Hendricks the Hunter Part 30

His remarks to himself were interrupted by Biddy's voice.

"Sure, we've been after bringing yer one of thim big pop guns, Masther Percy; but how will ye git it up there?"

And, looking down, he saw her and Mangaleesu carrying a swivel gun between them. The Zulu showed himself to be more of an adept in securing a rope than was Biddy, who at once climbed up to the platform.

The swivel was soon hoisted up, and mounted in the place intended for it. Mangaleesu in the meantime had brought out the other, which in like manner was quickly got into position.

"Now for the muskets, Biddy," cried Percy, who felt himself of no slight importance at being actually in command of the fort; his spirits rose accordingly.

Biddy, Mangaleesu, and Kalinda quickly returned with muskets and ammunition.

"Now go and rig yourselves out in the fashion I told Maud that you must all do; and be ready to come up here as soon as the Zulus reach the bank of the river, from which they can see us clearly."

Percy had at first made the proposal half in fun, but his sisters and Biddy took it in right down earnest, although he scarcely supposed that they would really do as he proposed. He had made Mangaleesu understand that he must be ready to a.s.sist in hoisting up the drawbridge, as it would require the strength of the whole party to perform the operation.

He did not, however, intend to hoist it up until the Zulus approached nearer, as he hoped before that time that not only Crawford would have arrived, but that his brother and the men would have reached the farm.

As far as he could judge, when looking through the telescope, the Zulus were preparing to encamp, although they might have had some other reason for halting.

He had kept his gla.s.s continually fixed on them to watch their movements; it now occurred to him to turn it in the opposite direction, when to his satisfaction he saw that Crawford had almost got up to the farm. He waved to him to come, and then made signs to Mangaleesu, who was waiting below, to open the gate.

Just as Crawford, leading his horse and the quagga filly--as tame as a dog--crossed the drawbridge, Biddy and the three young ladies came out of the house, dressed exactly as Percy had suggested, with hats and coats, sashes round their waists, and rifles in their hands. He started with astonishment, unable to comprehend the cause of their strange masquerading.

"I beg your pardon, young ladies," he said, "but I did not at first know you in your disguise. Did you take me for an enemy?"

"We should not have let you in so easily," answered Helen. "Percy has seen the Zulus approaching, and being afraid that they would attack the fort before you and Rupert had returned, we have got ready to defend it to the best of our power."

"I consider that Percy is mistaken, although I have no doubt that you have made the best preparations for defence," said Crawford, inclined to treat the whole affair as a joke.

"Sure, if the inemy do show themselves near this, we will put them to the right about," cried Biddy, flourishing the captain's sword.

"Let me secure my horse and this little zebra filly which I have brought for you, Miss Helen; I will then join Percy, and ascertain what is likely to happen," said Crawford.

Helen duly thanked the young Englishman for his intended gift, but as the little animal at that moment took it into its head to grow restive, and kick, scream, and prance about, she did not show any inclination to approach it.

Crawford having taken his horse and little captive round to the yard, hurried up to the platform, where Percy was standing. Looking through the telescope, he was satisfied Percy was right in supposing that the people he saw below the hill were Zulus. They were probably not aware that they could be distinguished at so great a distance. He then turned his gla.s.s in the direction he hoped Rupert and his men would be coming.

"I see their waggon," he exclaimed, "although they appear to me to be moving very slowly. I tell you what, Percy, the best thing I can do is to set off and hasten Rupert and his men. It will be better to lose the waggon than to have them cut off. Depend upon it, I'll not spare whip or spur."

"Thank you, Mr Crawford; pray go by all means," said Mrs Broderick, who had just then come out of the house. "I was wrong in letting Rupert start, but I pray that he may be back before the Zulus reach the river."

"No fear of that, mother, as Crawford is going for him," said Percy.

"We'll get in the waggon too, with its load of meat, which will better enable us to stand a siege."

Crawford, without further delay, threw himself on his horse, while Percy returned to the platform to watch what the Zulus were about.

"They are still halting," he shouted out, "though I suspect they will send forward scouts to reconnoitre our fortifications. Come up, girls; come up, Biddy, and show yourselves on the ramparts. I am half inclined to fire off the guns, but it may be wiser not to let them know that we are prepared for them until they come nearer, as they probably expect to take us by surprise, and the disappointment will be the greater when they see armed men on the walls."

The young ladies and Biddy quickly climbed up, and Percy placed them at intervals, with muskets on their shoulders, and told them to walk about like sentinels.

"Now, Biddy, flourish your sword, and make it flash in the sun. That will do famously. They'll see it in the distance, and suppose that we have a dozen men with bayonets, at least."

The girls, forgetting any alarm they might at first have felt, laughed heartily at Biddy's vehement gestures, as she carried out Percy's directions to the full. Now she rushed to one end of the platform, now to the other, giving vent to her feelings by various war shouts in her native Celtic.

"You, Helen, keep a look-out on Crawford, and tell me how he gets on,"

said Percy, handing her the gla.s.s, having first taken a glance through it himself.

"Yes, I can see him clearly," said Helen. "He is galloping along at a tremendous rate, and I fancy that I can make out Rupert and the waggon in the distance."

Helen, who had put down her musket, showed no inclination to take her eye from the telescope.

"Hurrah!" cried Percy, "here come the herdsmen with the cattle. I thought they would not be long after they heard the signal. They will help us to defend the walls. Perhaps Crawford will fall in with some settlers, and we shall soon have a sufficient number of men to dispense with your services, girls."

"But we don't wish to have our services dispensed with," cried Rose.

"We want to make ourselves useful."

"But I don't want you to get killed or wounded," said Percy. "Some of the Zulus may have firearms, or they may venture near enough to hurl their a.s.segais. You will have done all that is necessary by showing yourselves as at present in martial array, and I feel very sure that the enemy, when they see you, will defer their attack until they come up under cover of the darkness to try and take us by surprise."

Percy allowed Helen to keep the gla.s.s while he was employed in loading the swivels, and pointing them in the direction the Zulus would probably attempt to approach the gate. She in the meantime was watching Crawford's progress; though he and his horse looked no larger than an ant crossing over a large field, she still kept her eye upon him until she could report that he had joined Rupert. The latter was riding ahead of the waggon till Crawford got up to him, when she saw both of them, followed by the two Kaffir hunters, come galloping at headlong speed towards the farm, while the waggon still kept moving on as before, though at a faster rate.

As soon as the cattle had been driven into the kraal, Percy supplied the Hottentots with fresh ammunition, and posted them in different parts of the walls, that they might make as great a show as possible, taking care to keep his white warriors, as he called his three sisters and Biddy, in the front.

"Wouldn't Denis be in his element, if he were here!" he said to Maud, as he pa.s.sed her. "He would be flying about in all directions, and putting spirit into every one. By the bye, I quite forgot the dummies. Do go down to mother, and see if she cannot rig out half a dozen, and hand them up as soon as they are ready. She might also make Mangaleesu understand what we want, and he'll manufacture a whole army of Kaffir warriors with a.s.segais and shields. It would make the enemy suppose that we had a strong force of natives inside, in addition to our own men."

Maud did not like leaving the platform until Percy a.s.sured her that he was in earnest, and that such an array of dummies as he proposed would, he was certain, have a good effect in preventing the Zulus from coming close to the walls.

"They are cunning fellows, and would soon detect the dummies, if they were to remain stationary; but we will outwit them by moving them about and putting them in different positions," he said to Helen. "I must, however, take another look through the telescope. Here come Crawford and Rupert, so that you don't want it any longer."

The hors.e.m.e.n indeed could now be seen clearly by the naked eye, galloping towards the fort. Percy turned his gla.s.s towards the party of Zulus.

"As far as I can make out they are considerably diminished in numbers, and I suspect that some of them have been stealing along towards the river, intending to cross lower down. If so, we must keep a watch upon them. I can see the channel of the river over a considerable distance, and they won't get over without being detected." Percy watched for some time, and at length said, "I can see nothing on the surface of the stream, not even a crocodile or hippopotamus. The Zulus, knowing that they have a chance of meeting one of those creatures, won't venture to cross unless in considerable numbers."

"Here come Rupert and Mr Crawford!" cried Helen in a joyful tone. "We shall be safe now, at all events."

The hors.e.m.e.n soon rode in at the gate, which had not yet been closed.

Rupert was as much amused as Crawford had been at seeing his sisters in their military attire. He fully approved of all Percy had done; and when he heard of the proposed dummies, he thought the idea excellent.

While Crawford, who possessed a great deal of mechanical ingenuity, went in to a.s.sist Mrs Broderick, he hurried to the back of the house, where he found Mangaleesu and Kalinda employed in manufacturing Kaffir warriors. They had collected a number of poles and sticks, and had obtained from the storehouse a sufficient quant.i.ty of skins for dressing up their figures. Kalinda had brought in from the garden about a dozen pumpkins and melons. These served admirably for heads, while some other skins, bent over oblong hoops, formed shields. Indeed, Mangaleesu had already put together a sufficient supply of shields and bundles of seeming a.s.segais, to arm the whole of the dummies. They had not forgotten to obtain some pigment, with which to darken the faces of their figures.

"Very good, indeed. The enemy will fully believe that these are real Kaffirs," said Rupert. "Your idea of pumpkins for heads is capital.

I'll take some in for my mother; but we'll paint them white to suit the dresses of the figures."

"I suppose I must give up the command to you," said Percy to Rupert, when the latter returned to the platform.

"You have succeeded so well, that I should not think of superseding you," answered his brother. "I'll obey your orders, although I will exert my own wits, and consider what is best to be done."

"The most important object that I can see at present is to prevent the Zulus from capturing the waggon," said Percy. "If any of them go towards it, we must make a dash out and drive them back. I'll go, if you like, with Crawford and four men; six of us would keep a hundred at bay."

"No, if any one goes, I will," said Rupert. "You are in command remember, and must not leave the fortress. I am not quite certain that it would be prudent, but the two Hottentots with the waggon have their arms, and as they will fight bravely enough from behind a waggon, we may reckon that our force will consist of eight men. It will a.s.sist to convince the enemy that we have a large garrison in the fort."

As yet, however, no Zulus had appeared, and there seemed every probability that the waggon would get in without being attacked. Though Percy kept his gla.s.s turned generally towards the river, fully expecting to catch sight of the Zulus pa.s.sing across it, he occasionally directed it towards their main body, which remained as before, stationary. He had just pointed it in that direction, when he observed a movement among the dark-skinned warriors. He saw several go to a height, and then set off running at full speed towards the north. He pointed them out to Rupert, who, as he looked through the telescope, exclaimed--

"What if they should be going to meet our father, who very likely may be coming; or, if not, they may have caught sight of some messenger he has sent. I trust that either one or the other may have seen them in time and pushed on."