The next few days passed slowly and sadly on the plateau. Winfield was
quietly buried close by, his grave being concealed from view, as it was
most desirable that the Mormons should be kept in ignorance of the fact
that the little band had lost a man.
The gloom of Winfield's untimely death hung over all, and it was all
Leigh could do to keep poor Dora from breaking down entirely; and when
the Mormons, a week later, made a desperate attack on the plateau, it
was a relief to the party to feel that the call for prompt and unanimous
action had taken them out of their thoughts, and brought them back to
their old ways of living and working.
The attempt of the Mormons proved utterly futile, as the main body never
even succeeded in getting within shooting distance of Grenville's party;
and after some twenty of their bravest men had been sent to the shades
to swell their already awful list of casualties they sullenly drew off
and troubled our friends no more for a considerable period.
On the occasion of this attack Dora Winfield developed unexpected
qualities. She calmly came forward, insisted on having Leigh's rifle,
and used it with a coolness and precision that astonished no one more
than the Zulu Amaxosa. "Ow," he said, "the lovely Lily of the Valley
has slain two of the witch-finders. See! my brother, there they lie
kicking like wounded oxen--ow! my sister, it is good." Her face was set
like a flint; and when the Mormons fell back, she returned the weapon to
Leigh, expressing the hope that she might yet have a chance of avenging
her father's death by shooting at least one of the Holy Three.
All this time the Rose of Sharon was comporting herself very quietly,
and though he knew it not, a passionate love was growing up in her heart
towards Grenville. To Dora only was this revealed. "I would die for a
kind word from him," she said.
"Rose, you mustn't say that," remonstrated Miss Winfield; "poor Dick is
very kind to everybody, but he has such a weight of responsibility on
his shoulders you can't expect him to think of love-making; only let us
get clear of this horrible country, and I'm sure he will soon see what a
lovely little woman my dear sister Rose can be. I think, too, he has
some great scheme on hand, for of late he has asked me very many
questions I have been unable to answer with regard to the Mormon city;
and it was only yesterday that I referred him to you, dear, for
information; so I daresay he will soon want you for a private
conference;" and Dora slily pinched the cheek of the blushing girl.
It fell out exactly as Miss Winfield had said, for that very evening
Grenville led Rose apart, and sitting down beside her, began to question
her very closely with regard to the position, defences, public offices,
and so forth, of East Utah--particularly asking in what portion of the
city the Holy Three resided.
As Grenville catechised her he wondered at the eager comprehensive
answers, and the blushing face of the young girl, particularly when he
thanked her warmly for the information, and noted the tears which
started to her eyes. Still, it never occurred to the stupid fellow that
this lovely flower of the wilderness had lost her heart to him.
Grenville was, as a matter of fact, one of those unimpressionable men
who rarely fall in love, unless moved by some mighty and overmastering
passion. All his life he had made honour and fame his mistress. The
path of glory looked none the less inviting to his intrepid soul,
because he well know that sooner or later it would, in all probability,
lead to a premature and bloody grave. He was fond of saying that he
knew no grander record in English history than that of the famous
warrior of the Elizabethan period whose name he bore, and though he was
unrelated to him he should consider it sacrilege to mar in any way a
name which would be written in the annals of England in golden letters
as long as the nation existed.
Miss Winfield, moreover, was right. Grenville had a deep-laid scheme
which was just now hatching in his fertile brain, and what this superbly
audacious project was, will presently appear. Do not, however, gentle
reader, go away with the idea that Dick Grenville, for the sake of a
little cheap glory, bought perhaps with his life-blood, was willing to
sacrifice all his friends. Far from it; his scheme meant salvation to
them, and to his Mormon foes destruction and death in their most awful
forms.
Grenville's next move was to turn Amaxosa inside out by a simple method
of cross-questioning, which was yet complete enough in its results to
satisfy even an astute detective.
One of the points he was particularly anxious about was the presence of
Game in this curious country. Grenville had now recognised almost every
known species of deer, yet had seen no destructive beasts, such as
lions; nor was there, Amaxosa assured him, a single one in the place,
nor yet an elephant, though he had once trapped and killed a rhinoceros.
Eager questions with regard to this latter animal resulted in the Zulu
going off next day and returning late in the evening with the rhinoceros
hide, which was the very thing Grenville wanted. Putting this up at
twenty yards, he fired two or three of the Mormon muskets at it, the
balls all failing to penetrate its horny thickness, and in a short time
he had contrived a regular suit of clumsy armour out of the hide--armour
which, he felt sure, would prove absolutely bullet-proof, unless hit in
the seams where he had had to shave it to a mere skin in order to unite
the edges with cord.
However, to return to the subject of the deer. Amaxosa declared that
the animals were not in any way preserved. On the contrary, the Mormons
killed them off freely; but he had always noticed that in the driest
season the herds seemed to increase; it was also at the latter end of
the dry season he had settled the rhinoceros, and this season was now
rapidly drawing to a close--in fact in six weeks, at the outside, the
rains would begin.
Over this information Grenville puzzled his brains for days without
coming to any satisfactory conclusion. His own opinion coincided with
Amaxosa's, and from the vantage ground of the plateau he carefully
watched the animals feeding, and on several days noted entirely new
classes arriving. Did these beasts migrate from some other
feeding-ground in East Utah, or had they some means of entrance into the
country as yet unknown to man and undiscovered even by such keen
instinct as that of the Zulu chief?
Amaxosa reiterated his assurance that he had searched every foot of the
country for a way of escape, and had never found one. Still,
remembering that the Zulu had never hit upon the subterranean roadway,
Grenville thought it possible that some other exit might exist without
him having any knowledge of it.
Putting aside this important subject for the nonce, however, our hero's
mind reverted to his pet scheme, and to the best methods of carrying it
out he now directed all his faculties.
Night after night, accompanied by Amaxosa, did Grenville creep up to the
walls--ay, into the very streets of East Utah--until its ways and
buildings were as familiar to him as were the streets of fashionable
London. The Zulu accompanied his chief in utter wonder, but his
splendid training withheld him from asking any explanation--indeed, if
"his Father" had asked him to jump into the River of Death he would have
complied without hesitation, such power can a brave and fearless leader
wield over the heart of any true follower, be he white or black.
Dawn after dawn saw the pair cautiously retaking their devious way to
the plateau, comforting the anxious watchers there, who heaved a sigh of
relief on being assured of the safe return of the wanderers.
Devious their way certainly was, for the pair invariably went and came
along the course of a river which they struck a few miles from the town,
through which it ran and emptied itself into the River of Death. By
means of this small stream they were able to pass the walls unseen and
obtain access to the very heart of the city.
One morning, however, soon after Grenville had lain down to rest, being
exhausted with the labours of the night, he was awakened by Leigh, with
the news that the Mormons were again approaching in force; and on taking
up his position on the plateau our hero found that the enemy had brought
with them a new engine of warfare in the shape of an enormous catapult
somewhat after the ancient Roman style, but worked with india-rubber
springs, the country being of course alive with rubber-trees. The
operators, moreover, were securely ensconced behind a sheet and roof of
the same product, the thickness of which must have been immense, as the
rifle-bullets of the little party had evidently not the remotest effect
upon it. This curious-looking half-house on wheels was moved forward by
its defenders to within fifty feet of the rock, and after some little
time had elapsed the engine correctly pitched its first missile right
upon the plateau, where, to the horror and consternation of our friends,
it revealed itself fuming and hissing, in the shape of _an explosive
shell_. "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise;" still, the
sight of that infernal bomb must have roused suspicions as to its
capacity for evil in even the ignorant mind of Amaxosa, and he could
read a confirmation of some unknown horror in the countenances of his
friends. Coolly stepping forward, he took up the shell in his powerful
hands, and with a mighty effort threw it, with the fuse still smoking,
right on to the top of the covered catapult, where it spontaneously
exploded with a fearful roar, tearing the entire engine to pieces and
killing its miserable occupants. The Mormon band, watching at a
distance to see their foes destroyed, at once made a stampede in the
direction of the town, and disappeared from view.
On descending to the plain it was found that the catapult had been
worked by five men, all of whom were fairly cut to pieces; and lying
close by, Grenville discovered two more shells with fuses attached.
These bombs were evidently home-made, being simply a lead casing filled
with powder and ball, and ignited by a long fuse. They might, however,
come in most useful in case of a concentrated Mormon attack upon the
plateau; so these instruments of destruction were carefully stowed away
in one of the smaller caves, and Grenville was again able to betake
himself to his prematurely-disturbed slumbers.
The effect of this last attempt was, however, an added determination
upon his part to read the whole Mormon community--and particularly, if
it were possible, the Holy Three--such a salutary lesson as would
forcibly and unpleasantly bring them to their senses, and teach them for
the future to leave our friends severely alone, if it did not indeed
deprive them of all power to render any future attack upon their
position otherwise than sheer waste of human life without the very
faintest hope of success.
As yet Grenville had not given anyone upon the plateau an inkling of the
deadly project which his fertile brain had matured, and the putting into
operation of which was only hastened by the latest ingenious and
vindictive though futile effort of the enemy.
On that afternoon, being anxious to draw a small plan of the city for
the purpose of defining his exact intentions to the party, Grenville
applied to everyone for a scrap of paper on which to work his diagram.
No one was, however, possessed of the desired commodity. All at once
Leigh recollected that he had a Bank of England note for one hundred
pounds in his purse, and this was forthwith produced, and was the
outcome of a curious statement.
Taking the note with a laugh, Grenville laid it out upon a rock to
remove the creases, and then proceeded to delineate with pencil upon its
back his _modus operandi_.