Charge! Part 10

He pointed away to our right, and, following his direction, I could here and there make out the missing path down the pa.s.s, winding along in rough zigzags till lost in the distance.

I was soon in my saddle again, and Joeboy led the horse off the perilous place where we had pa.s.sed the night, and then up the pa.s.s again for a couple of hundred yards to where the track had borne off a little to the right, but where we had kept on through the mist perfectly straight, with nearly fatal results.

We looked anxiously up now as we turned off into the proper track, fully expecting to see outposts of the Boers who had fired as we crossed the head; but none were visible. So we began to descend as rapidly as we could, but only at a walk, for the track was terribly rough.

It was only very gradually that the valley began to open out, our way at times being along the stony bed of a mountain torrent; while right and left the sides of what looked like a tremendous rift in the mountain, split open in some terrific convulsion of nature, towered up.

We went along cheerily, for every yard carried us farther from risk of capture by the Boers; and once we were well clear of the pa.s.s a couple of days would, I felt sure, place us safely in the land of my countrymen with whom the Boers were at war.

"How soon shall we stop and have breakfast, Joeboy?" I said as we were pa.s.sing through a perfect chaos of great stones which now hemmed us in front and back. "No fear of seeing any Boers now."

The words had hardly left my lips when Sandho stopped short, and uttered a sharp challenging neigh, which was answered from some distance in front; and directly after, as I turned my horse sharply to get under the cover of a huge block we had just pa.s.sed, there came the loud clattering of hoofs and a shout, as a party of some five-and-twenty well-mounted hors.e.m.e.n cantered out to bar the way.

"Then they are there," I muttered as I swung Sandho round again. Joeboy laid his left hand on the saddle, and away we cantered forward to circ.u.mvent, if possible, the party in front whose horse had answered Sandho's challenge.

The men behind yelled to us to stop. We paid no heed, but, regardless of the stones, cantered on, Joeboy taking them at a stride in company with Sandho's bounds.

The next minute I was looking upon fully twenty mounted riflemen right across our path, and a glance right and left showed me that any attempt to get round them would be an act of madness, for no horse could pa.s.s.

I turned in my saddle and looked back, to find that the party there were closing in upon us; and for a moment I felt ready to turn Sandho and go at them at full gallop, so as to try and cut my way through. I saw, however, this would be a greater risk than going in the other direction.

"It's of no use, Joeboy," I said hoa.r.s.ely; "we're trapped."

"Boss Val going to fight?" he said inquiringly, and as he asked his question he fitted his long, elliptical s.h.i.+eld well upon his left arm and arranged his a.s.sagais handy for throwing.

"Two against all those, Joeboy? No; it would be folly."

There was no time for more words, for the party which had remained in hiding till we had pa.s.sed were closing in fast; and then a couple of young men suddenly darted out from those in front, set spurs to their horses, and seemed to race at us, leaping the stones in their way steeplechase fas.h.i.+on.

In almost less time than I take to describe it, one of them, a good-looking, frank young fellow in an officer's uniform, rose in his stirrups and made a s.n.a.t.c.h at my arm; but, in answer to a touch of the heel, Sandho leaped forward, and my would-be captor pa.s.sed me, riding on several horse-lengths before he could turn and come at me again; while, by a quick leap aside, Joeboy avoided the man who came at him, and stood with his back to a great stone, with his a.s.sagai raised to strike.

"Surrender, you Dutch scoundrel!" roared my antagonist, drawing his sword, "or I'll cut you down."

"Dutch scoundrel yourself, you ugly idiot of a Boer!" I cried as angrily, and I brought my rifle to bear upon him, holding it like a pistol.

"Here, don't shoot," cried my adversary. "You don't talk like a Boer."

"Why should I?" said I. "But you're not a Dutchman-are you?"

"Hardly," he said, with a laugh.

"What are you, then?"

"Making a mistake, it seems," he replied.

"But your people are Boers?"

"They're going to beat them," he replied, "as soon as they get a chance. Have you seen them up the Nek yonder?"

"Yes; I was running away from them. They were shooting at us last night."

"Hi; Robsy! Steady there!" roared my new acquaintance. "Steady, I say! Friends.-You, Black Jack, put down that spear, or it'll be the worse for you.-It's all right, sir," he continued as a grey-haired, military-looking man now rode up, followed by half-a-dozen more. "This is an Englishman running away from the Boers."

"Then he's not an Englishman," said the officer sharply. "Here, arrest this man.-Now then, give an account of yourself, for you look confoundedly like a spy. Here, some one, cut that black fellow down if he resists."

"Be quiet, Joeboy," I cried; "these are friends."

Joeboy dropped into a peaceable att.i.tude and stood scowling at the hors.e.m.e.n who surrounded us.

"Now, sir," said the officer, "why don't you speak?"

"Because you called me a spy," I said.

"Well, that seems to be what you are, you young scoundrel. How many of your friends are there up yonder?"

"I don't know," I said.

"Say 'sir' when you speak to a gentleman," cried the officer angrily, "and no nonsense. Speak out-the truth if you don't want to be shot."

"Of course I don't want to be shot," I said scornfully; "and I'm not in the habit of telling lies."

"How many Boers are there, then, up in the pa.s.s?"

"I don't know," I said. "We crept by them in the dark."

"Why? To come and see what forces we had here?"

"No," I said.

"Then why did you come?"

"To get away from the Boers."

"Why did you want to get away from them?" cried the officer, gazing at me searchingly.

I was so hot and indignant that I would not speak for some little time.

"I thought so. Making up a good story-eh? You've caught the first spy, Lieutenant."

"No, sir, I think not," said the young officer.

"I think you have.-Now, sir," he continued, "if you wish to save your skin, speak out. Why did you want to get away from the Boers?"

"Because I was commandoed," I said rather sulkily.

"Oh, then you were afraid to fight-eh?"

"No; but I was not going to fight my own countrymen."