A few nights later Mark, who had just finished his portion of the
nightly watch, called up Dan and made his report that all had gone well
till about an hour before, when he fancied he had seen something
creeping along through the bushes just beyond the camp.
"Jackal," said Dan.
"No; it seemed too big."
"Well, didn't the horses seem uneasy."
"No."
"Fancy, perhaps."
"Well, it may have been, and I half thought so then, else I should have
roused someone up."
"Which way did it go, sir?"
"Right into the middle of the temple square."
"Well, it wouldn't have been a black, because if it had been one of them
he would have made for the open."
"The doctor said that most likely there would be blacks about."
"Well, but," said Dan, "no one has seen a sign of anyone but our chaps."
"That's true," replied Mark, "but there must be tribes about here, and
they'd see us before we saw them."
"Yes, sir; that's pretty sure, and it might be one of them come in the
dark scouting to see what we are like, and how many there are of us."
"That doesn't sound pleasant, Dan. We don't want any company of that
sort."
"No, sir. But look here; I think I have got it. Are you sure it wasn't
a leopard?"
"I can't be sure, because it is too dark to see spots."
"Well, was it a human, sir?"
"I don't think so, because it was going on all fours."
"Oh, well, sir, the niggers are clever enough in that way. Both Mak and
the little chap can run along like dogs and jump over a tree trunk or a
big stone. It is wonderful what strength some of these half savage
chaps have in their arms. Being a sailor and doing a great deal going
up aloft has made me pretty clever hanging by one's hands or holding on
by one's eyelids, as we say, at sea, while we furl a sail; but I am
nowhere alongside of our Mak."
"But you as good as said you had an idea, Dan."
"Well, I have, sir, and I got it only the other day when I was down
yonder right away towards the end of the ruins, seeing how far I could
go without getting lost. I'd quite forgot all about it till you began
to talk. I caught sight of something--just a peep of it as it looked up
at me and then ran in amongst the rocks and bushes. I hadn't got a gun
with me, and perhaps I had no business to be loafing about."
"Oh, never mind that," said Mark. "What was it you saw?"
"Well, it was something like a good big dog, but I had no chance of
seeing it well; and I was just going to turn back when there it was
again, or another like it, squatting on a stone at the end of one of
them big walls; and when it saw I was watching, it was out of sight
directly."
"Well, that doesn't help us much," said Mark impatiently.
"Don't it, sir? I thought it did, for it seems to me that it was what
you saw to-night."
"Maybe," said Mark; "but what was it?"
"Well, I will tell you, sir. It was one of them big monkeys as Buck
Denham talks about."
"I never knew him talk about any."
"Oh, he has to me, sir. He has seen them over and over again when he
has been out with hunting gentlemen. He says they are as big as a
good-sized dog, and a bit like one about the head. But they've got next
to no tail. Go in packs, they do, like dogs, and make a sort of a
barking noise. Pretty fierce too, he says they are, and bite like all
that. Don't you think it might be one of them? Buck says they live in
the kopjes."
"But would one be likely to be about here in the dark?"
"There's no knowing, sir--hanging round our kraal to see if it could
pick up a bit of anything to eat. But there, I'll keep a sharp look
out, and if I see anything worth while I'll fire."
"Do," said Mark. "Good-night."
"Good-night, sir."
Mark went to his blanket, and forgot all about the incident till after
breakfast when he met his relief, who signed to him to follow into the
clearing they had made by cutting down and burning the bushes.
"What is it, Dan?"
"Only this, sir. Remember what you saw last night?"
"Yes," cried Mark eagerly. "Did you see it too?"
"Well, I'm not sure, sir; only think I did."
"Think?"
"Well, you see, sir, what you said seemed to make me expect that I
should see something. I could not be sure."
"Well, we had better tell my father and the doctor, and let's do it
now."
Mark led the way straight to where the above were busily talking
together and just about to start for a further exploration of the
gigantic walls whose ruins cropped up in all directions; and after the
matter had been discussed it was decided that though there was a doubt
as to whether it was not all imagination, it would be wise to try to
keep up a stricter watch by night.
"You see," said Dan, as Sir James and the doctor resumed their search,
"it's like this, sir. It might be some animile or one of them doggy
monkey things come stealing about in the night, or even one of the
niggers come to see if he could pinch something good out of the stores."
"That's hardly likely," said Mark.
But a morning or two later Mark went up to his father and startled him
with a question:
"Have you taken my rifle away, father?"
"Your rifle? No! Why?"
"It isn't hanging on the pegs with the others."
"Nonsense! Perhaps you did not look in the right place. Let's see."
Sir James led the way to where a number of pegs had been driven into the
old wall beneath the canvas roof.
"They are not all there, certainly," he said. "Perhaps the doctor has
taken yours by mistake."
"No; he has got his own."
"Mark, my boy, I'm afraid you have had it out somewhere and left it
standing up against a rock or tree--forgotten it."
"Oh, father," cried the boy excitedly, "I am sure I haven't! I had it
last night, cleaned it and oiled it carefully, and then put it back in
its place."
"Are you sure? Last night?"
"Yes, father, certain. Here, I will call Dean."
The latter came trotting up in answer to his cousin's whistle, heard
what was wrong, and corroborated Mark's words.
"But are you sure it was last night?"
"Yes, uncle, certain. I did mine at the same time. You must have had
it out, Mark. It can't be lost."
"I haven't had it out," cried the boy angrily. "I had breakfast, then
went and had a talk with Dan, and then went to get the rifle, and it was
gone."
"Well, let the matter drop for a time," said Sir James quietly.
"Is anything wrong?" said the doctor coming up.
"Yes, my rifle's gone;" and after hearing what each had to say the
doctor turned to Mark.
"You feel sure about it now, my boy, but we all have such fits as that
sometimes; then all at once the fact dawns upon us that we have put away
the missing article to be safe, or for some other reason, and then we
wonder how we could possibly have forgotten it."
Mark nodded his head, looked at his cousin, and they went off together.
"Yes, the doctor's right," said Dean, as soon as they were out of
hearing. "You will remember it all by-and-by."
"That I shan't," was the angry retort. "I feel as sure as can be that
it has been stolen. Oh, here's Dan."
They came in sight of that sturdy little individual, in company with
Buck.
"Here, Dan," cried Mark, "you know when I was talking with you a little
while ago?"
"Yes, sir, of course."
"Had I got my rifle with me?"
"No, sir. A'n't lost it, have you, sir?"
"Yes, it's gone. You can't help me, can you, Buck?"
"No, sir.--Here, stop a minute."
"Ah! Now it's coming," cried Dean, laughing. "I told you so."
"You told me!" cried his cousin scornfully. "You only said what father
and the doctor had told me before. Now, Buck, what were you going to
say? When did you see it last?"
"Well, I saw it with you last, sir, when you relieved me on sentry."
"That's two or three nights ago," said Mark impatiently.
"Yes, sir; that must have been last Tuesday, and since then when you was
on duty old Dan relieved you."
"Oh, don't go on prosing about that," cried Mark angrily. "I know as
well as you can tell me. I want to find my gun."
"Well, sir, that's what I was going to tell you of, only you pretty well
jumped down my throat."
"Well, tell me, then, and put me out of my misery. Where is it?"
"Oh, I don't know, sir."
"Then why did you begin talking as if you did?"
"Oh, come, Mr Mark, sir, don't get in a huff with a poor fellow. I
warn't a-goin' to tell you where it was; I was a-goin' to tell you where
it warn't."
"Oh," cried Mark, stamping his foot, "isn't it enough to aggravate a
saint? These two are just alike, going on telling you a thing over and
over again, especially if it is something you don't want to know. Look
here, Buck; I have lost my gun."
"Yes, sir; you said so afore."
"And I know as well as you do where it is not."
"Exactly so, sir. You mean, in the arms rack as we made by driving them
hard pegs into the courses of the wall."
"Yes," said Mark. "Well?"
"Well, sir, I was going to tell you--"
"What were you going to tell me?" raged out Mark.
"That when I went there this morning to get the ile bottle--"
"Yes, yes?" cried Mark.
"I run my eyes over the guns, and it struck me like as there was one
short."
"The third one?" cried Mark eagerly.
"Yes, sir; that's right."
"Well, of course that was mine. Well, where is it?"
Buck took off his cap, scratched his head, and looked hard at Dean.
"Well, you needn't look at me," said the boy. "I haven't got it."
"No, sir, I can see that," said Buck, and he stared hard and
questioningly at Dan, who looked back resentfully.
"Here, don't stare at me, messmate," cried the little sailor. "Think
I've got it up my sleeve, or down one of the legs of my trowzes?"
"No, mate; you are such a little 'un that there wouldn't be room," said
Buck thoughtfully.
"Right you are, mate; but you see I may grow a bit yet."
"Yes," said Buck, very slowly and thoughtfully, "and pigs may fly."
"Hullo!" cried Dan. "Pigs--pig--arn't likely, is it, as that little
chap has took a fancy to it and sneaked it?"
"No," cried Mark indignantly. "The little fellow's as honest as the
day."
"Yes, sir," said Buck dreamily, "but blacks is blacks, and whites is
whites, and temptation sore long time he bore, till at last he may have
given way."
"Oh, bosh!" cried Dean.
"No, sir," said Buck; "don't you say that. I've see'd that often, that
little bow and arrow and spear chap looking longingly at that gun and
kinder sorter was hupping of it as if it was a hidol as he'd give
anything to grab."
"I don't believe he would," cried Mark. "If either of those two blacks
would take anything, it would be far more likely to be Mak."
"Yes," said Dean, "but I wouldn't believe it of him. Why, we know for a
fact that these blacks, who are something of the same breed, are awful
thieves. But no; poor old. Mak is a very brave fellow, and now that
he's beginning to talk a bit more English I'm sure he wouldn't rob us of
a thing."
"Well, I don't know, Mr Dean, sir," put in Dan. "I wouldn't take upon
me to say as he'd pinch a rifle, but it arn't safe to leave him anywhere
near cold bones."
"Oh, food," said Mark; "that's nothing for a savage. But you have never
known him dishonest over that."
"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say dishonest, sir," said Dan, "but if
you left a bit of one of them little stag things that we shoot and have
after dinner cold for supper, he'd go and look for it again hung up in
that pantry. It takes a lot of looking for; and then you don't find it,
do you, mate?"
"No," said Buck, rather gruffly; "I do say that, mate. We have been
disappinted three or four times and had to be contented with flapjack.
He have got a twist, and no mistake. I have known him eat as much as me
and Dan Mann put together, and then look hungry; but I suppose it is his
natur' to. You don't think, then, gents, as it's likely that he's
nobbled your rifle?"
"Well, I don't know," said Mark. "I hope not."
"So do I, sir," said Dan dreamily. "You see, it makes one feel
uncomfortable about his 'bacco box and his knife. But oh, no, sir, I
hope not," continued the sailor slowly. "It's true he's a bit too full
of that jibber jabber of his as you calls language, but he's getting to
talk English now, and since he's been what Mr Dean there calls more
civilised I've begun to take to him a bit more as a mate. Oh, no, sir,
he wouldn't collar your rifle; an' then as to his sneaking a bit of
wittles sometimes, it arn't honest, I know, but he wouldn't take your
gun, sir. Why, I put it to you; what good would it be to he? He could
not eat that."
"No," said Dean, "but I have heard of savages getting hold of anything
in the shape of a tube to turn into a pipe for smoking."
"Do they now, sir?" said Buck thoughtfully. "But of course he wouldn't
want the stock, and it's a double gun. That'd be rather a 'spensive
pipe, Dan, mate, for he'd have to have two bowls."
"Couldn't he stop up one barrel?"
"Here, I wish you two fellows would leave off chattering," cried Mark.
"Beg pardon, sir," said Buck, rather indignantly. "But it was Mr Dean
who started that idea about the pipe."
"Oh, bother! Never mind; I want my rifle."
"That's right, sir; of course you do."
"And I am going to have it found."
"That's right, sir, too. Well, I hope you are satisfied, sir, that it
was neither me nor Dan here as took it?"
"Of course I am."
"Then what about old Brown?"
"Oh, no!" cried the boys, in a breath.
"Look here, sir," said Buck, drawing himself up to his full height and
seeming to swell out with some big idea; "it couldn't have been neither
Peter Dance nor Bob Bacon, 'cause they have got guns to use, and they
both tells us lots of times that a gun has been a sort of plaything to
them ever since they was babbies."
"Of course," said Mark huffily. "There you go, again, telling us what
we know."
Buck hit himself a sharp slap in the mouth as much as much as to say,
"I've done"; and the little sailor grinned and said, "And then about old
Mak and little Pig: you can't sarch them, because there's nothing to
sarch."
"Ah!" cried Mark. "I had forgotten all about that. I know now."
"Hooroar!" said Dan. "He knows now! Found out where you have put it,
sir?"
"No, Dan. What about that dark thing that we saw crawling through the
clearing the other night, and which neither of us was sure about?"
The little sailor answered by bending his knees and then bringing his
right hand down with a tremendous slap upon his right thigh.
"That's it, sir. You've got it. Nigger crawling up from outside come
pickling and stealing. See that, messmate?"
"What d'you mean?"
"Well," said Dan, "it must have been some black beggar from outside come
creeping up at night to see what he could smug."
"Yes, Dan," cried Mark, eagerly.
"Well, I'm blessed!" cried Buck. "And--and--and--" He looked first at
one lad and then at the other, as he rummaged first with one hand and
then with the other in his pockets, and then with both together, before
turning savagely upon Dan and roaring out, "Here, who's got my knife?"
"Well, not me, messmate. Here's mine;" and laying hold of the short
lanyard about his neck he hauled out his big jack knife from inside the
band of his trousers. "You don't call that yourn, do you?"
"Na-ay!" growled Buck. "Wouldn't own a thing like that. Mine was made
of the best bit of stuff that ever came out of Sheffield."
"Only a Brummagem handle, though," said Dan.
"Never mind about the handle," growled Buck. "I wouldn't have lost that
knife for anything--almost as soon lost my head. You know what a good
one it was, Mr Mark, sir. Why, you might have shaved yourself with it,
sir, if you had waited till you was grown up."
"Here, none of your chaff, Buck. You can't joke easily. I know I have
got no beard, but when it does come I hope it won't come carroty like
somebody's."
"Carroty, sir? Not it! Last time I see my mother it had growed while I
had been away three years, and she said it made her feel proud, for it
was real hauburn."
"Well, never mind about your beard, messmate," said Dan, in a deep,
gruff voice. "Do you feel sure as you have lost the knife?"
"I feel sure that it's gone in the night, along of Mr Mark's rifle."
"What, out hunting together?" said Mark, laughing.
"Well, good companions," said Dean. "One shoots the game, and the other
skins and cuts it up."
"I don't quite see what you mean, gentlemen," said Dan; "but it seems to
me, Mr Mark, that you and me see the beggar that comes hanging about
and that sneaked your gun and his knife."
"Yes," said Mark, "that's it; and I feel sure that if we come to look
about we shall find lots of other things are gone."
"Yes, sir," said Dan, "no doubt about it, and we have got the right pig
by the ear, Mr Mark. I don't mean our little Pig, but you know what I
do mean; and now, I don't like to take too much upon myself, sir."
"Take an inch, Dan; take an ell. You being a sailor, take as many
fathoms as you like, only find my gun."
"That's just what I'm going to try and do, sir, and old Buck's knife
too, if I can; so if you will allow me, gentlemen, I'll just make a
propogishum."
"Go ahead then, and be smart, before old Brown gets here. Yonder he
comes."
"Well, it's just this way, gentlemen. I say, let's get our two niggers
here, and don't let them think for a moment as we 'spects them, but drum
it into their heads somehow as something's missing. Teach 'em same as
you would a dog, and show them a rifle and a knife, and tell them to
seek. I don't quite know how you are going to make them understand as
it's a black who crawled up in the night, but I daresay you two clever
gents will manage that."
"And what then?" cried the two boys, in a breath.
"What then, sir? Strikes me as them two, the little 'un and the big
'un, will turn theirselves into traps, and we shall wake up some morning
to find that they have got the thief as they caught in the night."
"Well done, mate! I didn't think you had got it in you," growled Buck.
"Bravo!" cried the boys together. "Splendid!"
"Now then," said Mark, "the next thing will be to take the two blacks
into our confidence. Hold hard; there's Brown."