Charge! Part 23

"Ugh!" shuddered Denham. "I'd sooner eat hyena."

"Well, no, sir; I won't go as far as that," said the Sergeant.

"As to water," said Denham; "this has been a city at some time, so there must have been wells somewhere, for no river has ever been hereabout in the plain."

"Wells or tanks, no doubt, sir, if we can find them," said the Sergeant; "but I expect we shall find they have been filled up or covered by the stones that have crumbled down from these towers and walls."

"What a place to build a city in, out in the middle of this wide veldt!" I remarked.

"It's more a fort or castle than the ruins of a city," said Denham. "It's a puzzle, and it must be very, very old; but I say bless the people who built the place, for it's a regular haven of refuge for us. Why, we could hold these old walls against the whole Boer army."

"Two of 'em, sir, if we'd got anything to eat."

"And drink," I added.

"Yes," said Denham. "That's the weak point; but there must be a big well somewhere, and we've got to find it."

"I believe the horses would find it, sir, if we led one about-a thirsty one. They're good ones to smell out water when they want it."

"Well, we'll try one if we can't find it without," said Denham. "Come on."

We "came on," searching about in the inside of the place, while the outer works and the rocks were held by our troops; and after carefully examining the enclosure where the horses stood looking rather disconsolate, as they snuffed at the chaotic heaps of broken and crumbling stones, we pa.s.sed through what must have been a gateway built for defence. The sides of this gateway were wonderfully sharp and square, and the peculiarity of the opening was, that it opened at once upon a huge blank wall not above six feet away, completely screening the entrance to the great court, and going off to right and left. So that, instead of going straight on to explore the exterior of the court, we had the choice of proceeding along one of two narrow pa.s.sages open to the sky, but winding away just as if the court had originally been built with two walls for an enemy to batter down before they could reach the centre.

No enemy had battered down these walls, not even the outer one. Time had been at work on the upper part some thirty or forty feet above our heads, where many stones had been loosened and others had fallen; but the greater part of the walls stood just as they had been built by the workmen when the world was much younger, possibly two or three thousand years ago. Had time permitted, I for one should have liked to wander about and climb here and there, and try to build up in imagination a theory as to what race or age the old builders of the place belonged.

"It's a puzzle," said Denham, in answer to a remark of mine; "but they were not of the same race or kind of people as the tribes of n.i.g.g.e.rs who have lived here since, and who have never built anything better than a kraal. But look here, Val; we mustn't stop mooning over old history; we've got to find water for the horses, and there must be some about, for people couldn't have lived here without."

I roused myself at once to my task, and we struck off to the left, walking and climbing over blocks of stone which had dropped in from the outer wall and enc.u.mbered the narrow pa.s.sage, every now and then being saluted by one of the men, who, rifle in hand, was perched on high, watching the Boers, and ready, as Denham put it, to administer a blue pill to any one impudent enough to come too close.

After getting along for about a hundred feet we came to a big opening on our right-a wide gap where the huge stone wall had been broken down by man or through some convulsion of nature, and now forming a rugged slope full of steps, by which our men had mounted on either side of the opening to the top, where, as stated, they had ample s.p.a.ce for moving and shelter from the enemy's bullets.

"What are you looking for?" said one of the troopers from the top. "There's no one here."

"Water," said the Sergeant gruffly.

"Then you'll have to wait till it rains," said the sentry.

"Humph! we shall see about that," said Denham in a low tone, intended for my ears only; and we climbed on over a heap of debris, at the top of which we had a good view outward to where one of the Boer parties had dismounted and were resting their horses before retiring or making another attack.

Upon descending the farther side of the heap of broken stones, there was a continuation of the open pa.s.sage, always about six feet wide, but winding probably in following the course of the rock upon which the place was built, so that we could not at any time look far along the pa.s.sage.

"This doesn't seem like the way to find water," said Denham.

"One never knows," I said. "Let's see where the pa.s.sage leads to."

"Of course; but it seems waste of time. The old city, or temple, or whatever it was, must have been built with two walls for security, and I dare say once upon a time it was covered in so as to form a broad rampart."

"Right!" I said eagerly, and pointed forward. For we had just come in sight, at a bend, of a spot where great stones were laid across from wall to wall; and on pa.s.sing under them we found our way enc.u.mbered beyond by numbers of similar blocks, some of which seemed to have crumbled away in the middle till they broke in two and then dropped.

"Oh yes," said Denham, in reply to a remark, "it's very interesting, of course, but we're not ruin-grubbers. I dare say the place was built in the year 1; and the knowing old codgers who understand these things would tell us that the people who built the place had dolly something, or square heads; but we want to find out which was the market-place where they kept the town-pump."

"And as the pump is most probably worn out," I said laughingly, "we'll be content with the well."

"Oh, if we find the well the pump-handle's sure to be at the bottom, and- Hullo! what have we got here?"

I shared my companion's wonder, for upon rounding a curve of the pa.s.sage we came upon an opening in the great stones of the inner wall-an opening that was wonderfully perfect, being covered in by the cross-stones, which were in place over the pa.s.sage where the doorway showed.

"Dark," I said as I pa.s.sed in. "No; only just here. There's another wall, and quite a narrow pa.s.sage not above three feet wide, and then it's light again."

"Let's look," said Denham. "Stop a minute, though. Don't go in, or you may drop down some hole. Here, I'll strike a light."

The next minute a little match was lighting up the narrow place, with the wall close in front and then a pa.s.sage going off to the right.

"Why, it's like Hampton Court Maze done in stone," said Denham. "But there, what did I say? Look at that hole."

He pitched the remains of the burning match to the right, and it dropped down out of sight, lighting up the narrow way and then going out.

"That's the well, I believe," I said.

"Let well alone," replied Denham. "We don't want to tumble down there.-I say, Briggs, pick up that bit of stone, and reach in and pitch it down."

The sergeant rested his rifle against the wall, picked up a block of stone, and reaching in, threw it to his left so accurately, by good chance, that it must have dropped right in the middle of the opening and gone down clear for some distance before it struck against stone, and then rebounded and struck again, rumbling and rolling down for some distance before it stopped.

"Cheerful sort of place to have gone down," said Denham. "Tell you what; that's the way down to the wine-cellars. The old races were rare people for cultivating the grape and making wine."

"I believe it's the way down to the vaults where they buried their dead," I said.

"Ugh! Horrid," cried my companion. "Here, let's light another match."

He struck one, held it low, and stepped in and then to his right, and stood at the very edge of a hole in the rough floor of crumbled stone. Then, to my horror, the light flashed in the air as if it was being pa.s.sed through it rapidly.

Then Denham spoke.

"It's all right," he said. "You can step across. It's only about three feet over. Wait till I've lit another match. Yes," he said as the light flashed up, "it's just as wide as it is across. I believe that originally the place was quite dark, and this hole was a pitfall for the enemies who attacked. There, come on."

It was easy enough to spring over, and the next minute Briggs followed, and we continued our way down a narrow pa.s.sage whose roof was open to the sky at the end of a couple of dozen yards, so that there was no risk of our stumbling upon a pitfall; and, after pa.s.sing along this pa.s.sage for a time in a curve, we came upon what seemed to be its termination in a doorway, still pretty square, but whose top was so low that we had to stoop to enter a kind of building or room of a peculiar shape, wider at one end than at the other, in which there was a rough erection; while at one corner, some ten yards away, there was another doorway leading, probably, to another pa.s.sage.

"Why, it must be a temple," I said, "and that built-up place was the altar."

"Does look like it," said Denham thoughtfully.

"You gentlemen know best, I dessay," said the Sergeant; "but it strikes me that this here was a palace, and the bit we're in was kitchen."

"Nonsense," said Denham. "It was a temple, and that was the altar."

"Wouldn't want a chimbley to a temple, would they, sir?"

"Chimney?" I said. "Where?"