第23章 THE BEACH OF FALESA.(23)

Altogether the best I could do was to lie still,see my shot-gun handy,and wait for the explosion.But it was a solemn kind of a business.The blackness of the night was like solid;the only thing you could see was the nasty bogy glimmer of the dead wood,and that showed you nothing but itself;and as for sounds,Istretched my ears till I thought I could have heard the match burn in the tunnel,and that bush was as silent as a coffin.Now and then there was a bit of a crack;but whether it was near or far,whether it was Case stubbing his toes within a few yards of me,or a tree breaking miles away,I knew no more than the babe unborn.

And then,all of a sudden,Vesuvius went off.It was a long time coming;but when it came (though I say it that shouldn't)no man could ask to see a better.At first it was just a son of a gun of a row,and a spout of fire,and the wood lighted up so that you could see to read.And then the trouble began.Uma and I were half buried under a wagonful of earth,and glad it was no worse,for one of the rocks at the entrance of the tunnel was fired clean into the air,fell within a couple of fathoms of where we lay,and bounded over the edge of the hill,and went pounding down into the next valley.I saw I had rather undercalculated our distance,or over-done the dynamite and powder,which you please.

And presently I saw I had made another slip.The noise of the thing began to die off,shaking the island;the dazzle was over;and yet the night didn't come back the way I expected.For the whole wood was scattered with red coals and brands from the explosion;they were all round me on the flat;some had fallen below in the valley,and some stuck and flared in the tree-tops.Ihad no fear of fire,for these forests are too wet to kindle.But the trouble was that the place was all lit up-not very bright,but good enough to get a shot by;and the way the coals were scattered,it was just as likely Case might have the advantage as myself.Ilooked all round for his white face,you may be sure;but there was not a sign of him.As for Uma,the life seemed to have been knocked right out of her by the bang and blaze of it.

There was one bad point in my game.One of the blessed graven images had come down all afire,hair and clothes and body,not four yards away from me.I cast a mighty noticing glance all round;there was still no Case,and I made up my mind I must get rid of that burning stick before he came,or I should be shot there like a dog.

It was my first idea to have crawled,and then I thought speed was the main thing,and stood half up to make a rush.The same moment from somewhere between me and the sea there came a flash and a report,and a rifle bullet screeched in my ear.I swung straight round and up with my gun,but the brute had a Winchester,and before I could as much as see him his second shot knocked me over like a nine-pin.I seemed to fly in the air,then came down by the run and lay half a minute,silly;and then I found my hands empty,and my gun had flown over my head as I fell.It makes a man mighty wide awake to be in the kind of box that I was in.I scarcely knew where I was hurt,or whether I was hurt or not,but turned right over on my face to crawl after my weapon.Unless you have tried to get about with a smashed leg you don't know what pain is,and I let out a howl like a bullock's.

This was the unluckiest noise that ever I made in my life.Up to then Uma had stuck to her tree like a sensible woman,knowing she would be only in the way;but as soon as she heard me sing out,she ran forward.The Winchester cracked again,and down she went.

I had sat up,leg and all,to stop her;but when I saw her tumble Iclapped down again where I was,lay still,and felt the handle of my knife.I had been scurried and put out before.No more of that for me.He had knocked over my girl,I had got to fix him for it;and I lay there and gritted my teeth,and footed up the chances.

My leg was broke,my gun was gone.Case had still ten shots in his Winchester.It looked a kind of hopeless business.But I never despaired nor thought upon despairing:that man had got to go.

For a goodish bit not one of us let on.Then I heard Case begin to move nearer in the bush,but mighty careful.The image had burned out;there were only a few coals left here and there,and the wood was main dark,but had a kind of a low glow in it like a fire on its last legs.It was by this that I made out Case's head looking at me over a big tuft of ferns,and at the same time the brute saw me and shouldered his Winchester.I lay quite still,and as good as looked into the barrel:it was my last chance,but I thought my heart would have come right out of its bearings.Then he fired.

Lucky for me it was no shot-gun,for the bullet struck within an inch of me and knocked the dirt in my eyes.

Just you try and see if you can lie quiet,and let a man take a sitting shot at you and miss you by a hair.But I did,and lucky too.A while Case stood with the Winchester at the port-arms;then lie gave a little laugh to himself,and stepped round the ferns.

"Laugh!"thought I."If you had the wit of a louse you would be praying!"I was all as taut as a ship's hawser or the spring of a watch,and as soon as he came within reach of me I had him by the ankle,plucked the feet right out from under him,laid him out,and was upon the top of him,broken leg and all,before he breathed.His Winchester had gone the same road as my shot-gun;it was nothing to me -I defied him now.I'm a pretty strong man anyway,but I never knew what strength was till I got hold of Case.He was knocked out of time by the rattle he came down with,and threw up his hands together,more like a frightened woman,so that I caught both of them with my left.This wakened him up,and he fastened his teeth in my forearm like a weasel.Much I cared.My leg gave me all the pain I had any use for,and I drew my knife and got it in the place.