The Golden Rock Part 54

"Well, what now?"

"It is gone--faded!" And she stood looking below her with wide-opened eyes and parted lips, and a glow of colour in her cheeks. "Frank, it was such a sight I saw when we were on the mid-Atlantic."

"And has it repaid you for all you have suffered?" he asked.

"Repaid me; it was beautiful! But it has not repaid me, and will not till I stand beside the rock itself."

"That cannot be," he said in low tones.

"And why?" she asked, still looking away.

"Webster is ill."

"He is rapidly recovering, I am sure; and the news that we have seen the Golden Rock will restore him."

"Then Sirayo is wounded."

"His arm is bruised, not broken; and then we have you."

"But," he said, "I am blind!" and the long restraint he had put upon himself giving way, he flung his hands out before him with a groan of bitter disappointment.

"Blind!" she murmured, "blind!" and sinking beside him, she caught his hands in a convulsive grasp, and looked into his drawn and bandaged face. "Oh, Frank! why did not you tell me of this before? How did it happen? But never mind now; let me lead you to the cave. Blind! and out on that fearful ledge."

"Yes," he said, with a ghastly smile; "lead me to the hospital."

"Hullo!" shouted Webster, as they approached the opening, "I thought you had left me, cast me adrift without compa.s.s or food, and I have a most extravagant appet.i.te. Don't look so downcast; I a.s.sure you I am quite well. Why, what is it?"

"You see, I am crippled, Jim, disabled, helpless, worse than useless."

"Lad, I don't believe it;" and rising, Webster stepped to Hume's side, took his hand, then, as he caught the signs of suffering, he gently pressed him to the couch, while Laura leant against the rock with her hands before her face, her courage gone at last.

"Hurt, while I have been lying here like a log. Well, it is my turn to help now. Let us look at it." Gently he drew away the roughly-tied bandage, and caught his breath at what he saw. He looked quickly over his shoulder. "Laura, tell Klaas to get some water." She went out slowly, and he examined the injury. The upper part of Hume's face was blackened, the eyelashes and eyebrows burnt off, the eyelids glued to the cheeks. "Poor lad!" he muttered. "She must not see this."

"Is it so bad; will I ever see again, Jim?"

"Ay, man, that you will! I have seen a worse case mend within a week with the proper treatment. Laura, you look worn--lie down and rest.

This is my case. Klaas, bring water and some clean damp moss."

Klaas quickly returned, and Webster began, with a gentle touch, to moisten the eyelids.

Hume caught him by the wrists.

"Leave me alone--it's torture."

"Good--the powder has pierced the lids, and what you feel is the grit on the eyeb.a.l.l.s," and he went on sponging. "The upper part of your face is a colourable imitation of Klaas's."

"Jim, don't be so cruel."

"Oblige me by going to sleep, young lady. Now for the damp moss," and, picking out all the coa.r.s.e stuff, he placed a portion over each eye, and tied the bandage. "Now, take this brandy, and keep quiet." Then, in singular contradiction to his own words, he burst out: "How the devil did this happen?"

An hour after he sponged the eyes again, and continued at lesser intervals throughout the morning, heedless of his patient's terrible sufferings.

"I'll tell you what," he said, as though with a sudden inspiration, "we'll get back to the river, and drift down to the coast on a raft; the rest will do us all good."

"Yes," she said; "let us go quickly; I have lost all desire to see the rock."

Sirayo's form darkened the opening.

"What!" almost shouted Webster, "are you wounded, too?"

"The people are moving down below," said the chief; "the same we fought, and there are others gathering beyond the river. I think they will fight."

"Which way do the Zulus move?" asked Hume, sitting up.

"Away towards the shining place from the spot where we saw the fires burn last night."

"Are there many of the other people?"

"Ay, they outnumber the Zulus, but they are not eager for the fight.

Maybe they have already been attacked."

"We will descend, then!"

"Descend!" asked Laura, bewildered.

"Yes; don't you see," he continued quickly, though his lips trembled at the pain, "this is our chance? If there is to be a fight our help may decide the day, and instead of being opposed by the people of the valley, they would a.s.sist us in return for our support. Don't you see that, Jim?"

"No, I don't. I know nothing of the people of the valley, and it will be folly now to continue."

"You must not," cried Laura; "you are not fit to face fresh dangers."

"I have brought you thus far," he replied doggedly, "now you must take me down. I swear if you do not I will not budge from here. Let us pack up and go while there is still light, for the day must be far advanced."

In vain they tried to persuade him, but opposition only made him the more stubborn, and after noon they began the long and perilous descent.

Klaas, as being the most active, went ahead; Sirayo followed, then Laura, Hume, and Webster, with rheims connecting them. Of necessity their advance was slow, but after they had pa.s.sed over the scene of the night's conflicts, with its stains of blood, and rounded the projecting rock, they struck the top of a ravine, down which the way was safer, though more difficult to traverse because of the loose shale. From the ledge they saw a body of Zulus marching on one side of the valley, while beyond the river a larger body was ma.s.sed inside a wide military kraal.

After many a rest they arrived safely near the bottom, and, waiting until Klaas, who had been sent on to scout, returned with a favourable report, they reached the valley near sunset.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

A STRANGE AWAKENING.

Immediately before them rose a conspicuous mound, which they believed to be the ruins marked on the map, and though, from the fires still smouldering near, they knew the Zulus had camped there, they rapidly determined it was the best position for them to hold. Quickly, therefore, they struck across and found themselves under a broken bush-covered wall, which surrounded an irregular ma.s.s of masonry, out of which rose a crown of foliage. They walked round seeking for an inlet, and stepped off the circ.u.mference at one hundred and fifty yards. On the south, where the wall was intact, it rose to a height of ten feet, and appeared to be of great thickness, and, though at other points it was lower, there was a continuous natural fence of stiff brushwood, showing no entrance anywhere. They saw, too, from the ring of fires, that the Zulus had camped quite a hundred yards from the ruins at a spot where a spring of clear water bubbled from a belt of rushes.

"It would not be safe to camp out here," said Webster; "and if there is no inlet to this place there is no reason why we should not climb over the outer wall." He very quickly mounted to the top, and, springing down, disappeared. "Come on," he cried presently; "there is good shelter in here and a clean floor, in the very centre of winding pa.s.sages."

Very soon they were all on the wall, and Webster led them along a narrow pa.s.sage, which coiled round and round between heavy walls to an inner chamber, whose floor was covered with sand.