_ CHAPTER IX. AN AMAZING NARRATION
When the captain had gone out again into the open air, he was followed by
the rest of the party, for, if there were no danger, they all wanted to
see what was to be seen. What they saw was a party of six black men on
the plateau, Maka in the lead. There could be no doubt that the newcomers
were the remainder of the party of Africans who had been enslaved by the
Rackbirds, and the desire of the captain and his companions to know how
they had got away, and what news they brought, was most intense.
Maka now hurried forward, leading one of the strangers. "Great things
they tell," said he. "This Cheditafa. He speak English good as me. He
tell you."
"The first thing I want," cried the captain, "is some news of those
Rackbirds. Have they found we are here? Will they be coming after these
men, or have they gone off somewhere else? Tell me this, and be quick."
"Oh, yes," cried Maka, "they found out we here. But Cheditafa tell
you--he tell you everything. Great things!"
"Very well, then," said the captain. "Let him begin and be quick
about it."
The appearance of Cheditafa was quite as miserable as that of poor Mok,
but his countenance was much more intelligent, and his English, although
very much broken, was better even than Maka's, and he was able to make
himself perfectly understood. He spoke briefly, and this is the substance
of his story:
About the middle of the afternoon of the day before, a wonderful thing
happened. The Rackbirds had had their dinner, which they had cooked
themselves, and they were all lying down in their huts or in the shadows
of the rocks, either asleep, or smoking and telling stories. Cheditafa
knew why they were resting. The Rackbirds had no idea that he understood
English, for he had been careful to keep this fact from them after he
found out what sort of men they were,--and this knowledge had come very
soon to him,--and they spoke freely before him. He had heard some of the
men who had been out looking for Mok, and who had come back early that
morning, tell about some shipwrecked people in a cave up the coast, and
had heard all the plans which had been made for the attack upon them
during the night. He also knew why he and his fellows had been cooped up
in the cave in the rock in which they lived, all that day, and had not
been allowed to come down and do any work.
They were lying huddled in their little cave, feeling very hungry and
miserable, and whispering together,--for if they spoke out or made any
noise, one of the men below would be likely to fire a load of shot at
them,--when suddenly a strange thing happened.
They heard a great roar like a thousand bulls, which came from the
higher part of the ravine, and peeping out, they saw what seemed like a
wall of rock stretching across the little valley. But in a second they
saw it was not rock--it was water, and before they could take two breaths
it had reached them. Then it passed on, and they saw only the surface of
a furious and raging stream, the waves curling and dashing over each
other, and reaching almost up to the floor of their cave.
They were so frightened that they pressed back as far as they could get,
and even tried to climb up the sides of the rocky cavity, so fearful were
they that the water would dash in upon them. But the raging flood roared
and surged outside, and none of it came into their cave. Then the sound
of it became not quite so loud, and grew less and less. But still
Cheditafa and his companions were so frightened and so startled by this
awful thing, happening so suddenly, as if it had been magic, that it was
some time--he did not know how long--before they lifted their faces from
the rocks against which they were pressing them.
Then Cheditafa crept forward and looked out. The great waves and the
roaring water were gone. There was no water to be seen, except the brook
which always ran at the bottom of the ravine, and which now seemed not
very much bigger than it had been that morning.
But the little brook was all there was in the ravine, except the bare
rocks, wet and glistening. There were no huts, no Rackbirds, nothing.
Even the vines and bushes which had been growing up the sides of the
stream were all gone. Not a weed, not a stick, not a clod of earth, was
left--nothing but a great, rocky ravine, washed bare and clean.
Edna Markham stepped suddenly forward and seized the captain by the arm.
"It was the lake," she cried. "The lake swept down that ravine!"
"Yes," said the captain, "it must have been. But listen--let us hear
more. Go on," he said to Cheditafa, who proceeded to tell how he and his
companions looked out for a long time, but they saw nor heard nothing of
any living creature. It would be easy enough for anybody to come back up
the ravine, but nobody came.
They had now grown so hungry that they could have almost eaten each
other. They felt they must get out of the cave and go to look for food.
It would be better to be shot than to sit there and starve.
Then they devised a plan by which they could get down. The smallest man
got out of the cave and let himself hang, holding to the outer edge of
the floor with his hands. Then another man put his feet over the edge of
the rock, and let the hanging man take hold of them. The other two each
seized an arm of the second man, and lowered the two down as far as they
could reach. When they had done this, the bottom man dropped, and did not
hurt himself. Then they had to pull up the second man, for the fall would
have been too great for him.
After that they had to wait a long time, while the man who had got out
went to look for something by which the others could help themselves
down--the ladder they had used having been carried away with everything
else. After going a good way down the ravine to a place where it grew
much wider, with the walls lower, he found things that had been thrown up
on the sides, and among these was the trunk of a young tree, which,
after a great deal of hard work, he brought back to the cave, and by the
help of this they all scrambled down.
They hurried down the ravine, and as they approached the lower part,
where it became wider before opening into the little bay into which the
stream ran, they found that the flood, as it had grown shallower and
spread itself out, had left here and there various things which it had
brought down from the camp--bits of the huts, articles of clothing, and
after a while they came to a Rackbird, quite dead, and hanging upon a
point of projecting rock. Farther on they found two or three more bodies
stranded, and later in the day some Rackbirds who had been washed out to
sea came back with the tide, and were found upon the beach. It was
impossible, Cheditafa said, for any of them to have escaped from that
raging torrent, which hurled them against the rocks as it carried them
down to the sea.
But the little party of hungry Africans did not stop to examine anything
which had been left. What they wanted was something to eat, and they
knew where to get it. About a quarter of a mile back from the beach was
the storehouse of the Rackbirds, a sort of cellar which they had made in
a sand-hill. As the Africans had carried the stores over from the vessel
which had brought them, and had afterwards taken to the camp such
supplies as were needed from time to time, of course they knew where to
find them, and they lost no time in making a hearty meal.
According to Cheditafa's earnest assertions, they had never eaten as
they had eaten then. He believed that the reason they had been left
without food was that the Rackbirds were too proud to wait on black
men, and had concluded to let them suffer until they had returned from
their expedition, and the negroes could be let down to attend to their
own wants.
After they had eaten, the Africans went to a spot which commanded a view
up the ravine, as well as the whole of the bay, and there they hid
themselves, and watched as long as it was daylight, so that if any of
the Rackbirds had escaped they could see them. But they saw nothing, and
being very anxious to find good white people who would take care of
them, they started out before dawn that morning to look for the
shipwrecked party about whom Cheditafa had heard the Rackbirds talking,
and with whom they hoped to find their companion Mok, and thus it was
that they were here.
"And those men were coming to attack us last night?" asked the captain.
"You are sure of that?"
"Yes," said Cheditafa, "it was last night. They not know how many you
are, and all were coming."
"And some of them had already been here?"
"Yes," replied the African. "One day before, three went out to look for
Mok, and they found his track and more track, and they waited in the
black darkness, and then came here, and they heard you all sleep and
snore that night. They were to come again, and if they--"
"And yesterday afternoon the lake came down and swept them out of
existence!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff. _