[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LEADER OF THE DANCERS WAS JUST APPROACHING WHEN THERE WAS A ROAR, AND THE WHIRRING PROPELLER SET UP A HURRICANE WHICH CAUGHT AT HIS DRESS.]

A great roar of laughter burst from the spectators, hitherto silent, and from the crowd which had gathered outside.

'I guess the duk-duk won't quack so loud in future!' said Hoole, rejoining the others.

The medicine-man's attempt to retain the seaplane and demonstrate his own importance had ignominiously failed. His erstwhile supporters had no more to say. The carriers were called up; the chief's procession was formed, and when the red moon rested on the horizon they set forth solemnly towards the ancestral wreck.

CHAPTER XVI

FLIGHT

'I don't think nothing of this 'ere percession, sir--nothing at all,'

said Grinson, tramping beside Hoole. 'It ain't my idea of a percession--not by a long chalk. I 've seed hundreds of Lord Mayor's Shows, and King George a-going to be crowned. They was somethink like--everybody moving like clockwork, 'cept the horses, and they did their best. But these 'ere cannibals ain't got a notion o' keeping step. Look at 'em! What's the good of their drums, I 'd like to know?

Why don't they tap out the left-right, as you may say, so 's they will march proper?'

'Well, I guess they 're children of nature,' said Hoole with a smile.

'Brought up very bad, then, that's all I can say, sir. I 'm glad I 'm not a child of nature, but of respectable parents, and uncles and aunts the same. My old Aunt Maria, now, she was real respectable, and no mistake. I used to go and see her when I was a nipper. Fust thing she 'd do, she 'd wipe me nose. It ain't much of a nose--not like Ephraim's--p'r'aps he didn't have his wiped so often, so it growed better.... Why, save us, sir--did you hear that?'

Both the men turned round. From the rear of the procession came the cry of a white man in mortal peril. The moonlight, striking along the leafy avenue through which they were pa.s.sing, revealed the hideously painted faces of the Papuans, some of whom were carrying live pigs for the feast on the sh.o.r.e. Again rose the startling cry. The two men, stepping among the trees to avoid hindering the march, walked back quickly, and presently saw, among the black faces, the pale, terrified features of the German prisoners, whom rough hands were dragging along at the tail of the procession. An explanation of their presence flashed upon Hoole.

Baulked of their human prey before, the cannibals had determined that this time the custom of their tribe should be followed. The inauguration of their chief should not pa.s.s without its human sacrifice.

'Hi, you blackguards! What about my goose?' cried Grinson, and was rushing to the rescue when Hoole detained him.

'It's no use tackling these hobos,' said the latter. 'They 'd fly at you like dogs. Keep pace with them; I 'll run on and talk to the chief.'

Hoole sprinted up the line, past the Papuans, carrying food and cooking-pots, past the drummers and the men who bore the seaplane, past spearmen and dancers, and the retinue of patricians who followed immediately behind Flanso. Laying a hand on the chief's arm, he remembered that the interpreter had been left in the village, and wondered nervously how he was to make Flanso understand. To speak in English would be useless; he knew but a word or two of the native language. Suddenly he remembered the chief's remote French extraction, and the impression made on his father by Trentham's use of French.

Could that be turned to account? To explain in French what he desired was beyond him, even if Flanso could understand a continuous speech; what alternative was there? Perhaps if he could remember some French--a French poem, say--and declaim it with appropriate gestures, it might produce the moral effect which was the first necessity at the moment.

Hoole was a good elocutionist and amateur actor. Racking his memory for things learnt at school, he could recall but one poem, a song of Beranger's that had taken his fancy. He posted himself at the head of the procession, and facing Flanso, spread his arms to signify that no further advance was to be made. Impressed by his determined mien, the natives halted. And then Hoole, raising himself to his full height, began to recite:

'Il etait un roi d'Yvetot, Peu connu dans l'histoire.'

Rolling the r, he pointed dramatically to the moon,

'Se levant tard, se couchant tot, Dormant fort bien sans gloire.'

Here he shot out his right hand towards the village. The natives gasped.

'Et couronne par Jeanneton D'un simple bonnet de coton: Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Quel bon pet.i.t roi c'etait la!

La, la!'

He accompanied the refrain with a rhythmical clapping of hands; then, without waiting for the mystic effect to dissipate itself, he grasped the chief by the arm, and led him back along the halted line to the spot where the Germans stood paralysed in the hands of their captors.

French, he feared, would hardly serve him now; but he pointed to the prisoners, and repeated '_Pas manger; pas manger!_' in a fiercely authoritative voice, winding up with _'En arriere!_' and pointing towards the village, from which they had come but a quarter of a mile.

Then, stepping firmly up to the group of Papuans, he seized the arm of a big man who clutched one of the Germans, and with a dexterous twist forced him to relax his hold. The men snarled, but Flanso, who by this time had apprehended what the white man was driving at, sternly ordered the prisoners to be released.

'You must take them back, Grinson,' Hoole said. 'Their hands are tied; I 'll fasten them to you so that they can't get away. Take them back and hand them over to Mr. Trentham; then catch us up. Bring Lafoa back with you.'

'Ay, ay, sir. I 'll take a spear, case of accident. And I won't be long behind you.'

Hoole, sweating at every pore, as he afterwards said, gave an off-hand indication of approval to Flanso, and the march was resumed.

It was a slow and wearisome journey through the forest, and Grinson, accompanied by the interpreter, caught up the procession before it had advanced another mile. Many times the bearers of the seaplane had to rest; in some places trees and shrubs had to be cut down to allow its pa.s.sage, and Hoole had many an anxious moment, fearing that the wires would be bent or broken through the carelessness of his inexperienced carriers. But the edge of the cliff was reached without serious mishap, and in a much shorter time than he had believed to be possible. The route chosen by Flanso was in fact shorter by many miles than that by which Hahn had led the party weeks before.

The covering over the top of the chimney had been removed, and Flanso and his men nimbly climbed down one by one. Hoole allowed all to descend except the carriers, Grinson, and the interpreter; then he set to work to ensure the safe lowering of the machine and its detached planes. With the interpreter's aid he got the men to make a stout platform of saplings extending some feet beyond the edge of the cliff, with a hole at the chimney top. The body of the machine was secured to two stout ropes which were carried round trees. Hoole had a third rope with a sling in which to put his feet, and this he tied firmly to a trunk.

'Now, Grinson,' he said, 'you will be in charge here, and woe betide you if you fail me! I 'm going to let myself down into the chimney. When I give the word, lift the machine gently over the cliff and lower away; I 'll keep an eye on it and fend it off the rocks. That's all clear?'

'As clear as good beer, sir, and I only wish I had some, I 'm that dry.

Ephraim says there 's----'

'Oh, hang Ephraim! Stand by!'

He swung himself into the chimney and shouted 'Lower away.'

'The next ten minutes,' he told Trentham afterwards, 'were an age--an epoch. I heard Grinson yo-hoing to the natives above; he never stopped for a moment. How he managed to control those savages I don't know.

Down came the machine, and there was I, swinging on the rope, clinging with one hand while I guided the machine with the other. Once it dropped suddenly on one side, and I feared the whole caboodle would crash to the ground; but Grinson bellowed like a hurricane, the thing righted itself, and my heart was banging against my ribs like a steam hammer. Well, we got the fuselage down at last; the planes were a simpler proposition, and by and by Grinson joined me on the beach, as proud as a peac.o.c.k. "I done that in fust-rate style, sir," says he with a broad grin. "You can bear me out, sir."'

Hoole was so much occupied in putting the machine together by the light of the moon that he saw little of the native ceremony. There was drumming and dancing; at one moment the chief, followed by a group of his men, marched solemnly to the wreck, and after tramping seven times round the broken mast, descended to the cabin. On his return he was welcomed with a frenzied shout. Then fires were lighted under the cooking-pots, the dance was kept up until the viands were ready, and the feast was prolonged until the moon had travelled half-way round the sky.

Satiated, the natives flung themselves on the sand and slept.

'Well, sir,' said Grinson, sitting beside Hoole, close under the cliffs, 'all I can say is, it's a wonder to me how they could stow away so much boiled pork without mustard or a pint of beer.'

Morning dawned. Hoole had the seaplane carried down to the sea. The tide was rising; the sea was choppy; waves of considerable size were breaking on the beach.

'I hope she 's seaworthy, sir,' said Grinson, eyeing the machine anxiously.

'That we 'll soon discover,' replied Hoole. 'You know what you have to do. When I 've pumped up and sucked in, you 'll give the propeller half a dozen turns; then I 'll switch on, and you 'll skip away, or you 'll get a dose like the medicine-man.'

The whole body of natives was lined up on the beach, watching the white men with simple curiosity. Suddenly one of them gave a shout, and pointed out to sea.

'By the powers, sir, here's the Blue Raider,' cried Grinson.

The vessel had appeared round the western horn of the bay, and was standing in as close as possible to the sh.o.r.e.

'They must have seen us,' said Hoole. 'Rank bad luck! Think I 'd pa.s.s for one of the Germans, Grinson? They 're too far off to distinguish features.'

'You might, sir, though I 'm ashamed to say it; but what about me? I 'm a good deal too broad in the beam.'

'But you 're half in the water. I 'll try making signs, just to keep 'em quiet, for if they 're suspicious and get their guns on to me, I 'm a dead man, sure!'

Partly concealed by the overshadowing planes, Hoole waved his arms in imitation of the Morse signals. From the vessel, which had now hove to, a boat was lowered, and pulled towards the beach.