Renshaw Fanning's Quest Part 28

"I say, Fanning," came the voice from overhead again. "Hang it, man, say you agree."

"Never," now replied Renshaw, speaking coldly and deliberately. "I have never been a grasping man, and I defy my worst enemy to charge me with a single instance of taking advantage of anybody. But--I have always tried to be a man of principle--to act on principle. And in utterly refusing to play up to your villainous hand I am following out that line consistently. And now, Maurice Sellon, I will just add this. I am alone in the world, and having no ties my life is to that extent my own.

I will let it be sacrificed rather than violate a principle. But you, from the hour you leave this place, you will never know a moment's peace, never for a moment will the recollection of what you have done to-day cease to haunt you. Here from my living tomb I can afford to pity you."

Again there was silence. But there was an awfulness about those parting words, the more forcible that they were spoken without heat or anger--a solemnity which could not but live in the recollection of him to whom they were addressed. How did they strike him now?

Suddenly something shot out into the air from above, falling with a 'thwack' against the face of the cliff. It was the raw-hide rope.

Renshaw merely looked at it. The end trailed at his feet. Yet he put forward no hand to seize it.

"Come on, old chap," sung out Sellon in his heartiest manner. "Why, I've only been playing off a practical joke on you--just to see how 'grit' you are. And you are 'grit' and no mistake."

But Renshaw shook his head with a bitter smile. Still he made no move forward.

"Do you want to finish me off more quickly than at first?" he said. "I suppose the line will be cut by the time I'm half-way up."

"No. I swear it won't," called out the other. "Man alive, can't you take a little chaff? I tell you I've only been humbugging you all along."

Renshaw did not believe a word of this. But as he stood there the whole truth of the matter seemed to flash upon him. Sellon had been beset by a terrible temptation, and had yielded--for the moment. Then his better instincts had come uppermost, and this was the result.

Still, as he seized the rope, and having tested it, started on his climb, he more than half expected every moment of that climb to be his last. Then as he rose above the brink Sellon put out his hand to help him. This, however, he ignored, and drew himself up unaided.

"What a game chap you are, Fanning," began Sellon, trying to laugh. But the other turned to him, and there was that in the look which cut him short.

"I only wish I could believe in your 'practical joke' theory, Sellon,"

said Renshaw, and his tones were very cold and stern. "But I can't, and I tell you so straight. Do you know that for the bare attempt at the hideous treachery you proposed just now you would be lynched without mercy, in any mining camp in the world. Wait--let me say it out. I have shared my secret with you, and have given you wealth, and even now I will not go back on our bargain--share and share alike. But there is one condition which I must exact."

"And what's that?" asked Sellon, shortly, not at all relis.h.i.+ng the other's way of looking at things.

"I trusted you as fully as any man ever was trusted. I thought the large diamond was as safe in your possession as in my own. I left it in your possession, thereby placing temptation in your way. Now I must insist on taking charge of it myself."

"Oh, that's another pair of shoes. Possession, you know--nine points-- eh?" answered Maurice, defiantly.

"Why, the very fact of your hesitating a moment proves what your intentions were, and are," said Renshaw, speaking rather more quickly, for even he was fast reaching the limits of patience. "I must ask you to hand it over."

"And suppose I decline?"

"One of us two will not leave this place alive."

Sellon started. Well he might. There was a look upon the other's face which he had never seen there before. Accustomed as he was to trade upon his friend's good nature, he could hardly believe him in earnest now. He had felt a real liking for Renshaw, sincere, but dashed with a touch of superiority. A fine fellow in many ways, but soft in others, had been his verdict. And now this man was actually dictating terms to him. Even then, however, some faint stirrings of his better impulses moved Sellon, but greed of gain, selfishness, self-importance, came uppermost.

"I'm not the sort of man to be bullied into anything," he answered.

They stood there facing each other--there on the brink of that marvellous treasure house--on the brink, too, of a deadly quarrel over the riches which it had yielded them. To the generous mind of one there was something infinitely repulsive--degrading--in the idea of quarrelling over this question of gain. But in this instance it was to him a question of self-respect, and therefore of principle. How was it going to end?

They stood there facing each other; the countenance of one set and determined, that of the other sullen, defiant, dogged. How was it going to end?

Suddenly an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n escaped Sellon, and the expression of his face changed to one of vivid alarm.

"Oh, good G.o.d!" he cried. "Here they come! Look! look!" and, turning at the same time, he started off up the hill towards where the horses were standing, fortunately ready saddled.

Renshaw, suspecting a new trick, sent a quick glance backward over his shoulder. But the other had spoken truly.

Swarming over the opposite brow of the mountain, came a crowd of uncouth shapes. Baboons? No.

Ape-like, it was true, but--human.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

THE "SCHELM BUSHMEN."

No further thought of their quarrel now. That must be put aside in the face of the common enemy.

They had several hundred yards of stiff uphill work before they could reach the horses. The savages were still nearly a mile distant, but above, and running on the level. It would be a near race.

As soon as they perceived that their approach was discovered the barbarians set up a shrill yell, and redoubled their efforts to arrive in time to cut off our two adventurers from their horses. It became a stirring race for life.

Up the steep mountain-side they pressed. Renshaw, being in hard training, easily took the lead. The other began to pant and blow in most distressful fas.h.i.+on almost before he was half way.

"Keep up, Sellon. Put on a spurt, if you can," said Renshaw, dropping on one knee and taking aim at the onrus.h.i.+ng crowd.

The weapon cracked. It was a long shot, but he had fired "into the brown." There was a splash of dust, just short of the mob. Then the savages scattered, leaping and bounding like bucks. One could be seen crawling on the sward, evidently badly wounded by the ball in its ricochet.

But the check was only momentary. On pressed the pursuers, now in more scattered formation, zigzagging along the rocks at the base of the c.o.c.k's-comb ridge, nearer, nearer. They were a hideous group--some squat and monkey-like, others long and gaunt--grotesque mud-coloured figures, their ragged wool and staring, horn-like ears given them the aspect of so many mediaevally depicted fiends. They were armed with a.s.segais and bows. Already many of them were fitting arrows to the string.

Sellon, hardly able to put one foot before the other, had reached his horse. Staggering with exhaustion, he just managed to throw himself into the saddle. But he had completely lost his head.

"Down the gully, Sellon--it's our only chance--but it's neck or nothing.

Follow my lead--and--keep your head."

It crossed Renshaw's mind to deliver another shot. But it would only be precious time lost. There were at least fifty of their a.s.sailants. One shot, however fatal, would not stop them, and it was of the first importance to keep beyond range of the poisoned arrows.

Rugged as the gully had seemed in ascending, it was a tenfold more formidable business now. It was like riding down a flight of stairs, with the difference that here the evenness of the stairs was lacking.

Large boulders and small ones, sharp stones and smooth stones, loose stones and rubble--all had to be got over somehow. And then, that awful precipice at the bottom!

And now the cliffs resounded with the shrill yells of the pursuers.

They had reached the head of the gully, and, dropping from rock to rock with the agility of monkeys, were gaining on the two white men.

Renshaw, turning warily in his saddle, while still keeping an eye on the guidance of his steed, got in one revolver shot at a gaunt Koranna, who had sprung to the top of a boulder, and was on the point of launching a spear. The fellow threw up his arms and toppled backwards, but not before he had hurled his weapon, which, inflicting a flesh wound on Sellon's horse, caused the animal to squeal and bound forward.

Perfectly unmanageable, frenzied with pain and terror, the horse shot past Renshaw, his rider vainly endeavouring to restrain him. One stride--two--three--the horse was among the loose rubble on the cliffs brow. There was a prodigious plunging of hoofs--a cloud of dust and gravel--a slide--a frantic struggle--then with a scream, which even at that stirring moment curdled the listeners' blood, the poor steed disappeared into s.p.a.ce--while his rider, who, in the very nick of time, had slipped to the ground, stood bewildered and pale at the thought of the frightful danger he had escaped.

But there was peril enough behind to allow no time for thought. The barbarians, profiting by the moment's confusion, came swarming down the rocks, yelling and hissing like fiends. A shower of a.s.segais and arrows came whizzing about the ears of the fugitives.

The latter, in about three bounds, had cleared the fearful "elbow"

overhanging the abyss, and which they had crossed so circ.u.mspectly in cold blood the previous day. Rounding it safely, they had gained one advantage; they were out of arrow range for the moment.