22 In the Hut

We were so much exhausted by our great efforts that we lay for a minute or two on the floor struggling for breath. Our enemies quickly discovered that something more than human strength was holding the door, and abandoned the attempt to force the entrance. There were a few moments of silence, followed by a rattling volley of rifle and pistol shots. The bullets thudded like hail against the walls. Then a loud voice sang:

“Let him sing on,” said Pike, grimly, “but it’s well fur him it’s so dark or his singin’ an’ his sailin’ might be cut short by a plug uv lead. You fellows lay low, thars a crack or two in the door that ud let a bullet in. Is everybody here?”

It was so dark in the hut that we could not see each other, and Pike began to call the roll:

“Mr. Sheldon?”

“Here!”

“Starboard Sam?”

“Here!”

“Bonneau?”

“Here!”

“Joe Fieldin’?”

“Here!”

“Henry Fieldin’?”

“Here!”

“Wa’al, that makes it right, shore. We’re all in. Anybody hurt?”

There was no answer.

“I’m shore somebody got hurt,” said Pike. “I heard a screech or two, an’ they didn’t come from the other crowd. Who wuz it? Speak out.”

“A bullet clipped my shoulder, and it made me cry out, but it’s nothing,” said Henry. “It’s already stopped bleeding, and I hardly feel it.”

“That’s one,” said Pike; “who wuz the other? Thar wuz another, I know, ’cause I heard him. Speak up!”

“I guess it wuz me,” said Starboard Sam. “I got my ear burnt. One o’ them pirates put his mark on it with a piece o’ lead, but it don’t matter. I never wuz purty, anyhow, an’ I ain’t goin’ to set up for beauty at my time o’ life.”

“We’ll hev to see to them scratches presently,” said Pike. “Are you all right Bonneau?”

“Oui, oui,” said the little Frenchman. “Nevaire felt bettaire in my life, and I have held ze little fort against all ze robbaires. I feel like a Marshal of ze great Napoleon. I am one mighty warrior.”

“You’ve kivvered yourself with glory, no doubt, Bonneau,” said Pike. “How did it all happen?”

“I was busy cooking,” said Bonneau, “for I knew you would be very hungry when you come home after ze hard digging so many hours in ze rivaire. I have ze fire burning on ze ground near ze hut, and I bend ovaire to push ze chunks togezzer, when crack! zip! bang! goes a gun in ze woods down ze hill. A bullet come along, and its breath fan my face, which is very uncomfortable and very trying for ze nerves. I look up and see a great gang of robbaires, led by one big man, come running towards me. I jump towards ze hut. I seize my rifle and shoot. One of ze robbaires give a great cry and fall over in ze grass. Ze ozzers fire bang! bang! bang! bang! and still come running. Ze bullets fly all around me and make one, two, three holes in my clothes, but not touch me. Zen I jump inside ze hut and close and fasten ze door. Robbaires afraid to come up in ze daylight. I know you come to help, and by and by I signal to you. You understand vairy well and signal back. In ze night I expect both you and ze robbaires to come, and I wait until I hear you whisper through ze crack.”

“You’ve done well, Bonneau, mighty well,” repeated Pike, with emphasis. “You’ve held the fort and the gold with it.”

“Ze gold ees all right in ze cornaire here,” said Bonneau.

“The fust thing we must do,” said Pike, “is to fix them cracks in the door so no stray bullets kin come in.”

He secured a couple of loose timbers and, fastening them to the door, closed the dangerous apertures. Then, fumbling about in the dark, he examined Sam’s and Henry’s hurts and pronounced them trifling, not even worth binding up. These matters attended to, we sat in the dark with our rifles in our hands and waited for some movement on the part of our enemies for we felt safe and sanguine now. The stout walls of the cabin were complete proof against bullets, and we thought ourselves able to beat off any number of brigands. We had plenty of food and all the supplies which miners usually carry, and the fountain was only a few feet from our hut. Pike would be skillful enough to devise some means for us to reach the water without exposing ourselves to shots, and we were well situated to stand a siege of considerable duration. There was only one thing that I dreaded, and I told Pike of my fear.

“Suppose they try to set the house on fire,” I said, “and burn it over our head. What will prevent them from doing that in the darkness, when we cannot see to shoot them as they approach?”

But Pike’s reply was reassuring.

“It kain’t be done,” he said. “The timbers uv the house are too heavy and solid, and besides they’re uv a wood that don’t burn easy. I ain’t afeard uv any-thin’ uv that kind.”

Pike walked to one of the loopholes, which we had left when we built the house for just such an emergency as this, and peeped out. I imitated his example at another loophole, but I could see nothing.

“What do you think has become of them, Pike?” asked Mr. Sheldon.

“Hard to say,” replied the hunter, “but I’ve an idee some uv ’em are still sneakin’ along by the walls uv the cabin whar we kain’t git at ’em withbut goin’ outside. Now, ef this place wuz built like the old-fashioned block-house we’d soon send ’em scatterin’ like brush afore a cyclone. Them forts were two stories, with the upper story projectin’ out over the lower. Then the defenders could shoot straight down at anybody crouchin’ ag’in’ the walls. But, never mind, they’ll git away afore the daylight comes.”

Having failed to see anything, I had taken my eye from the loophole and put my ear to it instead, thinking the sense of hearing might detect something that the sense of sight had failed to reveal. The experiment was a success, for I heard a noise that sounded like a groan. I called Pike’s attention to it and he put his ear to a loophole also.

“I hear it,” he said. “It’s somebody groanin’. Like ez not it’s some one uv the gang that fell when the shootin’ match come off at the door. I guess he’s hurt too bad to get away. Listen at that!”

The groans became much louder. It was no longer necessary to apply one’s ear to a loophole to hear them. Apparently they proceeded from a point within a few feet of the door.

“Poor devil,” said Pike, “he’s in a tight fix, an’ I feel sorry for him.”

The groans increased; and still listening intently at the keyhole, I heard a faint voice gasp out a request for water. No other sound disturbed the stillness, and the man, whoever he was, began to breathe stertorously, while his occasional cries for water pierced us like so many knife-blades.

“Can’t we do anything for him, Pike?” exclaimed Henry. “I can’t stand to sit here and listen to him.”

“It’s hard,” said Pike, “it’s mighty hard, but what kin we do? We kain’t go out thar to him.”

Henry said no more. We listened to the man’s moans until at last Pike himself said:

“Boys, I think it’s a sin to let a feller critter, no matter what he is, lay out and suffer like that. He’s layin’ right afore the door; an’ ef you fellers are willin’ to take the resks with me, we’ll open the door an’ try to drag him in. What d’ you say!”

All of us answered in the affirmative.

“Now, come close up to the door with me every one uv you,” said Pike. Bonneau, you and Sam lift the bar an’ Mr. Sheldon you an’ Joe go out with me an’ git the man. The minute we drag him in shut the door and put the bar back, and be shore you’re darned quick about it, Sam, you and Bonneau. Now!

The bar was thrown up and the door opened. We sprang out and saw the figure of a man lying not five feet from the door. We seized him, dragged him inside and Sam and Bonneau shut the door behind us and dropped the bar in place.

“We wuz too quick fur ’em that time,” said Pike, “even of they wuz watchin’. Now we’ve got to hev a light here.”

The latter was not such a difficult matter. We had funk and a flint and dry sticks of wood and in a few moments we succeeded in igniting one of the sticks. The man was lying on his side and still groaning. I turned him over on his back and disclosed the features of the man Bliss. His face was distorted by pain and ghastly in hue. Pike shook his head when he looked at him, and I knew his gesture meant that Bliss had received his last call.

The man groaned and in a feeble, quavering voice asked for water.

All our canteens filled with water were in a corner, and while Starboard Sam raised the man to a sitting posture Bonneau put the water to his lips. He drank thirstily, greedily; and when Bonneau at last took the canteen away he looked gratefully at us. He was shot through the chest and bleeding internally, but the water refreshed him so much that he was able to speak.

“You’re treating me white, boys,” he said feebly, “and it isn’t the first time either. I ought to have belonged to this crowd instead of to the other,”

“Why did you join Halftrigger?” asked Henry.

“I don’t know,” replied Bliss. “Because the devil was in me, I suppose. I don’t pretend to be good. I’ve done nothing all my life but loaf and gamble and worse. I’ve had good impulses now and then, but the impulses wouldn’t hold out.”

“Oh, well you can have another trial,” said Henry, with an effort at cheerfulness, “and perhaps your next good impulse will last longer.”

“Maybe,” said Bliss, with a faint smile, “but it won’t be in these parts. I’ve got my ticket. I know very well what a bullet through the chest means. I won’t see another sunrise. But I’ve done you a good turn, boys. I’ve——”

The blood in his throat choked him and he was unable to speak again for a minute or two.

“You’ve done what?” asked Henry anxiously.

“I’ve helped you—maybe saved all your lives,” said Bliss. “It was me who crawled around the corner of the house and saw all of you crouched under the wall. Your leader there motioned me back, and you thought he made me believe he was one of our party, but he didn’t. I knew him, but you had done the white thing by me once before, and I went back and said nothing. I kept Halftrigger on the other side of the house until you got the door open. Even then, when we made our rush, I managed to get in the way of the others and delay them.”

“What a pity,” exclaimed Henry, “that one who wished to be our friend should fall by our own hands!”

“No,” said Bliss; “none of you gave me my dose. It was Halftrigger. He was about to shoot you down with his pistol when I tripped him. He turned and shot me through the chest. He left me to bleed to death there on the ground. And, boys, I don’t know that I’m sorry that it’s all happened, as—as—as”—

He was interrupted again by a fit of coughing and spat up blood.

“Have you any message that you would like to send back to old friends, or relatives in the East?” asked Henry. “Perhaps we will be able to send it through for you.”

Bliss shook his head.

“No,” he replied. “Everybody at home that I care for is ashamed of me; for good reasons, too, I guess. Better let me pass away unnoticed.”

He began to cough again, and visibly was growing weaker fast. Bonneau held the canteen again to his lips, but he was able to drink but little.

“You don’t think hard of me, boys?” he gasped.

We replied “no” altogether.

The damp began to gather on his brow.

“Lay him down, Sam,” said Pike.

The sailor lowered him gently to the floor. For a few minutes he breathed with great difficulty. Then he ceased to gasp, and when we looked more closely at him he was dead.

“He hed his good streak,” said Pike briefly.

Bonneau arranged the body and spread a white cloth over the face of the dead. For some time we sat in a sombre silence by the light of the sputtering torch.

“What are we to do with the body?” asked Starboard Sam finally. “We kain’t put it outside ez we’d drop a body overboard at sea, and we kain’t keep it in here, ez we may hev a long siege.”

“Why, bury it,” said Pike.

“Bury it! Whar?” asked Sam.

“Right whar it lays,” said Pike. “Thar couldn’t be a better place.”

The solution of the difficulty was very simple. The floor of the hut was made of bark only. Some of our mining picks were in the cabin, and we had only to remove the bark, dig down and make a grave.

An hour later we began this task. While we were digging the grave the bandits began to fire on the cabin. The bullets pattered against the walls, but we continued our labors, knowing that the thick timbers afforded us ample protection.

“Let ’em waste thar ammunition,” said Pike. “They’ll need it afore they git through.”

“From what point do those shots come?” I asked.

“From the hill,” said Pike. “They’re in the woods up thar.”

Thus, amid the fusillade from his late friends, we lowered Bliss’s body into the grave and covered it with the earth. When the grave had been smoothed over and the light flooring replaced, Henry cut these words with his hunting knife in the soft bark:

“Nobody will ever see that except ourselves,” said Henry, “but it tells the truth, nevertheless.”

A few stray shots were fired by the bandits after we had completed the burial, but they soon relapsed into silence. The night had lightened a little, and Pike and Mr. Sheldon, examining the approaches to the cabin on every side through the loopholes, announced that they could see nothing of a hostile nature. Pike said that, in his opinion we had nothing now to apprehend that night, as in the limited period of darkness that remained the outlaws would not have sufficient time to devise a method of attack.

All of us were now veteran campaigners, and, believing that the stirring events of the night were over, we divided our party into relays, and part slept while the others watched. I was among the last to answer the next day, and when I opened my eyes and rose to my feet I was informed that there had not been the slightest demonstration from the enemy.

“They hevn’t made a sign,” said Pike, “but they’re in the woods up thar, shore. Mebbe they want to make us think they’ve gone, and then, ef any uv us go out they’ll plunk us. Ef they wait fur that they’ll hev to be mighty patient.”

The cabin was within easy rifle-shot of the wood, which was unfortunate. But, in building it, we had to choose between two positions for a location. By coming to the head of the brook, where our water supply could not be cut off by turning the channel, we placed ourselves within range of the wood. But, if we avoided the wood, we ran the chance of losing the water. So we had considered it better military judgment to stick to the water and risk the wood.

In spite of the proximity of the fountain, this question of water supply began to trouble us. I found that our canteens were half empty already, and unless we practiced very strict economy there would not be enough to last, twenty-four hours longer. Pike shook his head and then looked out at the fountain which was plashing and bubbling not a dozen feet away.

“It would be shore death to try to reach the water,” he said. “From the woods up thar they could sweep the space between us an’ the spring. I wouldn’t ask a fairer range myself. But we’ve got to reach that water somehow or other, boys, fur I think we’re in fur a long spell uv waitin’ here. We kin do without a good many things, but we kain’t do without water.”

Pike pondered the matter over for a while and his troubled countenance showed his perplexity. The water seemed to sparkle more brightly than ever now that it was just beyond our reach.

“If we cannot devise any better plan,” I suggested, “suppose we wait until to-night, and then slip out. We can take the chances of filling our canteens and getting back safely.”

“Of course we kin do that,” said Pike, “ef we kain’t think uv anythin’ better, but it’s resky, and besides, our canteens don’t hold enough to last us long, an’ then we’d hev to slip out ag’in an’ run more resks. We must fin’ some better way.”

“I think I have a plan that’s, simple and perfectly safe, though it will entail considerable labor,” said Mr. Sheldon.

“What is that?” we asked in some surprise.

“This is a military question,” said Mr. Sheldon, who liked long words and long sentences, “and it arises from the state of seige in which we find ourselves. Now, in case of seige, engineering science becomes of the utmost importance to beseigers and beseiged. Therefore, it becomes necessary for us to avail ourselves of the skill of the engineer.”

“We know that,” said Henry, “but where are we to find the engineer? And granting that he could be found, how are we to bring him to our assistance?”

“Both questions are easily solved, my dear boy,” said Mr. Sheldon. “Of course we cannot go out of this house in search of an engineer. That is apparent to us all. The conclusion remains that if we are to find an engineer at all we are to find him among us. Having found him here, of course we do not have to bring him here, for he’s here already. Do you follow me?”

“Certainly, certainly,” we said, with some impatience. “What’s the scheme?”

“I am getting to that,” said Mr. Sheldon, with as much deliberation as ever and with an air of satisfaction. “Now, I have found the engineer. Behold, he is myself! That is, I furnished the suggestion, but all of you must help me put it into practice.”

“But what’s the scheme?” exclaimed Henry. “How are we to get to that water without exposing ourselves? That’s what we want to know!”

“Easiest thing in the world,” replied Mr. Sheldon. “We’ll tunnel to it!”

“Tunnel to it!” we exclaimed.

“Of course, of course,” replied Mr. Sheldon. “The tunnel is one of the simplest and often most effective devices of warfare. We have some of our mining tools, picks and shovels in the hut. Six stout fellows, such as we are, can very easily dig a tunnel from the floor of our cabin to a point under the bed of the river. Then the water will seep through into the trench and form a pool at which we can fill our canteens at our leisure and as often as we please and in perfect safety. Why, gentlemen, we have such a snug place here, and we will be so completely supplied when that tunnel is dug that our enemies will not be able to do more than amuse us. It will be a summer’s diversion. How glad I am that I joined your party! I was glad already, but this is another and very weighty reason for my rejoicing. I would not have missed this seige for all the gold in the corner there.”

When he had delivered himself of these lengthy sentences Mr. Sheldon, leaned back and smiled in a manner that showed how mightily pleased he was with himself. It was a pardonable bit of vanity.

“By thunder, that’s a good idee,” exclaimed Pike, slapping his thigh so hard that the report sounded like a pistol shot. “Why didn’t I think uv it myself.”

“That’s one time I beat you, Mr. Pike,” replied Mr. Sheldon, “and as such a thing does not happen often, I must treasure it.”

“All right,” said Pike, with a laugh. “I don’t lay it up ag’in you, ’specially ez I guess I’ll profit ez much by the scheme ez you will.”

The simplicity and effectiveness of Mr. Sheldon’s idea was apparent to us all. Only one thing could prevent its success, and that was the interposition of a stratum of rock. But Mr. Sheldon said the slope of the hill was so gentle at that point that he did not think we would be stopped in such a manner.

“’Taint wuth while to guess on that p’int,” said Pike, “fur thar ain’t any better time than the present to find out what the facts are. S’pose we take our picks and shovels an’ go to work? Mr. Sheldon, ez this is your idee, an’ I guess you know more about sech things than any uv the rest uv us, you’ll hev to boss the job.”

First we made another critical examination of the vicinity, and again we could discover no evidence of activity on the part of our enemies. We could not see any figures in the woods, but we had no doubt about the presence of Halftrigger and his men.

“I’d like to hev a good look at ’em,” growled Pike. “Halftrigger must be hatchin’ some sort uv scheme to git at us. P’r’aps he don’t know how well we’re fixed, an’ thinks he kin starve us out.”

This was a likely supposition, but with our tunnel complete we could laugh at any such attempt of Mr. Halftrigger’s.

Having completed our reconnoisance, we set to digging. In accordance with the desire expressed by Pike, Mr. Sheldon took charge. We removed the bark flooring in a corner of the cabin nearest to the spring, and began to sink our trench at an angle of forty-five degrees, sloping towards the spring. We intended when we reached a depth sufficient to prevent the earth from caving in upon our heads to proceed horizontally, but we secured a considerable depth first in order to prevent accidents.

All of us took turns at this work except Pike, who was busy watching for signs of the enemy, and we made the dirt fly. We had become seasoned at this sort of business while getting out the gold, and we burrowed into the earth with a rapidity worthy of real mining engineers. In fact, the idea tickled us so much that we were like so many boys, and Mr. Sheldon was the biggest boy of us all.

“Bravo, my lads, bravo!” he exclaimed as the mound of earth beside our pit grew fast. “What a good thing it is to have strong arms and backs and lungs so that nothing can prevent us from keeping on tunneling until we reach Frisco? Then we can come right up in the middle of the city with our arms full of gold. Wouldn’t we astonish the natives, though! And wouldn’t Halftrigger and his men be astonished, too, if after waiting about a month to become convinced that there was no danger in it they entered our hut to see what became of us and found out which way we had gone?”

“I have no doubt,” said Henry, as he thrust a spadeful of dirt from the pit, “that both the people of ’Frisco and Halftrigger would be astonished. But, meanwhile, what are we going to do with all the dirt that we are piling up here?”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” replied Mr. Sheldon.

Nevertheless, the dispositon of the displaced earth was a question of importance. We could have opened the door wide enough to throw it out without exposing ourselves to any shots—at least while the daylight lasted—but we did not wish the outlaws to get an inkling of what we were about.

“We might build an inside wall with it,” said Pike. “You’re strong on military matters, Mr. Sheldon, an’ I guess you know that earth makes the best kind uv breastwork. What’s the matter with our strengthenin’ our fort? We kain’t tell when we’ll need stronger walls. We kin pile all this dirt up beside the logs until it rises ez high ez our heads. It’ll narrow our space in here, but I guess we kin stand that.”

“Good enough,” said Mr. Sheldon. “I see no better plan, and we’ll fortify as you suggest.”

While some of us worked in the pit, the others heaped the earth against the walls. Thus we carried on our labors until night came, without disclosing the intentions of our enemies. We had made excellent progress, and Mr. Sheldon reckoned that our tunnel had passed already beyond the cabin walls.

“If we are not interrupted water will be flowing into this hole before to-morrow evening,” he said.

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