The Golden Rock Part 39

Then, like two fierce and strange dogs meeting, they stood fronting each other--the one with a commanding look, the other with lowering frown and quivering nostrils.

The stranger spoke, but the Gaika shook his head in turn.

"What does he say?" asked Hume.

"He speaks strangely, sieur."

"Is he a witch-doctor?"

"He is not of my people, nor of the Zulus, and his toes turn out."

"I wonder if this is our hermit?" said Webster.

"Ay, the same thought occurred to me; and the man who could leap over that fence as he did could have no difficulty in knocking me down."

While they were talking the stranger looked at them furtively.

Hume cut a piece off a twist of Boer tobacco, and handed it to the man, who took it with a gleam of satisfaction, cut a fragment off with his a.s.segai and put it into his mouth. The Gaika stalked away and crept under the waggon, the stranger stopping his jaws to watch him, until he heard the sigh of a man who lies down to sleep, when he appeared more at ease. Presently he squatted by the fire, spreading his hands before him, and, in a guttural voice, said, "Brandy."

"His vocabulary may be limited," said Webster dryly; "but it is useful,"

and he went to the waggon-box for the stone demijohn in which they carried the Dop brandy.

Hume had his eye on the man and saw him shift an a.s.segai to his right hand, whereupon he pulled back the hammer of his rifle with a click that drew a swift, furtive glance upon him.

The brandy was poured out and drunk with a resounding smack, and in jubilation he shouted out, after the Kaffir fashion, a few words of praise, and at the noise the oxen stirred.

"Yoh!" came a sharp exclamation.

"Is that you, Klaas?"

"The bush, sieur--the bush; it moves!"

"What the devil--Look after that fellow, Jim, while I see into this,"

and Hume bolted round the waggon.

"Well, Klaas?"

The Gaika was not there, but Hume heard him talking to the oxen, and ran forward.

"What is it?"

"Men come in to cut rheims again, and take away the bush fence."

"Where are they?" said Hume, throwing up his rifle.

"They run when they see me. That man by the fire no good. So I went by the waggon and watch--bymby, when he drink and cry out one word, he shout in Zulu, _baleka_ (quick). So I leave the waggon."

"Hold that fellow!" shouted Hume, but there came a stifled cry from Webster, and when he got round the man had gone, and Jim was rubbing his eyes.

"Hang the swab," he said; "he threw a handful of dust in my eyes when I attempted to seize him, and bounded away. What new devilment's afoot?"

"That fellow was in league with someone, and another attempt has been made to stampede the oxen. They beat us at every turn."

"You are very noisy out there," said a voice from the waggon.

"We have been entertaining a guest, and he has just left us," said Hume, with a wry face.

"A guest in this place, and at such an hour! You should have given me an opportunity of sharing the pleasure."

"We did not wish to disturb you."

A close inspection was made of the fence, and three large branches, which had been removed, were replaced. Then the three men, each taking up a different post, kept watch again until the dawn.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

A DUEL.

They agreed to keep back from Laura the alarming incident of the night, and when she stepped out in the morning, full of curiosity, they made light of their strange visitor, and drew her attention instead to the huge body of the old lion. But though they would give her no cause for fresh anxiety, their minds were troubled and their glances continually roaming over the country for sign of the danger they were sure was preparing for them.

"It is not right," said Hume, "that we should expose her to these terrors and risks."

"True, my lad; and there is a look in her eyes already which I do not like."

"What are you talking about so gloomily?" she asked.

"The fact is," said Frank gravely, "we have made a mistake in bringing you into this wilderness, and we think we should take you back to Pretoria, or, at any rate, to some farm where you could stay safely while we returned from the search."

"Then something did occur last night," she said, looking from one to the other.

"The lion occurred," said Webster, with the ghost of a smile.

"There is nothing very terrible in a dead lion. You are keeping back something from me."

"We are just entering upon the most dangerous part of our journey, and the risks we have encountered are nothing compared to those we must expect, but they have been bad enough to alarm us on your account. We feel that we cannot expose you to the dangers and strain of constant alarms."

"You should know by this time," she said slowly, "that I am prepared to encounter danger, and we have already discussed and faced this very matter when we reckoned up the difficulties and hardships of the enterprise. I am resolved to continue unless my presence tires you."

"Heaven forbid!" they muttered.

"Then be satisfied," she said, with a sad smile; "you are relieved of the responsibility which you think due to me because I am a woman, for if I knew death were awaiting me over there among those grim mountains I would not draw back."

They shuddered.

"Come," she said, "I have put into words what was in your thoughts.

Tell me now what happened last night, and let me judge whether the danger be the greater."

So they told her.