Charlotte was evidently quite oblivious, in the heat of irritation and
nervousness, of the previous scornful way in which she had repudiated the
very idea of our losing ourselves in so flat a country. She now perceived
that this unbroken level was the principal point to our disadvantage, no
clearly-defined landmark anywhere presenting itself whereby we could guide
our steps—none, at least, excepting the huge Table Mountain looming in the
far distance, and which I remembered lay to our left in coming, and ought
of course to be on our right in returning. This I suggested to Charlotte,
without allusion to her past remarks on the subject, and at once commenced
trying to trace our way, followed by my sister. Notwithstanding Lotty's
frequently declared contempt for my tastes, pursuits and opinions, it a
little amused me to observe that directly we were in any state of
difficulty or danger she generally preferred trusting to my judgment and
guidance to extricate us from our trouble; and so in the present instance
I naturally took the lead, and to a certain extent was fortunately
successful in finding the right path. This I knew by the fading blossoms
Charlotte had scattered right and left on her course, and which I now
looked out for. There must have been a slight inclination of the ground
where the hotel stood, which, together with the thick growth of shrubs and
bushes, quite concealed it from our view.
At last the deepening shades of evening deprived me of this only means of
retracing our steps—Lotty's castaway flowers—and utterly perplexed I came
to a standstill, trying to think what next to do. Charlotte, who was
considerably more frightened than I was, added to my bewilderment by
giving way to the most unreasonable temper, bewailing our dreadful
situation, as she termed it, and railing at me for my stupidity in
allowing my mind to be always so childishly absorbed by every folly which
presented itself, instead of keeping my wits about me and acting as if I
possessed one grain of common sense. Thus worried, I am sorry to say I
lost my patience, and asked her pettishly in what manner she had been more
wisely occupied, that she had not observed for herself in place of
depending entirely on me to regulate the time and distance of our walk.
Upon this she flew out, saying that of course, as I had objected so much
in the first instance to our coming this way at all, she naturally
concluded I should be sure to keep these objections in view and not go
farther than was prudent; but it was just like me, and she had been a
simpleton for trusting to me!
Repenting my hasty temper the next instant, I felt it was of no avail to
dispute with one who, in her calmest mood, never to me admitted herself to
be in fault, and was certainly not likely to do so now under the influence
of her excited feelings. I took her hand soothingly in mine, and briefly
pointed out how yet more injudiciously we were acting in thus losing the
precious moments still left to us in profitless disputation, whereas our
only sensible course was to make the best and speediest use of them to
find our way back.
Appeased by this concession and admitting the truth of my words, Charlotte
followed in quietness. We walked on over flowers and heaths, and through
tangled underwood and between growths of bushes, many of them a mass of
blossoms, trusting to chance to bring us right at last. But no, not
chance: how could I say that, well aware as I am that there is no such
thing as chance—that it is solely a word of man's own coining? Are we not
expressly told that so loving an interest does God take in all the works
of his hands that not a sparrow falls to the ground unnoticed by him?
Silently I prayed for help out of this our trouble, for trouble it was,
though not so great in itself as because of the anxiety and distress it
would occasion our dear, kind uncle and aunt. I remembered in my anxiety
that our heavenly Father has mercifully desired us to make known our
requests unto him by prayer and supplication. This I said to Lotty,
begging her to add her petitions to mine, which I believe that she did.
Well, on we went, and never before had Charlotte and I taken so wearisome
a walk. The rapidly-gathering gloom rendering it more difficult every
moment to direct our steps, we often became so entangled among the prickly
shrubs with which these flats abound that our dresses were torn and our
hands scratched painfully in our efforts to extricate ourselves, nor did
there appear as yet any termination to these annoyances. Seemingly, we
were far as ever from the hotel or any of its surroundings, and Charlotte
became at last so tired and hopeless that she stopped, declaring she
thought it worse than useless to go any farther, as we might, for aught we
knew, be wandering in quite an opposite direction to that leading to the
hotel, and thus go so far away from those who would be certain to look for
us that they might not find us until morning, if even then. It was in vain
I reasoned with her, pointing out that, though we might not be pursuing a
straight path home, it was yet more certain we were not going directly
wrong; the keeping the range of mountains on our right saved us from that,
for if she remembered, they bounded the horizon facing the hotel. And as
for danger, I urged, there could be none here; the Malays and negroes at
the Cape were remarkable for their harmless, peaceful characters, and
again I begged her to come on. But Charlotte was too nervous and
altogether miserable even to wish to be pacified or persuaded, and would
not listen to me.
"You do talk such nonsense, Mechie," she cried, "there's never any comfort
in listening to you! and you expect me to be cheered and encouraged by
mere surmises of your own. How can you answer for their being no dangers
at night on these frightful wild flats? Doesn't the country swarm with
snakes and poisonous reptiles—"
"Which only come out during the hottest parts of the day," I interposed.
"Well, there are plenty of other horrors which principally wander about at
night," persisted Lotty, impatiently—"tigers for instance. Oh! I didn't
think of that before. How dreadful!" and bursting into a flood of tears,
she suddenly threw herself down amidst the heath, declaring she was too
much fatigued and frightened to walk a step farther.
"But, Lotty, tigers never come so far away from their native jungles," I
argued, "so please come on, there's a dear, good Lotty."
"There you go again," sobbed the incorrigible girl, "asserting things of
which you know nothing. No tigers near a town! Why there may be one within
a few yards of us now, for anything you or I know to the contrary."
"Well, then, I am sure we had better run on," I urged.
"Yes, and then he would jump at us!" replied Charlotte, looking round with
a scared expression.
I tried to soothe her, saying that during all the many years we had lived
at the Cape such a thing had not been heard of as a tiger visiting this
part of the country.
"Not heard of!" repeated Charlotte, scornfully; "as if hundreds of things
do not occur every day which you neither know nor hear of. A nice
comforter you are, to be sure, Mechie!"
"Well, but, Charlotte, what is it you propose doing? Sitting there all
night?" A feeling of impatience was again rising within me.
"I shall sit here certainly until some one has the humanity to come and
look for us," she answered in a determined tone.
"Oh, do reflect, Charlotte, on what you are doing!" I pleaded; "do
consider that poor auntie, and uncle too, will have become very anxious if
not frightened about us before thinking it necessary to seek us, and—"
"And I only hope they will not go on much longer without getting
frightened about us," interrupted Charlotte. "Oh how thankful I should
feel to see uncle coming this way! I am sure all their united fears of a
week wouldn't amount to mine at this moment."
I was excessively disconcerted by this obstinate fit of Charlotte's. Up to
the present time I had no doubt that uncle and aunt believed us still in
the garden, or the former would long ago have come to seek us, and my
great anxiety was to return before they had discovered our absence and
become apprehensive of our safety.
"If you are resolved to remain there, Charlotte," I exclaimed, "I cannot
of course prevent you—I can't move you against your will—but you cannot
expect me to second such a folly, nor will I. I shall leave you at once
and try to find my way back, and then uncle will come and bring you home
if I succeed in reaching it myself."
"You will do nothing of the kind," cried Charlotte, passionately. "If you
dare, Mechie, I will never forgive you. How can you think of anything so
wicked? I tell you I am tired to death and frightened to death, and quite
unable to walk a step farther. If we stay here, they will be able to find
us, but if—"
Charlotte stopped abruptly, for a rustling in the bushes a little distance
on our right caused even my heart to bound with terror. We both strained
our eyes in the direction of the sound.
"Look there! what's that? Oh, what's that?" gasped Lotty, pointing to a
dark spot under a bush.
"Where? what?" I panted out, scarce able to breathe.
"There! don't you see it," she continued in a shuddering whisper and
grasping my arm convulsively, "lying down there, crouching?"
I did see it, and felt more terrified than I had ever been in my life
before. I saw the dark form of some large animal; and now it was partly
raising itself, and gazing at us with great glittering eyes,
distinguishable even in the gloom.
"I don't know! come on! oh, come on! quick! quick!" I exclaimed under my
voice.
Charlotte, springing up instantaneously, caught my hand and tore away,
dragging me after her. But one feeling guided us—to fly from the monster,
whatever it was, regardless alike of impediments or course. Having run a
considerable distance, suddenly, to our unbounded joy, we found ourselves
opposite the very gate leading into the field we had before passed
through. Scrambling over it, we now stood a minute leaning against the
bars, breathless and panting, to see if we were pursued.
At this part of the Flats there was a large space free of bushes and
underwood, and consisting only of sandy turf and innumerable small
flowers. Nothing following us was visible as yet, but Lotty suggested the
probability of its stealing round through the underwood; therefore we once
more grasped each other's hand, and ran for our lives down the field to
the bridge. Here we halted, for an obstacle presented itself to our
proceeding which we had as little anticipated as any of the foregoing.
Happily, we could clearly perceive over the open field that no animal of
any kind was in pursuit. All was thus far safe, and requesting Charlotte
to join me in heart in thanking the Almighty for having preserved us
through we knew not what of peril, we set to work to surmount this last
difficulty, namely, crossing the plank over the brook. A thick belt or
line of low trees skirted the bank on the eastern side of the river, as
this stream was called, and their shade, in conjunction with the fading
daylight, so obscured the little rustic bridge as to render the walking
across a very critical if not hazardous undertaking. The water was not
deep, certainly, but the height from the plank to the bed was sufficiently
great to cause us serious injury, perhaps, were we to miss our footing and
fall. "What are we to do now?" I said, after contemplating the depth and
darkness of the way with a thoroughly perplexed, but, I must confess, a
rather amused, feeling. We were so near home now that my anxiety about
aunt and uncle was considerably allayed, and our present position had, in
my opinion, something irresistibly comical in it.
"I see nothing to laugh at," exclaimed Charlotte, pettishly, detecting
those signs of merriment in my voice; "it's the most provoking thing in
the world, I think. There seems no end of our troubles this evening! I am
sure, long as I live, I shall never forget this odious walk!"
"We can't do better, both of us, than remember it," I answered; "for my
part, I shall always strive to keep in mind the lesson it has taught
me—not again under any circumstances, however pressing, to allow myself to
disregard the voice of dear uncle or aunt, let it be on the most
apparently trifling matters. Witness what our disobedience has cost us
this evening! If we had attended to uncle's warning not to leave the
garden, what an amount of fatigue, distress and terror it would have saved
us!"
"There! don't waste time talking and lecturing, Mechie; what good will
that do now?" cried Charlotte, impatiently. "How are we to get over this
pitfall of a bridge now that it is so dark? That's the thing to be
considered at present."
Charlotte stepped close to the plank, and going down upon her knees partly
dragged herself and partly crawled over in safety to the opposite side,
then springing up, cried out triumphantly, "There, Miss Mechie, what do
you say to that? here I am, you see!"
Adopting the same mode of proceeding, I also effected a secure passage,
though it was certainly with fear and trembling I did so. It is strange, I
thought, that Charlotte, who throughout our previous adventures betrayed
so much nervous fear, should on this quite as trying occasion prove
herself possessed of considerably more courage and firmness than I. "The
battle is not always to the strong, nor the race to the swift," I thought
to myself; both would as it were have been lost in our ease this evening
had the final victory rested with me, for I should never have been
ingenious or brave enough of myself to conceive and practice such an
unprecedented method to meet the difficulty but for Lotty's example.