Hair-Breadth Escapes Part 16

As soon as they were safe inside, and free from the jealous scrutiny of the Hottentots, the doctor addressed his companions.

"It won't do for us to stay any longer among these fellows," he said; "our lives won't be safe if we do. I have learned that they mean to use our help in picking off such of the Bushmen as may be able to escape them at close quarters. But as soon as we have done their work, they will strip us of our arms, and knock us on the head, if we resist I heard that scoundrel Omatoko, and the fellow they call Leshoo, talking over it. The chief is to have my rifle, and Omatoko Ernest's, while Leshoo _is_ to have his choice of Frank's or Nick's."

"I'll make him a present of a bullet out of mine," cried Frank, "if I only have the chance."

"Hush, Frank!" said Ernest, "they'll hear you. But, Charles, how comes it that their manner towards us is so strangely altered all of a sudden?"

"Well, in the first place, it appears to be owing to Leshoo's secret machinations. He is afraid, it seems, of our favour with Umboo. In the next, the delay in the return, of the messenger sent southward is interpreted unfavourably to the English, at least Leshoo represents it so. He says the Dutch must have got the better, or the man would have been back before this. Umboo has now quite taken up this notion."

"Well, what do you advise, Charles?"

"That we go with them without any apparent reluctance, and accept whatever service they ask us to undertake. But as soon as the attack on the Bushmen begins, we will, all of us, make off as fast as we can southwards. There are not very many of the Hottentots going on the expedition. They will, almost certainly, be scattered in various directions, and be too busy to notice our movements; some will probably be killed or wounded. But even if that be not so, and if at the end of the fighting we have not got too far to be followed, still they will hardly dare to attack us. They are notoriously afraid of Europeans, and have seen what we can do with our guns."

"And if they do attack us?" asked Nick.

"Then their blood be on their own heads. It is our lives or theirs, and they wantonly provoke the contest."

"We can't do better than follow your advice," said Frank; "I'm your man, at all events. Poor old Lion! we must leave him behind; but that can't be helped."

"No," said Warley, "men must be thought of before dogs, however much one may like them. Well, I agree, Charles, and so I can see does Nick."

"That's right, then," said Charles; "now we had better join them. Don't let us give the notion that we are hanging back."

They went out accordingly, and found the party just preparing to start.

They were greeted by Umboo with feigned civility, which they returned with similar politeness, and were requested to take their places in the march next to him--Lavie and Frank on his right hand, and Warley and Nick on his left, with Omatoko walking next to Frank and Leshoo to Nick.

In this order they proceeded at a rapid pace for several hours, until the heat of the sun became overpoweringly oppressive; then they halted in a place shaded by some trees, and provisions were served out, the Hottentots digging roots to supply the place of water. Umboo seated himself on the gra.s.s, and motioned to the Englishmen to do the same, their two attendants, or jailers, as they might more properly be called, taking the same positions as in the march.

They remained in their resting-place for three or four hours until the great heat of the day was past, and then resumed their route. About five o'clock a second halt was made, and Omatoko having spoken a few words apart with the chief, addressed Lavie. He informed him that Umboo intended to post them at various places of ambush, in the neighbourhood of the Bushmen's camp, and their duty would be to pick off any fugitives who might endeavour to make their escape--adding that Umboo would give a large reward for every Bushman so killed. Lavie and the others accepted the commission without the smallest hesitation--again apparently to the surprise of Omatoko, and the evident disappointment of Leshoo. But there was nothing more to be said on the subject. It only remained to conduct the four whites to their several stations. They had now arrived within a mile of their enemies; who it appeared had just succeeded in killing two buffaloes, and were about to make a feast on the carca.s.ses.

Just as they were on the point of setting out, Lavie purposely dropped the case which contained his rifle bullets, which were scattered in all directions on the ground. His companions ran to pick them up, and as their heads met, he said in a subdued but perfectly clear tone, "The large motjeeri to the south, in a quarter of an hour from the present time."

The boys made no answer except a nod of intelligence, as each moved off with the guide a.s.signed him. Then the rest of the Hottentots began creeping through the scrub, as stealthily as serpents, towards a large rock, under shelter of which a number of the doomed Bushmen might be seen, seated in a circle and engaged in devouring huge lumps of meat, which they had roasted at a large fire still smouldering close by.

Lavie watched their dusky figures as they disappeared among the foliage, and remained motionless at his post for the prescribed number of minutes. Then hurrying as fast as he could go towards the motjeeri, he found all three of his companions awaiting him.

"All right!" he exclaimed; "they are just on the point of making their attack, and won't have eyes or ears for anything else. We must put on best speed, and not stop till we are five or six miles away at the least."

A loud yell broke forth from the rock, as they commenced their flight, and was followed by another and another in quick succession. But they grew fainter as the boys hurried on, and soon ceased altogether.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE FLIGHT--THE BOYS RECAPTURED--A COUNCIL--THE SHADOW OF DEATH--A STRANGE DELIVERANCE.

"Not bad that," said Nick, as he threw himself on the ground, panting and footsore, after a run of more than an hour. "We've not gone less than eight miles, I'll take my 'davy, and this gun isn't the lightest thing in the world to carry! Well, Charles, do you mean to make a halt of it here to-night, or are we to hoof it again?"

"We must rest here," said Lavie, "an hour or two to recover ourselves a little, but no longer. I don't suppose the Hottentots have done much more than discover our absence yet. They have had plenty to do for the present without thinking where we are, and then they will have to make out in which direction we have gone. They will find that out, no doubt, notwithstanding all our precautions, but it will take them some time.

And my hope is, that we shall now baffle them altogether."

"How do you mean?" asked Ernest.

"I mean that we should all take off our shoes, and step into the brook here. We can walk along it, treading only on the stones till we reach that long patch of scrub there. Then I propose that we shall turn eastward, and go for a day's journey in that direction before again travelling south. I think that will throw these Hottentots completely out, and they will give up the pursuit."

"Well, I have no objection," said Nick, "and I don't suppose the others have. Anything to get out of the hands of those dingy brutes. How sold they will be! If they could only get hold of one of us, how they would pay it off on him!"

"I am afraid they will pay it off on my poor Lion," said Frank.

"Whatever will become of him, poor fellow!"

"Oh, they'll use him kindly enough," said Lavie, soothingly. "He is too valuable and useful an animal for them to hurt. As soon as we get to Cape Town we'll send a fellow to ransom him. A dozen large beads or bra.s.s b.u.t.tons will soon induce them to give him up."

"Well, at all events we'll hope so," said Warley. "Well, now, Charles, I am rested if the others are--enough, that is, to go on."

"All right," said the doctor. "Now, the first thing is to take off our shoes and stockings."

This was soon done, and the party stepping down into the bed of the rivulet, walked in Indian file one after another, taking particular care to leave no footprints in the soft earth. Presently they came to a place where the short scrub, with which the slopes were covered, descended to the water's edge. They stepped out upon this, and proceeded eastward for a considerable distance, taking the greatest pains to leave no trace behind. After half a mile or so of this cautious walking, Lavie considered the danger to be at an end. Again resuming the sharp trot at which they had previously proceeded, in another hour they reached some caves in a high range of limestone cliffs, where they resolved to rest for the night. They were too much wearied to keep watch. In five minutes all four were sound asleep.

The next morning they awoke tolerably refreshed, and resuming their journey, proceeded still eastward for some seven or eight miles, when they halted for their mid-day rest. There was no lack of food, for soon after setting out, they had come upon a grove of bananas, of which each of the party had gathered a large bunch. They could also perceive a small streamlet making its way through the brushwood. Doubtless it issued from a ma.s.s of limestone rock about a hundred yards distant. "We had better go and drink there," said Lavie. "We have no drinking-cup now, remember, and must use the hollows of our hands, I suppose, or a large leaf. But we shall manage it more easily at the spring head."

He moved off and the others followed, but they were still some yards from the fountain, when they were startled by a low deep growl, which came apparently from the other side of the rock.

The boys instantly unslung their rifles. "That's the growl of a lion,"

said Lavie. "He is couching by the spring, I expect. It won't do to approach him from the front."

"Hadn't one of us better go round to the clump of trees yonder?" said Frank. "We can get there under cover, and there will be a good sight of him from thence."

"I was just going to suggest it," said Lavie. "And another can climb to the top of the cliff here. It seems quite perpendicular by the spring, and if so it will be fifteen or twenty feet over the lion's head. I'll undertake that, if you like, and Frank can cross over to the clump. The other two had better mount this tree. If the brute springs out, there'll be a chance of a good shot at him from this place."

Lavie and Frank accordingly proceeded to put their designs into execution. Ernest and Nick watched them, until Wilmore was hidden in the wood, and Lavie half up the rock, when suddenly there came a shout of alarm and surprise. At the same moment their weapons were torn from their grasp, and they found themselves in the clutches of Omatoko and half a dozen others.

They were unable to make any resistance; the suddenness of the surprise, and the overwhelming numbers of the Hottentots rendering it impossible.

They were soon bound with leather thongs, and hurried off to the fountain, where they encountered Lavie and Frank in the same plight as themselves.

"How like lion?" asked Omatoko, jeeringly. "Omatoko lion. He roar well. White boys go catch lion, get caught themselves!"

"I wish I had known it was you," muttered Nick. "I'd have put a leaden bullet through your carca.s.s as sure as my name's Gilbert! Well, blackie, what next? Are you going to skin and eat us, now you've got us, or what?"

"White boy go back Umboo," said the Hottentot. "Umboo do as he please."

"And what pleases him won't please us, I guess," muttered Gilbert.

"Well, there's no help for it. We must grin and bear it, as the saying is. You may as well untie these thongs, any way. You may see for yourself that we can't possibly escape."

"Omatoko no untie till get back to kraal--then untie quick."

He chuckled as he spoke. There was some sinister meaning in his words, which the prisoners could not fathom, but which it was not pleasant to hear. But they had little time for reflection. The thongs had no sooner been securely fastened, and the guns distributed among the leaders of the Hottentots, than they set out on their way home. It appeared that the Englishmen must have followed a very circuitous path, for less than four hours' journey brought them to the spot where the encounter with the Bushmen had taken place; and there the party rested for a couple of hours before proceeding further.

It was a horrid and revolting spectacle which met the eyes of the captives as the halt was made. The bodies of the Bushmen, as well as those of their women and children, were scattered about in all directions, the corpses having already begun to decompose in the scorching sun. Most of the men had been shot down by arrows from a distance, or pierced by a.s.segais. But the weaker portion of the enemy (if they could be so called), had been killed by blows from clubs, or stabs delivered at close quarters; and the lads gazed with sickening disgust at the helpless and mangled figures, with which the plain for a long way round was overspread. But the slayers did not appear to feel the smallest compunction, and Lavie gathered from their conversation, that a considerable proportion of the men had effected their escape--a circ.u.mstance which had greatly provoked Umboo's anger.