling over the flaming sea.

  "We have him!" gasped Gilby, with exultation in his tone. "If he holdsclear of the reef we have him safe! Hallo! Where is he going now? It's avery odd chance he shoots through between the seas."

  Dane already had noticed that the outer end of the reef was marked onlyby a swirl of water when the smaller seas passed. As Gilby spoke, thecanoe was turned straight toward it.

  "What that man can do we can. Follow him!" Dane cried; but Gilbysignaled to his crew, and they slackened their paddling. They were farfrom timid, but they had not lost their reason.

  Twice the sea was rent apart ahead, and sheets of foam rushed up, whilethe sound of its impact on the reef rang in a deafening crash. Then thepursuit ended suddenly.

  "Are they mad, or turning on him?" gasped Gilby.

  A man flung in his paddle on board the craft ahead. The flash of apistol followed, but no sound was audible through the thunder of thereef. Then a black form rose upright with paddle swung high, and a longsea rose between the pursuers and the canoe. When it passed, the frailcraft floated bottom uppermost, and the reef hurled up a smother of foamclose ahead. Already several black heads were spread out across theswell as the native crew swam for dear life to evade the danger.

  Gilby's boys stopped paddling altogether.

  "Go on! Rideau's clinging to the canoe!" shouted Dane.

  Gilby looked at the whirling spray, and then at his comrade.

  "It won't be in this world he'll answer for his offenses. She's driftingstraight across the reef, and nothing at that distance could cheat it."

  Dane struck the nearest negro.

  "Go on! Why don't you paddle? Gilby, where that man goes I follow!"

  The trader gripped him savagely by the arm.

  "He has escaped you. Keep still or I'll fell you with the tiller. Areyou mad? There, look yonder. That is the last of him."

  Staring out of eyes that but imperfectly recorded their impressions,Dane saw the black hull of the canoe swing aloft on the crest of a seawhich rolled majestically toward the hidden barrier. The wall of waterbroke up suddenly with a deafening roar, and a tremendous rush of foamhurled itself aloft. When it fell, there was no sign of the canoe.

  "He has gone," said Gilby, in a curiously strained voice. "The niggerswill get ashore all right. You couldn't drown a beach man. Rideau willbe smashed out of recognition. Still, we'll paddle round to leeward andmake certain. Appolyon, you try to signal them 'teamer."

  When they slid round the other side of the barrier a shattered canoerocked bottom-uppermost on the confused welter, but there was no sign ofa human head; and when the blast of a whistle reached the searchers, thesurf-boat's bow was toward the steamer.

  "You had better go on with her and make an affidavit before theCommandant, if they'll land you," advised Gilby. "I'll send in a writtenstatement and swear to it if they send a Commissioner. Meantime, we'llkeep your boys at the factory; and, in case we might want theirtestimony, I'll take off Rideau's niggers too. Of course, we had nointention of drowning him, but the way he shot that poor blackpaddle-boy lessens one's regrets. Rideau was dangerous to his friends tothe last."

  Dane was ready to act upon any suggestion. Worn out, mentally andphysically alike, he could not think connectedly; and when, climbingthe lowered ladder, he was surrounded by a wondering group on thesteamer's deck, he turned from them savagely.

  "We are all curious," said the skipper. "What took place aboard thecanoe--mutiny, murder, or an outbreak of insanity?"

  "I can't tell you anything now; but if you will come ashore with me atthe next French station, where I must make a declaration, you shall hearhow the canoe was wrecked when I am able to tell it."

  "That will do," acquiesced the skipper. "You certainly don't look fitfor unnecessary talking now. Better turn in, and I'll send our doctoralong to you."

  Dane was glad to do so; but he had hardly flung himself down in his roombefore the doctor came in.

  "I have been living under a constant strain during the last few months,and have had very little sleep for weeks," he said. "Give me somethingthat will keep me from waking or thinking for twelve hours, if you haveit."

  The surgeon touched his wrist and laid a hand on his forehead.

  "So one would suppose," he replied; "but if the scene we just witnessedwas the climax of your adventures, I hardly think you will need asleeping draught. Nature is addicted to providing her own remedy. Ifyou'll take the dose I'll send you, you will probably wake upconsiderably better. It will not contain narcotics."

  He went out, and Dane soon sank into deep, refreshing sleep.