Not until noon of the day after their ghastly discovery did Lamont and
his fellow refugees reach Gandela.
It was only at night they could travel with any degree of safety. The
appearance of some armed Matabele had driven them into hiding almost
within sight of poor Tewson's homestead, and for long the fall
bitterness of death was on those three. For it was difficult to believe
that the savages had not seen them and had gone to collect
reinforcements, that they might hunt down the fugitives at their
leisure. To make matters worse, their place of concealment was a deep
donga leading to the river-bed, and overhung by a thicket of
_haak-doorn_, so that, in the event of discovery, the enemy being right
above would be able to destroy them with a minimum of risk to himself.
An ignominious end, like rats in a hole, not even the consolation of
being able to fight to the last and sell their lives dearly. Yet it had
been a case of `needs must,' for there was no other hiding-place
available.
The heat, too, was stifling, and their quarters horribly cramped. Their
food supply had nearly run out, and, worse still, their drink. All day
they had heard natives moving around them, and the barking of dogs. All
day had kept continuously recurring the certainty that they were being
hunted, that discovery was but a matter of minutes; and when at length
night came--blessed night with its coolness and sheltering darkness--why
then these three had gone through a day they were not likely to forget
for the remainder of their lives.
But with morning light their peril returned, and they were reminded of
this when shortly after daybreak they sighted an impi on the march.
They had barely time to flatten themselves among the clefts and boulders
of a stony kopje when this force appeared in sight, and as it passed
right beneath their hiding-place they were able roughly to count its
strength. The warriors were marching in open order, to the number of
about two hundred, and the watchers could make out that though bristling
with assegais and axes, none of them appeared to carry firearms.
Here again prudence had counselled that they should lie low, and
starting after dark reach Gandela the middle of that night; but by this
time a strange impatience had taken hold of them, engendering
recklessness. Even Ancram--starving, footsore, and utterly out of
training for this sort of thing--shared in the feeling, and accordingly
they resolved to chance it. This time fortune favoured them, and,
having encountered no further adventures, three weary, haggard, and
hungry men entered Gandela and went straight to Foster's hotel.
Though in actual point of fact the distance accomplished was nothing
wonderful to a brace of hardened pioneers like Peters and Lamont, yet
the constant and recurring strain, combined with the hideous and pitiful
sight they had witnessed, had told even upon them. As for Ancram, he
was in a state of utter collapse.
"Now, Foster, turn us on some skoff right away," said Lamont; "and we
don't want to wait for it, either, at least not any longer than it takes
to have a tub. Meanwhile, a bottle of your Perrier-Jouet. Here you
are, Ancram," when this had been opened. "Dip your beak into this.
It'll buck you up, and, by the Lord, you want it!"
"Any news of the scare--anything fresh, that is?" asked the
hotel-keeper, eyeing them curiously. These men had been through no
ordinary experience, he could see that, but as yet they had told
nothing.
"Well, rather. I'll tell you presently. Have you a boy handy, Foster?
I want to send a note quick to Orwell."