His officers were present, and Drew Lennox and Bob Dickenson exchanged
glances at the word "gentlemen," for the embassy looked like anything
but that; and they departed in an insolent, braggart way, and very soon
after began to shoot, using up a great many cartridges, but doing very
little harm. Then, growing weary, they gave up, and the colonel set one
part of his men to work with the spade till dark, making rifle-pit and
trench; while as soon as it was dark he despatched fully half of his
force to occupy the precipitous mound at the back of the village, making
a natural stronghold which he intended to connect with the camp by means
of stone walls the next day, having a shrewd notion that if he did not
the Boers would, for the mound commanded the place, and would soon make
it untenable.
Captain Roby's company and another were sent to this duty, and the men
were carefully posted--Lennox and Dickenson on the highest part, which
was naturally the most windy and cold. Their orders, which they
conveyed to the men, were to keep the strictest lookout, though the
enemy had retired far enough away; for the Boers had at that early
period of the war already acquired the credit of being slim and clever
at ambush and night attack.
But the night was well advanced, and the two friends, after visiting
post after post, were sitting huddled up in their greatcoats, longing
for hot coffee or cigarettes, and feeling obliged to rub their sleepy
and tired eyes from time to time, weary as they were with straining to
see danger creeping up over the black, dark veldt, but straining in
vain.
"B-r-r-r! What humbug it is to call this Africa!" growled Dickenson.
"What do you mean?" replied Lennox.
"Mean? Why, it's so cold. Where's your blazing heat and your sand?
One might be at the North Pole. Ow! don't do that."
He started violently, for Lennox had suddenly stolen out a hand and
pinched his arm sharply.
"Quiet! Listen!"
Dickenson drew his breath hard and strained his ears instead of his
eyes.
"Well? Can't hear anything."
"Hist! Listen again."
There was a pause.
"Hear anything?"
"Yes; but I don't know what it is," said Dickenson, laying a hand behind
one ear and leaning forward with his head on one side.
"What does it sound like?"
"Something like a heavy wagon coming along a road with its wheels
muffled."
"Heavy wagon drawn by oxen?"
"Yes," replied Dickenson.
"Mightn't it be a big gun?"
"It might," said Dickenson dubiously; "but what, could a big gun be
doing out there on the open veldt?"
"Lying still in its carriage, and letting itself be drawn to the place
where it was to be mounted."
"Yes, of course it might be; but it couldn't."
"Why not? Bob, old fellow," whispered Lennox in an excited whisper, "I
believe the Boers are stealing a march upon us."
"Well, they won't, because we're on the watch. But out with it: what is
it you think?"
"They don't know that we are occupying the kopje to-night."
"No; we came after it was dark."
"Exactly. Well, they're bringing up a big gun to mount up here and give
us a surprise in the morning."
"Phe-ew!" whistled Dickenson. "Oh, surely not!"
"I feel sure that they are."
"Well, let's send word on to the old man. Send one of the sergeants."
"And by the time he got there with his news, and reinforcements could be
sent, the enemy would have the gun here."
"Let's tell Roby, then."
"Yes; come on."
In another minute they had told their officer their suspicions, and he
hummed and ha'd a little after listening.
"It hardly seems likely," he said, "and I don't want to raise a false
alarm. Besides, the outposts have given no notice; and hark! I can
hear nothing."
"Now?"
They listened in the darkness, and it was as their captain suggested:
all perfectly still.
"There," he said. "It would be horrible to rouse up the colonel on
account of a cock-and-bull story."
"But it would be worse for him to be warned too late. There it is
again; hark!" whispered Lennox, stretching out a hand in the direction
farthest from the village.
"Can't hear anything," said the captain.
"I can," growled Dickenson softly.
"Yes, so can I now. It's a wagon whose drivers have missed their way, I
should say. But we'll see."
"Or feel," grunted the captain. "It's as black as ink.--Here, Lennox,
take a sergeant's guard and go forward softly to see if you can make
anything out. I don't know, though; it may be as you say, and if it
is--"
"We ought to bring in that gun," whispered Lennox.
"Yes, at all hazards. I don't know, though. There, take
five-and-twenty of the lads, and act as seems best. If you can do it
easily, force the drivers to come on, but don't run risks. If the Boers
are in strength fall back at once. You understand?"
"Quite," said Lennox softly.
"Let me go with him, Roby?"
"No; I can't spare you."
"Yes, do; I can help him."
"He can do what there is to do himself, and would rather be alone, for
it is only a reconnaissance."
"I should like him with me," said Lennox quietly, and he felt his arm
nipped.
"Very well; but don't waste time. I can hear it quite plainly now.
Mind, fall back at once if they are in force. I'll be well on the alert
to cover you and your party."
The requisite number of men were soon under the young officer's orders,
and they followed him softly down the rock-encumbered slope of the
natural fortress--no easy task in the darkness; but the men were getting
used to the gloom, and it was not long before the party was challenged
by an outpost and received the word. They passed on, getting well round
to the farther side of the kopje before they were challenged again.
"Glad you've come, sir," said the sentry; "I was just going to fire."
"Why?" asked Lennox softly.
"I can hear something coming out yonder in the darkness. You listen,
sir. It's like a heavy wagon."
The man spoke in a whisper; then for some moments all was perfectly
still.
"Can't hear it now, sir," whispered the sentry; "but I felt sure I heard
something."
"Wait again," said Lennox softly; and there was a good five minutes'
interval of waiting, but not a sound could be heard.
"Let's go forward, Bob," whispered Lennox; and after telling the sentry
to be well upon the alert, he led his men slowly and cautiously straight
away out into the black darkness of the veldt, but without hearing
another sound till they were, as far as could be judged, a good two
hundred yards from the last outpost, when the men were halted and stood
in the black darkness listening once more, before swinging: round to the
right and getting back by a curve to somewhere near the starting-place.
The next moment the young men joined hands and stood listening to an
unmistakable sound away to their right and nearer to the kopje. The
sound was distant enough to be very soft, but there it was, plainly
enough--the calm, quiet crunching up of the food a span of oxen had
eaten, indicative of the fact that they had been pulled up by their
drivers and were utilising their waiting time by chewing the cud.
"Forward!" whispered Lennox, and his men crept after him without a
sound, every one full of excitement, for the general idea was that they
were about to surprise some convoy wagon that had gone astray.
A minute later the munching of the oxen sounded quite loudly, and the
little party was brought to a halt by a deep, gruff voice saying in Boer
Dutch:
"What a while you've been! How much higher can we get?"
"Fix bayonets!" cried Lennox sharply, and a yell of dismay arose,
followed by a dozen random shots, as the metallic clinking of the keen,
dagger-like weapons was heard against the muzzles of the men's rifles.
The shots fired seemed to cut the black darkness, and the exploded
powder spread its dank, heavy fumes in the direction of the men's faces,
but as far as Lennox could make out in the excitement of leading his
party on in a charge, no one was hurt; and the next minute his little
line was brought up short, several of the men littering angry
ejaculations, and as many more bursting into a roar of laughter.