Charge! Part 6

Still the grotesque dance went on, yet I felt pretty safe, for I was fully fifty yards distant, and had often proved Sandho in encounters with wild beasts; so I had no doubt of getting away in time when the savage made his rush which was certainly coming, as I saw the lithe actor was gradually working himself up to a sufficient pitch of excitement. His eyes were rolling, his powerful black limbs shone, and he darted here and there, leaping in the air to deliver some thrust with greater effect, and generally carrying on in a way that would have made me burst into a hearty fit of contemptuous laughter at the childish exhibition, evidently meant to impress me with the fellow's great bravery, had there not been, as I well knew, so terribly bloodthirsty an element beneath it all.

"There, Sandho," I said softly as I leaned forward to stroke my horse's soft arching neck, "I think we've had enough of the idiot's nonsense, and we'll go."

I was in the act of saying these words, keenly watching all round for danger, as well as beyond the bounding black in the full expectation of catching sight at any moment of the plumed heads of a party of his companions rising above the ridge, when, as if in a final effort or an attempt at a climax to the weirdly absurd performance, the black warrior proceeded to finish off with the slaying of about a dozen invisible enemies around him. Bang went his stabbing a.s.sagai against his s.h.i.+eld, and then stab, stab, stab, when he turned upon his feet as if upon a pivot, darting his weapon as if he were some fierce creature armed with a terrible sting. I seemed to see in imagination an enemy go down at every thrust; a strange thrill of horror ran through me, and an awful kind of fascination held me seated there on my horse, as the black warrior stabbed away till his back was completely turned to me and he delivered a tremendous thrust, uttering a horrible yell. Then I burst out into a hysterical peal of laughter, and nearly fell out of the saddle.

Why? Because never was anything more absurd. The warrior's face was averted, and the long elliptically-shaped s.h.i.+eld no longer covered the greater part of his person; and though I had failed in recognition before, I knew him now by the tremendously cut-down trousers he wore.

"Go on, Sandho," I said, and my horse walked gently forward, while the actor gave three or four more thrusts to kill the rest of the dozen invisible enemies, bringing himself face to face with me; and after leaping high in the air, uttering a triumphant yell, he grinned at me from ear to ear, as he breathlessly cried:

"'At's a way kill um all, Boss Val."

For it was Joeboy on the war-path, ready in his own opinion to slay all the Boers in the state.

Chapter Nine.

The Friend In Need.

"Why, Joeboy," I cried, wiping my eyes, "you're splendid. But where's Echo Nek?"

"Dah!" he said, pointing behind him with the dangerous-looking a.s.sagai he carried.

"Did you see me coming?"

He nodded, it being one of his habits to say as little in English as he could.

"Tell me: have you got anything to eat?" I said. "I'm starving."

He darted back to the other side of the ridge, and came back with the strap of a big canvas satchel over his shoulder, the bag-part looking bulky in the extreme.

"Um Tant Jenny," he said, frowning, as he shook the satchel, and then proceeded to sc.r.a.pe off with the blade of his stabbing-a.s.sagai the large ants which had scented the contents and were swarming to the attack. "Is there any water near?" I asked.

"Um," said Joeboy, pointing towards the other side of the ridge.

"Then there will be gra.s.s too," I said. "Go on, and show the way. Quick!"

The great black nodded and went off at a trot, taking me over the ridge and down a steep slope into a large gap in the side of the hill; and a quarter of an hour later we were alongside a bubbling stream, where long, rich, juicy gra.s.s grew in abundance.

Directly after Sandho was grazing contentedly; and when I had drunk from the pure fresh water, I was devouring rather than eating the magnified salt-beef sandwiches of which the satchel contained ample store, while Joeboy grinned to see the way in which one disappeared.

"Catch hold," I said, pus.h.i.+ng a great sandwich towards my black companion; but he shook his head and shrank away.

"Tant Jenny say all young Boss Val," he said, and then he laughed and displayed a large packet carefully fastened to the inside of his s.h.i.+eld. This packet he opened, took out a sandwich similar to mine, then squatted down and began to eat.

"Joeboy had plenty yes'day," he said, and he gave his front a circular rub as if to suggest that it was still fairly stored, after which he went on munching slowly as if to keep me company.

"Now," I said after eating a few mouthfuls, "what did my father say?"

"Big Boss say Joeboy go Echo Nek. Stop till son Val come."

"Is that all?" I said wonderingly.

"Yes; all Boss say."

As he spoke, however, Joeboy laid his sandwich upon the s.h.i.+eld beside him, and then began to fumble behind him in the band of his cut-down trousers, out of a leopard-skin pocket attached to which he drew a packet of common leather tied up with a slip of the same.

I opened the leather packet with trembling fingers, and found a letter, which I eagerly read:

"Dear Val,-I take it for granted, my boy, that you will escape from those ruffians and be lying in wait for my message. I find, though, that Joeboy is missing, and if he does not return I shall have to come and meet you myself, and then I can tell you what to do. I will, however, write this in the hope that I can send it, as I do not want to leave your aunt and Bob, for there is much to do, burying and hiding a few valuables in case we are ever able to come back."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, and Joeboy half-sprang to his feet, but subsided as I went on:

"War has broken out, the Boers having defied the British Government. It has, of course, all been a surprise to me; but the news is coming in fast. Hodson has been here, and he tells me the English are all receiving orders to go. It is ruin to us, and after making such a home; but, G.o.d help us! we must do our best.

"Of course you cannot serve against your own countrymen, and I don't like your having anything to do with the horrible business; but if you feel that you must join in with our people and act as a volunteer against what is a cruel tyranny, I know you will act like a man.

"I can write no more, and Heaven knows when we may meet again. I shall make for Natal, of course, with as much as I can save out of the wreck-that is, as much as the enemy will let me carry off. Perhaps, though, that will be nothing; and I must be content with getting away with our lives, for I hear that the blacks are getting uneasy, as if they smelt blood; and Heaven knows what may happen if they break out, for the white man is their natural enemy in their eyes, and, friends now, they may be our foes to-morrow.

"G.o.d bless and protect you, my boy! Aunt Jenny's dear love to you, and she is going to help me to hold Bob in, for the young dog is mad to come after you.

"Your father, in the dear old home he is about to quit, perhaps for ever.

"John Moray.

"PS:-Good news, my boy. Joeboy has just come back, in full fighting fig. He will bring this, and some provision for a day or two. I feel sure you may trust him. He has been showing me what he would do to any one who tried to hurt young Boss Val. He is like a big child; but he is true as steel. Good-bye.

"Heaven be with you, my boy!"

That last line was in Aunt Jenny's handwriting, and there were big blotches on the paper where the ink had run, and over them came a few lines in Bob's clumsy hand:

"Val, old chap, the dad says I'm not to come along with Joeboy to join. I told him it was a shame, for I felt in a pa.s.sion, and he knocked me down.

"That's only my larks. He did knock me down, but not with his fist or the handle of a- I don't know how you spell it; but I mean chambock. He knocked me over with what he said. He told me it was my duty to stop and help him and auntie. He might want me to fight for him and her. If he does, I'll shove in two cartridges-I mean only one bullet; and I don't care if the old rifle kicks till she breaks my collar-bone. I mean to let the Boers have it for coming and upsetting us. I never knew how nice dear old home was before. Old-"

That was the bottom of the paper; but upon turning it over, there at the very top on the other side, and in the left-hand corner above the word "Val," where my father had begun, was the word "Beasts," which I had pa.s.sed over unnoticed as being part of some memorandum on the paper when my father took it up hurriedly to write.

I always was a weak, emotional sort of fellow-perhaps it was due to the climate, and my having had the fever when we first came there-and the writing looked very dim and blurry before my eyes; and yet I felt inclined to laugh over what Bob had scribbled. I did laugh when my eyes grew clear again, for Bob had, apparently at the last, taken up the pen to write along the edge of the paper, and so badly that it was hard to read:

"I say, Joeboy looks fizzing. He's been oiling himself over to make him go easy, and sharpening his saygays with the scythe-rubber."

"And so there's to be no more home," I said softly as I carefully folded up the paper and placed it in my breast. Then somehow the terrible feeling of hunger died out, and I only drank some more water.

"Boss Val eat lot," said Joeboy, his voice making me start.

"No more, now, Joeboy," I said. "I'll wait a bit."