"Well, you two Sabbath-breakers!" was Grace Suffield's laughing greeting
to her husband and guest on the following morning, as she joined the two
on the _stoep_, where they were cleaning and oiling a rifle apiece
preparatory to the day's doings. "So you're not to be persuaded into
abandoning your wicked enterprise?"
"It's the only day a poor hard-worked Civil Servant has the whole of,
Mrs Suffield," answered Roden.
"Oh yes! I daresay. As if you couldn't have as many days as you chose
to ask for. But come in now. Breakfast is ready."
They entered, and were immediately beset by the glum face and wistful
entreaty of the eldest hopeful, begging to be allowed to come too.
"Not to-day, sonny; not to-day," answered his father decisively. "You
can go out any day; you're not a hard-worked Civil Servant. Besides, we
shall hardly get anything; we're only going just for the sake of the
ride. Where's Mona?" he added. "Late, as usual?"
"Oh yes. We needn't wait for her."
Well that they did not, for breakfast was nearly over when she sailed
in, bringing with her--surprise; for she was clad in a riding habit.
"Hallo, young woman! What's the meaning of this? Going to ride into
Doppersdorp to church?" sang out Suffield.
"Not to-day, Charlie. I'm going to see you and Mr Musgrave shoot a
buck."
"Eh!" said Suffield, with a blank stare at Roden.
"Oh, you needn't look so disappointed, or you might have the civility
not to show it. I'm going with you, and that's all about it," said
Mona, with nonchalant decision, beginning upon her tea.
"Well, upon my word! But we are going into the very dev--er--I mean,
all sorts of rough places, right up among the _krantzes_. Who on earth
is going to look after such a superfine young party as you?"
"Wait until somebody is asked to. Meanwhile, I flatter myself I'm old
enough and ugly enough to look after myself."
"Father, you said just now you were only going for the sake of the
ride," struck in the disappointed hopeful.
"Um--yes, did I though? So I did, Frank. I say, though. Did you ever
hear the saying, that small boys should be seen and not heard? If
you're ready, Musgrave, we'll go round and see about the horses." Under
which somewhat cowardly expedient Suffield rose to effect a timely
retreat. "By the way, what are you going to ride, Miss Independence?"
he added, turning on the threshold.
"Oh, I've arranged all that," replied Mona, indifferently.
And she had. When they reached the stable they found the ragged
Hottentot groom already placing a side-saddle upon one of the horses, a
steady-going sure-footed bay.
Now, Roden Musgrave was a real sportsman; which, for present purposes,
may be taken to mean that, whatever might be lovely woman's place, in
his opinion it was not out buck-shooting among more or less dangerous
slopes and crags. Nevertheless, when Mona's glance had rested
momentarily upon his face as she made her surprising announcement, he
flattered himself that he had done nothing to show his real opinion.
Nor had he, actively, but there was not the slightest sign of
brightening at the news, such as would have lit up the countenance of,
say, Lambert, in like case. And this she, for her part, did not fail to
note.
It was a lovely morning as they rode forth along the base of the great
sweeping slopes, terraced at intervals with buttresses of cliff. The
air was as clear and exhilarating as wine, and the sky one vivid,
radiant, azure vault. High overhead a white fleecy cloud or two soared
around a craggy peak.
"Isn't it a day?" cried Mona, half breathlessly, as they pulled up to a
walk, after a long canter over the nearly level plain. "Grace thinks we
are an out-and-out sinful trio."
"So we are, Miss Ridsdale," said Roden. "But you're the worst. Woman--
lovely woman--is nothing if not devout. Now, with Suffield and myself
it doesn't matter. We are the unregenerate and brutal sex."
"Well it isn't our fault, anyway," said Suffield. "We are Church of
England, and that persuasion is not represented in Doppersdorp. And, at
any rate, it's better to be doing something rational on Sunday than to
sit twirling one's thumbs and yawning, and smoking too many pipes all
day because it is Sunday."
"Why don't you agitate for a church, then?" asked Roden.
"Oh, the bishop and the dean are too hard at it, fighting out their
battle royal in Grahamstown, to spare time to attend to us. There's a
Methodist meeting-house in Doppersdorp and a Catholic chapel, as well as
the Dutch Reformed church, but we are left to slide."
"Have you been to the Catholic church, Mr Musgrave?" said Mona. "I go
there sometimes, though I always have to fight Grace before and after on
the subject. But I don't see why I shouldn't go. I like it."
"That surely should be justification enough."
"Don't put on that nasty, cynical tone when I want you to talk quite
nicely."
"But I don't know how."
"I'm not going to pay you the compliment you're fishing for. What were
we talking about? Oh, I know. Isn't Father O'Driscoll a dear old man?"
"I suppose so, if that means something in his favour."
"That is just like you," said Mona, half angrily. "Why don't you agree
with me cordially instead of in that half-hearted way, especially as you
and he have become such friends? They are already saying in Doppersdorp
that you will soon turn Catholic."
"One might `turn' worse. But Doppersdorp, as not infrequently happens,
is wide of the mark. When the old man and I make an evening of it our
conversation is not of faith, but of works. We talk about fishing."
"What? Always?"
"Always. Don't you know that the votary of the fly when, after long
abstinence, he runs against another votary of the fly, takes a fresh
lease of life. Now, Father O'Driscoll and myself are both such
votaries, the only two here. Wherefore, when we get together, we
enthuse upon the subject like anything."
"It's refreshing to learn that _you_ can enthuse upon any subject," Mona
rejoined.
"Oh, I can. Wait till we get up yonder among the rhybok."
"This way," cut in Suffield, striking into a by-track. "We must call in
at Stoffel Van Wyk's. That long _berg_ at the back of his place is
first-rate for rhybok."
"Most we?" expostulated Mona. "But we shall have to drink bad coffee."
"Well, the berry as there distilled is not first-rate."
"And try and make conversation with the _vrouw_?"
"That too."
"Well, don't let's go."
"Mona, are you in command of this expedition, or am I? The course I
prescribe is essential to its success. Hallo! Jump off, Musgrave!
There's a shot!"
They had turned off from the open plain now, and were riding through a
narrow _poort_, or defile, which opened soon into another hill-encircled
hollow. The passage was overhung with rugged cliffs, in which ere and
there a stray euphorbia or a cactus had found root. Up a well-nigh
perpendicular rock-face, sprawling, shambling like a tarantula on a
wall, a huge male baboon was making his way. He must have been quite
two hundred yards distant, and was looking over his shoulder at his
natural enemies, the while straining every muscle to gain the top of the
cliff.
Roden's piece was already at his shoulder. There was a crack, then a
dull thud. The baboon relaxed his hold, and with one spasmodic clutch
toppled heavily to the earth.
"Good shot!" cried Suffield enthusiastically. "It's not worth while
going to pick him up. I wonder what he's doing here all alone, though.
You don't often catch an old man baboon napping."
"Don't you feel as if you had committed a murder, Mr Musgrave?" said
Mona.
"Not especially. On the other hand, I am gratified to find that this
old Snider shoots so true. It's a Government one I borrowed from the
store for the occasion."
"Murder be--um!--somethinged!" said Suffield. "These baboons are the
most mischievous _schelms_ out. They have discovered that young lamb is
good, the brutes! Sympathy wasted, my dear child."
But when they reached Stoffel Van Wyk's farm they found, to Mona's
intense relief, that that typical Boer and all his house were away from
home. This they elicited with difficulty between the savage bayings of
four or five great ugly bullet-headed dogs, which could hardly be
restrained from assailing the new arrivals by the Kaffir servant who
gave the information.
"We'll go on at once, then, Musgrave," said Suffield. "Stoffel's a very
decent fellow, and won't mind us shooting on his farm; though, of
course, we had to call at the house as a matter of civility."
The place for which they were bound was a long, flat-topped mountain,
whose summit, belted round with a wall of cliff, was only to be gained
here and there where the rock had yawned away into a deep gully. It was
along the slopes at the base of the rocks that bucks were likely to be
put up.
"We'll leave the horses here with Piet," said Suffield, "and steal up
quietly and look over that ridge of rocks under the _krantz_. We'll
most likely get a shot."
The ridge indicated sloped away at right angles from the face of a tall
cliff. It was the very perfection of a place for a stalk. Dismounting,
they turned over their horses to the "after-rider."
"Hold hard, Miss Ridsdale. Don't be in such a hurry," whispered Roden
warningly. "If you chance to dislodge so much as a pebble, the bucks
down there'll hear it, if there are any."
Mona, who was all eagerness and excitement, took the hint. But a riding
habit is not the most adaptable of garments for stalking purposes, and
she was conscious of more than one look, half of warning, half of
vexation, on the part of her male companions daring the advance.
Lying flat on their faces they peered over the ridge, and their patience
was rewarded. The ground sloped abruptly down for about a hundred feet,
forming, with the jutting elbow of the cliff, a snug grassy _hoek_, or
corner. Here among boulders and fragments of rock scattered about, were
seven rhybok, two rams and five ewes.
They had been grazing; some were so yet, but others had thrown up their
heads, and were listening intently.
They were barely two hundred yards distant. Quiet, cautious as had been
the advance, their keen ears must have heard something. They stood
motionless, gazing in the direction of the threatened peril, their
ringed black horns and prominent eyes plainly distinguishable to the
stalkers. One, a fine large ram, seemingly the leader of the herd, had
already begun to move uneasily.
"Take the two rams as they stand," whispered Suffield.
Crash! Then a long reverberating roar rolls back in thunder from the
base of the cliff. Away go the bucks like lightning, leaving one of
their number kicking upon the ground. This has fallen to Roden's
weapon; the other, the big ram, is apparently unscathed.
"I'll swear he's hit!" cried Suffield, in excitement and vexation.
"Look at him, Musgrave. Isn't he going groggily?"
Roden shaded his eyes to look after the leader of the herd, whose
bounding form was fast receding into distance.
"Yes, he's hit," he said decidedly. "A fine buck too. He may run for
miles with a pound of lead in him, though. They're tough as
copper-wire. We'd better sing out to Piet to bring on the horses, and
try and keep him in sight anyhow."
The fleeing bucks had now become mere specks, as, their stampede in no
wise abated, they went bounding down the mountain-side more than half a
mile away.
"Look there, Suffield," went on Roden, still shading his eyes; "there
are only the five ewes. Your ram's hit, and can't keep up, or else has
split off of his own accord. Anyway, he's hit, and will probably lie up
somewhat under the _krantz_."
Away they went, right along the base of the iron wall, which seemed to
girdle the mountain for miles. And here Mona's boast about being able
to take care of herself was put to a very real and practical test, for
the ground was rough and stony and the slope here and there dangerously
steep.
Suddenly an animal sprang up, right in front of them, apparently out of
the very rocks, at about a hundred yards.
"That's him!" shouted Suffield, skimming past his companions, bent on
diminishing the distance to get in a final shot. But this was not so
easy, for a full-grown rhybok ram, even when wounded, is first-rate at;
and this one was no exception to the rule, for he went so well and
dodged so craftily behind every stone and tuft of grass that his pursuer
would have to shoot him from the saddle, or not at all. Suffield,
realising this, opened fire hastily, and of course missed clean.
"We've lost him!" he growled, making no effort to continue the pursuit.
But the quarry here suddenly altered its tactics. Possibly suspecting
danger in front, it turned suddenly, and doubling, shot down the steep
slope at lightning speed, and at right angles to its former course.
There rang out a heavy report at some little distance behind. The buck
leaped high in the air, then, turning a couple of somersaults, rolled a
score of yards farther, and lay stone dead.
"By Jove, Musgrave, but you can shoot!" cried Suffield, as they met over
the quarry. "Three to four hundred yards, and going like an express
train. _Allamaagtag_! I grudge you that shot."
"He's yours, anyhow. First blood, you know."
They examined the animal. Roden's ball had drilled clean through the
centre of the heart, but the first wound would have sickened anything
less tenacious of life. The bullet had struck far back in the flank,
passing through the animal's body. Leaving the after-rider to perform
the necessary rites and load up the buck upon his horse, together with
the first one, which was already there, they moved up to a snug corner
under the rocks for lunch.
"We haven't done badly so far," quoth Suffield, with a sandwich in one
hand and a flask in the other.
"We must get one more," said Roden, "or rather, you must. That'll
exactly `tie' the shoot; one and a half apiece."
"Well, and have I been so dreadfully in the way, Mr Musgrave?" said
Mona.
"I am not aware that I ever predicted that contingency, Miss Ridsdale."
"Not in words, perhaps; but you looked so glum when I announced my
intention of coming, that, like the pack of cards instead of the
Testament in the wicked conscript's pocket, which turned the fatal
bullet, it did just as well."
"Did I? If so, it was inadvertently. But I daresay my conscience was
pricking me in advance over that baboon I was destined to murder. That
might account for it."
The fact was that, however dubious had been his reception of the said
announcement, Roden was in his heart of hearts conscious that the
speaker's presence with them that day, so far from being a drawback, had
constituted rather an attraction than otherwise. Indeed, he was
surprised to find how much so. When Mona Ridsdale chose to lay herself
out to make the most of herself, she did not do it by halves. A good
horsewoman, she looked splendidly well in the saddle, the well-fitting
riding habit setting off the curves and proportions of her magnificent
figure to every advantage. Moreover, she was in bright spirits, and
to-day had laid herself out to be thoroughly companionable, and, to do
her justice, had well succeeded; and more than once, when the pace had
been too great, or the ground too rough, or a dark, haunting terror of
her saddle turning had smote her, she had manfully repressed any word or
look which might be construed into an appeal for consideration or aid.
She had even been successful beyond her hopes, for Roden, silently
observant, had not suffered this to escape him, though manifesting no
sign thereof. So the trio, as they sat there under the cliff, lunching
upon sandwiches in true sportsmanlike fashion, with a vast panorama of
mountain and plain, craggy, turret-like summit, and bold, sweeping,
grassy slope, spread out beneath and around for fifty miles on either
hand, and the fresh, bracing breeze of seven thousand feet above
sea-level tempering the golden and glowing sunshine which enveloped
them, felt on excellent terms with each other and all the world.
"The plan now," said Suffield, when they had taken it easy long enough,
"will be to separate and go right round the _berg_. It is lying under
the _krantz_ we shall find the bucks, if anywhere."
"Where does my part come in in that little scheme, Charlie?" said Mona.
"Who am I to inflict myself upon?"
"Upon me, of course," said Roden.
She shot a rapid glance at him as though to see if he were in earnest,
and her heart beat quick. This time she was sure that no dubiousness
lurked beneath his tone.
"Just as you like," she rejoined; for her, quite subduedly. Then Piet,
the after-rider, having received his instructions--viz., to start off
homeward with the two bucks already slain--they separated accordingly.