Dead Man's Land Part 31

"We all ran," sighed their queer follower. "None scratched."

"Hurry on," shouted Buck to his men; but the bullocks kept to their slow, deliberate trudge, munching away at the store of fresh green gra.s.s that had been collecting since their escape. "Perhaps you young gents,"

continued Buck, "would like to mount two of the ponies and canter back with the news."

"No saddles or bridles," said Mark.

"Tchah! You don't want saddles or bridles. Those little beggars will go which way you like with a touch of the hand; and I am not going to believe that you can't get along barebacked. Not me!"

"Oh, I daresay we could manage," said Mark; "but our orders were to see the bullocks inspanned and go back with them."

"Can't you trust me?" growled Buck.

"Trust you! Of course!" cried Mark, laying his hand on the big fellow's shoulder. "I'd trust you anywhere, but--"

"Here, I know," said the driver good-humouredly. "Good boy! Always obey orders."

But all the same the deliberate crawl of the bullocks made both the lads terribly impatient.

"I wish you had got your whip, Buck," said Dean. "Oh, I don't know, sir. Let 'em alone. It's their way. They are going willing enough, and they have had a nasty night. I never give them a touch up only when I see one lazy and won't pull. Then it's crick crack, and I let go at a fly on his back."

At last, though, the span belonging to the second waggon had taken their places, and Dunn Brown was at the front waiting for the sonorous "Trek!"

which Buck Denham roared out, accompanied by a rifle-like report of his tremendous whip, when Dunn threw up his hands, stepped right before the team, and stopped them.

"What game do you call that?" roared Buck, from where he was seated on the waggon chest.

"Too--late," sighed the white foreloper, and he drew out his scissors to begin his morning apology for a shave.

"Can't you see, Buck?" cried Mark. "Come along, Dean. Just think of that!"

For, slowly trudging along, Bob Bacon appeared, bending low under his burden, giving his fellow-keeper a comfortable pick-a-back, having carried him all the way from where he had been found lying helpless, and apparently now not much the worse for his novel ride.

"Bravo, Bob!" cried Mark, as he and his cousin ran up to meet them.

"Why, you haven't carried Peter all this way?"

"Phew! Arn't it hot, sir! Not carried him? Well, what do you call this?"

"How are you, Peter?" asked Dean.

"Very bad, sir."

"Oh, don't say very," cried Mark. "You will be better when you have had some breakfast."

"Hope so, sir," said the man, with a groan; and he was carefully carried to the first waggon, in front of which Dan had already begun to busy himself raking the fire together and getting water on to boil, while as soon as the doctor had seen to his patient and had had him laid upon a blanket, he joined Sir James and the boys to look round while breakfast was being prepared, and examine the traces of the night's encounter.

There lay one huge lion, stretched out and stiffening fast, showing the blood-stained marks of its wound, and a short distance beyond were the torn and horribly mutilated bodies of two of the bullocks, not very far apart, one of them quite dead, the other gazing up appealingly in the faces of those who approached him, and ready to salute them with a piteous bellow.

"Poor brute," said the doctor, taking a revolver from his belt, and walking close up to the wounded bullock, he placed the muzzle right in the centre of its forehead as the poor beast raised its head feebly, and fired.

"Oh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the boys, as if with one breath, and while the poor animal's head was beginning to subside back to the blood-stained gra.s.s upon which it had lain the doctor fired again, and the mutilated animal sank back motionless with a deep, heavy sigh.

"An act of mercy," said the doctor quietly.

"Yes," said Sir James gravely. "It seems cruel, boys, but it would have been far worse to have left him there to be tortured by the flies and attacked by vultures and hyaenas."

By this time Buck Denham had come up, and while the two boys were still mentally hesitating as to the mercy of the act, which seemed terribly repellent, he said, "That's right, boss. I just ketched sight of a couple of those owry birds coming along, and if it hadn't been for the trees they would have been at work before now. I'd bet a pipe of tobacco that a pack of those laughing beauties the hyaenas are following the crows and will be hard at work as soon as we are on the trek."

Farther in the forest Mak soon found the body of the other lion, which had left its trail as it crawled away to die; but it was still warm, and had hardly had time to stiffen, looking still so life-like with its unglazed eyes that it was approached rather nervously, every rifle in the party being directed at the huge brute. But no trigger was drawn, for proof was given at once of its power to do mischief having lapsed by the action of the black, who leaped upon it with a shout and indulged himself with a sort of dance of triumph.

"Here, you come off," cried Buck. "Spoor. Spoor."

The black nodded, and stooping low he began to quarter the ground and point out footprint after footprint, till the driver gave it as his opinion that they had been attacked by quite a large party of the savage beasts.

"You see, gen'lemen, there's the big pads and some about half the size.

I should say that there was a couple of families been scenting my bullocks. Seems to me like two lionesses and their half-grown cubs."

"But the two big lions?" said Mark eagerly.

"Oh, I wasn't counting them in, sir," said Buck. "We have shot them and the she's, and the young 'uns have got away, and like enough one or two of them has carried bullets with them."

"But do you think they are near?" asked Dean.

"Maybe yes, sir; maybe no; but I should say it would be just as well to start as soon as we have had braxfas' and get as far on as we can before night."

Just then there was a hail from the waggons in Dan's familiar tones, to announce breakfast, and soon after its hasty despatch the blacks were at work skinning the lions, aided by Dunn Brown, while Buck Denham, with the a.s.sistance of Dan and Bob Bacon, had a busy time in securing some of the choicest portions of the bullock that had been shot, the doctor superintending.

Later on, before they started, the Hottentot and the two blacks were allowed to cut off as many strips of the beef as they pleased, to hang on the first waggon for drying in the sun.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

"WE ARE GOING WRONG."

"No, gen'lemen," said Buck, in reply to a question; "I have had four long trips with hunting parties, and know a good deal of the country, but this is all new to me. Mak professes to know, and I daresay he is all right. He is clever enough at choosing good open country where my bullocks can get along, and he never stops at a kopje without our finding water. You see, we have got now during this last week to the edge of the biggest piece of forest that we have had to do with, and I am not going to interfere with him till he shows that he's a bit lost.

Here we are keeping to the edge of the trees where I can get the waggons along and you can have plenty of sport, which gives us all enough to eat. Oh, it's all right, gen'lemen. These n.i.g.g.e.rs know what they are about. I'd trust him, and I suppose it don't matter to you where we are, because we can always turn back when you are tired and your stores begin to run out."

"But Dr Robertson wants to find the ancient cities that we have heard of. Where are they?" said Mark.

"I d'know, sir," said the man, with a laugh. "There's Mak yonder; let's go and ask him."

Instead of going to the black, Buck Denham signed to him as he looked their way, and the stalwart, fierce-looking fellow marched up to them, shouldering his spear, whose broken shaft he had replaced with a finely grown bamboo.

The questioning resulted in a certain amount of pantomime on Mak's part and a confident display of smiles.

"Oh, it's all right, gen'lemen; he knows. He says we are to keep right along just outside the trees, and that he will take us to what he calls the big stones. But they are days and days farther on."

"But that's very vague," said the doctor.

"Yes, sir, I daresay it is," said Buck, "though I don't know what vague means. I only know that there's plenty of room out in this country to go on trekking for years, and I should always feel sure that a chap like Mak would be able to find his way back when you give the order to turn round."