Tween Snow and Fire Part 17

"Faugh!" exclaimed Hoste with a grimace of disgust, while two or three of the younger men of the party turned rather pale as they shudderingly gazed upon the sickening sight. "Poor devil! They've made short work of him, anyhow."

"H'm! I don't wonder at it," said Shelton. "It must be deuced rough to be sold by one of your own men. Still, if that chap's story was true he was the aggrieved party. However, let's get on. We've got our work all before us still."

They had. It was no easy matter to drive such an enormous herd through the thick bush. Many of the animals were very wild, besides being thoroughly scared with all the hustling to and fro they had had--and began to branch off from the main body, drawing a goodly number after them. These had to be out-manoeuvred, yet it would never do for the men to straggle, for the Kafirs would hardly let such a prize go without straining every effort to retain it. Certain it was that the savages were following them in the thick bush as near as they dared, keenly watching an opportunity to retrieve--or partially retrieve--the disaster of the day.

Cautiously, then, the party retreated with their spoil, seeking a favourable outlet by which they could drive their unwieldy capture into the open country; for on all sides the way out of the valley was steep, broken, and bushy. Suddenly a shout of warning and of consternation went up from a man on the left of the advance. All eyes were turned on him--and from him upon the point to which he signalled.

What they saw there was enough to send the blood back to every heart.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE LAST CARTRIDGE.

This is what they saw.

Over the brow of the high ridge, about a mile in their rear, a dark ma.s.s was advancing. It was like a disturbed ants' nest--on they came, those dark forms, swarming over the hill--and the sun glinted on a.s.segai blades and gun-barrels as the savage host poured down the steep slope, glancing from bush to bush, rapidly and in silence.

"I'm afraid we shall have to give up the cattle, lads, and fight our way out," said Shelton, as he took in the full strength of the advancing Kafirs. "Those chaps mean business, and there are too many of them and too few of us."

"We'll make it hot for 'em, all the same," said Carhayes, with a scowl.

"I have just put two more nicks on my gun-stock--not sure I oughtn't to have had four or five, but am only certain of two--Hallo! That's near."

It was. A bullet had swept his hat off, whirling it away a dozen yards.

At the same time puffs of smoke began to issue from the hillside, and the twigs of the bushes beyond were sadly cut about as the enemy's missiles hummed overhead--but always overhead--pretty thickly. At first, the said enemy was rather chary of showing himself, although they could see groups of red figures flitting from bush to bush, and the whigge of bullets and potlegs became more and more unpleasantly near, while from the slope above jets of smoke and flame kept bursting forth at all points.

The plan of the whites was to make a running fight of it. While one-half of the patrol drove on the cattle, the other half was to fight on foot, covering their comrades' retreat, but always keeping near enough to close up, if necessary.

"Now, boys--let 'em have it!" cried Shelton, as a strong body of the enemy made a sudden rush upon their left flank to draw their attention, while another party, with a chorus of shouts and deafening whistles, and waving their a.s.segais and karosses, darted in between the cattle and their captors, with the object of separating and driving off the former.

A volley was discharged--with deadly effect, as testified by the number who fell, wounded, maimed, or stone dead. The rest rushed on, gliding in among the fleeing cattle--whistling and yelling in a frenzy of excitement.

"Keep cool, boys, and fire low," cried Carhayes--who was in command of the dismounted party--as a crowd of Kafirs suddenly started up on their rear, and, with a.s.segais uplifted, threatened a determined charge.

"Now!"

Again there was a roar, as the whole fire was poured into the advancing ma.s.s. Even the horses, steady, trained steeds as they were, began to show restiveness, terrified by the continuous crash of firing and the fierce yells of the savages. Then, without pausing to reload, every man discharged his revolver into the very thick of the leaping, ochre-smeared warriors. It was too much. The latter wavered, then dropped into cover.

But the respite was only a temporary one. Changing his tactics, the fierce foe no longer attempted an open _coup de main_, but taking advantage of the bush he pressed the handful of whites who formed the rear guard so hotly as to force them to close up on their comrades, in order to avoid being entirely surrounded and cut off from the latter.

But however bad had been their marksmanship earlier in the day, while excited and practising at the two fleeing Kafirs at long range, our frontiersmen were now in a different vein. There was nothing wild about their shooting now. Steady of eye, and cool of brain, they were keenly alive to every opportunity. Directly a Kafir showed his head he was morally certain to receive a ball through it, or so uncomfortably close as to make him feel as if he had escaped by a miracle, and think twice about exposing himself a second time.

Meanwhile the cattle were being driven off by the enemy, and indeed matters had become so serious as to render this a mere secondary consideration. From the bush on three sides a continuous fire was kept up, and had the Kafirs been even moderately decent shots not a man of that patrol would have lived to tell the tale; but partly through fear of exposing themselves, partly through fear of their own fire-arms, to the use of which they were completely unaccustomed, the savages made such wild shooting that their missiles flew high overhead. Now and then, however, a shot would take effect. One man received a bullet in the shoulder, another had his bridle hand shattered. Several of the horses were badly wounded, but, as yet, there were no fatalities. The enemy, confident in the strength of his overwhelming numbers, waxed bolder--crowding in closer and closer. Every bush was alive with Kafir warriors, who kept starting up when and where least expected in a manner that would have been highly disconcerting to any but cool and determined men.

But this is just what these were. All hope of saving the spoil had been abandoned. The frontiersmen, dismounted now, were fighting the savages in their own way, from bush to bush.

"This is getting rather too hot," muttered Shelton, with an ominous shake of the head. "We shall be hemmed in directly. Our best chance would be for someone to break through and ride to the camp for help."

Yet he hesitated to despatch anyone upon so dangerous a service.

Just then several a.s.segais came whizzing in among them. Two horses were transfixed, and Hoste received a slight wound in the leg.

"d.a.m.n!" he cried furiously, stamping with pain, while a roar of laughter went up from his fellows, "Let me catch a squint at John Kafir's sooty mug! Ah!"

His piece flew to his shoulder--then it cracked. He had just glimpsed a woolly head, decked with a strip of jackal's skin, peering from behind a bush not twenty yards away, and whose owner, doubtless, attracted by the laughter of those devil-may-care whites, had put it forward to see what the fun was about. A kicking, struggling sound, mingled with stifled groans, seemed to show that the shot had been effective.

"Downed him! Hooray!" yelled Hoste, still squirming under the smart of the a.s.segai p.r.i.c.k in his calf. "Charge of _loepers_ that time--must have knocked daylight through him!"

Taking advantage of this diversion, a tall, gaunt Kafir, rising noiselessly amid a ma.s.s of tangled creepers, was deliberately aiming at somebody. So silent had been his movements, so occupied were the other whites, that he was entirely unperceived. His eye went down to the breech. He seemed to require a long and careful aim.

But just then he was perceived by one, and instinctively Eustace brought his piece to bear. But he did not fire. For like a flash he noted that the savage was aiming _full at Carhayes' back_.

The latter, sublimely unconscious of his deadly peril, was keenly alert on the look out for an enemy in the other direction. Eustace felt his heart going like a hammer, and he turned white and cold. There in the wild bush, surrounded by ruthless enemies, the sweet face of Eanswyth pa.s.sed before him, amid the smoke of powder and the crash of volleys.

She was his now--his at last. The life which had stood between them now stood no more.

With a frightful fascination, he crouched motionless. Carhayes was still unconscious of his imminent peril--his broad back turned full to the deadly tube of the savage. The distance was barely fifteen yards.

The latter could not miss.

It all pa.s.sed like lightning--the awful, the scathing temptation. He could not do it. And with the thought, his finger pressed ever so lightly on the trigger, and the Kafir crashed heavily backward, shot through the brain--while the ball from his gun, which, with a supreme effort he had discharged in his death throes, hummed perilously near his intended victim's head.

"Hallo, Milne! You got in that shot just right," cried one of the men, who had turned in time to take in the situation--not the whole of it, luckily.

Eustace said nothing. His better nature had triumphed. Still, as he slipped a fresh cartridge into his smoking piece, there was a feeling of desolation upon him, as though the intoxicating sense of possessing the whole world had been within his grasp, and as suddenly reft from it again. The extremely critical position in which he--in which the whole party--stood, pa.s.sed unheeded. "Fool!" whispered the tempting, gibing fiend. "You had your opportunity and you threw it away. You will never have it again. She is lost to you forever now. Never can you hope to possess her!"

And now the firing opened from an unexpected quarter--and behold, the bushy slope in front was alive with Kafir warriors. The patrol was entirely surrounded, and now the savages began to shout exultantly to each other.

"We have got the white men in a hole," they cried. "Ha! They cannot get out. Look, the sun is shining very bright, but it will be dark for the white men long before it touches the hill. They are caught like wolves in a trap. _Hau_!"

"Ho-ho! Are they!" sung out Carhayes, in reply to this taunt. "When a wolf is caught in a trap, the dogs cannot kill him without feeling his teeth. The Amaxosa dogs have caught not a wolf, but a lion. Here is one of his bites." And quick as lightning he brought up his rifle and picked off a tall Gcaleka, who was flitting from one bush to another a couple of hundred yards above. The Kafir lurched heavily forward, convulsively clutching the earth with both hands. A yell of rage arose from the savages and a perfect hail of bullets and a.s.segais came whistling around the whites--fortunately still overhead.

"Aha!" roared Carhayes with a shout of reckless laughter. "Now does any other dog want to feel the lion's bite? Ha, ha! I am he whom the people call Umlilwane. `The Little Fire' can burn. He it was who helped to burn the kraal of Sarili, the Great Chief of the House of Gcaleka. He it is who has `burned' the life out of many dogs of the race of Xosa. He will burn out the lives of many more! Ha, ha--dogs-- black sc.u.m! Come forth! Try who can stand before The Little Fire and not be burned up--utterly consumed away! Come forth, dogs, come forth!"

Catching their comrade's dare-devil spirit, the men laughed and cheered wildly. But the Kafirs, full of hate and rage, forgot their prudence.

A great ma.s.s of them leaped from their cover, and shrilling their wild war-whistles, snapped their a.s.segais off short, and bore down upon the handful of whites in full impetuous charge.

Critical as the moment was, the latter were prepared never more dangerously cool than now when it was almost a case of selling their lives dearly. They instantly gave way, melting into cover with the serpent-like celerity of the savages themselves, and before these could so much as swerve, they poured such a deadly cross-fire upon the compact onrushing ma.s.s that in a second the ground was strewn with a groaning, writhing heap of humanity.

With a roar like a wild beast, Carhayes sprang from his cover and, wrenching a heavy k.n.o.b-kerrie from the hand of a dead Kafir, dashed among the fallen and struggling foe, striking to right and left, braining all those who showed the slightest sign of resistance or even of life. A Berserk ferocity seemed to have seized the man. His hair and beard fairly bristled, his eyes glared, as he stood erect, whirling the heavy club, spattered and shiny with blood and brains. He roared again:

"Ho, dogs! Come and stand before the lion! Come, feel his bite--who dares? Ha, ha!" he laughed, bringing the kerrie down with a sickening crash upon the head of a prostrate warrior whom he had detected in the act of making a last desperate stab at him with an a.s.segai--shattering the skull to atoms. "Come, stand before me, cowards. Come, and be ground to atoms."

But to this challenge no answer was returned. There was a strange silence among the enemy. What did it portend? That he was about to throw up the game and withdraw? No such luck. His strength was too great, and he was burning with vengeful rage at the loss of so many men.

It could only mean that he was planning some new and desperate move.

"I say, Milne, lend us a few cartridges; I've shot away all mine."

Eustace, without a word, handed half a dozen to the speaker. The latter, a fine young fellow of twenty-one, was enjoying his first experience in the n.o.ble game of war. He had been blazing away throughout the day as though conscious of the presence of a waggon-load of ammunition in the patrol.

"Thanks awfully--Ah-h!"

The last e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n escaped him in a kind of shuddering sigh. His features grew livid, and the cartridges which he had just grasped dropped from his grasp as he sank to the ground with scarcely a struggle. A Kafir had crawled up behind him, and had stabbed him between the shoulders with a broad-bladed a.s.segai--right through to the heart. A deep vengeful curse went up from his comrades, and they looked wildly around for an object on which to exact retribution. In vain.