As I moved it moved too; and I dimly saw the outstretched head and body,
as I supposed, of a monstrous lion about to spring, when, the fire
having flashed up more brightly, I uttered a gasp of relief. It was
Sandho, who had come quietly up to the fire for company and protection.
I worked the harder then, and kept on hour after hour, having to take
longer and longer journeys as I exhausted the supply close at hand; and
all the time I was perfectly conscious that lions were near, prowling
round our little apology for a camp so as to spring upon the horse and
pull him down. Every time I started for more fuel I expected to hear a
roar and feel one of the savage creatures spring upon me; but the night
wore on, with the fire giving a steadier glow as the time passed. I
suppose the fact of my keeping up a hurried movement, making a desperate
rush here and there, with the light from the fire throwing up my figure
plainly, was too much for the great cats, and they feared to attack.
Whatever it was, they were kept at bay; and daybreak found me thoroughly
exhausted, the last growl having died out, the light showing the great
soft footprints of our enemies round and round the clump of bushes,
crossing and recrossing, and suggesting that there had been a party of
four--an old lioness and her nearly full-grown cubs.
It was a narrow escape; and, as if only too glad to get away from so
dangerous a spot, Sandho so fidgeted to start that I had hard work to
secure the broken end of his rein to the ring of the bit without
shortening it so much that I could not hold it in my hand.
I took a good look round, however, before starting, and it was well I
did so, for, clearly seen now in the level sunbeams away to the north,
there was a party of horsemen riding in my direction, and discovery
seemed certain, even if I had not already been seen.
My first idea was to spring into the saddle and gallop off; but I was in
no condition for springing into my saddle. Crippled as I was, it meant
a slow and painful climb, and then in all probability the utmost I could
do would be to walk my horse slowly away.
To mount, lie down, and urge the horse round to the back of the clump of
bushes which had formed my shelter during the past night, and then
cautiously strike off straight away towards the mountains at a walk,
doing my best to keep the shelter of scrub between me and the enemy,
seemed the wiser plan, and this I put into execution.
I had several things in my favour by doing this: the distance between me
and the horsemen was great; and I felt certain that, if it were a
portion of the captain's troop, they had no glass of any kind. If they
caught sight of me in making my retreat, they would only fancy they saw
the figure of some peculiar, humpbacked-looking animal; and on making
for the mountains my position upon Sandho's back would never lead them
to suppose it was a horse bearing a rider. This supposition, too, would
be helped by the fact that there were still little herds and single
wanderers, the relics of the vast hosts of antelopes of various species,
from the tiny gazelle-like animals up through the clumsy hartebeeste and
wildebeeste to the huge eland; and at a distance I felt it possible that
myself and steed might be taken for one of these.
While thinking thus, and going through a painful struggle to get upon my
horse properly, it seemed to me that the party were visibly coming
nearer; but, hidden as we were by the bushes, I could see, from where I
lay on my horse's back, as I turned my eyes in their direction, that so
far I was not discovered. The crucial test, however, was yet to come;
for, though I could keep Sandho out of sight for half a mile possibly,
the land was gradually rising, and in that distance or less, I knew, we
should stand out plainly in the clear air. Then, if seen, suffer what I
might, I was determined to urge my horse on to his greatest speed,
leaving the rest to fate.
I had no trouble with my well-trained steed, which obeyed every word or
pressure; and with eyes so turned that I could keep the bush between us,
I guided Sandho on till, as I had anticipated, the party of mounted men
came gradually into view--first only the men, but soon after their
horses. So far, they were going only at a walk, to pass the track
diagonally to my course and some distance away.
As they were so visible, I felt they must soon see me, and tried hard to
efface myself as much as possible, knowing that my dusky-brownish,
homespun breeches, flannel shirt, and tanned high boots must assimilate
well with the coat of my chestnut horse, and this cheered me a little.
Then, suddenly, I knew I was seen, for one of the men drew rein, letting
the others go on a few horse-lengths before; and, as if in answer to a
summons from the man behind, the rest of the party halted and sat gazing
in my direction.
The next minute the man who had halted by himself now dismounted, and I
saw a gleaming light glance from where he stood and then dropped down.
It was too far off for me to see distinctly; but knowledge supplied what
my eyes failed to grasp, and I knew the gleam was from his rifle-barrel
reflecting the sun's rays, and the man's attitude that of one about to
try a long shot at the uncouth animal in view beyond the thorny scrub.
There is an old-fashioned saying about people's feelings in critical
moments: that their hearts stood still. Now, I don't believe for a
moment that mine ceased to beat; but it certainly felt as if it did,
while I lay rising and falling, yielding to Sandho's movements, and
gazing straight back at the little hole which I knew must be pointed
straight at me--invisible, of course; but the little puff of white smoke
which suddenly jetted into the air was plain enough to my eyes, and so
was the peculiar buzzing sound to my ears as the bullet passed over me
like some strange bee in a violent hurry to reach its hive. Then came
the sharp crack as of a sjambok wielded by a strong and well-accustomed
arm.
"A miss, and no wonder!" I exclaimed; and I suppose I must have started
and given Sandho a familiar pressure, or else it was the instinct of
self-preservation at work in the sensible animal, for he suddenly made a
bound forward so unexpectedly that I was nearly unseated; but my arms
were now free, and, reaching down and getting tight hold of his leathern
breastplate, I held on and let him go. The instinct of
self-preservation was also strongly to the fore in me, and I lay fully
expecting to hear the whizzing of half-a-dozen more bullets and the
cracking of the rifles, since naturally I could see nothing then, my
face lying against the horse's neck, as he bounded on at an easy gallop.
Were the enemy in pursuit?
I strained my hearing, but I could make out nothing more than the
regular beat of my horse's hoofs; while, as no shots came, I felt
certain they had made out my figure and were coming on in full chase.
"They'll have a long one," I thought; for, though I was in great pain, I
found, to my intense delight, that I could accommodate myself to
Sandho's long swinging gallop as he spurned the soft loose earth behind
him, the ascent being exceedingly slight; and we were progressing in a
series of antelope-like bounds.
At last, after galloping for quite ten minutes, something in front made
Sandho swerve round to the left; and, before raising my head to see what
it was, I turned my face sidewise so as to get a glance back at my
pursuers, and could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that no Boers were
there. It was not until I raised my head a little to gaze back in the
other direction that I could see them far away in the distance,
evidently pursuing the course they had followed before the incidents of
the halt and shot occurred.
Now I held on tightly and raised my head, endeavouring to make out why
my horse had swerved. There it was plain enough: another of the stony
kops which rose up to block our way had forced him to gallop along the
unencumbered ground at the foot of a great line of hills, beyond which
was the peak I had marked down as being in the neighbourhood of Echo
Nek.
Unfortunately the land here was all strange to me, my journeys never
having led me so far on this side of the mountains. Still, I felt I
must be going in the direction of the Nek, and that sooner or later I
should come to some valley into which I could strike off to the right,
and get through and round by the peak beyond which I now certainly
believed Echo Nek must be.
I made no effort to check Sandho, who was keeping on nearly level
ground, but now raised myself upright in the saddle to watch for that
which I had forgotten during the time I was in danger, but now that I
was comparatively safe seemed to be the very first thing I should seek.
Many hours had now passed since, I had broken my fast; and at eighteen
the desire for food is a tyrant against which no growing boy or young
man can fight. But no. To my right were the rugged, barren hills
undotted by bullock or sheep; to the left a far-spreading stretch of
unfertile veldt; and though I cantered on for another full hour not a
homestead came into sight.
At last, however, I saw a break in the continuous ridge of hills on my
right, and eased Sandho down into his gentle amble, not willing to press
him hard, for I knew that at any minute I might be obliged to urge him
to his greatest speed.
In another half-hour we were bearing off to the right, for the hills had
opened into a broad valley, at the head of which the great peak I had
seen now rose up as if to block the way; and in spite of my hunger I
felt lighter-hearted, for I was getting sure of my bearings. Yes, there
beyond the shoulder of the peak was the crag just below which lay Echo
Nek only a few miles away, not more than an hour's canter along the
fairly even valley, and then--Oh, if Joeboy should not be there!
"He must; he is sure to be," I said half-aloud. "Even if he were not
there, father would know how I should be pressed for food, and be there
himself."
This was an encouraging and cheering thought; and, inspired with fresh
hope, I rode on, wondering that, though the veldt looked so unpromising,
some one had not taken up land, if only in the hope of finding minerals
where the soil forbade the fruits of fertile earth; but no. All was
barren and strange; even the granite blocks and kops were rare, and I
looked still in vain for some sign of human habitation, some track of
wheel or print of foot. The last I did begin to see now; but they were
not the prints of ironshod hoofs, only those of antelopes, large and
small, and not too frequent. Still, here was sign; and as I looked more
closely I twice saw the soft round prints of the great sand-coloured
cats, and my eyes began now to roam afield in the expectation of perhaps
seeing those which had made the marks. No; the open valley that twenty
or thirty years earlier might have been alive with game was absolutely
desolate; not one of the vast herds which used to roam there, as the old
Boers had often told me, was to be seen.
There was nothing whatever to break the long slopes of sand-coloured
soil.
Ah! what was that on the ridge to my left, which ran down till it lost
itself in the open bottom of the valley along which Sandho gently
cantered? Some white-feathered and familiar birds, displaying their
soft plumes, which looked ostrich-like in the distance. What could it
be? I knew no bird, in spite of my wanderings, that ever looked like
that. Still, a bird was a bird, and game, and the thought of game at
such a time was glorious; but my spirits sank again, for I had no
weapon, and then the grapes seemed to be sour.
"It isn't a bird; only a feather or two dropped by some old cock
ostrich," I said aloud.
No. The feathers began to rise from the edge of the ridge, and there
was a black face beneath them, then the broad breast, and finally the
full figure of a stalwart Kaffir warrior, his thin arms and ankles
ornamented with wool, his savage panoply of shield and assagai in his
left hand, and his eyes shaded by his right hand, which cut straight
across his forehead just below the fillet holding the three white
ostrich feathers. He was evidently watching me.