With Rifle and Bayonet Part 6

On the following day Jack called on the agents again, and having come to an agreement with them, and arranged that the goods should be despatched by the train which left for Johannesburg the next morning, he sauntered through the town in the direction of his hotel.

"I wonder whether Turner was right about that revolver!" he suddenly thought, a window full of sporting guns and rifles having caught his eye, and caused him to remember the conversation of the previous day.

"If all these Boers are really arming it might come in very handy some day. Yes, I will buy one, with plenty of ammunition, and see whether I cannot hide it away where a pretty close search would not discover it."

To make up his mind was to act, and within a few minutes Jack was in the gun-shop.

"I want a revolver of some sort," he said. "Something which would be useful, and at the same time not too big and heavy."

"Then you couldn't do better than take one of these Mausers," the owner of the shop, an Englishman, replied. "They lie much flatter than a revolver, are not given to jamming, and fire ten shots in rapid succession. Come in here, sir, and try one. I have a range specially fitted up."

Jack followed the man into a big shed behind, and here, for an hour, he practised with various pistole, finally deciding upon a Mauser.

"There will be a run on that weapon soon, sir," remarked the shopman knowingly, "and if all is true that one hears, or indeed only half one hears, the Boers have been buying a heap of them."

"Yes, I've heard that too," replied Jack, "and also that they take precious good care that none of the Uitlanders get hold of any."

"That's so, sir; but still, I dare say there are many of our countrymen who have managed to smuggle in arms. That Mauser you've bought could be easily managed if fixed with a good deal of padding beneath the arm."

"Ah, I dare say!" Jack answered casually, and then left the shop.

"That was a good idea," he thought, as he walked back to the hotel, "and I'll just see how I can manage it."

Arrived at the hotel, he first begged a reel of cotton, a needle, and a small piece of dark serge from the manageress, and then retired to his room. He was wearing a navy-blue suit at the time, and whipping the coat off, he first fitted the Mauser pistol beneath the waistcoat, pushing the muzzle up till it rested in the right armpit.

"Now, all I have to do is to open the seams down each side and let them out," he murmured. "Then I will sew on a kind of inner pocket, and as soon as it is finished I must pad the waistcoat all round with cotton-wool. It will make it awfully hot, and I dare say I shall make rather a muddle of it, as I never was very grand at sewing. Still, it's got to be done, and after all, what does it matter how neat the st.i.tching is?"

It took a good two hours to let out the seams and add the pocket, but at last that part was completed, and he sallied out to buy some cotton-wool.

Then he placed the wooden holster of the Mauser in the pocket, and arranged the wool on either side of it and between it and the waistcoat, securing it by cross st.i.tches. An hour later the other side was similarly padded, and he tried the waistcoat on.

The cotton-wool he found had certainly made all the difference. Both sides beneath his arms were well rounded off, and it would require a good deal more than a casual glance to detect that matters were not as they were meant to be. Then he put on the coat, b.u.t.toned it up, and, standing in front of the gla.s.s, practised drawing the weapon.

It was wonderful how quickly he could change himself from an unarmed English youth to one with a deadly Mauser, with ten bullets between himself and disaster. To thrust his hand beneath his coat, touch the spring, and unb.u.t.ton the flap of his hidden pocket was the work of only a moment, and an instant later the pistol had by its own weight slipped out, and the b.u.t.t was in his grasp, while the holster remained in its old position ready to conceal the weapon again.

Jack practised diligently with and then without the gla.s.s, and finally, feeling satisfied that he was now prepared in case of accidents, donned his hat and went out for a walk.

No one suspected him, or looked after him as though they had noticed that he was carrying hidden arms, and even Turner, when he accidentally ran across him, not only failed to perceive that Jack had something beneath his arm, but once more dilated on the possibilities of trouble in the future, and urged him to buy some weapon before returning to Johannesburg.

"You'd better do as I say, old chap," he said persuasively. "Those Boers are bad 'uns to deal with at any time, but when they are armed and you are not--and they know it too--well, it's apt to go hard with the poor Uitlander."

"Ah, well, I fancy I'll take my chance, or perhaps get a revolver next time I come south to Durban!" answered Jack with a quiet smile. "You see, from all accounts they are awfully suspicious fellows, and no one can pa.s.s into the Transvaal with so much as a cartridge; at least, that's what I have been told."

"Yes, Somerton, there is that difficulty about it," Turner answered, wrinkling his forehead. "Well, I shouldn't think that any Boer would be a.s.s enough to search you. You don't look the sort of fellow to smuggle arms; in fact, if you'll excuse my saying it, old chap, you're about the most innocent-looking and harmless young Englishman of my acquaintance.

But I must be going now. So long, old horse, and mind you, if you think of that revolver, or want anything sent up to Johnny's Burg, drop me a line, and I'll get it forwarded to you somehow or other."

The two young fellows shook hands, nodded, and went their different ways, Jack to various shops to carry out sundry small commissions with which Mrs Hunter had entrusted him, and Fred Turner to his office.

On the following morning Jack was whirled to the station on a rickshaw, and, leaping to the ground, paid the Zulu "boy", who, as a matter of fact, was a fine, big, strapping man of about thirty-five, with a long scar down the side of his face, evidently the result of some old a.s.sagai stab, but which, curiously enough, served only to make a naturally jovial expression all the more p.r.o.nounced.

Then he carried his bag, which contained all his purchases, to the train, and placed it on the seat he intended to occupy.

He had arrived a good ten minutes before the time announced for the departure of the Pretoria and Johannesburg express, and employed it in walking up to the engine, which he admired as a very fine specimen of machinery. Then he strolled back along the platform, dodging the pa.s.sengers, who had now commenced to arrive in large numbers, and finally reached the end of the train. It was rather longer than usual, he noticed, and curiously enough, tacked on to the back of the guard's van there were six trucks open and one closed, five of the former filled with an a.s.sortment of wooden cases labelled "Sugar", while the sixth was loaded with a consignment of finely-broken coal.

Having satisfied his curiosity, he returned to his carriage, first ascertaining that the leather goods he had bought for Mr Hunter were on board the train and duly labelled.

Soon the last of the pa.s.sengers came tearing across to the train, ticket in mouth and a heavy bag in each hand, and he had barely flung open a door and sprung in before the engine gave a loud grunt and they were off.

It was a long run up to the tip of Natal, and the latter part of it somewhat slow and tedious, in spite of occasional s.n.a.t.c.hes of lovely scenery; but at last they reached Newcastle, and pulled up in the station.

"Twenty minutes' wait here, sir," said the guard, putting his head in through the window. "You can get something to eat on the platform if you like."

Jack jumped out at once, bought a bag of buns, and drank a gla.s.s of milk. Then he walked out of the station and into the town, thinking he would like to have a glimpse of it. But it was getting dusk, and lights were already appearing. Still, he went for some distance, forgetful of the fact that the minutes were rapidly flying, and that the moment for the departure of his train was getting very close.

Suddenly he looked at his watch, and found with a start that in three minutes it would leave. Darting through the street, he ran towards the station at his fastest pace, only to find, when he reached it, that the outside door was closed and to hear the guard's whistle sounding.

It was an awkward dilemma, but Jack was not to be beaten. Running along towards the front part of the platform, he climbed some rails, crossed a siding full of coal wagons, between which he dived, and rushed up the incline on to the platform only to see the train steaming off. More than half the carriages had already pa.s.sed him, and the first of the trucks at the tail of the train was abreast of him.

Jack determined not to be beaten, and, calmly judging the time, he grasped the hand-rail in the centre of the last van of all, and swung himself on to the narrow step which was secured along the side. Next moment he was carried on into the darkness without a soul having seen him join the train.

"Well, I caught it after all!" he murmured to himself with an exclamation of satisfaction; "but I shall never be able to hold on here for long. Besides, there's no saying when I may be jerked off, or smashed against a signal-post. There's a door along there, and I'll see whether I cannot open it and get into the van."

Climbing along the footboard, with his body held as close against the van as possible, he was not long in reaching the door and in wrenching it open. The rest was easy, and in a few moments he was safely inside, with the door closed.

To his surprise he found that there was a dim oil-lamp burning at the end, not that he could see it very well, for a wall of small cases was built between him and it. But, by climbing on to this and peeping over, he was able to see that it was a small lantern slung from the roof, and swinging backwards and forwards and from side to side as the van jerked.

But what was, perhaps, more surprising than all, was to find four men seated on as many boxes in the s.p.a.ce that was walled off, playing a game of cards. They were typical Boers; that is to say, three of them were big, bearded men dressed in rough suits and felt hats, whilst the fourth was none other than Piet Maartens, more carefully clothed than his companions, and with a clean-shaven and evil-looking face. Close beside each man was a Mauser rifle and a bandolier full of cartridges.

"Whew!" whistled Jack under his breath, climbing stealthily down. "What are those men doing here, and armed too! What does it mean, I wonder?"

For a few moments he sat on the floor puzzling his brains, and then a suspicion that he had accidentally made a discovery dawned upon him.

"They're up to no good, those fellows," he said to himself, "and it looks very much as though they were in charge of this van-load of boxes.

I wonder what's inside them! Let me see. They're labelled 'Grapes--to be kept cool', and are addressed to President Kruger himself."

Having inspected the outside of the cases, Jack's suspicions led him to test the weight of one of them, for, like every other Uitlander, he had heard that quant.i.ties of ammunition and arms were being secretly imported by the Boers.

"Phew!" he muttered, hurriedly putting it back in its place. "Not grapes, but Mauser cartridges, I'll be bound. It's twenty times as heavy as a case of grapes would be."

There was no doubt now that Jack had hit upon something more than curious, and, having discovered a van loaded presumably with grapes but undoubtedly with Mauser cartridges, and in charge of a party of Boers whilst still in an English colony, his curiosity led him to persevere and probe the matter thoroughly.

"I'll just see what is at this end now," he thought, "and if I find the same I shall certainly get out of this as soon as possible. Those fellows would have no hesitation in shooting me to ensure my keeping a silent tongue; and Piet Maartens would certainly help them to get rid of me."

Jack now crept across the narrow s.p.a.ce which had been left opposite the doors of the van, and inspected the end nearest the engine. It, too, was apparently full of cases of grapes, but on climbing along on the top--for the boxes were here several tiers in thickness--he came to another large s.p.a.ce left in the centre of them, and on lowering himself into it and feeling about with his hands, discovered no fewer than three Maxim guns jammed close together, whilst beneath them, packed loosely in straw, were piles on piles of rifles, undoubtedly of the Mauser pattern, as he could tell to a certainty by the shape of the breech-lock. Here was a position for a young lad to find himself in! By the merest accident he had managed to get into an extremely dangerous situation, and common sense advised him to quit it at once.

Stealthily climbing out of the hiding-place again, he waited till a sudden roar, as the train ran over a small culvert, gave him an opportunity to open the door and slip out of the van.

Clinging to the rail, he made his way along the footboard, stretched across to the truck in front, and soon had the satisfaction of finding himself sitting on top of a truck-load of fine coal.