CHAPTER XIX
Breaking the Blockade
Throughout that day Jack was on the alert in anticipation of anothermove on the part of the enemy. But Elbel's men, except the pickets,did not come within sight of the fort, and nothing was heard of them.Samba wished to go out again on a scouting mission, but Jack refused toallow him to leave the fort in daylight; perhaps in the darkness hemight risk a journey once more.
Although the attempt to fire the blockhouses had been foiled, Jack,thinking over the matter, saw that the feat would not have beenimpossible with the exercise of a little common sense coupled withdash. A second attempt, better organized, might be successful.
"I wish we could guard against the risk," he said to Barney. "We don'twant to be continuously on the fidget in case the blockhouses arefired. Yet we can't make 'em fireproof."
"That's true, sorr; still, something might be done to rejuce theinflammation."
"What's that?" said Jack without a smile. To call in question Barney'sEnglish was to wound him in the tenderest part.
"Why, sorr, why not drop down some uv them boulders we keep forrepairing the wall? If we let them down wid care to the foot uv theblockhouses, close up against the woodwork, 'twould prevent any wanfrom setting a match to 'm."
"A good idea! we'll try it. Get the men to carry the stones up to thewall. We won't do anything more till it is dark."
When the sun had set, Jack had the stones hauled up to the roof of theblockhouse at the north-west corner, and then dropped down outside, asclose to the woodwork as possible. The task was carried on in almosttotal darkness, only a few rushlights inside the camp preventing theworkers from colliding with one another. But it was impossible tocontrive that the heavy stones should fall silently, and a shot from upthe slope soon told that the enemy had discovered what was going on.Active sniping for a time gave Jack a good deal of annoyance, and oneor two of his men were hit; but he persevered in his work, and hadpartially accomplished it, when another danger suddenly threatened.
Up the slope, near the position occupied by the enemy in the morning,there appeared small points of light, which moved apparently at randomfor a few moments, and then came all in one direction, down the hill.They all started fairly close together, and Jack counted twelve in aline; but soon some diverged from the rest and went off at an angle.The others came on more and more rapidly towards the fort, jumpingoccasionally, but keeping on the whole a surprisingly straight course.
"Barrels again!" said Jack to Barney.
Only a few seconds after he had first observed them, they came with aquick succession of thuds against the wall and the half-finishedrampart at the foot of the blockhouse, and the points of light spreadout into fierce tongues of flame. Lighted matches had been attached tothe barrels, and with the bursting of these by the stonework the resinthey contained had taken fire. Of the dozen barrels that started, onlyfour had reached their goal, the rest having rolled over the gully onthe western slope as had happened during the day.
Jack hoped that his new stonework was sufficient to protect the logs atthe base of the blockhouse. But one of the barrels, under the impetusgained in its passage down the hill, had jumped the boulders, andbreaking as it crashed over, burst into flame within an inch or two ofthe woodwork. Another line of barrels was starting down the slope.Jack had called up his best marksmen at the first alarm, and orderedthem to take pot-shots at the twinkling points of light, or the figuresabove, dimly lit up by the matches attached to the barrels. Whetherany of the shots got home he could not tell; another set of barrels wastrundling down towards the fort.
It appeared to Jack that nothing could save the blockhouse. Burningresin could only be extinguished by a deluge of water, and he had nomeans of bringing water from the tank in sufficient quantities. Thelogs were dry, and, when once fairly alight, would burn furiously.Barney suggested dropping a heavy boulder on the barrel mostdangerously near, but Jack saw that the effect of this would be merelyto spread the flames without necessarily extinguishing them. The firewould continue beneath the stone; it would lick the lowest logs, and ina few minutes the whole base of the blockhouse would be ablaze. Theimminence of the danger acted as a spur to Jack's resourcefulness. Itflashed upon him that there was one chance of saving the fort. Callingto Samba to follow him, he rushed from the roof of the blockhouse downthe ladders connecting it with the second floor and this with theground, and ran at full speed to his hut, where he seized an emptytobacco-tin and searched for a piece of wire. For a few moments hecould not lay hands on any, but he then bethought himself of the wiredcork of a Stephens' ink-bottle. Wrenching this out, he hastened to theunderground magazine where the ammunition was, stored. Samba hadpreceded him thither with a lighted candle in a little lantern ofbamboo.
Among the ammunition was a keg of loose powder sent up by Mr.Martindale for refilling cartridge cases. While Samba very cautiouslyheld the lantern out of harm's way, Jack, with the brad of a penknife,bored two thin holes in the tin and two corresponding holes in the lid.Then he inserted the wire and filled the tin with powder. Clapping onthe lid and firmly securing it by twisting up the wire, he rushed backto the blockhouse, up to the roof, and cleared out all the menhelter-skelter, bidding them go with Samba and bring baskets full ofearth to the base of the wall.
The place was now reeking with acrid smoke from the burning resin,great black eddies of it whirling over the roof, stinging Jack's eyesand making him cough and choke. When none but himself was left--forthere was some danger in what he purposed--he went to the edge of theroof, and bending over, almost blinded by the fumes, he marked the spotwhere the flame seemed the fiercest, and dropped the tin into the midstof it. Though he sprang back at once, he had not reached the inmostedge of the roof when there was a loud explosion. The blockhouserocked; clouds of sparks flew up; and feeling the tremor beneath him,Jack feared he had destroyed rather than saved. But the tremblingceased. He rushed back to the fore edge of the roof and peered over.As the smoke cleared away he saw no longer a blazing mass below him;nothing of the barrel was left; but all the ground for many yardsaround was dotted with little tongues of flame. The force of theexplosion had broken up the huge devouring fire into a thousandharmless ones.
But the woodwork near which the barrel had rested was smouldering.There was still a danger that the blockhouse would burn. While thatdanger remained Jack felt that his task was not yet done, and heinstantly prepared to meet it. Flames from the other barrels that hadstruck the wall were lighting up the scene. To carry out his purposeinvolved a great risk, but it was a risk that must be run. Calling toSamba, who had remained nearest at hand, he bade him bring a rope andsend Barney and Makoko to him. When they arrived he got them to knotthe rope about him, and let him down over the wall on the gully side,which was in deep shadow. Creeping round the blockhouse on the narrowledge between it and the gully, he called to the men above to lowersome of the baskets of earth which had been placed in readiness. Asthey reached him he emptied them upon the smouldering logs. It wasimpossible now to keep in the shadow; his every movement was betrayedby the still flaming barrels; and his work was not completed whenbullets began to patter about him. His only protection was the roughrampart of boulders which had been thrown over from the roof. But hebent low; it is difficult even for expert marksmen to aim without theguidance of the riflesights, and Elbel's men were far from beingexperts; Jack finished his job as rapidly as might be, and escapedwithout a scratch. Then creeping round once more to the gully, he laidhold of the rope and was drawn up into safety.
The other blockhouses meanwhile had been in no danger. That at thenorth-east corner was defended by the nature of the ground, whichsloped so rapidly that a barrel rolled from above could never hit themark. That at the southeast corner, being at the edge of theprecipice, could only be fired by the hand of man, and no man couldapproach it safely. By averting the danger at the north-west Jack hadsaved the camp.
But the attempt had been so nearly successful th
at he resolved to loseno time in completing the work of protection already begun. The momentwas come, too, for showing Elbel that he could only maintain a thoroughinvestment of the fort with the acquiescence of the besieged. At anytime a sally must break the chain of pickets, for Elbel's force was notlarge enough to support them adequately all round. Averse as Jack wasfrom shedding blood, he felt that it was necessary to teach the enemy awholesome lesson.
Before he could do anything, however, he must know how the force wasdistributed, and how the pickets were placed. He remembered his halfpromise that Samba should be allowed to go scouting that night. Noother could be trusted to move so warily or act so intelligently.Samba was accordingly let down into the gully. While he was gone Jackexplained to Barney the plan he proposed to try should the boy'sinformation favour it.
"I shall lead some of the men out, I don't know yet in what direction.At least it will surprise Elbel. I hope it will alarm his men andthrow them into confusion. You must take advantage of it to go on withour defences. Let down more boulders from the roof, and build them upas fast as you can to form a facing three or four feet high to the twonorthern blockhouses. You'll only have about half an hour for the job,for Elbel will have got his whole force together by then, and I shan'tbe able to fight them all. But we've plenty of men to turn on to it,and when I give the signal they must tumble over the wall and get towork."
Within an hour Samba returned. He reported that the enemy had allretired to their camp except the pickets. About forty men were postedabout a camp fire up stream near the place where the barrels had beenrolled down. Another picket of the same strength was lying at the edgeof the copse about a quarter of a mile to the east, and a third picketlay across the gully to the west. Samba had had great difficulty ineluding this western picket, and would have returned sooner but for thedetour he had been obliged to make.
All favoured Jack's enterprise. The pickets were so far from the campbelow the southern face of the fort that some time must elapse beforehelp could reach them. They could only support one another, and theidea of a ruse to prevent that had already flashed through Jack's mind.
Selecting fifteen of his steadiest riflemen, including Makoko andLepoko, Jack had them lowered one by one into the gully, and thenhimself followed. The night was fortunately very dark; all the flamesfrom the barrels had gone out, and he trusted that the enemy would bequite unprepared for any movement from the fort. When all wereassembled, they crept up the gully in dead silence, walking as far fromthe water as the steep sides allowed, so as to avoid kicking stonesinto it and making a splash. At first the gully was at least twelvefeet deep, but it became more shallow as they proceeded, until by andby its top barely rose above their heads.
They had not gone far when they heard laughing and talking beyond them.However Elbel might regard his defeat, it had evidently not affectedthe spirits of his men; the negro's cheerfulness is hard to quench. Ata bend in the stream, out of sight from the fort, shone the faint glowof the camp fire; and Jack, peeping cautiously round, saw a sentry oneach bank, moving backwards and forwards, but stopping now and again toexchange pleasantries, or more often fatuous remarks about food, withthe rest of the picket at the fire. It was nothing new to Jack thatthe Congo soldier's idea of sentry-go is somewhat loose.
Again Jack was favoured by circumstances. The glow of the fire did notextend far into the darkness of the gully; the noise of the laughingand talking was loud enough to drown all slight sounds for somedistance around. Thus the sixteen men in the gully could approach verynear the camp fire without being seen or heard. Jack's plan, alreadyhalf formed before he started, was quickly adapted to the conditions.Silently gathering his men together, he ordered them in a whisper tofollow him in a charge with the bayonet; not to fire except at the wordof command; not in their pursuit of the enemy to go beyond the campfire. It would have been easy to dispose of at least a third of thepicket by firing upon them from the darkness; the distance was onlyabout a hundred yards, and every shot would tell, for they were huddledtogether. Such an act would be justified by all the rules of warfare.Jack knew that in a like case he would receive no mercy from the enemy;but he was too young a campaigner to deal with them as they would dealwith him; he could not give the order to shoot them down unawares.
When his men clearly understood what was required of them he led theway, and they all crept forward again. The glow of the fire now madethem dimly visible to one another, but not to the picket, who were inthe full light, nor to the sentries, whose attention was largely takenup by the proceedings of their comrades. When the sound of talkinglulled for a few moments, Jack halted; when it grew in force, and heheard the sentries join in the chatter, he seized the opportunity tosteal forward a few yards more. So by slow degrees they approachedwithin forty paces.
To go further without discovery seemed to Jack impossible. Pausing fora moment to whisper once more to his men, he suddenly shouted the orderto charge, and, springing up the bank, dashed forward with a cheer thatwas reinforced by the yells from fifteen lusty throats. The sounds ofjoviality about the camp fire died on the instant; the cheer from theriver, echoed by the rocky walls of the gully, seemed to come from ahost of men. Yells of alarm broke from the dusky figures by the fire.Some of the men seemed for the moment spellbound; others leapt to theirfeet and made a dash for the rifles stacked close by, tumbling over oneanother in their agitation; the majority simply scurried away likehares into the darkness, only anxious to get as far away as possiblefrom this shouting host that had sprung as it were out of nothingness.As Jack's men rushed up there were a few reports of rifles hastily shotoff, and eight or nine men made as if to stand firm near the camp fire;but they could not face the steel gleaming red in the glow. One or twohapless wretches were bayonetted before they had time to run; the rest,with a wild howl, flung down their weapons and bolted.
The sound of the conflict, Jack knew, would be taken by Barney as thesignal to begin work outside the blockhouses. What would be its effecton the enemy? Would it draw their pickets on the right and left to thesupport of their comrades? Or would they be so much alarmed thatnothing but flight would occur to them? He thought the probabilitiesfavoured the former, for the firing having ceased, the immediate causeof alarm would seem to have been removed. Without staying to considerthat the chain of investment would be broken by their action, the outerpickets would in all likelihood move towards each other for mutualsupport.
Here was an opportunity which Jack was quick to seize. Without amoment's loss of time, he called his men together and hurried back downthe gully, where he ordered them to line the banks on both sides,keeping well in shadow from the light of the fire. The position theytook up was about forty yards below the bivouac, almost the same spotfrom which the charge had been made. The men had only just establishedthemselves when the picket from the eastern quarter came running up.Jack's situation was now so serious that he had no longer anycompunction. As the negroes emerged from the gloom into the light ofthe camp fire, he ordered his men on the opposite bank to shoot.Several of the enemy fell; the rest turned tail, finding their comradesfalling about them without being able to see their assailants. Butthey did not run far; when they had passed beyond the circle of lightthey halted.
Meanwhile all was quiet from the direction of the other picket beyondthe gully. If this was advancing, it was with more caution. For someminutes no sound was heard; then on his left hand Lepoko detected aslight rustle in the brushwood, and he whispered to Jack that the enemywere creeping forward, feeling their way. At the same time there weresounds of movement on the right.
Now was the chance to attempt a ruse. Withdrawing his men stealthilydown the stream for a hundred yards, Jack halted. The camp fire wasdying down for want of fresh fuel; he hoped that the two parties wouldmistake each other in the gloom. A quarter of an hour passed. Thenthe air rang with shots and shouts; the two pickets had met and comeinto conflict. The error was soon discovered, and then there arose aterrific cla
mour as each party accused the other.
Jack considered that the work of the fort should have been completed bythis time, all danger of interruption by the pickets having beenremoved by his sortie. He therefore led his men back along the gully,and arrived to find Barney putting the finishing touches to the work bythe light of his bamboo lantern.
"All well?" said Jack.
"All well, sorr. You're not hurt at all?"
"Not a bit. None of us scratched. Now we'll get back. I don't thinkthey'll try that particular dodge again."
They had hardly returned within the stockade when they heard the soundof a considerable body of men moving up the opposite bank of the streamtowards the pickets above.
"Too late!" said Jack with a chuckle.
"Truth, sorr. That Elbel was niver intended for a sojer, 'tis plain.But who are the two white men wid him, thin? Sure, I thought he'dbrought 'em wid him to tache him what to do, but they would all seem tobe birds uv wan feather, sorr."
"We may find out by and by, perhaps to our cost. Meanwhile we hadbetter man the walls and blockhouses in case he's going to favour uswith a night attack."
But the sounds of movement among the enemy ceased, and the remainder ofthe night passed in unbroken quietness.