RODD’S LAST CARD
The man led me to Marnham’s room, which I had never entered before. All
I could see at first, for the shutters were closed, was that the place
seemed large, as bedchambers go in South Africa. When my eyes grew
accustomed to the light, I made out the figure of a man seated in a
chair with his head bent forward over a table that was placed at the
foot of the bed almost in the centre of the room. I threw open the
shutters and the morning light poured in. The man was Marnham. On the
table were writing materials, also a brandy bottle with only a dreg of
spirit in it. I looked for the glass and found it by his side on the
floor, shattered, not merely broken.
“Drunk,” I said aloud, whereon the servant, who understood me, spoke
for the first time, saying in a frightened voice in Dutch—
“No, Baas, dead, half cold. I found him so just now.”
I bent down and examined Marnham, also felt his face. Sure enough, he
was dead, for his jaw had fallen; also his flesh was chill, and from
him came a horrible smell of brandy. I thought for a moment, then bade
the boy fetch Dr. Rodd and say nothing to any one else, He went, and
now for the first time I noticed a large envelope addressed “Allan
Quatermain, Esq.” in a somewhat shaky hand. This I picked up and
slipped into my pocket.
Rodd arrived half dressed.
“What’s the matter now?” he growled.
I pointed to Marnham, saying—
“That is a question for you to answer.
“Oh! drunk again, I suppose,” he said. Then he did as I had done, bent
down and examined him. A few seconds later he stepped or reeled back,
looking as frightened as a man could be, and exclaiming—
“Dead as a stone, by God! Dead these three hours or more.”
“Quite so,” I answered, “but what killed him?”
“How should I know?” he asked savagely. “Do you suspect me of poisoning
him?”
“My mind is open,” I replied; “but as you quarrelled so bitterly last
night, others might.”
The bolt went home; he saw his danger.
“Probably the old sot died in a fit, or of too much brandy. How can one
know without a post-mortem? But that mustn’t be made by me. I’m off to
inform the magistrate and get hold of another doctor. Let the body
remain as it is until I return.”
I reflected quickly. Ought I to let him go or not? If he had any hand
in this business, doubtless he intended to escape. Well, supposing this
were so and he did escape, that would be a good thing for Heda, and
really it was no affair of mine to bring the fellow to justice.
Moreover there was nothing to show that he was guilty; his whole manner
seemed to point another way, though of course he might be acting.
“Very well,” I replied, “but return as quickly as possible.”
He stood for a few seconds like a man who is dazed. It occurred to me
that it might have come into his mind with Marnham’s death that he had
lost his hold over Heda. But if so he said nothing of it, but only
asked—
“Will you go instead of me?”
“On the whole I think not,” I replied, “and if I did, the story I
should have to tell might not tend to your advantage.”
“That’s true, damn you!” he exclaimed and left the room.
Ten minutes later he was galloping towards Pilgrim’s Rest. Before I
departed from the death chamber I examined the place carefully to see
if I could find any poison or other deadly thing, but without success.
One thing I did discover, however. Turning the leaf of a blotting-book
that was by Marnham’s elbow, I came upon a sheet of paper on which were
written these words in his hand, “Greater love hath no man than this—”
that was all.
Either he had forgotten the end of the quotation or changed his mind,
or was unable through weakness to finish the sentence. This paper also
I put in my pocket. Bolting the shutters and locking the door I
returned to the stoep, where I was alone, for as yet no one else was
stirring. Then I remembered the letter in my pocket and opened it. It
ran—
“DEAR MR. QUATERMAIN,—
“I have remembered that those who quarrel with Dr. Rodd are apt to
die soon and suddenly; at any rate life at my age is always
uncertain. Therefore, as I know you to be an honest man, I am
enclosing my will that it may be in safe keeping and purpose to
send it to your room to-morrow morning. Perhaps when you return to
Pretoria you will deposit it in the Standard Bank there, and if I
am still alive, forward me the receipt. You will see that I leave
everything to my daughter whom I dearly love, and that there is
enough to keep the wolf from her door, besides my share in this
property, if it is ever realized.
“After all that has passed to-night I do not feel up to writing a
long letter, so
“Remain sincerely yours,
“H. A. MARNHAM.”
“PS.—I should like to state clearly upon paper that my earnest hope and
wish are that Heda may get clear of that black-hearted, murderous,
scoundrel Rodd and marry Mr. Anscombe, whom I like and who, I am sure,
would make her a good husband.”
Thinking to myself this did not look very like the letter of a suicide,
I glanced through the will, as the testator seemed to have wished that
I should do so. It was short, but properly drawn, signed, and
witnessed, and bequeathed a sum of £9,000, which was on deposit at the
Standard Bank, together with all his other property, real and personal,
to Heda for her own sole use, free from the debts and engagements of
her husband, should she marry. Also she was forbidden to spend more
than £1,000 of the capital. In short the money was strictly tied up.
With the will were some other papers that apparently referred to
certain property in Hungary to which Heda might become entitled, but
about these I did not trouble.
Replacing these documents in a safe inner pocket in the lining of my
waistcoat, I went into our room and woke up Anscombe who was sleeping
soundly, a fact that caused an unreasonable irritation in my mind. When
at length he was thoroughly aroused I said to him—
“You are in luck’s way, my friend. Marnham is dead.”
“Oh! poor Heda,” he exclaimed, “she loved him. It will half break her
heart.”
“If it breaks half of her heart,” I replied, “it will mend the other
half, for now her filial affection can’t force her to marry Rodd, and
that is where you are in luck’s way.”
Then I told him all the story.
“Was he murdered or did he commit suicide?” he asked when I had
finished.
“I don’t know, and to tell you the truth I don’t want to know; nor will
you if you are wise, unless knowledge is forced upon you. It is enough
that he is dead, and for his daughter’s sake the less the circumstances
of his end are examined into the better.”
“Poor Heda!” he said again, “who will tell her? I can’t. _You_ found
him, Allan.”
“I expected that job would be my share of the business, Anscombe. Well,
the sooner it is over the better. Now dress yourself and come on to the
stoep.”
Then I left him and next minute met Heda’s fat, half-breed maid, a
stupid but good sort of a woman who was called Kaatje, emerging from
her mistress’s room with a jug, to fetch hot water, I suppose.
“Kaatje,” I said, “go back and tell the Missie Heda that I want to
speak to her as soon as I can. Never mind the hot water, but stop and
help her to dress.”
She began to grumble a little in a good-natured way, but something in
my eye stopped her and she went back into the room. Ten minutes later
Heda was by my side.
“What is it, Mr. Quatermain?” she asked. “I feel sure that something
dreadful has happened.”
“It has, my dear,” I answered, “that is, if death is dreadful. Your
father died last night.”
“Oh!” she said, “oh!” and sank back on to the seat.
“Bear up,” I went on, “we must all die one day, and he had reached the
full age of man.”
“But I loved him,” she moaned. “He had many faults I know, still I
loved him.”
“It is the lot of life, Heda, that we should lose what we love. Be
thankful, therefore, that you have some one left to love.”
“Yes, thank God! that’s true. If it had been him—no, it’s wicked to say
that.”
Then I told her the story, and while I was doing so, Anscombe joined
us, walking by aid of his stick. Also I showed them both Marnham’s
letter to me and the will, but the other bit of paper I did not speak
of or show.
She sat very pale and quiet and listened till I had done. Then she
said—
“I should like to see him.”
“Perhaps it is as well,” I answered. “If you can bear it, come at once,
and do you come also, Anscombe.”
We went to the room, Anscombe and Heda holding each other by the hand.
I unlocked the door and, entering, threw open a shutter. There sat the
dead man as I had left him, only his head had fallen over a little. She
gazed at him, trembling, then advanced and kissed his cold forehead,
muttering,
“Good-bye, father. Oh! good-bye, father.”
A thought struck me, and I asked—
“Is there any place here where your father locked up things? As I have
shown you, you are his heiress, and if so it might be as well in this
house that you should possess yourself of his property.”
“There is a safe in the corner,” she answered, “of which he always kept
the key in his trouser pocket.”
“Then with your leave I will open it in your presence.”
Going to the dead man I searched his pocket and found in it a bunch of
keys. These I withdrew and went to the safe over which a skin rug was
thrown. I unlocked it easily enough. Within were two bags of gold, each
marked £100; also another larger bag marked “My wife’s jewelry. For
Heda”; also some papers and a miniature of the lady whose portrait hung
in the sitting-room; also some loose gold.
“Now who will take charge of these?” I asked. “I do not think it safe
to leave them here.”
“You, of course,” said Anscombe, while Heda nodded.
So with a groan I consigned all these valuables to my capacious
pockets. Then I locked up the empty safe, replaced the keys where I had
found them on Marnham, fastened the shutter and left the room with
Anscombe, waiting for a while outside till Heda joined us, sobbing a
little. After this we got something to eat, insisting on Heda doing the
same.
On leaving the table I saw a curious sight, namely, the patients whom
Rodd was attending in the little hospital of which I have spoken,
departing towards the bush-veld, those of them who could walk well and
the attendants assisting the others. They were already some distance
away, too far indeed for me to follow, as I did not wish to leave the
house. The incident filled me with suspicion, and I went round to the
back to make inquiries, but could find no one. As I passed the hospital
door, however, I heard a voice calling in Sisutu—
“Do not leave me behind, my brothers.”
I entered and saw the man on whom Rodd had operated the day of our
arrival, lying in bed and quite alone. I asked him where the others had
gone. At first he would not answer, but when I pretended to leave him,
called out that it was back to their own country. Finally, to cut the
story short, I extracted from him that they had left because they had
news that the Temple was going to be attacked by Sekukuni and did not
wish to be here when I and Anscombe were killed. How the news reached
him he refused, or could not, say; nor did he seem to know anything of
the death of Marnham. When I pressed him on the former point, he only
groaned and cried for water, for he was in pain and thirsty. I asked
him who had told Sekukuni’s people to kill us, but he refused to speak.
“Very well,” I said, “then you shall lie here alone and die of thirst,”
and again I turned towards the door.
At this he cried out—
“I will tell you. It was the white medicine-man who lives here; he who
cut me open. He arranged it all a few days ago because he hates you.
Last night he rode to tell the impi when to come.”
“When is it to come?” I asked, holding the jug of water towards him.
“To-night at the rising of the moon, so that it may get far away before
the dawn. My people are thirsty for your blood and for that of the
other white chief, because you killed so many of them by the river. The
others they will not harm.”
“How did you learn all this?” I asked him again, but without result,
for he became incoherent and only muttered something about being left
alone because the others could not carry him. So I gave him some water,
after which he fell asleep, or pretended to do so, and I left him,
wondering whether he was delirious, or spoke truth. As I passed the
stables I saw that my own horse was there, for in this district horses
are always shut up at night to keep them from catching sickness, but
that the four beasts that had brought Heda from Natal in the Cape cart
were gone, though it was evident that they had been kraaled here till
within an hour or two. I threw my horse a bundle of forage and returned
to the house by the back entrance. The kitchen was empty, but crouched
by the door of Marnham’s room sat the boy who had found him dead. He
had been attached to his master and seemed half dazed. I asked him
where the other servants were, to which he replied that they had all
run away. Then I asked him where the horses were. He answered that the
Baas Rodd had ordered them to be turned out before he rode off that
morning. I bade him accompany me to the stoep, as I dared not let him
out of my sight, which he did unwillingly enough.
There I found Anscombe and Heda. They were seated side by side upon the
couch. Tears were running down her face and he, looking very troubled,
held her by the hand. Somehow that picture of Heda has always remained
fixed in my mind. Sorrow becomes some women and she was one of them.
Her beautiful dark grey eyes did not grow red with weeping; the tears
just welled up in them and fell like dewdrops from the heart of a
flower.
She sat very upright and very still, as he did, looking straight in
front of her, while a ray of sunshine, falling on her head, showed the
chestnut-hued lights in her waving hair, of which she had a great
abundance.
Indeed the pair of them, thus seated side by side, reminded me of an
engraving I had seen somewhere of the statues of a husband and wife in
an old Egyptian tomb. With just such a look did the woman of thousands
of years ago sit gazing in patient hope into the darkness of the
future. Death had made her sad, but it was gone by, and the little
wistful smile about her lips seemed to suggest that in this darkness
her sorrowful eyes already saw the stirring of the new life to be.
Moreover, was not the man she loved the companion of her hopes as he
had been of her woes. Such was the fanciful thought that sprang up in
my mind, even in the midst of those great anxieties, like a single
flower in a stony wilderness of thorns or one star on the blackness of
the night.
In a moment it had gone and I was telling them of what I had learned.
They listened till I had finished. Then Anscombe said slowly—
“Two of us can’t hold this house against an impi. We must get out of
it.”
“Both your conclusions seem quite sound,” I remarked, “that is if
yonder old Kaffir is telling the truth. But the question is—how? We
can’t all three of us ride on one nag, as you are still a cripple.”
“There is the Cape cart,” suggested Heda.
“Yes, but the horses have been turned out, and I don’t know where to
look for them. Nor dare I send that boy alone, for probably he would
bolt like the others. I think that you had better get on my horse and
ride for it, leaving us to take our chance. I daresay the whole thing
is a lie and that we shall be in no danger,” I added by way of
softening the suggestion.
“That I will never do,” she replied with so much quiet conviction that
I saw it was useless to pursue the argument.
I thought for a moment, as the position was very difficult. The boy was
not to be trusted, and if I went with him I should be leaving these two
alone and, in Anscombe’s state, almost defenceless. Still it seemed as
though I must. Just then I looked up, and there at the garden gate saw
Anscombe’s driver, Footsack, the man whom I had despatched to Pretoria
to fetch his oxen. I noted that he looked frightened and was
breathless, for his eyes started out of his head. Also his hat was gone
and he bled a little from his face.
Seeing us he ran up the path and sat down as though he were tired.
“Where are the oxen?” I asked.
“Oh! Baas,” he answered, “the Basutos have got them. We heard from an
old black woman that Sekukuni had an impi out, so we waited on the top
of that hill about an hour’s ride away to see if it was true. Then
suddenly the doctor Baas appeared riding, and I ran out and asked him
if it were safe to go on. He knew me again and answered—
“‘Yes, quite safe, for have I not just ridden this road without meeting
so much as a black child. Go on, man; your masters will be glad to have
their oxen, as they wish to trek, or will by nightfall.’ Then he
laughed and rode away.
“So we went on, driving the oxen. But when we came to the belt of
thorns at the bottom of the hill, we found that the doctor Baas had
either lied to us or he had not seen. For there suddenly the tall grass
on either side of the path grew spears; yes, everywhere were spears. In
a minute the two voorloopers were assegaied. As for me, I ran forward,
not back, since the Kaffirs were behind me, across the path, Baas,
driving off the oxen. They sprang at me, but I jumped this way and that
way and avoided them. Then they threw assegais—see, one of them cut my
cheek, but the rest missed. They had guns in their hands also, but none
shot. I think they did not wish to make a noise. Only one of them
shouted after me—
“‘Tell Macumazahn that we are going to call on him tonight when he
cannot see to shoot. We have a message for him from our brothers whom
he killed at the drift of the Oliphant’s River.’
“Then I ran on here without stopping, but I saw no more Kaffirs. That
is all, Baas.”
Now I did not delay to cross-examine the man or to sift the true from
the false in his story, since it was clear to me that he had run into a
company of Basutos, or rather been beguiled thereto by Rodd, and lost
our cattle, also his companions, who were either killed as he said, or
had escaped some other way.
“Listen, man,” I said. “I am going to fetch some horses. Do you stay
here and help the Missie to pack the cart and make the harness ready.
If you disobey me or run away, then I will find you and you will never
run again. Do you understand?”
He vowed that he did and went to get some water, while I explained
everything to Anscombe and Heda, pointing out that all the information
we could gather seemed to show that no attack was to be made upon the
house before nightfall, and that therefore we had the day before us. As
this was so I proposed to go to look for the horses myself, since
otherwise I was sure we should never find them. Meanwhile Heda must
pack and make ready the cart with the help of Footsack, Anscombe
superintending everything, as he could very well do since he was now
able to walk leaning on a stick.
Of course neither of them liked my leaving them, but in view of our
necessities they raised no objection. So off I went, taking the boy
with me. He did not want to go, being, as I have said, half dazed with
grief or fear, or both, but when I had pointed out to him clearly that
I was quite prepared to shoot him if he played tricks, he changed his
mind. Having saddled my mare that was now fresh and fat, we started,
the boy guiding me to a certain kloof at the foot of which there was a
small plain of good grass where he said the horses were accustomed to
graze.
Here sure enough we found two of them, and as they had been turned out
with their headstalls on, were able to tie them to trees with the riems
which were attached to the headstalls. But the others were not there,
and as two horses could not drag a heavy Cape cart, I was obliged to
continue the search. Oh! what a hunt those beasts gave me. Finding
themselves free, for as Rodd’s object was that they should stray, he
had ordered the stable-boy not to kneel-halter them, after filling
themselves with grass they had started off for the farm where they were
bred, which, it seemed, was about fifty miles away, grazing as they
went. Of course I did not know this at the time, so for several hours I
rode up and down the neighbouring kloofs, as the ground was too hard
for me to hope to follow them by their spoor.
It occurred to me to ask the boy where the horses came from, a question
that he happened to be able to answer, as he had brought them home when
they were bought the year before. Having learned in what direction the
place lay I rode for it at an angle, or rather for the path that led to
it, making the boy run alongside, holding to my stirrup leather. About
three o’clock in the afternoon I struck this path, or rather track, at
a point ten or twelve miles away from the Temple, and there, just
mounting a rise, met the two horses quietly walking towards me. Had I
been a quarter of an hour later they would have passed and vanished
into a sea of thorn-veld. We caught them without trouble and once more
headed homewards, leading them by their riems.
Reaching the glade where the other two were tied up, we collected them
also and returned to the house, where we arrived at five o’clock. As
everything seemed quiet I put my mare into the stable, slipped its bit
and gave it some forage. Then I went round the house, and to my great
joy found Anscombe and Heda waiting anxiously, but with nothing to
report, and with them Footsack. Very hastily I swallowed some food,
while Footsack inspanned the horses. In a quarter of an hour all was
ready. Then suddenly, in an inconsequent female fashion, Heda developed
a dislike to leaving her father unburied.
“My dear young lady,” I said, “it seems that you must choose between
that and our all stopping to be buried with him.”
She saw the point and compromised upon paying him a visit of farewell,
which I left her to do in Anscombe’s company, while I fetched my mare.
To tell the truth I felt as though I had seen enough of the unhappy
Marnham, and not for £50 would I have entered that room again. As I
passed the door of the hospital, leading my horse, I heard the old
Kaffir screaming within and sent the boy who was with me to find out
what was the matter with him. That was the last I saw of either of
them, or ever shall see this side of kingdom come. I wonder what became
of them?
When I got back to the front of the house I found the cart standing
ready at the gate, Footsack at the head of the horses and Heda with
Anscombe at her side. It had been neatly packed during the day by Heda
with such of her and our belongings as it would hold, including our
arms and ammunition. The rest, of course, we were obliged to abandon.
Also there were two baskets full of food, some bottles of brandy and a
good supply of overcoats and wraps. I told Footsack to take the reins,
as I knew him to be a good driver, and helped Anscombe to a seat at his
side, while Heda and the maid Kaatje got in behind in order to balance
the vehicle. I determined to ride, at any rate for the present.
“Which way, Baas?” asked Footsack.
“Down to the Granite Stream where the wagon stands,” I answered.
“That will be through the Yellow-wood Swamp. Can’t we take the other
road to Pilgrim’s Rest and Lydenburg, or to Barberton?” asked Anscombe
in a vague way, and as I thought, rather nervously.
“No,” I answered, “that is unless you wish to meet those Basutos who
stole the oxen and Dr. Rodd returning, if he means to return.”
“Oh! let us go through the Yellow-wood,” exclaimed Heda, who, I think,
would rather have met the devil than Dr. Rodd.
Ah! if I had but known that we were heading straight for that person,
sooner would I have faced the Basutos twice over. But I did what seemed
wisest, thinking that he would be sure to return with another doctor or
a magistrate by the shorter and easier path which he had followed in
the morning. It just shows once more how useless are all our care and
foresight, or how strong is Fate, have it which way you will.
So we started down the slope, and I, riding behind, noted poor Heda
staring at the marble house, which grew ever more beautiful as it
receded and the roughness of its building disappeared, especially at
that part of it which hid the body of her old scamp of a father whom
still she loved. We came down to the glen and once more saw the bones
of the blue wildebeeste that we had shot—oh! years and years ago, or so
it seemed. Then we struck out for the Granite Stream.
Before we reached the patch of Yellow-wood forest where I knew that the
cart must travel very slowly because of the trees and the swampy nature
of the ground, I pushed on ahead to reconnoitre, fearing lest there
might be Basutos hidden in this cover. Riding straight through it I
went as far as the deserted wagon at a sharp canter, seeing nothing and
no one. Once indeed, towards the end of the wood where it was more
dense, I thought that I heard a man cough and peered about me through
the gloom, for here the rays of the sun, which was getting low in the
heavens, scarcely penetrated. As I could perceive no one I came to the
conclusion that I must have been deceived by my fancy. Or perhaps it
was some baboon that coughed, though it was strange that a baboon
should have come to such a low-lying spot where there was nothing for
it to eat.
The place was eerie, so much so that I bethought me of tales of the
ghosts whereby it was supposed to be haunted. Also, oddly enough, of
Anscombe’s presentiment which he had fulfilled by killing a Basuto.
Look! There lay his grinning skull with some patches of hair still on
it, dragged away from the rest of the bones by a hyena. I cantered on
down the slope beyond the wood and through the scattered thorns to the
stream on the banks of which the wagon should be. It had gone, and by
the freshness of the trail, within an hour or two. A moment’s
reflection told me what had happened. Having stolen our oxen the
Basutos drove them to the wagon, inspanned them and departed with their
loot. On the whole I was glad to see this, since it suggested that they
had retired towards their own country, leaving our road open.
Turning my horse I rode back again to meet the cart. As I reached the
edge of the wood at the top of the slope I heard a whistle blown, a
very shrill whistle, of which the sound would travel for a mile or two
on that still air. Also I heard the sound of men’s voices in
altercation and caught words, such as—“Let go, or by Heaven—!” then a
furious laugh and other words which seemed to be—“In five minutes the
Kaffirs will be here. In ten you will be dead. Can I help it if they
kill you after I have warned you to turn back?” Then a woman’s scream.
Rodd’s voice, Anscombe’s voice and Kaatje’s scream—not Heda’s but
Kaatje’s!
Then as I rode furiously round the last patch of intervening trees the
sound of a pistol shot. I was out of them now and saw everything. There
was the cart on the further side of a swamp. The horses were standing
still and snorting. Holding the rein of one of the leaders was Rodd,
whose horse also stood close by. He was rocking on his feet and as I
leapt from my mare and ran up, I saw his face. It was horrible, full of
pain and devilish rage. With his disengaged hand he pointed to Anscombe
sitting in the cart and grasping a pistol that still smoked.
“You’ve killed me,” he said in a hoarse, choking voice, for he was shot
through the lung, “to get her,” and he waved his hand towards Heda who
was peering at him between the heads of the two men. “You are a
murderer, as her father was, and as David was before you. Well, I hope
you won’t keep her long. I hope you’ll die as I do and break her false
heart, you damned thief.”
All of this he said in a slow voice, pausing between the words and
speaking ever more thickly as the blood from his wound choked him. Then
of a sudden it burst in a stream from his lips, and still pointing with
an accusing finger at Anscombe, he fell backwards into the slimy pool
behind him and there vanished without a struggle.
So horrible was the sight that the driver, Footsack, leapt from the
cart, uttering a kind of low howl, ran to Rodd’s horse, scrambled into
the saddle and galloped off, striking it with his fist, where to I do
not know. Anscombe put his hand before his eyes, Heda sank down on the
seat in a heap, and the coloured woman, Kaatje, beat her breast and
said something in Dutch about being accursed or bewitched. Luckily I
kept my wits and went to the horses’ heads, fearing lest they should
start and drag the trap into the pool. “Wake up,” I said. “That fellow
has only got what he deserved, and you were quite right to shoot him.”
“I am glad you think so,” answered Anscombe absently. “It was so like
murder. Don’t you remember I told you I should kill a man in this place
and about a woman?”
“I remember nothing,” I answered boldly, “except that if we stop here
much longer we shall have those Basutos on us. That brute was whistling
to them and holding the horses till they came to kill us. Pull yourself
together, take the reins and follow me.”
He obeyed, being a skilful whip enough who, as he informed me
afterwards, had been accustomed to drive a four-in-hand at home.
Mounting my horse, which stood by, I guided the cart out of the wood
and down the slope beyond, till at length we came to our old outspan
where I proposed to turn on to the wagon track which ran to Pilgrim’s
Rest. I say proposed, for when I looked up it I perceived about five
hundred yards away a number of armed Basutos running towards us, the
red light of the sunset shining on their spears. Evidently the scout or
spy to whom Rodd whistled, had called them out of their ambush which
they had set for us on the Pilgrim’s Rest road in order that they might
catch us if we tried to escape that way.
Now there was only one thing to be done. At this spot a native track
ran across the little stream and up a steepish slope beyond. On the
first occasion of our outspanning here I had the curiosity to mount
this slope, reflecting as I did so that although rough it would be
quite practicable for a wagon. At the top of it I found a wide flat
plain, almost high-veld, for the bushes were very few, across which the
track ran on. On subsequent inquiry I discovered that it was one used
by the Swazis and other natives when they made their raids upon the
Basutos, or when bodies of them went to work in the mines.
“Follow me,” I shouted and crossed the stream which was shallow between
the little pools, then led the way up the stony slope. The four horses
negotiated it very well and the Cape cart, being splendidly built, took
no harm. At the top I looked back and saw that the Basutos were
following us.
“Flog the horses!” I cried to Anscombe, and off we went at a hand
gallop along the native track, the cart swaying and bumping upon the
rough veld. The sun was setting now, in half an hour it would be quite
dark.
Could we keep ahead of them for that half hour?