The party at the rock now passed some little time in quiet and
comparative comfort. They were not in any way molested, and though
strict watch was kept both by night and day, the Mormons never ventured
near their position, despite the fact that the oil well had apparently
exhausted itself. This, however, caused Grenville no serious
uneasiness, for Winfield had found that by superficially boring the
ground near to the rock, he could easily get at and ignite several
similar reservoirs of inflammable oil.
It was nevertheless patent that their enemies had quite determined they
should not leave the country, for from the commanding height of a
neighbouring tree Grenville constantly saw large parties carefully
patrolling the wide stretch of veldt lying between the rock and the
great subterranean roadway, by which the little party hoped to escape.
And now, having nothing else to do, Grenville turned his mind to the
acquisition of wealth, and soon had Winfield at his favourite
occupation, aided by Leigh and himself, whilst the Zulus kept watch and
ward, and the young girls enjoyed to the full their newly-acquired and
delicious sense of freedom.
A neighbouring stream proved to be prodigiously rich in alluvial
deposits of gold, and at the end of a week of hard work, the mining
party found themselves possessed of close upon sixty pounds weight of
the precious metal, mainly in small nuggets. In one pocket alone, which
fell to the lot of Leigh, _twelve pounds of gold was found and taken out
in less than as many minutes_, the bed of the river being a regular Tom
Tiddler's ground.
The method of procedure adopted by Winfield was somewhat curious, yet
withal, extremely simple. Starting about two miles above their shelter,
which was as far afield as the party dared to go, he followed the course
of the stream down to, and even for some little distance beyond, the
rock, and wherever he came across an eddy formed by the stones, placed a
little flag on the bank to mark the spot; then damming up the narrow
stream with rocks and fallen trees, he temporarily turned its course
into an adjacent hollow in the ground, and set his party to work in the
river-bed, on the spots where the eddies, as indicated by the flags, had
formerly disported themselves.
The results were pleasing beyond their wildest anticipations, and in
less than a fortnight the little river was again running peacefully
along its former course, and our friends had acquired gold to the value
of _nearly twenty-five thousand pounds sterling_--as much, in fact, as
they could well carry. Only the Zulus looked on stolidly, and
internally wondered how such a mighty warrior as "the Inkoos their
father" could trouble his head about the "shining yellow sand."
Winfield told the cousins that the mountains in which the stream had its
source had always, amongst miners, borne the reputation of a veritable
El Dorado, but the insuperable difficulty--indeed, impossibility--of
access from the outside world had rendered it the reverse of likely that
Nature's stores--at least in this place--would ever be rifled by the
rude hand of man.
"When the alluvial workings pan out like this," he said, "what must the
fountain head be! A wretched old Kaffir once told me that he had seen
an entire mountain of solid gold in these parts, and, i' faith, I begin
to believe that he was not telling such a colossal he as I at the time
gave him credit for. If we could only carry the stuff away, I would
risk a good deal to get at the spot; but as it is, we have quite as much
as the quagga can well carry, and if we ever succeed in getting through
again to the cave under the waterfall, it will puzzle us to raise either
the animal or the gold up to the surface."
These days of restful peace were, however, suddenly and rudely disturbed
by an accidental discovery, which once again brought home to our friends
the cunning and unscrupulous nature of the fiendish enemies with whom
they had to deal.
Amaxosa, with the perversity of a native, had always insisted--all
danger to the contrary notwithstanding--in sleeping outside the house of
rock, in a sort of hollow in the scrub which he had dignified by the
name of "bed"; but one night, just as Grenville was comfortably dozing
off to sleep, whilst Myzukulwa kept watch, a hand was placed on his
shoulder, and the voice of Amaxosa whispered, "Let my father rise and
follow me; there is danger and witchcraft afoot."
Springing to his feet, Grenville instantly joined the Zulus outside the
cave, and heard strange and terrible tidings. It appeared that Amaxosa,
when on the point of falling asleep in his "bed," had been disturbed by
singular noises, which apparently issued from the very bowels of the
earth. Concluding, however, that the "spout of fire" was again about to
burst out, he had paid but little attention, until the stroke of some
iron instrument upon a rock and the muffled sound of a human voice had
brought him to his senses in an instant.
Following the Zulu to the place indicated, Grenville listened for some
little time, and clearly heard the sounds of mining underground, with
now and then a word evidently of command or direction, the purport of
which it was, however, impossible to guess, the voices being too deeply
buried to admit of the words being heard.
After a moment of paralysed stupor Grenville realised the extent of the
frightful danger to which his party was exposed by this diabolical plot.
The Mormons _were undermining their position, and in a few hours
would blow them sky high with Winfield's blasting powder_.
Hastily, returning to the rock he awoke Leigh and Winfield, and
explained matters, calling forth ejaculations of dismay from both men.
"In four or at most five hours," said Grenville, "they will be under
this spot, and unless we are clear away, Heaven help us; but on the
other hand you may be certain that the forest is full of these outlying
devils ready to cut off our escape."
After a short but excited argument it was determined to try and
_counter-mine the foe_, and starting to their feet the little party set
to work to dig through their own floor with the home-made picks and
shovels which they had used when seeking for gold.
All worked like blacks, and soon sank a hole forty feet deep in the soft
yet firm clayey sand, and then commenced tunnelling, still, however,
tending downwards. The labour was enormous and the heat stifling; still
the stake, beyond all price, was the life and liberty of the whole
party; and when the tunnel had been unceasingly bored for three hours
Grenville pronounced it long enough, and ordered his party to strike
work. He then carried down the keg of powder taken at the central
bridge, which proved to contain about thirty pounds, and the contents of
which were found to be in capital condition.
Then sending all back into the cave with instructions to awake the
girls, pack the gold on the quagga, and prepare for a running fight to
Amaxosa's Cave, in the not improbable event of the rock being
demolished, he returned to his burrow, bored the keg and laid a thick
train of powder for thirty feet along the tunnel.
Then came a long anxious wait; but when our hero had been alone for
nearly forty minutes, he at last heard the sound of a pick.
Gliding back to his friends, he found them ready for a start, and after
seeing all outside in a safe place well on the leeside of the rock, he
again crept into the tunnel. Here he waited for some little time in a
fever of anxiety. He could distinctly hear the Mormons now, almost
above him, and was in deadly fear lest the floor between their tunnel
and his, should give way, when all would be lost. This, however, did
not happen, for their enemies, overlooking the fact that the ground
outside sank gradually towards the rock, and boring their shaft on the
level, had approached dangerously near the upper crust of the earth.
At last the time came, and hearing the foe well above his position, and
guessing by the sound of their voices that they were discussing the
advisability of executing their diabolical scheme, our hero coolly
stepped back some thirty feet, placed a light to his train, and as he
saw the fire spurt forward along the sinuous inky-looking line of
powder, darted out of his burrow, and reached the exit from the rock as
the whole place seemed to be rent and torn by an ear-splitting report,
and the outside air, which was for one brief moment lighted by the awful
glare of the explosion, resumed its normal blackness, the silence of
which was instantly broken by the groans of agony from the mutilated and
dying Mormons, who had indeed been hoisted with their own petard.
Quickly calling his party back to the rock, which, to his delight, was
uninjured, Grenville directed Amaxosa to fire one of the oil wells,
feeling sure that a Mormon rush would now be made under the impression
that the audacious little band of invaders had perished.
Scarcely was this done than a small army of Mormons debouched from the
woods at a run. Grenville let them get within three hundred yards of
the rock, and then his party opened fire, knocking the astonished
cowards over like ninepins, and in less than ten minutes the blazing
pillar of fire showed only the open glade, strewn thickly with corpses,
its sickly glare revealing also a mighty gaping rent in the ground, from
which smoke still issued, looking as if Nature had herself prepared a
Stygian grave for the dishonoured dead.
Seeing that all fear of another attack was over for the present, the
little party thankfully regained the shelter of the rock, in order to
discuss at their leisure the probable result of the latest Mormon
disaster; and in a very short time the tired and hungry quintette of
miners were enjoying a hearty breakfast, if a meal served at about three
in the morning merits such a denomination.
The men were all so utterly worn out that the girls, upon their own
earnest entreaty, were for once allowed to keep guard whilst the
fighting brigade took their much-needed repose. Grenville felt that the
watch was a mere matter of form, and so the result proved, for it was
ten in the morning before he was awakened by the soft hand of Rose, who
came with the astounding news that a Mormon had appeared on the edge of
the forest belt, where he now stood waving a white flag, and signifying
his desire to communicate with the besieged.
In a moment all had shaken off their sleep, and every man was standing
at his loophole rifle in hand, the two girls being also directed to
project the muzzles of two guns through the loops, whilst Grenville,
from outside, guarded the opening to the rock.
Picking up his rifle, Grenville passed through the aperture, and waved
his white handkerchief to the messenger as a sign to him to advance.
This he did with a cautious mien, stopping altogether, however, when he
had got half-way to the rock, and beckoning our friend to come and meet
him. Seeing that the man was quite out of range of the rifles of his
comrades, who were, no doubt, outlying in the bush, Grenville thought
the proposal not unreasonable, and first, in a low voice, cautioning his
little garrison to keep a watchful eye on the clearing in their rear, he
strode boldly forward until he found himself within a few paces of the
Mormon chief, for such he unmistakably was. A handsome man with an
evil-looking face, and restless eyes, which seemed to avoid your own by
instinct. A fine powerful fellow too, not much under six feet, and
armed with a sword, a musket, and a brace of pistols.
The pair looked at each other for a few seconds, and then the Mormon
reached out his hand with an affable smile, but Grenville contemptuously
rejected his offered courtesy, saying coolly--
"No offence, my friend, but it will be time enough to indulge in
handshaking when we understand each other better."
Fire flashed from the Mormon's eyes at this affront, for such he
evidently considered it; he, however, suppressed all outward exhibition
of feeling, and replied in English, as pure as Grenville's own--
"You are right, sir! Now to business. I believe I am addressing the
leader of your party, which is composed of brave men, and has given us a
great deal of trouble."
"You may consider me the head of my party," replied Grenville.
"Well, sir, I am here by command of the Holy Three, and now propose,
before matters go beyond the possibility of arrangement, that we should
become allies. If you and your friends will take the oaths of our
fraternity, you shall receive high personal rank in the nation, and
yourself and friends will be liberally endowed with wives, with lands
and cattle; Winfield the Englishman, and also the black man Amaxosa,
must die by our laws, which they have transgressed; the Rose of Sharon
becomes my property as Commander of the Forces, and the Lily of the
Valley will fall to the lot of the Holy Three. All these munificent
offers must be accepted before sundown, or--his voice growing hard and
stern as it had hitherto been winning and courteous--Englishman you die,
you all die like dogs, without the hope of help or mercy. I am but the
mouthpiece of the Holy Three; they have spoken, and they will not
repent."
For fully half a minute Grenville looked the Mormon in the face, and
gave no answer; he could not trust himself to speak.