"ALL HOPE ABANDON, YE WHO ENTER HERE."
Throughout that day perfect quiet prevailed, but Grenville, uneasy, he
knew not why, and unable to get Winfield's warning out of his mind, took
his sleep early in the evening, and determined himself to keep watch
until dawn.
For hours he strained every faculty, but could neither see nor hear
anything to cause him anxiety, and when the moon rose he felt much
relieved, but after patrolling carefully round the rock he at length
heard a curious sound he could not account for, so mounted up to the
top, from whence he could see far and wide under the bright moonlight.
The rock, as already said, was situated in a hollow, with belts of trees
on almost every hand, one exception being on the side furthest from the
veldt, consequently nearest to the Western range, and from this quarter
a wide channel of rocks seemed to run for miles in the direction of the
mountains. To Grenville it had the appearance of a roadway upon which
giants had, here and there, flung heaps of stones and enormous masses of
rock in the wildest confusion. Winfield, however, had pronounced it to
be a quartz river, pregnant with gold beyond the dreams of avarice.
Machinery would, however, he had said, be required to work the ore
profitably, so that it was extremely improbable the locality would ever
be disturbed. Grenville had more than once, in the last few minutes,
been rendered uneasy by a distant sighing, soughing noise, such as is
caused by wind among fir-trees, and as there was not a breath of air
stirring, it was partly the anxious feeling generated by this unknown
and uncanny sound which had caused him to ascend the rock.
Even from this coign of vantage he could see nothing alarming; all
around and beneath him, bush and veldt and forest, lay sleeping
peacefully under the lovely radiance of the African moon.
Still unable to conquer, yet secretly despising, the presentiments which
oppressed him, Grenville raised a small silver whistle to his lips and
blew a low call upon it, and in a few moments later was joined by
Amaxosa, who stalked forth from his lair at the first sound made by his
chief indicative of a wish to see him.
Grenville directed his attention to the curious sound, and for some
little time the Zulu strained both sight and hearing, but could offer no
suggestion as to the cause of the unusual noise. Our hero then sent him
to fetch Winfield, who, when he came, listened intently for one brief
instant and then wrung his hands in despair.
"My God!" he cried, "those hellish scoundrels have burst the rocky side
of the great mountain lake and let loose thousands of tons of water, and
in an hour's time, or less, we shall be drowned out like rats! Whatever
shall we do?"
"Go quickly," said Grenville: "awake everyone pack the quagga with the
gold and all the food we can carry. We must be gone in ten minutes. We
are down in a hole here, and this place will be a lake in less than no
time if you are correct as to the volume of water up yonder."
"There can, I regret to say, be no doubt about it," replied Winfield.
"I have seen the place myself, and I feel certain that they have done as
I say."
"You are quite right," rejoined Grenville. "I heard distant explosions
once or twice this evening, but thought nothing of them, only
congratulating myself, like a fool, at the waste of gunpowder which was
going on." Then, turning to Amaxosa, "Now, what does my brother, the
Chief of the Sons of Undi, advise?"
The Zulu thought for a few moments, and then made answer. "Let my
father with all the party make a big push for the great stairway; there
will be but few guards there, and we will slay them and escape from this
fearful country by the dark rood through the mountains; and if the evil
ones be too many for my father's sons, we can but take to the hills
beyond the stairway until the water be gone, for it will surely pour
itself into the River of Death until there be none remaining, and go far
away to the great salt sea from which my father came."
"Thou art a shrewd man as well as a brave one," said Grenville, shaking
the gratified Zulu by the hand; and instantly descending the rock, they
rejoined the others, who were now quite ready, and telling all to follow
him and look out sharply for the enemy, our hero, to the surprise of
all, led off at a quick pace in the direction of the very danger they
sought to escape.
Grenville, however, showed his wisdom by this action, for he thus kept
the rock between his party and any prying eyes, and he well knew that
large bodies of the foe would be posted on or near the veldt adjacent to
the rock, expecting the party--if they were fortunate enough to detect
the approach of the water before it overwhelmed them--to make a
desperate effort to cut their way through to the stairway. This
knowledge had decided Grenville to make a detour, which he successfully
did, and the party gained the open veldt some miles further on, without
their escape from the rock having been observed by the enemy, and were
soon pushing across this rolling prairie, with the terrific sound of the
advancing water in their ears, and hoping to gain the stairway without
having been perceived.
Vain hope!--when, after some hours of unmolested and ceaseless travel,
the little band arrived within earshot of the stairway, a blazing thread
of light shot upwards to the sky, and the hissing of a second rocket was
heard preparing to take its aerial flight. The Mormon in charge of this
incautiously showed himself for one second, and promptly received
Leigh's bullet through his brain; and then, without waiting for orders,
the active Zulus rushed up the steps and broke into the cavern, uttering
their fearful war-cries, and a moment later were joined by Grenville and
Leigh, and an awful battle took place between these four and seven
heavily-armed Mormons. Fortunately a torch was burning, and, equally
happily, the Zulus had taken the men by surprise and given them no time
to prime the pans of their rifles; but even as the cousins entered the
cave two men were diligently performing this interesting occupation, and
instantly went down with revolver bullets through them. In a couple of
minutes the Mormons were all disposed of, the only casualties being a
pistol bullet through Myzukulwa's shoulder, which had fortunately not
injured the bone, and a nasty slash from a cutlass which Leigh had
received on his left arm. Quickly the whole party passed up the
cavernous road, again taking the precaution to carry away all the
torches, and congratulating themselves upon the complete and unexpected
success of their plan; for Winfield, with the help of Rose--to whom the
beast was sincerely attached--had actually got the quagga up the
staircase, when suddenly Grenville called a halt, listened carefully,
and then turned to the others with the horror of a living death
imprinted upon every line of his face.
"Back!" he said, and his voice sounded but a hoarse, dreadful whisper;
"back, all of you, quick; _the lake has broken out on both sides of the
mountain, and the water is racing down, our road, and will be here
directly_!" With a cry of agony, Winfield seized his daughter by one
hand, Leigh grasped the other, and all ran for the stairway, which
fortunately was not far off; and having once seen the women safely down,
and directed them to hurry on towards the Eastern Mountains with Leigh
and Winfield, Grenville and the Zulus, after infinite trouble, succeeded
in pushing and pulling master quagga on to _terra firma_ once more, and
they then put their best foot foremost, and rejoined their companions.
Soon gaining the shelter of the forest and the rising land, they watched
carefully, and could see across the veldt a Mormon host speeding forward
to the stairway, in answer to the rocket's message, and not far behind
them was a dull, angry line, which Winfield pronounced to be the
advancing water. The band, which numbered some twenty men, was
evidently uneasy at its near approach, and anxious to gain the stairway,
and now, even as they reached their desired haven, an awful thing
happened, and the wicked certainly did fall hopelessly into his own net
for once--there was a rushing, roaring sound, and then, with a
thundering boom, the torrent came sweeping through the mouth of the
cavern in hundreds of tons of water at one awful burst, hung for a short
second, as it seemed, in mid air, and then plunged down in one mighty,
irresistible volume right upon the luckless Mormons, who were instantly
lost to human ken, and in less time than it takes to tell, the two
forces of water had combined, and the veldt far and near was blotted out
in one vast rolling, tumbling sea of agitated foam, upon which nothing
could be seen save here and there a corpse bobbing up and down as it
took its gradual and apparently unwilling course towards the River of
Death.
After searching for some little time our friends discovered a cave about
a mile from the great stairway, into which they thankfully entered; and
after setting a watch, though the precaution seemed a useless one, lay
down to sleep. The rest of the night passed uneventfully; and when the
sun again shone out, the eye rested only upon what was seemingly a vast
and wandering waste of waters, for a thick steaming mist, which was
already rising from the surface of this suddenly-created inland sea,
caused one's range of vision to be limited to a few miles.
One thing, however, our friends did notice, which filled them with
dismay. Grenville had calculated that as soon as the volume of water
was quite exhausted in the natural reservoir on the mountains, their way
through the subterranean road would be clear, and they would have a long
start and be able to get clean through the River Pass before ever their
enemies had a chance of moving from their own side of the chasm. Now
all hope of escape seemed to be cut off, for the mighty rush of water
falling from the subterranean road had entirely demolished the great
stairway, not a single step of which they could now see, and it was
obviously impossible for them to ascend several hundred feet of a
precipitous wall of solid rock, which was what they would now have to do
in order to regain the rood.
After two days had been spent hopelessly and aimlessly in the cavern,
the water was observed to abate as fast as it had risen, and on the
third day the veldt could again be seen in every direction, steaming in
a most unpleasant manner under the rays of a vertical sun. Our friends
were, however, well situated at some height above the plain, and Amaxosa
spent that day in prospecting for a safer hiding-place, which he found
about three miles off, along the mountain-side, and which consisted of a
three-roomed cave, quite two hundred feet above the veldt, in a
commanding position, approached only by narrow paths, a wall of solid
rock behind, and blessed with an ample supply of water. Grenville
unhesitatingly approved of the place as a temporary residence, and
thither the party removed at nightfall.
The following morning smiled down upon East Utah in all its revived
loveliness--the veldt looked greener and fresher for its wholesale bath,
and a newcomer would certainly have had no idea of the awful tragedies
which had recently been enacted in this country, where all looked so
quiet and peaceful.
On this morning a band of Mormons, some fifty in number, arrived at the
great stairway, and appeared struck dumb by its destruction, for they
ran about gesticulating madly, and wringing their hands over the great
blocks of stone cast hither and thither about the adjacent veldt. It
was, however, evident, as Grenville had foreseen, that they did not
believe the enemy had left the country by the roadway. The river had
broken through too soon after the rockets had been fired to admit of any
possibility of their escape in that direction. The only doubt they
entertained was if the invaders had really been drowned and their
bodies, together with those of their own ill-fated comrades, carried
away by the River of Death.
The Mormons now examined the neighbourhood, with a keen scrutiny which
let nothing escape unquestioned; but, having foreseen this search,
Grenville had acted with the utmost caution, and no trace of their
movements had been left behind, so that he was not in the least
surprised when the Mormons--who were, he observed, led by Radford
Custance--turned their backs on the stairway early in the afternoon, and
set off across the veldt in the direction of their town.
On the day following, our friends went into council. Their position was
fast becoming a dangerous one; food was running out and none coming in,
and it was evident that unless steps were taken to replenish their
larder at an early date, starvation must overtake them in the very midst
of plenty, for on the eastern side of the mountains the streams were
small, and so far had not even produced fish, which would have helped to
eke out their stores.
After a long and earnest consultation it was decided to beard the lion
in his den--in other words, Grenville and Amaxosa were detailed to cross
the river, penetrate into the enemy's country, and there endeavour to
find in the rear of East Utah a strong position, which they, surrounded
by plenty, could defend until they fairly wore the Mormons out and
compelled them to make peace and let the party go.
It was a desperate venture; and when our heroes set out at nightfall the
Rose of Sharon wept piteously, saying she never expected to see poor
Dick again; and Leigh and Winfield, who were left in charge along with
Myzukulwa, wrung Grenville's hand in silence, and also felt the tears
starting to their eyes.
The parting between the Zulus was a characteristic one.
"Let my brother," said Amaxosa, "remember that the great chief our
father will look to the sons of Undi for the safety of the gentle Rose
of Sharon and the lovely Lily of the Valley. Amaxosa will bring back
his father, or will die with him."
And so the pair set out, instructing those they left behind, to have no
uneasiness about them, as it was likely they would be gone at least ten
days.
Pushing steadily on all night and lying hidden all day, Grenville and
Amaxosa reached the neighbourhood of the eastern bridge just after dawn
on the second morning, and crept up as close as they dared under cover
of the heavy fog, which hung like a curtain upon the veldt. When the
sun's welcome rays had cleared away the mists, the pair saw, to their
surprise, that the eastern bridge was still open, and lying flush with
their own side of the chasm, just as the Zulus had left it weeks ago.
The Mormons had evidently been too busy to pay any attention to that
part of their country, and had considered care in that direction
unnecessary whilst they knew the foe to be fifty miles away upon the
western mountains.
This was in some degree unsatisfactory; for if our friends turned the
bridge and crossed, as they were obliged to do, and the locality was
visited by the Mormons in the interim, they would of course realise
immediately that the obnoxious little band was still at large, and had,
moreover, had the audacity to cross the river. This was an awkward
position; yet there appeared to be nothing else for it, and Grenville
lay down to sleep at four in the afternoon, determined, at all hazards,
to proceed that night. On being awakened at dusk, however, Amaxosa had
good news for him. About an hour ago, he said, several of the
"witch-finders" had arrived by the outside of the veldt, and, turning on
the bridge, had crossed over, laughing and talking. They were
apparently in splendid spirits, and, having left two men to guard the
bridge, had pressed on at a good speed in the direction of East Utah.
This simplified matters a little, and our friends were arranging in what
manner they should rush the guards, so as to avoid the possibility of
their getting at the rocket apparatus, when the quick-eared Zulu
announced the approach of another party by the eastern veldt. The moon
was now rising, and the pair ought to be gone before the advent of the
new arrivals; but the guards, having also heard the approach of their
comrades, were on the alert, and the only thing to do was to lie quiet
and watch their opportunity.