Grenville remained upon the terrace. No less a degree of vigilance
than that previously exercised was, he felt, highly essential.
Concealed in the caves or rocks comprised by the former camp he could
not only guard against surprise by a bridging of the ruined trail, but
his view of the sea, that might once more be haunted by the Dyak craft,
was practicably without limit.
Apparently the Dyaks, too, had been aware the breeze would serve them
no longer. The smudges in the jungle were extinguished. In a time
comparatively brief, after the shifting of the wind, no smoke at all
was visible. But during the final hour preceding sunset another phase
of fiendish ingenuity developed.
The Dyaks began shooting arrows of fire all about on the summit of the
terrace. They were shafts made highly inflammable by means of resin
and pitch. Their flight through the air was not sufficiently violent
to extinguish their glowing ends. If they did not blaze upon alighting
on the rocks, they still retained sufficient heat and redness to ignite
a pan of powder.
It was this that occurred to Grenville as he made up his mind that some
genius of diabolism among the new arrivals was doubtless responsible
for this effort to explode his magazine. His satisfaction with himself
for his foresight in storing his powder anew was his one real joy of
the day. He wondered how long this business might continue, and how
many of the enemy must now be reckoned with.
As a matter of fact, with the four who had come under cover of the
night, there were nine unscathed by previous engagements. Also, it
was, as Grenville had suspected, one of the latest comers who had
counseled the use of burning arrows. Since the terrace defenders were
employing some dreaded explosive, the one course readily suggested was
to reach his supply with a brand of fire--and, perhaps, thereby destroy
its maker. In any event, deprived of this one deadly means of defense,
the whites could be readily slaughtered.
Already the Dyaks had built a bridge, to be used, when the time should
at last arrive, for spanning that gap on the trail. It was not
impossible, many had urged, that the prisoners lodged on the headland's
summit were already either dead or dying. How they had managed to
survive so long, with no supply of water, was sufficiently mysterious.
Should they still be found alive another day--all the greater the joy
of bringing about the end!
The Dyak plan for reaching the magazine had been too hastily concocted.
The supply of tarred and resined arrows was decidedly insufficient.
Less than a score had been sent to the top of the terrace when the last
was speeded on its way. But during the short remaining hour of
daylight, and even by firelight, after dark, the shafts accumulated
swiftly, against the coming of the dawn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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