The doctor suggested that after such a broken night it would be as well
to have an early breakfast before they started.
"Yes, capital," cried Mark. "I feel that that is just what I want to
put me right."
"See to it at once, then, Dan," said the doctor. "Tell some of the men
to get you some wood, and I will talk to the bullock drivers. Oh, there
are the two keepers. They will help you to get wood and fetch water.
Mind they get it from a clear part of the river."
"Ay, ay, sir!" said the sailor.
"How wonderfully well that poor fellow begins to look," said the doctor.
"Yes," replied Sir James, laughing; "and he thoroughly deserves the name
of the Handy Mann. He is never happy unless he is doing something--
regularly valeting me and the boys. What do you say to a walk round
while they are preparing breakfast?"
"I am willing," replied the doctor, "and we will take Denham and his men
as we go."
They started off, and before they reached the two long spans of oxen
where they had been turned to graze, Buck Denham's voice was heard
storming at somebody.
"Quarrel, seemingly, captain," said Sir James, smiling.
"Or a fit of bad temper," said the doctor, "because the big fellow's
night, was disturbed. Here, what's the matter, Denham?" he continued,
as they reached the shady pasture where the sleek bullocks were knee
deep in rich grass, evidently laying in a store for emergencies when
fodder might be scarce. "Don't say that any of the cattle have
strayed?"
"Strayed, sir? Not they! They are all right--eight-and-forty of them.
I counted them over twice to make sure, after the night's scare. My
bullocks are all right. I only wish I could trust my men as well as I
can them."
"What has happened, then?"
"You ask him, sir," replied Denham, pointing to the miserable looking
little Hottentot--"a pretty sort of a half-bred animal! Look at him
squatting there grinning like one of them there dog-nosed baboons."
"Don't insult the man," said the doctor sharply. "What has he done?"
"Man, sir! I don't call him a man," said Buck Denham. "Got nothing to
do but a bit of driving now and then and to give a shout at his span,
and naturally I trusted him as I was keeping my eye on the oxen to keep
his on the two forelopers. I let him do it because he understands their
lingo better than I do."
"Well?" said the doctor. "What then?"
"What then, sir? Here are we just two days out from the town, and he's
lost one of them already."
"Lost? Nonsense!"
"Well, where is he, then, sir? He has gone."
"Gone?"
"Yes, sir. Sniffed at his job, I suppose, and gone off. I saw him safe
enough last night; this morning he is nowhere. My foreloper he was, and
now we shall have to stop here three or four days, perhaps a week, while
I go back and hunt up another; and I can tell you, sir, they are
precious scarce."
"That's vexatious," said the doctor. "Don't be put out, Denham, I think
I see how it is. The poor fellow was no doubt scared by the alarm of
the lion in the night, and very likely we shall see him come creeping in
before it is time to start."
"Oh, thank you, sir," said the big fellow. "I am very glad you take it
so easy. Some gen'lemen would be ready to jump down a poor man's throat
for half this."
"Indeed!" said the doctor, smiling. "Well, I don't think you will find
Sir James and me so unreasonable as to bully a good servant for an
unavoidable mishap."
"Thank you, sir," said the big fellow, smiling. "That's done me good.
I was afraid to meet you this morning, and I hope you are right, because
we must have two of us to each waggon, and I don't suppose either of
your servants would like to be asked to do such nigger's work. Hadn't I
better start back at once and get another? It would save time if I took
one of them ponies."
Sir James winced as he looked at the big fellow's proportions, and
glanced uneasily at the doctor, who said, smiling, "No, we will wait to
see if the man turns up, and if not our two boys shall mount the ponies
and canter back to the station with a note to Captain Lawton asking him
to help us to a fresh foreloper."
The man chuckled heartily.
"Why do you laugh?" said the doctor. "Do you think the captain cannot
be trusted?"
"Oh, him, sir," replied the man. "Cap'n Lawton's a regular gen'leman.
He'd do anything to serve a fellow-countryman. I was grinning, sir,
because you thought I should be too much for the pony. Well, I am a big
'un, out and outer; but I growed so. You are quite right, sir, it would
be rather hard on one of the brave little beasts, and I hope that black
'un will show up again, but I'm afraid of it. That lion last night
scared him, but he'd be more scared to come and face you gen'lemen
again."
Meanwhile, Mark had proposed that they should go to look at the spot
where he stood to fire at his disturber. This was agreed to, and as
they had to pass Dan Mann, Mark put in a word or two about hurrying on
the breakfast, and told him to be sure to frizzle the bacon well.
"Ay, ay, sir!" cried the little fellow, beaming upon them; and they went
on, looked at the ground by daylight, and saw no trace of footprints,
only finding the spot where the unpleasant thorn bush had been crushed
by Mark's fall.
"Yes," said the boy, giving a bit of a writhe and rubbing his back
softly, "that's where I went down, sure enough, and I believe I have got
another thorn in there now. My word, how stiff my shoulder is! I
shan't be in a hurry to fire two barrels of a rifle together again.
Yes, I stood just there when I fired, just as the beast had reared
himself up--itself, I suppose I ought to say, for I don't know whether
it was a cock or a hen--but hallo, where are the ponies?"
"Oh, Peter and Bob have taken them down to water, I suppose," said Dean.
"That they haven't. There they are, over yonder."
"Well, then, Buck Denham must have driven them over there with the
bullocks to have a feed before we start."
"Let's ask Dan. Here, cooky, where are the ponies?"
"Dunno, sir. They were gone when I came to see to the fire. I expect
Denham has taken them along with the bullocks."
"Come on, Dean. Let's go and see how the little fellows look."
The boys hurried amongst the trees to where Denham, the Hottentot and
the foreloper were watching the grazing cattle, with the Illaka seated
upon a fallen tree nursing his spear and looking on, while in the
distance, each with his gun over his arm, they could see Sir James and
the doctor, evidently making a circuit of the camp.
"Ponies, gen'lemen?" said the big fellow. "No, I ain't seen them; I
have been so busy over my bullocks. Somebody must have taken them down
to the riverside to get a good feed a-piece of that strong reedy grass
that they are so fond of. You will find them down there."
"Come along," cried Mark, and the two boys hurried off in the direction
of the river, threading their way amongst the trees till they caught
sight of the running water sparkling in the rays of the morning sun.
"There they are," cried Mark, "munching away and regularly enjoying
themselves. Oh, you beauties! But hallo! Who's that chap watching
them?" and he drew his cousin's attention to a tall, thin, peculiar
looking fellow who was standing close to the water's edge watching the
ponies as if to keep them from going farther along the stream.
The man turned his head as he heard the boys approach, and then looked
back at the ponies and drove one a short distance nearer the camp.
"Hullo, you!" cried Mark sharply. "What are you doing here?"
The man shrugged his shoulders, and made a comprehensive sign which
included the four little animals.
"Yes, I see that," said Mark, "but what do you want here?"
The man shook his head sadly, and the boys saw that he was very yellow,
as if dried in the sun, and had a particularly thin and peculiar face,
with two long, pendant, yellowish moustachios which reached far beneath
his chin. His beard was closely clipped, and they noted that he held a
pair of small scissors, and as he drew back one of his twisted
moustachios, he was occupied the while carefully snipping off the
greyish stubble that just showed slightly upon his chin.
"But how did you come here?" asked Mark.
"Walked," said the man sadly.
"When?"
"Last--night," sighed the stranger, uttering the first word in quite a
high-pitched tone, the second sounding almost like a groan.
He was very shabbily dressed--just an old flannel shirt and a pair of
fustian trousers, while his head was covered by one of the regular,
broad-brimmed, flop felt hats so common amongst Englishmen for
protection from the sun.
"Well, you are a cheerful looking gentleman," thought Mark, and he had
hard work on meeting his cousin's eye to keep from bursting into a fit
of laughter. Then a sudden thought struck him.
"When did you say you came here?"
"Last--night?"
"What time?"
"No watch," said the man. "Quite dark."
"But what did you come for?"
The man pointed to the ponies, and Mark gazed at his cousin and
whispered, "I say, I think I have seen this fellow before."
"Hanging about that dealer's yard?"
"Yes."
"I am sure I did," whispered Dean, as the man turned from them to check
the wandering of another of the ponies.
"Dean," said Mark, "I have got an idea."
"Let's have it."
"That chap has come to steal our ponies."
"Bother!" cried Dean contemptuously. "When did you say you came?"
"Last--night," said the man.
"Here, I say, you, sir," cried Mark. "Did you say you came here last
night to look after our ponies?"
"Yes," said the man, and they saw that he was working with his left hand
now, snipping at the stubbly beard with the scissors, while with the
other he held his moustache back to keep it from being cut.
"Look here," said Mark; "was it you who came close up to me in the dark
when I was on the watch?"
"Yes," said the man sadly. "Thought you was asleep."
"It was lucky for you that I did not shoot you."
"Yes," said the man dismally, as he slowly took off his hat and poked
one long thin finger through a hole that the boys had not previously
noticed, shook his head at it sadly, put his hat on again, and went on
snipping as before.
"There, Dean! Now, then, was it a false alarm?"
"Well, no; but I should never have taken this chap for a lion," replied
his cousin. "Here, I say, you, sir, why do you speak as if you were
sorry that my cousin did not hit you?"
"Wasn't," said the man, mournfully snipping away.
"Well, what do you want?"
"Breakfast," said the man. "Had none since you come away."
"That's cool," said Mark, as he looked at the man suspiciously. "Oh,
here come Buck Denham and Dan. They have smelt that something's wrong
about the ponies. Here," he continued, turning to the two fresh
arrivals, "what are you two laughing at?"
"At 'im, sir," whispered Dan, as the oddity moved away after a pony.
"Yes, he's rather a rum 'un to look at, gen'lemen," said Buck, in the
same low tone. "I have seen him before. Sort of hang-about as has to
do with him as sold you those ponies. I think he's a bit touched in his
head--dotty, you know."
"That's what I think too, gentlemen," whispered Dan. "I have been to
'Stralia--Sydney, you know, where chaps go out shepherding and don't see
anything but the woolly ones sometimes for three months together, and I
have heard as some of them quite goes off their heads, miserable and
lonely like, for they have nobody to talk to but the sheep."
"But this isn't Australia," said Mark.
"And this fellow hasn't been with sheep," added Dean, "but ponies."
"No, sir," said Dan; "but horses do just as well."
"That they wouldn't," cried Mark. "A man who had horses with him could
make companions of them."
"Yes," cried Dean, "and have a good long ride every now and then."
"To be sure," added Mark. "A man who had a horse or a dog for companion
could not go off his head. Look at Robinson Crusoe; he was jolly enough
with a poll parrot."
"Oh, yes, sir; but then a poll parrot could talk."
"Yes, but he had to teach it first," said Dean.
"Yes, sir," said Dan, "but you couldn't teach a sheep. Why, if you had
one of them for years you would never get anything out of him but Baa!"
"Bah, then, to what you are saying," cried Mark. "Here, I say, you,
sir," he cried, looking in an amused way at their visitor, who had
finished his clipping, pocketed his scissors, and had taken hold of his
moustachios as if they were reins and stroked them down with a twist,
looking dolefully at those about him the while; "I'll answer for it that
we give you some breakfast, and then you had better be off."
The man shook his head.
"Eh? What do you mean by that?" said Mark.
The man shook his head again and took out his scissors as if about to
begin clipping once more, but bethought himself and put them back.
Dan chuckled as if he thought it was very good fun, and Buck bent down
and whispered something in the little fellow's ear.
"Here, what's that?" cried Mark sharply.
"He means he's going to stop to dinner, sir."
It was said quite in a whisper, but the man proved that he was keen
enough of ear.
"That's so," he said mournfully, as if the dinner would be a punishment.
"What, you mean to stay to dinner?"