The Fire Trumpet Part 58

"Here, Booi; where's the chap who came here this afternoon?" asked Payne.

There was a momentary hesitation. "He's gone, Baas."

"Has he? Oh, all right, go to sleep again. Faugh?" he continued, as they stood once more in the open air. "The whiff in there reminds one of the 'tween-decks of a ship in a good rolling sea. The first part of old Mhlanga's prediction holds good, but I must confess I don't quite believe the second. Those fellows will be here in the morning."

After this, neither felt much inclined to sleep, so they sat up chatting in a low tone far into the small hours. Then Payne's answers began to get very confused, till at last his pipe dropped from his mouth, and came to the ground with a clatter.

"Look here, Payne, go and do the horizontal there on the sofa," said his companion, with a laugh. "I'll do sentry-go, and it's no good both doing it."

"Well, if you really aren't sleepy--the fact is, I am, confoundedly,"

and, rolling himself in a jackal-skin rug, Payne stretched himself on the couch, and in a minute was snoring peacefully.

His companion, well accustomed to long night-watches, sat at the window, motionless, but wide awake, looking out into the starlit gloom. Now and then he would doze off into that half-slumber known as "sleeping with one eye open," wherein the wakeful faculties seem even more developed than during actual wakefulness, but nothing occurred of a disturbing nature. Once the dogs began to bark, but quieted down very soon, and the hours wore on till the clear still dawn lightened upon the hills and the sleeping valley.

Payne opened his eyes with a start, and met those of his companion.

"Hullo! Haven't you had a snooze?"

"No; that would be a queer way of mounting guard, wouldn't it? I think I'll have one now, though."

"Well, I should recommend you to turn in altogether. I'll call you presently. There'll be no one up for the next three hours, you know,"

continued Payne, with a meaning wink.

Two hours later Claverton was awake again, and found Payne just where he had left him, snoring in regular cadence. Though the sun was up there was no sign of life about the place.

"I wonder if that old Kafir was gammoning us," remarked Payne, as the two made their way to the kraals. In that cheerful sunshine, the effects of the dour midnight warning had faded somewhat, as such effects will, and he was inclined to make light of it. "Here, Booi, Gc.o.ku!" he shouted; "tumble out--look sharp!"

There was no answer.

Meaningly, the two looked at each other. Then they made their way to the huts, and kicked open the doors. The huts were empty. _If your three herds are here to-morrow--if they answer when you call them--then I have been telling you lies_, had been Mhlanga's words. Therefore, no doubt now existed in his hearers' minds that his strange, mysterious warning was true. The three Kafirs, with their families and belongings, had departed, obedient to the "word" of the stranger, the chief's emissary; had gone to add three more warriors to the martial gathering of their tribe.

For a few moments Payne did not speak. He was rapidly revolving the situation in his mind. War would mean ruinous loss to him. He would have to send his family away to the settlements for safety, and go into _laager_ himself; which latter meant months of armed tending of his stock, in common with others in like predicament; and then, even if the animals escaped capture at the hands of the savage foe, there were the chances of catching lung sickness or other diseases from the inferior and ill-bred stock of less careful or less successful farmers, with whom they would necessarily mix during all the owners' joint occupation of the defensive camp.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, at length, as his eyes fell upon some spoor.

"The _schelms_ have gone, and they've not gone empty-handed."

On counting the cattle his worst suspicions were verified. Four of his finest cows were missing, and there was no difficulty whatever in making out by the tracks that they had been driven off by his treacherous and defecting retainers. Payne swore a great oath.

"We'll go after them!" he cried. "We'll give them pepper. Hallo!

There's Marshall. He's getting quite neighbourly."

The countenance of that stalwart frontiersman evinced no surprise as, alighting from his nag, he learnt what had happened. He had come over to see how they were all getting on, and had also been making a little patrol on his own hook, he said.

"You're just in the nick of time, Joe," cried Payne. "You can come with us."

"And are you going to leave the ladies here all alone?" replied Marshall. "I wouldn't, if I were you."

"I had thought of that, too," said Claverton, quietly. "One of us must stay."

"Then I will," said Marshall. "If you fellers are determined to rush off, you'd better do so at once. Mind, I don't think you'll catch the beggars in any case; they've got a good start of you. And my old nag hasn't got go enough in her for a raid into Kreli's country just now."

"Very well, then, that settles it," said Payne. "It's awfully good of you, Joe. We'll get breakfast sharp, and then start. By the way, we'd better not tell the women where we're going."

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SEVEN.

A TIMELY FLIGHT.

Marshall's prediction was verified. Claverton and his host returned to Fountain's Gap at desk; but without the lost stock. They had spoored the animals down to a drift of the Kei River, and had even crossed; but in the then state of things they deemed it imprudent to a degree to venture farther into the enemy's country; and the thieves, having a good start of them, escaped with their booty.

Careful watch was kept that night in Payne's household; but beyond a couple of alarms--not unjustifiable after the events of the last twenty-four hours, though happily false--nothing transpired.

Under the influence of the cheering sunshine all were disposed to think more lightly of the situation; but Payne had formed his plans. It would not do to remain there any longer. He, in common with other settlers on that part of the Kaffrarian border, was very precariously situated.

What with Kreli, just across the river, in a state of declared war; and the powerful Gaika clans, within colonial territory, liable to rise at any moment and make common cause with their brethren, George fully realised that he was in a cleft stick, hemmed in as he would thus be by hostile natives on every side. So he made up his mind to abandon Fountain's Gap, and remove his family to Komgha; then he would have his hands free to take the field if it were still necessary. The move was to be made that morning, and all the household were hastily preparing for it.

It was arranged that they should remain in the settlement for the present, till it could be seen how things would turn out. There they would be safe, as the place would be a kind of depot and the headquarters whence all operations for guarding the border would be carried on.

"And now, George, I suppose the Kafirs will have made a bonfire of the house before I see it again," remarked his wife, as a turn of the road hid the homestead from view.

"Dunno. Impossible to predict. They may, and they may not,"

sententiously replied George, whose chief object in life, at that moment, was the lighting of his pipe under the adverse circ.u.mstances of being at the same time obliged to control a pair of strong, fresh horses, none of the quietest at the best of times. He was driving a Cape cart, the ordinary family coach of the frontier settler, which, besides the said family, contained very little else, for he intended to return at once as soon as the womenkind were in safety, and load up a waggon with such of his lares and penates as it was most desirable to preserve; for the rest, well, he supposed it must take its chance.

Lilian was riding--needless to specify with what escort--and Marshall, who was leading a young horse, and whose attention was wholly taken up with that intractable animal--or at any rate, said it was--rode a little way behind.

"I wonder when I shall get you all to myself again, Arthur," she said, softly.

"I was thinking very much the same," he replied. "But keep the mercury up, dear. The row may not last long."

"Yes. I must not be such a coward," she said. "But somehow this morning, in spite of the sunshine and the glorious weather, there is something so awfully depressing over everything. The whole country seems deserted. That farmhouse we just pa.s.sed spoke volumes, standing there all shut up; and there are no natives about even. It is dreadful."

She was rather pale, after the long, anxious night, depressed as with the shadow of coming woe. Claverton looked tenderly at the sweet face in its sad, delicate beauty, and wished to Heaven the Kafirs would leave them all in peace. A fight was very good fun, but, for his part, he had had enough in the way of excitement to last him all his life, at least so he thought; and now he would ask nothing better than to spend the remainder of his days in calm, undisturbed quiet, with this, his long-lost love.

"Look," he said; "there are some people coming across there--and they are Kafirs."

Lilian started. "Where? Oh, there are only a few," said she, in a relieved tone. For now, every member of the Amaxosa race a.s.sumed, in her imagination, the form of a fierce enemy threatening destruction to her and hers.

The natives, who had been crossing a bushy hollow some four hundred yards off, suddenly stopped, and began peering over the trees at the party, as if uncertain as to the reception they would meet with. Far away stretched the rolling sunny plains, and the lines of wooded hills, where here and there a thick column of smoke ascended through the clear air. One or two distant homesteads were visible--empty, and their pastures tenantless, for a general flight had taken place and the land seemed dead indeed; and there, a little way off, were the red forms of the Kafirs watching them from the bush, while the pleasant sun shone upon the bright points of their a.s.segais.

"It reminds me rather of our ride over to Thirlestane that day," said Claverton. "It's just such another day for sunshine and scenery."

"But not for peace," she rejoined, softly. "Ah, if all was only as peaceful now."

"But it will be, darling. Only a little while longer," replied he, glad to have diverted her thoughts from this unexpected source of fear. And as they rode on further and further from it, the group of armed savages could still be seen watching them from the hill, but these were too few in number to be formidable, and, moreover, the settlement was near at hand. To which another hour of journeying brought them in due course.

And how changed was the aspect of the ordinarily quiet little village now! Waggons stood about everywhere, the three or four irregular streets were filled with a bustling crowd--men mounted and men afoot-- men of every cla.s.s and pursuit--farmer, mechanic, storekeeper, frontier policeman, with here and there a military uniform, and, amid the crowd, dark-skinned natives moved quietly about, or stood in knots at the corners, discussing the latest _indaba_. And the softer s.e.x, too, held its own, in the shape of the wives and daughters of the settlers--these, for their part, of as varied a cla.s.s as their lords--the ponderous frame of the blowzy Dutch _vrouw_, side by side with the regular features and straight profile of some tastefully-attired daughter of an old English line.

But although at first sight the place wore an air of bustle and confusion, it must not be supposed that chaos reigned. A regular system of defence had been organised in the event of attack, and certain points of vantage entrenched and fortified, and the safety of the place was provided for ably and well. The surrounding country, undulating and gra.s.sy, was dotted with horses and cattle grazing. These could be driven in at a moment's warning; and the approaches to the place, being quite open and devoid of cover, were abundantly commanded by the artillery barracks of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, which stood upon a hill some eight hundred yards from the village. The church, a brick and plaster building of unparalleled ugliness, would make an efficient block-house in the last extremity--surrounded as it was with a high sod wall. For those to whom their fellows' necessities were their own opportunities, the existing state of affairs promised a rich harvest, for the stores were doing a brisk trade, and the canteens and hotels were full morning, noon, and night. On the steps of one of the latter lounged a group of men as our friends arrived.

"Hullo, Payne! You don't mean to say that's yourself?" cried one.

"Why, I thought you were going to stick to your place through it all."