"Come up to Isipanga before we start," I said. "I have a present there
for him who should serve these faithfully."
"You are my father, Iqalaqala," and with this formula of thanks, he once
more saluted and went his way.
"What have you been talking about all this time?" said Edith Sewin. "By
the way isn't it extraordinary that Arlo won't take to Ivondwe? Such a
good boy as he is, too."
"Perhaps he's a thundering great scoundrel at bottom," said Falkner,
"and Arlo's instinct gets below the surface."
"Who's a thundering great scoundrel at bottom, Falkner?" said Mrs
Sewin's voice in the doorway.
"Eh. Oh come now, aunt. You mustn't use these slang terms you know.
Look, you're shocking Glanton like anything."
"You'll shock him more for an abominably rude boy who pokes fun at his
elders," laughed the old lady. "But come in now and have tea. What a
lovely afternoon it is--but a trifle drowsy."
"Meaning that somebody's been asleep," rejoined Falkner mischievously,
climbing out of his hammock. "Oh well. So it is. Let's go for a
stroll presently or we shall all be going to sleep. Might take the
fishing lines and see what we can get out of the waterhole."
"Fishing lines? And it's Sunday," said Mrs Sewin, who was old
fashioned.
"Oh I forgot. Never mind the lines. We can souse Arlo in and teach him
to dive."
"We can do nothing of the kind," said Arlo's owner, decisively. "He
came within an ace of splitting his poor dear head the last time you
threw him in, and from such a height too. What do you think of that,
Mr Glanton?" turning to me. And then she gave me the story of how
Falkner had taken advantage of the too obedient and confiding Arlo--and
of course I sympathised.
When we got fairly under way for our stroll--I had some difficulty by
the bye in out-manoeuvring the Major's efforts to keep me pottering
about listening to his schemes as to his hobby--the garden to wit--the
heat of the day had given place to the most perfect part of the same,
the glow of the waning afternoon, when the sun is but one hour or so off
his disappearance. We sauntered along a winding bush path, perforce in
single file, and soon, when this widened, I don't know how, but I found
myself walking beside Miss Sewin.
I believe I was rather silent. The fact is, reason myself out of it as
I would, I was not in the least anxious to leave home, and now that it
had come to the point would have welcomed any excuse to have thrown up
the trip. Yet I was not a millionaire--very far from it--consequently
money had to be made somehow, and here was a chance of making quite a
tidy bit--making it too, in a way that to myself was easy, and
absolutely congenial. Yet I would have shirked it. Why?
"What is preoccupying your thoughts to such an alarming extent," said my
companion, flashing at me a smile in which lurked a spice of mischief.
"Is it the cares and perils of your expedition--or what?"
"By Jove--I must apologise. You must find me very dull, Miss Sewin," I
answered, throwing off my preoccupation as with an effort. "The fact is
I believe I was thinking of something of the kind--ruling out the
`perils.' Do you know, I believe you've all been rather spoiling me
here--spoiling me, I mean, for--well, for my ordinary life. But--
anyhow, the memory of the times I have known lately--of days like this
for instance--will be something to have with one, wherever one is."
I was stopped by a surprised look in her face. Her eyes had opened
somewhat, as I had delivered myself of the above rather lame
declamation. Yet I had spoken with quite an unwonted degree of warmth,
when contrasted with my ordinary laconic way of expressing myself.
"Good Lord!" I thought, "I seem to be getting sentimental. No wonder
she thinks I've got softening of the brain."
But if she thought so she gave no sign of anything of the sort. On the
contrary her tone was kind and sympathetic, as she said:
"Strange how little we can enter into the lives of others. Now yours, I
suppose, is lonely enough at times."
"Oh, I've nothing to complain of," I answered with a laugh, anxious to
dispel any impression of sentimentality which my former words and tone
might have set up. "I started on this sort of life young, and have been
at it in one way or another ever since. It hasn't used me badly,
either."
She looked at me, with that straight, clear glance, and again a little
smile that was rather enigmatical, hovered around her lips. But before
she could say anything, even if she had intended to, Falkner's voice was
raised in front.
"Wake up, Aida, and come along. I'm just going to heave Arlo in."
"No. You're not to," she cried hurrying forward.
The others had already reached the waterhole, and there was Falkner, on
the rock brink, holding on to Arlo, grinning mischievously. The dog was
licking his hands, and whining softly, his tail agitating in deprecatory
wags. He wasn't in the least anxious for the plunge--and speaking
personally I should have been uncommonly sorry to have undertaken to
make him take it against his will, but then Falkner was one of the
family. Now there was a half playful scrimmage between him and his
cousin, in the result of which Arlo was rescued from taking what really
was rather a high leap, and frisked and gambolled around us in delight.
This waterhole or pool, was rather a curious one. It filled a cup-like
basin about twenty-five yards across, surrounded by precipitous rocks
save at the lower end, and here, overflowing, it trickled down to join
the Tugela, about half a mile distant. It was fed from a spring from
above, which flowed down a gully thickly festooned with maidenhair fern.
Where we now stood, viz. at the highest point, there was a sheer drop
of about twenty feet to the surface of the water--a high leap for a dog,
though this one had done it two or three times and had come to no harm.
The hole was of considerable depth, and right in the centre rose a
flat-headed rock. It was a curious waterhole, as I said, and quite
unique, and I more than suspected, though I could never get anything
definite out of them, that the natives honoured it with some sort of
superstitious regard. Incidentally it held plenty of coarse fish, of no
great size, likewise stupendous eels--item of course mud-turtles galore.
"Hie in, old dog! Hie in!" cried Falkner.
But Arlo had no intention whatever of "hie-ing in," being in that sense
very much of an "old dog." He barked in response and frisked and wagged
his tail, the while keeping well beyond reach of Falkners treacherous
grasp.
"Rum place this, Glanton," said the latter. "I wonder there ain't any
crocs in it."
"How do you know there are not?" I said.
"Oh hang it, what d'you mean? Why we've swum here often enough, haven't
we?"
"Not very. Still--it's jolly deep you know. There may be underground
tunnels, connecting it with anywhere?"
"Oh hang it. I never thought of that. What a chap you are for putting
one off a thing, Glanton."
"I never said there were, mind. I only suggested the possibility."
He raised himself on one elbow, and his then occupation--shying stones
at every mud-turtle that showed an unwary head--was suspended.
"By Jove! Are there any holes like this round Hensley's place?" he said
earnestly.
"Not any," I answered. "This one is unique; hence its curiosity."
"Because, if there were, that might account for where the old chap's got
to. Underground tunnels! I never thought of that, by Jove. What d'you
think of that, Edith? Supposing you were having a quiet swim here, and
some jolly croc grabbed you by the leg and lugged you into one of those
underground tunnels Glanton says there are. Eh?" grinned Falkner, who
was fond of teasing his cousins.
"I wouldn't be having a quiet swim in it, for one thing. I think it's a
horrid place," answered the girl, while I for my part, mildly disclaimed
having made any such statement as that which he had attributed to me.
"Bosh!" he declared. "Why you can take splendid headers from the middle
rock there. Oh--good Lord!"
The exclamation was forcible, and to it was appended a sort of amazed
gasp from all who saw. And in truth I was not the least amazed of the
lot. For there was a disturbance in the depths of the pool. One
glimpse of something smooth, and sinuous, and shiny--something huge, and
certainly horrible--was all we obtained, as not even breaking the
surface to which it rose, the thing, whatever it might be--sank away
from sight.
"What was it?"
"Can't say for certain," I said, replying to the general query. "It
didn't come up high enough to take any shape at all. It might have been
a big python lying at the bottom of the hole, and concluding it had lain
there long enough came up, when the sight of us scared it down again.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a crocodile."
"Tell you what, Glanton. You don't catch me taking any more headers in
there again in a hurry," said Falkner. "Ugh! If we'd only known!"
"There is prestige in the unknown," I said. "It may be something quite
harmless--some big lizard, or a harmless snake."
"Well it's dashed odd we should just have been talking of that very sort
of thing," said the Major. "Let's keep quiet now and watch, and see if
it comes up again."
We did, but nothing came of it. Indeed if I alone had seen the thing I
should have distrusted my senses, should have thought my imagination was
playing me false. But they had all seen it.
"I shall come down here again with the rifle and watch for an hour or
two a day," said Falkner. "Or how would it be to try bait for the
beast, whatever it is--eh, Glanton?"
"Well you might try to-morrow. Otherwise there isn't much time," I
answered. "We trek on Wednesday, remember."
Now all hands having grown tired of sitting there, on the watch for what
didn't appear, a homeward move was suggested, and duly carried out. We
had covered a good part of the distance when Miss Sewin made a
discovery, and an unpleasant one. A gold coin which was wont to hang on
her watch chain had disappeared.
"I must go back," she said. "I wouldn't lose that coin for anything.
You know, Mr Glanton, I have a superstition about it."
She went on to explain that she had it at the time we had seen the
disturbance in the waterhole so that it must have come off on the way
down, even if not actually while we were on the rocks up there. Of
course I offered to go back and find it for her, but she would not hear
of it. She must go herself, and equally of course I couldn't let her go
alone. Would I if I could? Well, my only fear was that Falkner would
offer his escort. But he did not, only suggesting that as it was late
it was not worth while bothering about the thing to-night. He would be
sure to find it in the morning when he came up with a rifle to try and
investigate the mystery of the pool. But she would not hear of this.
She insisted on going back, and--I was jubilant.
I knew the coin well by sight. It was of heavy unalloyed gold, thickly
stamped with an inscription in Arabic characters. But, as we took our
way along the bush path, expecting every moment to catch the gleam of it
amid the dust and stones, nothing of the sort rewarded our search, and
finally we came to the rocks at the head of the pool.
"This is extraordinary and more than disappointing," she said, as a
hurried glance around showed no sign of the missing coin. "I know I had
it on here because I was fingering it while we were looking at the
water. I wouldn't have lost it for anything. What can have become of
it, Mr Glanton? Do you think it can have fallen into the water?"
"That, of course, isn't impossible," I said. "But--let's have another
search."
I was bending down with a view to commencing this, when a cry from Aida
arrested me.
"Oh, there it is. Look."
She was standing on the brink of the rocks where they were at their
highest above water, peering over. Quickly I was at her side, and
following her glance could make out something that glittered. It was in
a crevice about five feet below, but as for being able to make it out
for certain, why we could not. The crevice was narrow and dark.
"I think I can get at that," I said, having taken in the potentialities
of hand and foothold.
"No--no," she answered. "I won't have it. What if you were to fall
into the water--after what we have just seen? No. Leave it till
to-morrow, and bring a rope."
This was absolutely sound sense, but I'll own to a sort of swagger,
show-off, inclination coming into my mind. The climb down was
undoubtedly risky, but it would be on her account.
"As to that," I answered with a laugh, "even if I were to tumble in, I
should make such an almighty splash as to scare the father of all
crocodiles, or whatever it is down there. By the time he'd recovered I
should be out again on the other side."
"Don't risk it," she repeated earnestly. "Leave it till to-morrow.
With a long _reim_ you can easily get down."
But I was already partly over the rock. In another moment I should have
been completely so, with the almost certain result, as I now began to
realise, of tumbling headlong into the pool below, when a diversion
occurred. Arlo, who had been lying at his mistress' feet, now sprang
up, and charged furiously at the nearest line of bush, barking and
growling like mad.