The news brought by the scouts was very serious. The continued fire in
the rear showed that the enemy were making a serious attack in that
quarter. But Mr Harvey feared that his fighting force there must be
weakened greatly, to enable him to attack so formidable a position as
that which the enemy occupied in front. Before arriving at any decision
as to his best course, he halted the caravan, and went forward himself,
with the two natives, to inspect the position which they had discovered.
When he reached the turn in the defile he crawled forward among the
boulders until he reached a spot where he could obtain a clear view of
the barrier; it was to the full as formidable as it had been described
by the scouts. It would have needed an active man to scale the rocks
without any opposition from above, while on the top a dense body of
natives were clustered, numbering at least fifty, and probably a
considerable portion of their force was concealed from view.
Mr Harvey sent back one of the natives to tell Dick to come on and join
him; after which he was to go back and bid Jumbo come up, as Mr Harvey
had great confidence in the hunter's shrewdness.
Dick presently arrived, and was much impressed with the formidable
nature of the obstacle.
"We might creep forward," he said, "among the stones and soon drive
those fellows off the edge, but they would only lie down behind, and
could easily destroy us, as we climbed one by one to the top. Each one,
as he got up, would be riddled with assegais. What are you thinking of
doing, sir?"
"I don't know what is best, Dick. I quite agree with you, it is a
tremendous position to storm, but on the other hand it would be almost
as bad to retreat."
Ten minutes later Jumbo arrived at a run; without a word he threw
himself down by the side of Mr Harvey, and for two or three minutes
gazed silently at the obstacle ahead; then, to Mr Harvey's surprise, he
turned over on to his back, and lay there with his eyes open.
"What on earth are you doing, Jumbo?"
"Look there, sir," the native said, pointing to a glistening spot, the
size of a crown-piece, on his stomach.
"Well, what of that?" Mr Harvey said; "that's a drop of rain--there's
another fallen on my hat. What do you think of that place ahead?"
"Me no think nothing about him, sir; that place, sir, no consequence one
way or the other. You hear him, sir?"
As he spoke a louder crash of thunder burst overhead. Mr Harvey looked
up now. That portion of the sky which could be seen was inky black.
Great drops of rain were falling with a pattering sound on the rock.
"Storm come, sir; very bad storm. I see him coming, and say to Massa
Tom, `Two or tree hour fight over; now you see someting like a
mountain-storm. In tree hours water come down twenty feet deep.'"
"You are right, Jumbo. It is lucky the storm has begun so early; if we
had got far into the defile we should have been caught. Now, all we
have got to do is to wait. Go back, Dick, and send up every man with
fire-arms; we must at once engage those fellows in front and occupy
their attention. If they once perceive their danger they will make a
desperate rush down here, and it will go hard with us then. When you
have sent the fighting-men up, see that the teamsters move all the
waggons to the highest piece of ground you can find in the valley. Let
them arrange the waggons there as closely as they will pack, and keep
the animals well round them. A flood will destroy our enemy, but I am
not sure that it may not destroy us too. Now hurry away, and tell the
fighting-men to run up as quick as they can. When you have seen
everything in readiness, join Tom, and warn him to be ready to fall back
to the waggons as soon as the flood comes."
Dick ran down the ravine. It was not until he issued from it that he
was aware how tremendously the rain was pouring down. In the defile he
had been conscious only of a slight mist, with an occasional drop of
heavy rain, for very few of the rain-drops which entered the gap far
above descended to the bottom, almost all striking against the sides.
In the comparatively open valley, however, the rain was coming down in a
perfect cataract. Dick at once sent all the fighting-men to the front,
and three minutes later the report of musketry told that they were
engaged with the enemy.
Dick now set to work with ten of the natives to select the spot on which
to place the waggons. The bottom of the valley was very flat, and the
sand between the boulders showed that when the water was high the whole
was covered. He, however, found a spot on the left-hand side, about
midway between the two defiles, which was some feet higher than the
rest. The hill-side behind at this point rose somewhat less abruptly
than elsewhere, and it was probable that the rise in the bottom was
formed by a slip which had taken place at some past period. Here the
waggons were arranged side by side in two rows, the wheels of the three
inner waggons close against the slope above them. The cattle were
gathered closely round.
Dick then joined Tom, whom he found in high spirits, the hunters having
already told him that the flood would very soon come to their relief.
The party was hotly engaged. About thirty or forty yards intervened
between them and their enemy, who, crouching behind rocks, were shooting
their arrows high into the air, so that they came down almost
perpendicularly upon the defenders. One of these had been killed and
three severely wounded by the missiles; while they themselves could only
get an occasional shot at a limb exposed beyond the shelter of the
boulders.
Not having received orders to stay by Tom, Dick retraced his steps up
the valley to the party above. From the cliffs at the side of the
valley waterfalls were leaping down, and a stream of water was already
beginning to flow down its centre. The bed of the defile was perfectly
dry, the stones being scarcely wetted by the fine mist from above. Dick
found Mr Harvey and the natives engaged in keeping up a hot fire at the
top of the obstacle, lying at a distance of forty or fifty yards from it
among the rocks. One or two dead natives were stretched on the top of
the rock; the rest were not to be seen, but the arrows whistled fast
over his head, showing that they were lying down just behind it.
"The rain is tremendous outside," Dick said, as he joined Mr Harvey.
"You can have no idea what it is here. The water is pouring so fast
into the valley that a stream is forming there already, and will soon be
running two or three feet deep down the lower pass. I wonder it has not
begun to make its way down from above."
"It has begun, Dick; look at those little threads of water between the
stones. When it comes, it will come with a rush; that is always the way
with these gorges. Jumbo is listening; it will come with a roar like
thunder. He has just told me I had better send most of the men back at
once, keeping only four or five to continue firing to the last moment.
You see the enemy, who are there on a sort of platform, will not notice
the water that is making its way down. See how fast it rises; it is
ankle-deep already--and, I tell you, we shall have to run when the time
comes."
All the natives, with the exception of Jumbo and two other men, were
sent back.
"I don't see anything to fire at," Dick said.
"No," Mr Harvey agreed; "it is a pure waste of ammunition, except that
it occupies their attention. They can hardly be conscious yet how
tremendously it is raining. If they were they would not remain where
they are, but would make a rush upon us, however great the risk."
"Listen!" Jumbo exclaimed suddenly.
They listened and were conscious of a dull, heavy, roaring sound. Jumbo
leapt to his feet.
"Come!" he said; "run for your lives."
They started up and took to their heels. A terrible yell was heard
behind them, and, glancing over his shoulder, as he turned the corner,
Dick saw the natives climbing down from their defence, and even leaping
from the top in their terror. Fast as Dick was running, the roar behind
rose louder and louder.
"Quick, Dick," Mr Harvey shouted, "or you will be too late."
Dick hurried to the utmost, but the stream was already rising rapidly,
and was running knee-deep between the stones. Stumbling and slipping,
and cutting himself against the rocks, Dick struggled on. The mighty
roar was now close behind him, and seemed to him like that of a heavy
train at full speed. He reached the mouth of the ravine; the water was
already up to his waist. Mr Harvey and Jumbo dashed in, seized him by
the arms, and dragged him out.
"Run!" they said.
They were not fifty yards from the mouth, when Dick, looking round, saw
a mighty wall of water, fifteen feet high, leap from it, pouring as from
huge sluice-gates into the valley. He did not stop running until he
joined the rest gathered by the waggons.
Tom and his party were already there, for the rising water had soon
warned their assailants of the danger, and the fire had suddenly ceased.
Already the greater part of the valley was covered with water, down the
centre of which a foaming torrent was flowing. Here and there could be
seen numerous dark objects, which, he knew, were the bodies of the
Indians who had defended the upper defile, caught before they could
reach its mouth by the wall of water from above. They had instantly
been dashed lifeless against the rocks and boulders, and not one could
be seen to make towards the comparatively still waters on either side of
the centre stream.
Driven back again by the narrow entrance to the lower defile the water
in the valley rose rapidly, as with an ever-increasing violence it
poured in from above. There it was rushing out in a solid, dark-brown
cataract, which Dick judged to be fully forty feet in height. In a
quarter of an hour from its first outburst the water had already reached
the feet of those standing upon the little knoll of ground in the
valley. The oxen lowing and stamping with terror pressed more and more
closely together. The young ostriches were placed in one of the
waggons, for although their height would have left their heads well
above water, they would probably have succumbed to the effects of a
prolonged submersion of their bodies.
"If it goes on like this for another quarter of an hour," Mr Harvey
said, "the oxen will be washed away, if not the waggons. Thank God, I
think we can all manage to climb up the slope. Jumbo, tell the men each
to load themselves with five or six days' provisions. Let half a dozen
take boxes of ammunition, and as many bales of the best cloth. Let the
rest take as many bundles of the best ostrich feathers as they can
carry. Let them lay them all on the slope, twenty or thirty yards up,
wherever they can find place for them, and then come down again, and
make as many trips with the best goods as they can."
All hands worked hard; inch by inch the water rose; Mr Harvey, assisted
by the boys and teamsters, fastened ropes together, and with these
surrounded the closely-packed throng of cattle. The water was now more
than waist-deep, and was still rising; soon the cattle on the outside
were lifted off their feet. There was no current here, and they floated
with their heads on the backs of those in front of them; higher and
higher the water rose, till the whole of the cattle were afloat. At
first a few struggled, but soon they subsided into quiet, and the whole
mass floated together, with only their heads above water.
On every available ledge on the hillside were placed bundles and bales
of all kinds, and here the whites and natives stood, watching the
progress of the flood. The thunder-shower had ceased soon after the
water first burst through the gorge, but Mr Harvey knew that some hours
must elapse before the flood would begin to abate.
"I don't see why the water should not run off as fast as it comes in,"
Dick said.
"It all depends, Dick, upon the question whether in the lower defile
there is any place narrower than the mouth, through which the water is
rushing from above. According to appearances this is so; for, could the
water escape faster than it comes in, the lake here would cease to rise.
I think now the water has reached a level, where the outflow nearly
equals the inflow. I have been watching the wheels of the waggons, and
for the last ten minutes I do not think it has risen above an inch or
two."
"I will get down and watch," Dick said, and he scrambled down to the
water's edge.