_ CHAPTER THIRTY. BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME
"Why, where have you been?" cried the second lieutenant, as the two boats ran alongside. "The captain's been nearly mad with excitement and anxiety."
"Oh, don't ask me," cried Mr Anderson. "But tell me this, has the stream forked anywhere as you came up?"
"Yes, once: about a mile lower down; but the river was very shallow and insignificant, and I did not think it was worth while to explore there. But why?"
"Shallow--insignificant!" said the lieutenant bitterly. "It was big and important enough to float a large lugger--the one we are pursuing."
"The one that we saw at the mouth of the river when we entered the bay? I was wondering where that had gone as we came up."
"No doubt the same," replied Mr Anderson. "Well, you've let the enemy slip, Munday."
"Nonsense! You don't mean that, man?"
"There's no mistake," said the lieutenant; "and it means this, that you will have to share the captain's anger and disappointment over my failure."
"I? But why?"
"For not catching the gang of scoundrels I was driving down before me. Oh, Munday, you ought to have taken that boat!"
"But how was I to know, man?"
"Don't stop to talk. Run on back and find the lugger if you can, while I keep on down the main stream. We may overtake the wretches after all, and if either of us sees the enemy in the offing of course we must pursue, even if it's right out to sea."
"But the captain--the _Seafowl_? We must report what has happened."
"I will, of course, in passing. You, if you come up first, need only say that there is a nest of slavers up the river, and that I have had a sharp fight. If the captain has seen the lugger, tell him it is full of a gang of scoundrels who have fired upon us, and that the vessel ought to be sunk."
"You had better tell him all this yourself, Anderson," said the second lieutenant, in a whisper that the men could not hear, "and I wouldn't say a word about my missing the lugger on the way, for he's in a towering rage, and will only be too glad to drop on to me for what I really could not help."
"No, I suppose not," said the first lieutenant good-humouredly; "but you might take your share of his ill-humour."
"But it is all on account of your being so long away."
"Well, that was not my fault, man. We've had a rough time of it; but be off sharply, and as to the missing business, follow and catch the scoundrels, and I won't say a word."
"Oh, I say, Anderson!" protested the second lieutenant.
"Well, there, be off and I'll see." The second cutter's sails were sheeted home, and she glided off without more being said, while at little more than half the rate the first cutter went on under oars, but well helped by the current; and they had not gone far down the winding river before the silence of the cane brake was broken by a dull report which made the two middies half rise from their seats by their leader.
"That means the _Seafowl_ firing at the lugger to heave to, sir," said Murray.
"May you be right, my lad," replied Mr Anderson. "Step the masts, my lads, and hoist sail."
The orders were obeyed, and sometimes catching the light breeze and at others helped by the sturdy pulling at the oars, the cutter sped on, her occupants hearing shots fired from time to time, and reading clearly enough that the occupants of the lugger, if it was she who was being summoned to heave to, had not obeyed, but were racing on and trying to make their escape.
This grew more and more certain as the time glided on, and Roberts went so far as to assert that he could tell the difference between the unshotted and the shotted guns which followed.
Then, to the delight of the two lads, the firing ceased, and as they sat anxious and excited, they compared notes and passed opinions, while the lieutenant sat sombre and silent, looking straight out before him, only uttering an ejaculation of impatience from time to time as the wind dropped in some bend of the river, or filled the sails again upon a fresh tack.
Only once did the lieutenant rouse himself a little, and that was when they came in sight of the place where the river forked and down which the second cutter had long passed. Murray pointed it out, while Roberts exclaimed--
"Of course! I remember that well now; but I had forgotten all about it before."
"Yes; I can recollect it now," said the lieutenant bitterly; and he relapsed into silence again, though he was listening to the conversation of the two middies all the same, as he proved before long.
"You may be right or you may be wrong," said Murray, after a time. "I think you are wrong and haven't told the difference between the shotted and the unshotted guns; but the firing has quite ceased now, and that means that the lugger has given up, and lowered her sails."
"Maybe," said Roberts, "but more likely after holding on so long she has had an unlucky shot and been sunk."
"Lucky shot," said Murray grimly.
"Ah, that depends upon which side you take. I believe that our lads have grown pretty savage, and sunk her."
A low murmur of satisfaction arose from amongst the men who overheard the conversation, and then there was silence again, till the lieutenant suddenly spoke out.
"You've only provided for two alternatives, gentlemen," he said.
"Do you mean about the lugger, sir?" asked Murray.
"Of course. You settled that she had lowered her sails or been sunk."
"Yes, sir; there is no other way."
"Indeed, Mr Roberts?" said the lieutenant. "It seems to me that there is another alternative."
"I don't understand you, sir," said the lad.
"Perhaps Mr Murray does," said the lieutenant sadly. "What do you say, my lad?"
"I'm afraid so, sir, but I hope not," cried the lad; "but we shall soon know, for the river is opening out fast."
"Yes, that will soon be proved," said the first lieutenant; and he relapsed into silence.
"I say," whispered Roberts, giving his companion a nudge, "what do you mean by your alternatives? The lugger must either have lowered her sails or been sunk."
"What about the coast here?" replied Murray.
"Well, what about it?"
"Isn't it all wooded and covered with jungle?"
"Of course: don't we know it well!"
"Yes, and don't the slaving people know it well?"
"Of course they must."
"Then isn't it possible for them to have held on, sailing all they knew, and made for some other river or creek running into the shore right up perhaps into some lagoon or lake known only to themselves, and where we could not follow, knowing so little as we do of the country?"
"Oh, I say," cried Roberts, "what a miserable old prophet of ill you are, Frank! You shouldn't go on like that. Haven't we been disappointed enough, without coming in for worse things still? You might as well stick to it that the lugger has been sunk."
"I can't, old fellow," said Murray, "for I honestly believe--"
"Oh, bother your honest beliefs!" cried Roberts pettishly. "Be dishonest for once in a way. You might give us a bit of sunshine to freshen us up. Haven't we got enough to go through yet, with the captain fuming over our failure and being ready to bully us till all's blue?"
"Can't help it, old fellow; I must say what I feel. But there, we needn't talk, for we shall soon know now."
The lieutenant was of the same opinion, for he suddenly rose from where he was seated, and pressing the sheets on one side as he went forward he made for the bows, where he stood looking out where the mouth of the river became a wide estuary, and then came back to his place in the stern sheets, and as he sat down he pointed past the sails.
"There, gentlemen," he said; "there lies the _Seafowl_, in quite a different position; but there is no lugger."
"No, sir, but there lies the second cutter," cried Roberts; and he pointed to where their fellow boat was sailing far away and close in shore. "That means she had been chasing the _lugger_ until a lucky shot from the sloop sunk her."
"No, my lad," said the officer gravely. "I hold to Mr Murray's idea-- that the second cutter chased the scoundrels till they dodged into one of their lairs, and they have by this time penetrated far up the country, perhaps been able to get round by some back way through some forest labyrinth to where the plantation house is."
"Well, sir, we know our way better now," said Murray, "and we must go again. Better luck next time."
"Thank you, Mr Murray. Better luck next time. Now to hear what the captain has to say!" _