"Water all gone!" cried Ready and all of them in a breath.
"Yes; not one little drop in the cask."
"I filled it up to the top!" exclaimed Ready very gravely; "the tub did not leak, that I am sure of; how can this have happened?"
"Missy, I tink I know now," said Juno; "you remember you send Massa Tommy, the two or three days we wash, to fetch water from the well in little bucket. You know how soon be come back, and how you say what good boy he was, and how you tell Massa Seagrave when he come to dinner. Now, Missy, I quite certain Massa Tommy no take trouble go to well, but fetch water from tub all the while, and so he empty it."
"I'm afraid you're right, Juno," replied Mrs. Seagrave. "What shall we do?"
"I go speak Massa Tommy," said Juno, running to the house.
"This is a very awkward thing, Mr. Seagrave," observed Ready gravely.
Mr. Seagrave shook his head.
The fact was, that they all perceived the danger of their position: if the savages did not leave the island, they would perish of thirst or have to surrender; and in the latter case, all their lives would most certainly be sacrificed.
Juno now returned: her suspicions were but too true. Tommy, pleased with the praise of being so quick in bringing the water, had taken out the spigot of the cask, and drawn it all off.
"Well," observed Mr. Seagrave, "it is the will of Heaven that all our careful arrangements and preparations against this attack should be defeated by the idleness of a child, and we must submit."
"Very true, sir," replied Ready; "all our hopes now are that the savages may be tired out, and leave the island."
"If I had but a little for the children, I should not care," observed Mrs. Seagrave; "but to see those poor things suffer - is there not a drop left, Juno, anywhere?"
Juno shook her head.
Mrs. Seagrave said she would go and examine, and went away into the house accompanied by Juno.
"This is a very bad business, Ready," observed Mr. Seagrave. "What would we give for a shower of rain now, that we might catch the falling drops!"
"There are no signs of it, sir," replied Ready; "we must, however, put our confidence in One who will not forsake us."
"I wish the savages would come on again," observed William; "for the sooner they come, the sooner the affair will be decided."
"I doubt if they will to-day; at night-time I think it very probable.
We must make preparations for it."
"Why, what can we do, Ready?"
"In the first place, sir, by nailing planks from cocoa-nut tree to cocoa-nut tree above the present stockade, we may make a great portion of it much higher, and more difficult to climb over. Some of them were nearly in, this time. If we do that, we shall not have so large a space to watch over and defend; and then we must contrive to have a large fire ready for lighting, that we may not have to fight altogether in the dark. It will give them some advantage in looking through the palisades, and seeing where we are, but they cannot well drive their spears through, so it is no great matter. We must make the fire in the centre of the stockade, and have plenty of tar in it, to make it burn bright, and we must not, of course, light it until after we are attacked. We shall then see where they are trying for an entrance, and where to aim with our muskets."
"The idea is very good, Ready," said Mr. Seagrave; "if it had not been for this unfortunate want of water, I really should be sanguine of beating them off."
"We may suffer very much, Mr. Seagrave, I have no doubt; but who knows what the morrow may bring forth?"
"True, Ready. Do you see the savages now?"
"No, sir; they have left the spot where they were in consultation. I suppose they are busy with their wounded and their dead."
As Ready had supposed, no further attack was made by the savages on that day, and he, William, and Mr. Seagrave, were very busy making their arrangements; they nailed the planks on the trunks of the trees above the stockade, so as to make three sides of the stockade at least five feet higher, and almost impossible to climb up; and they prepared a large fire in a tar-barrel full of cocoa-nut leaves mixed with wood and tar, so as to burn fiercely. Dinner or supper they had none, for there was nothing but salt pork and beef and live turtle, and, by Ready's advice, they did not eat, as it would only increase their desire to drink.
The poor children suffered much; and little Albert wailed and cried for "water, water." Ready remained on the look-out; indeed, everything was so miserable inside of the house, that they were all glad to go out of it; they could do no good, and poor Mrs. Seagrave had a difficult and most painful task to keep the children quiet under such severe privation, for the weather was still very warm and sultry.
