"Fine chance for a lion," said Emson, as at dusk he left the oxen, being
slowly driven by Kaffir Jack, and cantered off to his left to draw rein
in front of Dyke, the boy sitting upright with a start.
"Eh?"
"I say a fine chance for a lion," cried Emson again.
"No: couldn't catch,"--_snore_.
"Here! Hi! Little one. Wake up!" cried Emson.
"Yes; all right!--What's the matter?"
"Matter? why, you're asleep, you stupid fellow: a lion might have come
upon you in that state."
"Lion? Come upon? Did--did you speak to me?" said Dyke thickly.
"Speak to you? of course. Why, you foolish, careless fellow, what was
the matter? Afraid to stay by the game?"
Dyke looked at him drowsily, striving to catch all that had been said,
but only partially grasping the meaning.
"Don't know--what you mean," he said thickly.
"I mean it was very cowardly of you to forsake your charge, boy," said
Emson sternly. "It's vital for us to save that meat, and I trusted you
to watch it. Now you've come away, and it will be horribly mauled by
the jackals; perhaps we shall find half a hundred vultures feeding upon
it when we get there. Hang it, Dyke! you might have stayed till I came
back."
Dyke was too much confused to make any reply. Utterly exhausted as he
had been, his deep sleep seemed to still hold him, and he sat gazing
vacantly at his brother, who added in a tone full of contempt:
"There, don't stare at me in that idiotic way. Come along; let's try
and save something. Look sharp! One of us must ride on, or we shall
not find it before it's dark."
Dyke rode beside him in silence, for Breezy eagerly joined his stable
companion, and in a short time they were up to, and then passed Jack
with his plodding oxen, which were drawing a rough sledge, something
similar to that which a farmer at home uses for the conveyance of a
plough from field to field.
The angry look soon passed away from Emson's face, and he turned to
Dyke.
"There, look up, old chap," he said; "don't pull a phiz like that."
Dyke was still half stupefied by sleep, but he had grasped his brother's
former words, and these were uppermost, rankling still in his mind as he
said heavily:
"You talked about the jackals and vultures, Joe."
"Yes, yes; but I was in a pet, little un--vexed at the idea of losing
our stock of good fresh meat. That's all over now, so say no more about
it. Began to think I was never coming, didn't you? Well, I was long."
Emson might just as well have held his tongue, for nothing he now said
was grasped by Dyke, who could think of nothing else but the former
words, and he repeated himself:
"You talked about the jackals and vultures, Joe."
"Yes, yes, I did; but never mind now, old chap."
"But you didn't say a word about the lions."
"What?" cried Emson excitedly. "You have had no lions there, surely?"
"Yes," said Dyke, bitterly now, for he was waking up, and felt deeply
aggrieved. "Two great beasts."
"But in open day?"
Dyke nodded.
"Then why didn't you fire? A shot or two would have scared them away."
"Yes," continued the boy in the same bitter tone; "but you can't fire
when your gun's empty, and you have no cartridges."
"But you had plenty when we started. I filled your pouch."
"Yes, but it came undone in the ride after the eland. It's lost. I
sent Duke to try and find it, and he didn't come back."
"My poor old chap!" cried Emson, leaning forward to grasp his brother's
shoulder. "I did not know of this."
"No, you couldn't know of it, but you were precious hard upon me."
"My dear old chap, I spoke to you like a brute. I ought not to have
left you, but I was so delighted with the way in which you had brought
down the game, and, as it were, filled our larder, that I thought you
ought to have all the honour of keeping guard, while I played drudge and
went to fetch the sledge to carry the meat home. But tell me: the lions
came?"
"One did," said Dyke, "and gave me turn enough, and when I got away from
him to try and catch Breezy here, another savage brute hunted me and
nearly struck me down. Oh, it was horrid!" he cried, as he ended his
rough narrative of what he had gone through.
"Dyke, old chap, I shall never forgive myself," said Emson, grasping his
brother's hand. "I'd do anything to recall my words."
"Oh, it's all right," cried the boy, clinging to the hand that pressed
his; "I'm better now. I was so exhausted, Joe, that I suppose I
couldn't keep awake. I say, how was it I didn't fall off?"
"The cob was standing quite still when I came up, and looked half asleep
himself."
"Poor old Breezy! He had such a fright too. I thought I should never
catch up to him. But I did."
"Can you forgive me, old fellow?"
"Can I what? Oh, I say, Joe! Don't say any more, please. Here, give
me some cartridges to put in my pocket. I'm all right now, and there
are sure to be some more lions there. But, I say, I don't think I
should like to shoot at that first one."
Emson handed a dozen cartridges, and then shouted to Jack to stop, which
the Kaffir and his two dumb companions willingly did.
"What are you going to do, Joe?"
"Discretion is the better part of valour," said Emson quietly. "It
would be dark by the time we got there, and on your own showing, the
field is in possession of the enemy. Why, Dyke, old fellow, it would be
about as mad a thing as we could do to drive a couple of bullocks up to
where perhaps half-a-dozen lions are feasting. I ought to have known
better, but it did not occur to me. These brutes must have been
following the herds. There's only one thing to do."
"What's that? Go near and fire to scare them away?"
"To come back again, after they had left us the mangled remains of the
eland. No good, Dyke: we shall be safer in our own beds. It's only
another failure, old chap. Never mind: we may get game to-morrow."
Dyke tried to oppose this plan of giving up, but it was only in a
half-hearted way, and they rode back slowly towards Kopfontein, pausing
from time to time for the oxen to catch up, Jack growing more and more
uneasy as the night came on, and running after them and leaving the
oxen, if they came to be any distance ahead.
The result was that he was sent on first with the slow-paced bullocks,
and Dyke and his brother formed themselves into a rearguard,
necessitated from time to time to come to a full stop, so as to keep in
the rear.
It was nearly morning when they reached home, and after fastening their
cattle safely behind fence and rail, they sought their own beds, where
Dyke sank at once into a heavy sleep, waking up when the sun was quite
high, with some of the previous evening's confusion left; but the whole
of the day's adventure came back in a flash as his eyes lit upon Duke,
fast asleep upon a skin, and with the lost cartridge pouch between his
paws.