"Oh yes, there is," said I, glad of even so much encouragement; and
then, turning to Harding, I said:
"I hear the water in the kloof. There is a place, isn't there?"
"Yes," he answered slowly, "there is _one_ place, but you wouldn't care
to dip there... It's the Murderer's Pool."
"The what?" we asked in a breath.
"The Murderer's Pool," he repeated with such slow seriousness that we at
once became interested--the name sent an odd tingle through one. I was
already all attention, and during the pause that followed the others
closed around and settled themselves to hear the yarn. When he had
tantalised us enough with his provoking slowness, Harding began:
"About this time last year--By-the-by, what is the date?" he asked,
breaking off.
"The tenth!" exclaimed two or three together.
"By Jove! it's the very day. Yes, that's queer. This very day last
year I was outspanned on this spot, as we are now. I had a lady and
gentleman with me as passengers that trip. They were pleasant,
accommodating people, and gave us no trouble at all; they used to spend
all their time botanising and sketching. On this afternoon Mrs Allan
went down to the ravine below to sketch some peculiar bit of rock
scenery. I think all ladies sketch when they travel, some more and some
less. But Mrs Allan could sketch and paint really well, and often went
off alone short distances while her husband stayed to chat with me. She
had been gone about twenty minutes when we were startled by a most awful
piercing shriek--another, another, and another--and then all was still
again. Before the first had died away Allan and I were running at full
speed towards where we judged the shrieks to have come from.
Fortunately we were right. Down there, a bit to the right, we came upon
a fair-sized pool, on the surface of which Mrs Allan was still
floating. In a few seconds we had her out and were trying restoratives;
and on detecting signs of returning life we carried her up to the
waggons. When she became conscious she started up with oh! such a look
of horror and fright. I'll never forget it! Seeing her husband,
however, and holding his hand, she became calm again, and told us all
about it.
"It seems she had been sitting by the side of the stream sketching the
pool and the great perpendicular cliff rising out of it. The sunlight
was playing on the water, silvering every ripple, and bringing out every
detail of the rocks and foliage above. Feathery mosses festooned from
cliff to cliff; maidenhair ferns clustered in every nook and crevice;
the drops on every leaf and tendril glistened in the setting sun like a
thousand diamonds. That's what she told us.
"She sat a few minutes before beginning, watching the varying shades and
hues, when, glancing idly into the water, she saw deep, deep down, a
sight that horrified her.
"On the rocks at the bottom of the pool lay the body of a gigantic
Kaffir, his throat cut from ear to ear, and the white teeth gleaming and
grinning at her.
"Instinctively she screamed and ran, and in trying to pass along the
narrow ledge she slipped and fell into the water. Had her clothes not
buoyed her up she would have been drowned, as when the cold water closed
round her it seemed like the clasp of death, and she lost
consciousness."
"Well, what about the nigger?" I asked, for Harding had stopped with
the air of one whose tale was told.
"Oh, he was dead right enough--throat cut and assegai through the heart.
A fight, I expect."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Raked him out and planted him up here somewhere. Let's see--yes,
that's the place,"--indicating the pile of stones my brother was sitting
on.
Jim got up hurriedly; perhaps, as he said, he wanted to look at the
place. Yet there was a general laugh at him.
"Did you think he had you, Jim?" I asked innocently.
"Don't you gas, old chap! How about that bathe you were so bent on?"
Merciful heavens! The words fell like a bucket of ice-water on me. I
made a ghastly attempt at a laugh, but it was a failure--an utter
failure--and of course brought all the others down on me at once.
"The nigger seems to have taken all the bathe out of you, old man," said
one.
"Not at all!" I answered loftily. "It would take more than that to
frighten me."
Now, why on earth didn't I hold my tongue and let the remark pass? I
must needs make an ass of myself by bravado, and now I was in for it.
There was a perfect chorus of, "Go it, old man!" "Now, isn't that
_real_ pluck?" "Six to four on the nigger!"
"I pet fife pound you not swim agross and dife two times." This last
came from the little French demon, and, being applauded by the company,
I took up the bet. The fact is I was nettled by the chaff, and in the
heat of the moment did what I regretted a minute later.
As I rose to get my towel I said with cutting sarcasm:
"I don't care about the bet, but I'll just show you that _everyone_
isn't afraid of his own shadow; though," I added forgetfully, "it's
rather an unreasonable time to bathe."
Here Frenchy struck a stage attitude, and said innocently:
"Ah! vat a night foor ze bade!"
The shout of laughter that greeted this sally was more than enough to
decide me, and I went off in search of a towel.
Harding, I could see, did not like the idea, and tried to persuade me to
give it up; but that was out of the question.
"Mind," said he, "I'm no believer in ghosts; yet," he added, with rather
a forced laugh, "this is the anniversary, and you know it's uncanny."
I quite agreed with him, but dared not say so, and I pretended to laugh
it off. I was ready in a few moments, and then a rather happy idea, as
I thought, struck me, and I called out:
"Who's coming to see that I win my bet?"
"Oh, we know we can trust you, old chap!" said Jim with exaggerated
politeness. "It'd be a pity, you know, to outnumber the ghost."
"Very well; it's all the same to me. Good-bye! Two dives and a swim
across--is that it?"
"Yes, and look out for the nigger!"
"Mind you fish him up!"
"Watch his teeth, Jack!"
"Feel for his throat, you know!" This latter exclamation came from Jim;
it was yelled out as I disappeared down the slope. Jim had not
forgotten the incident of the grave, evidently.
I had a half-moon to go by, and a ghostly sort of light it shed.
Everything seemed more shadowy and fantastic than usual. Besides this,
I had not gone a hundred yards from the waggons before every sound was
stilled; not the faintest whisper stirred the air. The crunching of my
heavy boots on the gravel was echoed across the creek, and every step
grated on my nerves and went like a sword-stab through me.
However, I walked along briskly until the descent became more steep and
I was obliged to go more carefully. Down I went, step by step, lower
and lower, till I felt the light grow dimmer and dimmer, and then quite
suddenly I stepped into gloom and darkness.
This startled me. The suddenness of the change made me shiver a bit and
fancy it was cold; but it couldn't have been that, for a moment later
the chill had gone and the air was close and sultry. It must have been
something else. Still I went down, down, down, along the winding path,
and the further I went the more intense seemed the stillness and the
deeper the gloom.
Once I stood still to listen; there was not a stir or sound save the
trickling of the water below. My heart began to beat rather fast, and
my breath seemed heavy. What was it? Surely, I thought, it is not
fright? I tried to whistle now as I strode along, but the death-like
silence mocked me and choked the breath in my throat.
At last I reached the stream. The path ran along the side of the water
among the rocks and ferns. I looked for the pool, but could not see a
sign of it. Still I followed the path until it wound along a very
narrow ledge of rock.
I was so engrossed picking my steps along there that, when I had got
round and saw the pool lying black and silent at my feet, I fairly
staggered back with the shock. There was no mistaking the place. The
pool was surrounded by high rocks; on the opposite side they ran up
quite perpendicularly to a good height. Nowhere, except the ledge at my
feet, would a man have been able to get out of the water alone. The
black surface of the water was as smooth as glass; not a ripple or
bubble or straw broke its awful monotony.
It fascinated me; but it was a ghostly spot. I don't know how long I
stood there watching it. It seemed hours. A sickening feeling had
crept over me, and I _knew I was afraid_.
I looked all round, but there was nothing to break the horrid spell.
Behind me there was a face of rock twenty feet high with ferns and
creepers falling from every crevice. But it looked black, too. I
turned silently again towards the water, almost hoping to see something
there; but there was still the same unbroken surface, the same
oppressive deadly silence as before. What was the use of delaying? It
had to be done; so I might as well face it at once. I own I was
frightened. I would have lost the bet with pleasure, but to stand the
laughter, chaff, and jeers of the others! No! that I could never do.
My mind was made up to it, so I threw off my clothes quickly and came up
to the water's edge. I walked out on the one low ledge and looked down.
I was trembling then, I know.
I tried to think it was cold, but I _knew_ it was not that I stooped low
down to search the very depths of the pool, but I could see nothing; all
was uniformly dark. And yet--good God! what was that? Right down at
the bottom lay a long black object. With starting eyes I looked again.
It was only a rock. I drew back a pace and sat down. The perspiration
was in beads on my forehead. I shook in every limb; sick and faint, my
breath went and came in the merest whispers. So I sat for a minute or
two with my head resting on my hands, and then the thought struck me,
"What if the others are watching me above?"
I jumped up to make a running plunge of it, but, somehow, the run
slackened into a walk, and the walk ended in a pause near the ledge, and
there I stood to have another look into the dark, still pool.
Suddenly there was a rustling behind me. I jumped round, tingling,
quivering all over, and a pebble rolled at my feet from the rocks above.
I called out in a shaky voice, "Now then, you chaps! none of that; I
can see you." But really I could see nothing, and the echo of my voice
had such a weird, awful sound that I began to lose my head altogether.
There was no use now pretending that I was not frightened, for I was.
My nerves were completely unstrung, my head was splitting, and my legs
could hardly bear me. I preferred to face any ridicule rather than
endure this for another minute, and I commenced dressing. Then I
pictured to myself Jim's grinning face, Frenchy's pantomime of the whole
affair, Harding's quiet smile, and the chaff and laughter of them all,
and I paused. A sudden rush, a plunge and souse, and I was in.
Breathless and gasping I struck out, only twenty yards across; madly I
swam. The cold water made my flesh creep. On and on, faster and
faster; would I never reach it? At last I touched the rocks and turned
to come back. Then all their chaff recurred to me. Every stroke seemed
to hiss the words at me, "Feel for his throat! Feel for his throat!" I
fancied the dead nigger was on me, and every moment expected to feel his
hand on my shoulder. On I sped, faster and faster, mad with the dread
of being entangled by the legs and pulled down--I swam for life. When I
scrambled on the ledge I felt I was _saved_! Then all at once I began
to feel my body tingling with a most exhilarating sense of relief after
an absurd fright, a sense of power restored, of self-respect and triumph
and an insane desire to laugh. I did laugh, but the sepulchral echoes
of my hilarious cackle rather chilled me, and I began to dress.
Then for the first time occurred to me the conditions of the bet: "Two
dives and a swim across." Now, this would have been quite natural in
ordinary pools--a plunge, a scramble on the opposite bank, another
plunge, and back. But here, with the precipitous face of rock opposite,
it meant _two_ swims across and _two dives_ from the same spot. But I
did not mind; in fact, I was enjoying it now, and I thought with a glow
of pride how I would rub it into Jim about fishing up his darned old
nigger with the cut throat.