Captain Grant's Children

Chapter 52
The sun was setting again.Glenarvan and others were escorted back to the temple again.It seems that they will spend the last night of their lives here.With a heavy heart in the face of death, they had dinner together. "We can't let it down!" Glenarvan encouraged his companions, "We must not let these natives watch the joke!" After dinner.

Mrs. Helen hummed vespers tragically, while the others silently took off their hats and prayed together.

Yes, even in this environment, God must not be forgotten.Everyone hugged each other tightly with an indescribable mood, as if this was the last good blessing.Mary and Mrs. Helen hid on a straw mat in the corner and fell asleep hugging each other.All the distress and fear slipped away before death, and they waited peacefully to relax their bodies and minds.So Glenarvan pulled the others into another corner:

"My dear gentlemen, the lives of all of us are now in the hands of God. If God really wants us to die, we have nothing to say, and we will honestly wait for God's final judgment. However, I believe that God understands our original intentions, and also knows our nobility; I have no complaints or regrets about the arrangement God made. However, I am afraid that it will not be too happy to die in this place! Torture, suffering, humiliation... I don’t care about these , but these two girls are too..."

His sonorous and forceful tone suddenly became mournful and painful, as if something was stuffed in his throat, he began to choke.

He had no choice but to stop talking, and paused for a while. "John," he said, looking at the young captain, "what are you going to do to Mary?"

"I have promised her!" John replied calmly, "May God give me strength, and I will never fail her!"

"John, has it ever occurred to you that we don't have guns now?" "I've got a knife," John said, pulling out a dagger, "that's when that damned Karate fell to the ground, I took it from him when I had the opportunity. Ser, if either of us dies last, this last task will be completed..."

No one said anything, and there was a dead silence in the temple at the moment.After a while, the major began to speak: "Guys, that's something we can only do as a last resort! We can't be desperate and pessimistic now, there will always be a turning point, right?"

Glenarvan explained:
"I don't mean to wait for death; if we are just a few men now, we can rush out and kill them anyway, so that we can give us a back? But there are two of us, two weak women ..."

John counted the guards outside through the crack of the door. There were 25 Maori soldiers in total.

I saw them lighting a fire, some lying directly beside the fire, some standing a little far away, the fire shining on their faces, looking this way from time to time.Yes, this is their job.

There is always an emotional difference between guards and prisoners. The former may occasionally relax, while the latter is always preparing to escape.Therefore, people can always hear stories about escape from time to time in ordinary life.

However, the Maori guards at this time did not show the slightest relaxation, perhaps because they were thinking about revenge and killing people.

Twenty-five soldiers full of hatred looked at eight unarmed prisoners.

It is quite difficult to escape from this temple. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the cliffs are extremely steep. Even if you let it out and let you walk casually, you will have no way out!The only way down the mountain is left on the front, but there are Maori soldiers stuck firmly.So, Glenarvan gave up, there was no hope of escaping from this impenetrable temple!
Helpless and heavy night!Time is passing by every minute.

The whole mountain is almost in darkness, neither the moon nor the stars can be seen.Gusts of wind hit wantonly, shaking the cottage and the peaks.

In this temple now there is only the howling and howling of the wind.The fire that the Maori guarded burned more vigorously, and the light of the fire refracted into the temple; the faces of the people in the temple were all silent, as if they were thinking about their life that was about to end.

4 o'clock in the morning.A small sound caught the major's attention.

He listened attentively, and felt that the sound came from behind the pillars of the temple, where the rock stood.

What could it be, perhaps the wind.McNabbs shook his head and stopped listening, but the sound kept ringing continuously, and it was heavy and soft at times, not like the sound of wind.He was immediately alert.He put his ear close to the ground and carefully distinguished: Oh, it's the sound of digging a hole!Is someone digging a hole outside!The major was overjoyed, and quickly called Glenarvan and John over quietly:

"Listen carefully, both of you." He lowered his voice as much as possible, and motioned for all his companions to get down on the ground.

It is indeed the sound of digging holes and digging soil!Moreover, there is also the sound of pebbles being thrown down creakingly. "Maybe some animal made a hole in its own den?" John was a little suspicious.

Glenarvan raised his head and said, "Maybe someone is pickpocketing..." The major said excitedly, "We'll find out what it is in a while!" A sliver of hope inspired the imprisoned people.

Wilson and Aubinette also came over at this time, and everyone dug up the wall at the same time.

John also used the knife he took out just now, and the others found stone flakes from the ground, and even picked them out with their hands.

Muratti took the initiative to take on the task of guarding. He lay on the crack of the door and carefully observed the Maori guards.

The place where the Maori guards stayed was only 20 paces away, and they didn't even think about what was going on here.

The place that everyone digs is exactly the siliceous tuff, which is soft and crunchy.Is it really God's deliberate arrangement?

The hole was dug fairly quickly, despite having no particularly handy tools.At this time, everyone could hear clearly that there were no animals outside but someone digging a tunnel to rescue them.Is it really going to rescue them?Could it be a crooked shot?Or for other purposes?
Anyway, let's dig through it first!By this time their fingers were covered with blood, but none of them felt pain.At this moment, good hopes are motivating everyone.A full half hour.A hole about one meter deep was dug out and presented to everyone.

And the sound outside is close at hand!A few minutes later.

Suddenly the major's fingers touched the point of a knife.He retracted subconsciously, and even almost cried out.

John used the short knife to block the incoming knife point, and in just a split second, his hands were tightly held together.

This is a very cute little hand. If it's not a woman's hand, it's a child's hand. It definitely belongs to Europeans!

Both sides were so excited that they couldn't even speak, and no one shouted. "Is it Robert?" Glenarvan seemed to be talking to himself, but no one could hear him.However, at this moment Mary ran over and desperately kissed the little black hand that was covered with mud.

"Oh, is it really you? My God! My Robert!" Mary almost cried, unable to restrain her emotions at the moment.

"It's me, dear sister, I'm here to save you! Oh, don't make any noise!" Robert said outside.

"This child! Hey!" Glenarvan was full of praise. "You must pay attention to guard!" The child reminded the people in the temple.Murad quickly returned to the door, stared outside and told everyone: "It's all right! Most of them are asleep, only 4 are not asleep." "Then let's dig a little bigger!" Wilson said and started working stand up.Robert slipped in sideways, still tied with a long rope.

He threw himself into his sister's arms without saying a word; then he hugged Mrs. Helen tightly.

"Well done! My child!" Madam Helen lowered her voice and exclaimed, "We all thought you were killed!"

Robert quietly replied:

"It's nothing at all! At that time, I got out of the fence while taking advantage of the chaos, and then hid in the woods. Well, as long as it is at night, I will look for you everywhere. Those Maori are busy with their chief's funeral. I I went to the cottage for reconnaissance in a short time, and I crawled here based on my feeling. After I had a goal in mind, I stole a knife and this rope from a shed. Climb up. It was awesome. I just happened to find a soft spot right behind this temple, so I started digging, and it worked, hey!"

After hearing this, everyone hugged Robert and kissed him passionately. "Then let's go!"

(End of this chapter)