As time passed on, however, and Swartboy saw that the sun was
descending, and that the shades of night would soon be gathering over
the river, his hopes began to sink within him. He could not understand
why the young hunter had not long ago come to release them. Groot
Willem, Hendrik, and Hans should have returned by that time; and the
four should have made an effectual search for their missing servants.
He had remained silent for a long time, under very peculiar
circumstances. But silence now became unbearable, and he was seized
with a sudden desire to express his dissatisfaction at the manner Fate
had been dealing out events,--a desire no longer to be resisted. The
silence was at last broken by his calling out--
"Congo, you ole fool, where are you? What for don't you go home?"
On the Kaffir's ear the voice fell dull and distant; and yet he
immediately understood whence it came. Like himself, the Bushman was in
a living grave! That explained his neglect to render the long-desired
assistance.
"Lor', Swart! why I waiting for you," answered Congo, for the first time
since his imprisonment attempting a smile; "I don't want to go to the
camp and leave you behind me."
"You think a big sight too much of yourself," rejoined the Bushman.
"Who wants to be near such a black ole fool as you? You may go back to
the camp, and when you get there jus' tell Baas Hendrik that Swartboy
wants to see him. I've got something particular to tell him."
"Very well," answered the Kaffir, becoming more reconciled to his
position; "what for you want see Baas Hendrik? I'll tell him what you
want without making him come here. What shall I say?"
In answer to this question, Swartboy made a long speech, in which the
Kaffir was requested to report himself as a fool for having fallen into
a pit,--that he had shown himself more stupid than the sea-cows, that
had apparently shunned the trap for years.
On being requested to explain how one was more stupid than the other,--
both having met with the same mischance,--Swartboy went on to prove that
his misfortune was wholly owing to the fault of Congo, by the Kaffir
having committed the first folly of allowing himself to be entrapped.
Nothing, to the Bushman's mind, could be more clear than that Congo's
stupidity in falling into the first pit had led to his own downfall into
the second.
This was now a source of much consolation to him, and the verbal
expression of his wrongs enabled him for a while to feel rather happy at
the fine opportunity afforded for reviling his rival. The amusement,
however, could not prevent his thoughts from returning to the positive
facts that he was imprisoned; that in place of passing the day in
cooking and eating _duyker_, he had been fasting and fretting in a dark,
dirty pit, in the companionship of loathsome reptiles.
His mind now expanding under the exercise of a startled imagination, he
became apprehensive. What if some accident should have occurred to
Arend, and prevented his return to the camp? What if Groot Willem and
the others should have strayed, and not find their way back to the place
for two or three days? He had heard of such events happening to other
stupid white men, and why not to them? What if they had met a tribe of
the savage inhabitants of the country, and been killed or taken
prisoners?
These conjectures, and a thousand others, flitted through the brain of
the Bushman, all guiding to the conclusion that, should either of them
prove correct, he would first have to eat the reptiles in the pit, and
then starve.
It was no consolation to him to think that his rival in the other pit
would have to submit to a similar fate.
His unpleasant reveries were interrupted by a short, angry bark; and,
looking up to the opening through which he had descended, he beheld the
countenance of a wild dog,--the "wilde honden" of the Dutch Boers.
Uttering another and a different cry, the animal started back; and from
the sounds now heard overhead, the Bushman was certain that it was
accompanied by many others of its kind.
An instinctive fear of man led them to retreat for a short distance; but
they soon found out that "the wicked flee when no man pursueth," and
they returned.
They were hungry, and had the sense to know that the enemy they had
discovered was, for some reason, unable to molest them.
Approaching nearer, and more near, they again gathered around the pits,
and saw that food was waiting for them at the bottom of both. They
could contemplate their victims unharmed, and this made them courageous
enough to think of an attack. The human voice and the gaze of human
eyes had lost their power, and the pack of wild hounds, counting several
score, began to think of taking some steps towards satisfying their
hunger.
They commenced scratching and tearing away the covering of the pits,
sending down a shower of dust, sand, and grass that nearly suffocated
the two men imprisoned beneath.
The poles supporting the screen of earth were rotten with age, and the
whole scaffolding threatened to come down as the wild dogs scampered
over it.
"If there should be a shower of dogs," thought Swartboy, "I hope that
fool Congo will have his share of it."
This hope was immediately realised, for the next instant he heard the
howling of one of the animals evidently down in the adjoining pit. It
had fallen through, but, fortunately for Congo, not without injuring
itself in a way that he had but narrowly escaped. The dog had got
transfixed on the sharp-pointed stake, planted firmly in the centre of
the pit, and was now hanging on it in horrible agony, unable to get
clear.
Without lying down in the mud, the Kaffir was unable to keep his face
more than twelve inches from the open jaws of the dog, that in its
struggles spun round as on a pivot; and Congo had to press close against
the side of the pit, to keep out of the reach of the creature yelping in
his ears.
Swartboy could distinguish the utterances of this dog from those of its
companions above, and the interpretation he gave to them was, that a
fierce combat was taking place between it and the Kaffir.
The jealousy and petty ill-will so often exhibited by the Bushman was
not so strong as he had himself believed. His intense anxiety to know
which was getting the best of the fight, added to the fear that Congo
was being torn to pieces, told him that his friendship for the Kaffir
far outweighed the animosity he fancied himself to have felt.
The fiendish yells of the dogs, the unpleasant situation in which he was
placed, and the uncertainty of the time he was to endure it, were
well-nigh driving him distracted; when just then the wild honden
appeared to be beating a retreat,--the only one remaining being that in
the pit with Congo. What was driving them away? Could assistance be at
hand?
Breathlessly the Bushman stood listening.