The Castaways of the Flag (25 page)

           
"No, Jenny dear—all hope is not lost of finding our people. It is
possible that they were not taken by surprise. Father and Mr. Wolston are sure
to have seen the canoes in the distance. They may have had time to take refuge
in one of the farms, or even in the heart of the woods at Pearl Bay, where
these savages would not have ventured. We saw no trace of them when we left the
hermitage at Eberfurt, after we crossed the canal. My opinion is that they have
not moved away from the coast."

           
"That is my opinion, too," said Captain Gould, "and I
believe that M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston have got away with their
families."

           
"Yes, I am sure of it!" said Jenny positively. "Dolly,
dear—Susan—don't lose heart! Don't cry any more! We shall see them all
again!"

           
The young woman spoke so stoutly that she brought back hope to them.
Fritz shook her hand.

           
"It is God who speaks through your lips, Jenny dear!" he said.

           
On consideration, indeed, as Captain Gould insisted, it was hardly to be
supposed that Rock Castle could have been surprised by attacking natives, for
they could not have brought
their canoes by night to land which
they did not know. It must have been by daylight that they arrived, and some of
the islanders must surely have seen them far enough off to have had time to
take refuge in some other part of the island.

           
"And
then again," Fritz .added, "if these natives landed only recently,
our people may not have been at Rock Castle at all. This is the season when we
usually visit all the farms. Although we did not meet them at the hermitage at
Eberfurt last night, they may be at Wood Grange, or Prospect Hill, or at
Sugarcane Grove, in the midst of those thick woods."

           
"Let us
go to Sugar-cane Grove first," Frank suggested.

           
"We can
do that," John Block assented; "but not before night.''

           
"Yes,
now, at once, at once!" Frank insisted, declining to listen to argument.
"I can go alone. About twelve miles there, and twelve miles back; I shall
be back in four hours, and we shall know what we are about."

            "
No,
Frank, no!" said Fritz. "I do beg you not to leave us. It would be
most foolish. If need be, I order you not to, and I am your elder
brother."

           
"Would
you stop me, Fritz?"

           
"I would
deter you from doing anything so rash."

           
"Frank,
Frank!" said Dolly entreatingly.

           
"Do please listen to your brother! Frank
! I
beseech you!''

           
But Frank was set on his plan.

           
"Very well!" said the boatswain, who thought it his duty to
interfere. "Since a search is to be made, let us make it without waiting
until night. But why should we not all go together to Sugar-cane Grove?"

           
"Then come along!" said Frank.

           
"But," the boatswain went on, addressing Fritz, "is it
really Sugar-cane Grove that we ought to make for?"

           
"Where else?" Fritz asked.

           
"Rock Castle!" John Block answered.

           
The name, thus unexpectedly dropped into the discussion, altered the
whole course of it.

           
Rock Castle? After all, if M. Zermatt and Mr. Wolston and their wives
and children had fallen into the hands of the natives, and if their lives had
been spared, it was there that they would be, for the smoke proved that Rock
Castle was occupied.

           
"Go to Rock Castle, eh?" Captain Gould replied. "All
right; but go there all together.''

           
"All together? No,'' said Fritz?" only two or three of us, and
after dark."

           
"After dark?" Frank began again, more set than ever upon his
idea. "I am going to Rock Castle now."

           
"And how do you expect in broad daylight to escape the savages who
are prowling round about it?" Fritz replied. "And if you do escape
them, how will you get into Rock Castle, if they are there at the time?"

           
"I don't know, Fritz. But I shall find out if our people are there,
and when I have found out I will, come back!"

            "
My dear Frank," Captain Gould said, "I quite
understand your impatience, and I sympathise with it. But do give way to us in
this matter; it is only common prudence that makes us think as we do. If the
savages get you, the hunt will be up; they will come to look for us, and there
won't be any more safety for us, either at Wood Grange or anywhere else."

           
At last they succeeded in making Frank listen to reason. He had to bow
to the authority of one who already perhaps was the head of the family.

           
So it was decided that they should wait, and that as soon as darkness
permitted Frank and the boatswain should leave Falconhurst. It was better that
two should make this reconnaissance, fraught with many dangers. They would
glide along the quickset hedge that bordered the avenue, and both would try to
get to Jackal River. If the drawbridge were withdrawn to the other bank, they
would swim across the river and attempt to sret into the court-yard of Rock
Castle through the orchard. It would be easy to see through one of the windows
if the families were shut up inside. If they were not, Prank and John Block
would come back at once to Falconhurst, and they would all try to get to Sugar-cane
Grove before daylight.

           
Never did the hours drag by more slowly! Never had Captain Gould and his
companions been more profoundly dejected—not even when the boat was cast adrift
upon an unknown sea, not even when it was smashed upon the rocks in Turtle Bay,
not even when the shipwrecked company, with three women and a child amongst
them, saw themselves threatened by winter on a desert coast, shut in a prison
whence they could not escape!

           
In the midst of all those trials they had, at least, been free from
anxiety on account of those in New Switzerland! Whereas, now, they had found
the island in the power of a horde of natives, and did not know what had become
of their relatives and friends; but had good ground for fearing that they might
all have perished in a massacre!

           
Slowly the day wore on. Every now and then one or other of them,
generally Fritz and the boatswain, climbed up among the branches of the
mangrove in order to search the country and the sea. What they were most
anxious to ascertain was whether the savages were still in the neighbourhood of
Falconhurst, or h
ad
gone back
to Rock Castle. But they could see nothing, except, towards
the south,
near the mouth of Jackal River, the little column of smoke rising above the
rocks.

           
Up to four
o'clock in the afternoon nothing happened to change the situation. A meal was
prepared from the stores in the house.

           
When Frank
and John Block came back they might all have to set out for Sugar-cane Grove,
and that would be a long march.

           
Suddenly a report
was heard.

           
"What is
that?" Jenny exclaimed, and Fritz drew her back as she was hastening to
one
of
the windows.

            "
Could
it have been a gun?" Frank asked.

           
"It was
a gun!" the boatswain exclaimed.

           
"But who
fired it?" Fritz said.

           
"A ship
off the island, do you think?" James suggested.

           
"The
Unicorn,
perhaps!" Jenny cried.

           
"Then
she must be very near the island," John Block remarked, "for that
report was close at hand."

           
'' Come to
the balcony, come to the balcony!'' Frank cried excitedly.

           
"Let us
be careful not to be seen, for the savages must be on the alert," Captain
Gould cautioned them.

           
All eyes were
turned towards the sea.

           
No ship was
to be seen, although, judging from the nearness of the report, it must have
been off Whale Island. All that the boatswain could see was a single canoe,
manned by two
men, which was trying to get
in from the open sea to the beach at Falconhurst.

           
"Can they be Ernest and Jack?" Jenny whispered.

           
"No," Fritz answered, "those two men are natives, and the
canoe is a pirogue."

            "
But why are they running away like that?" Frank
asked. "Can there be someone after them?"

           
Fritz uttered a cry—a cry of joy and surprise combined.

           
He had just seen a bright flash in the middle of a white smoke, and
almost simultaneously there was a second report which made the echoes ring
round the coast.

           
At the same time a ball, skimming the surface of the bay, threw up a
great jet of water a couple of fathoms away from the canoe, which continued to
fly at full speed towards Falconhurst.

           
"There! There!" shouted Fritz. "Father and Mr. Wolston
and all of them are there— on Shark's Island!"

           
It was, indeed, from that island that the first report had come, as well
as the second with the ball aimed at the pirogue. No doubt the islanders had
found refuge under the protection of the battery which the savages did not
venture to approach. Above it was the red and white flag of New Switzerland,
while on the
topmost peak in all the island floated the British flag!

           
Impossible to
depict the joy, the delirium to which those so lately in despair now abandoned
themselves! And their emotions were shared by those true comrades, Captain
Gould and the boatswain.

           
There was no
further idea of going to Rock Castle; they would leave Falconhurst only to
go—how, they did not know—to Shark's Island. If only it had been possible to
communicate with it by signals from the top of the mangrove, to wave a flag to
which the flag on the battery might reply! But that might have been unwise,
unwise too, to fire a few shots with the pistol, for, though these might be
heard by M. Zermatt, they might also be heard by the savages, if they were
still prowling about Falconhurst.

           
It was most
important that they should not know of the presence of Captain Gould and his
party, for these could not have withstood a combined attack by all the savages
now in possession of Rock Castle.

           
"Our
position is a good one now," Fritz remarked; "don't let us do
anything to compromise it."

            "
Quite
so,'' Captain Gould replied. "Since we have not been discovered, don't let
us run any risk of it. Let us wait until night before we do anything."