"Why, Dally, is it you?"
"Didn't you hear it?" gasped George, supporting himself on the side of
the cavern.
"Hear what?"
"The war-whoop!"
"Of course we did--at least we heard a most unearthly yell. What was
it?"
"We'd best go out and see," cried George, cocking his gun; "if it was
Kafirs the sooner we follow them up the better."
"Not so, friend George," said Frank Dobson, in a slightly sarcastic
tone. "If it was Kafirs they are far beyond our reach by this time, and
if they mean us harm we are safer in our fortress here. My opinion is
that we should have our breakfast without delay, and then we shall be in
a fit state to face our foes--whether they be men or beasts."
Acting on this suggestion, with a laugh, the brothers leaned their guns
against the wall of the cavern and set about the preparation of
breakfast in good earnest.
Meanwhile George gravely assented to the wisdom of their decision, and
sat down to his morning pipe, while he questioned the brothers as to
their intentions.
They pointed out to him the spot where they thought of commencing
agricultural operations and the site of their future dwelling--close,
they said, to the cave, because that would be conveniently near the
river, which would be handy for both washing, drinking, and boiling
purposes.
"That's true--wery true," said George, "but it seems to me you run a
risk of bein' washed away, house and all, if you fix the site so low
down, for I've heard say there are floods in these parts now and again."
"Oh, no fear of that!" said Robert Skyd, who was the quietest of the
three brothers; "don't you see the foundation of our future house is at
least ten feet above the highest point to which the river seems to have
risen in times past?"
"Ah, just so," responded George, with the air of a man not convinced.
"Besides," added John Skyd, lifting the iron pot off the fire and
setting it down, "I suppose that floods are not frequent, so we don't
need to trouble ourselves about 'em.--Come, Dally, you'll join us?"
"No, thank 'ee. Much obleeged all the same, but I've got to prepare
breakfast for our own party.--Goin' to begin plantin' soon?"
"As soon as ever we can get the soil broken up," replied Dobson.
"Studied farmin'?" inquired George.
"Not much, but we flatter ourselves that what we do know will be of some
service to us," said John.
Dally made no reply, but he greatly doubted in his own mind the capacity
of the brothers for the line of life they had chosen.
His judgment in this respect was proved correct a week later, when he
and Edwin Brook had occasion to visit the brothers, whom they found hard
at work ploughing and sowing.
"Come, this looks business-like!" exclaimed Brook heartily, as he shook
hands with the brothers; "you've evidently not been idle. I have just
come to ask a favour of you, gentlemen."
"We shall grant it with pleasure, if within our powers," said Robert
Skyd, who leaned on a spade with which he had been filling in a trench
of about two feet deep.
"It is, that you will do me and Mrs Brook the pleasure of coming over
to our location this afternoon to dinner. It is our Gertie's birthday.
She is thirteen to-day. In a rash moment we promised her a treat or
surprise of some sort, but really the only surprise I can think of in
such an out-of-the-way place is to have a dinner-party in her honour.
Will you come?"
The brothers at once agreed to do so, remarking, however, that they must
complete the sowing of their carrot-seed before dinner if possible.
"What did you say you were sowing?" asked Brook, with a peculiar smile.
"Carrot-seed," answered Robert Skyd.
"If your carrot-seed is sown _there_," said George Dally, pointing with
a broad grin to the trench, "it's very likely to come up in England
about the time it does here,--by sendin' its roots right through the
world!"
"How? what do you mean?"
"The truth is, my dear sir," said Brook good-humouredly, "that you've
made a slight mistake in this matter. Carrot-seed is usually sown in
trenches less than an inch deep. You'd better leave off work just now
and come over to my place at once. I'll give you some useful hints as
we walk along."
The knights of the quill laughed at their mistake, and at once threw
down their implements of husbandry. But on going over their farm, Brook
found it necessary to correct a few more mistakes, for he discovered
that the active brothers had already planted a large quantity of Indian
corn, or "mealies," entire, without knocking it off the cobs, and, in
another spot of ground, a lot of young onions were planted with the
roots upwards!
"You see, Miss Gertie," said John Skyd, when commenting modestly on
these mistakes at dinnertime, "my brothers and I have all our lives had
more to do with the planting of `houses' and the growth of commercial
enterprise than with agricultural products, but we are sanguine that,
with experience and perseverance, we shall overcome all our
difficulties. Have _you_ found many difficulties to overcome!"
Gertie was not sure; she thought she had found a few, but none worth
mentioning. Being somewhat put out by the question, she picked up a
pebble--for the dinner was a species of picnic, served on the turf in
front of Mr Brook's tent--and examined it with almost geological care.
"My daughter does not like to admit the existence of difficulties," said
Mrs Brook, coming to the rescue, "and to say truth is seldom overcome
by anything."
"Oh, ma, how can you?" said Gertie, blushing deeply.
"That's not true," cried Mr Brook; "excuse me, my dear, for so flat a
contradiction, but I have seen Gertie frequently overcome by things,--by
Junkie's obstinacy for instance, which I verily believe to be an
insurmountable difficulty, and I've seen her thoroughly overcome, night
after night, by sleep.--Isn't that true, lass?"
"I suppose it is, father, since you say so, but of course I cannot
tell."
"Sleep!" continued Brook, with a laugh, "why, would you believe it, Mr
Skyd, I went into what we call the nursery-tent one morning last week,
to try to stop the howling of my little boy, and I found him lying with
his open mouth close to Gertie's cheek, pouring the flood of his wrath
straight into her ear, and she sound asleep all the time! My nurse,
Mrs Scholtz, told me she had been as sound as that all night, despite
several heavy squalls, and notwithstanding a chorus of hyenas and
jackals outside that might almost have awakened the dead.--By the way,
that reminds me: just as I was talking with nurse that morning we heard
a most unearthly shriek at some distance off. It was not the least like
the cry of any wild animal I have yet heard, and for the first time
since our arrival the idea of Kafirs flashed into my mind. Did any of
you gentlemen happen to hear it?"
The brothers looked at each other, and at their friend Dobson, and then
unitedly turned their eyes on George Dally, who--performing the combined
duties of cook and waiter, at a fire on the ground, not fifteen feet to
leeward of the dinner-party--could hear every word of the conversation.
"Why, yes," said John Skyd, "we did hear it, and so did your man Dally.
We had thought--"
"The truth is, sir," said George, advancing with a miniature pitchfork
or "tormentor" in his hand; "pardon my interrupting you, sir,--I did
hear the screech, but as I couldn't say exactly for certain, you know,
that it was a Kafir, not havin' seen one, I thought it best not to alarm
you, sir, an' so said nothing about it."
"You looked as if you had seen one," observed Frank Dobson, drawing down
the corners of his mouth with his peculiar smile.
"Did I, sir!" said George, with a simple look; "very likely I did, for
I'm timersome by nature an' easily frightened."
"You did not act with your wonted wisdom, George, in concealing this,"
said Edwin Brook gravely.
"I'm afraid I didn't sir," returned George meekly.
"In future, be sure to let me know every symptom of danger you may
discover, no matter how trifling," said Brook.
"Yes, sir."
"It was a very tremendous yell, wasn't it, Dally?" asked John Skyd
slily, as the waiter-cook was turning to resume his duties at the fire.
"Wery, sir."
"And alarmed us all dreadfully, didn't it?"
"Oh! dreadfully, sir--'specially me; though I must in dooty say that you
four gentleman was as bold as brass. It quite relieved me when I saw
your tall figurs standin' at the mouth o' your cavern, an' the muzzles
o' your four double-guns--that's eight shots--with your glaring eyes an'
pale cheeks behind them!"
"Ha!" exclaimed John Skyd, with a grim smile--"but after all it might
only have been the shriek of a baboon."
"I think not, sir," replied George, with a smile of intelligence.
"Perhaps then it was the cry of a zebra or quagga," returned John Skyd,
"or a South African ass of some sort."
"Wery likely, sir," retorted George. "I shouldn't wonder if it was--
which is wery consolin' to my feelin's, for I'd sooner be terrified out
o' my wits by asses of any kind than fall in with these long-legged
savages that dwell in caves."
With an appearance of great humility George returned to his work at the
fire.
It was either owing to a sort of righteous retribution, or a touch of
that fortune which favours the brave, that George Dally was in reality
the first, of this particular party of settlers, to encounter the black
and naked inhabitant of South Africa in his native jungle. It was on
this wise.
George was fond of sport, when not detained at home by the claims of
duty. But these claims were so constant that he found it impossible to
indulge his taste, save, as he was wont to say, "in the early morn and
late at eve."
One morning about daybreak, shouldering his gun and buckling on his
hunting-knife, he marched into the jungle in quest of an antelope.
Experience had taught him that the best plan was to seat himself at a
certain opening or pass which lay on the route to a pool of water, and
there bide his time.
Seating himself on a moss-covered stone, he put his gun in position on
his knee, with the forefinger on the trigger, and remained for some time
so motionless that a North American Indian might have envied his powers
of self-restraint. Suddenly a twig was heard to snap in the thicket
before him. Next moment the striped black and yellow skin of a leopard,
or Cape tiger, appeared in the opening where he had expected to behold a
deer. Dally's gun flew to his shoulder. At the same instant the
leopard skin was thrown back, and the right arm of a tall athletic Kafir
was bared. The hand grasped a light assagai, or darting spear. Both
men were taken by surprise, and for one instant they glared at each
other. The instance between them was so short that death to each seemed
imminent, for the white man's weapon was a deadly one, and the cast of
the lithe savage would doubtless have been swift and sure.
In that instant of uncertainty the white man's innate spirit of
forbearance acted almost involuntarily. Dally had hitherto been a man
of peace. The thought of shedding human blood was intensely repulsive
to him. He lowered the butt of his gun, and held up his right hand in
token of amity.
The savage possessed apparently some of the good qualities of the white
man, for he also at once let the butt of his assegai drop to the ground,
although he knew, what Dally was not aware of, that considering the
nature of their weapons, he placed himself at a tremendous disadvantage
in doing so--the act of throwing forward and discharging the deadly
fire-arm being much quicker than that of poising and hurling an assagai.
Without a moment's hesitation George Dally advanced and held out his
right hand with a bland smile.
Although unfamiliar with Kafir customs, he had heard enough from the
Dutch farmers who drove the ox-teams to know that only chiefs were
entitled to wear the leopard skin as a robe. The tall form and
dignified bearing of the savage also convinced him that he had
encountered no ordinary savage. He also knew that the exhibition of a
trustful spirit goes a long way to create good-will. That his judgment
was correct appeared from the fact of the Kafir holding out his hand and
allowing George to grasp and shake it.
But what to do next was a question that puzzled the white man sorely,
although he maintained on his good-natured countenance an expression of
easy nonchalance.
Of course he made a vain attempt at conversation in English, to which
the Kafir chief replied, with dignified condescension, by a brief
sentence in his own tongue.
As George Dally looked in his black face, thoughts flashed through his
brain with the speed of light. Should he kill him outright? That would
be simple murder, in the circumstances, and George objected to murder,
on principle. Should he suddenly seize and throw him down? He felt
quite strong enough to do so, but after such a display of friendship it
would be mean. Should he quietly bid him good morning and walk away?
This, he felt, would be ridiculous. At that moment tobacco occurred to
his mind. He quietly rested his gun against a tree, and drew forth a
small roll of tobacco, from which he cut at least a foot and handed it
to the chief. The dignity of the savage at once gave way before the
beloved weed. He smiled--that is, he grinned in a ghastly way, for his
face, besides being black, was streaked with lines of red ochre--and
graciously accepted the gift. Then George made an elaborate speech in
dumb-show with hands, fingers, arms, and eyes, to the effect that he
desired the Kafir to accompany him to his location, but the chief
gravely shook his head, pointed in another direction and to the sun, as
though to say that time was on the wing; then, throwing his leopard-skin
robe over his right shoulder with the air of a Spanish grandee, he
turned aside and strode into the jungle.
George, glad to be thus easily rid of him, also turned and hurried home.
This time he was not slow to let his employer know that he had met with
a native.
"It behoves us to keep a sharp look-out, George," said Brook. "I heard
yesterday from young Merton that some of the settlers not far from his
place have had a visit from the black fellows, who came in the night,
and while they slept carried off some of the sheep they had recently
purchased from an up-country county Dutchman. We will watch for a few
nights while rumours of this kind are afloat. When all seems quiet we
can take it easy. Let Scholtz take the first watch. You will succeed
him, and I will mount guard from the small hours onward."
For some days this precaution was continued, but as nothing more was
heard of black marauders the Brook family gradually ceased to feel
anxious, and the nightly watch was given up.