Charge! Part 7

"Wait a bit," he said, nodding his head, and then carefully replacing what I had left in the satchel.

"Fasten that to the back of my saddle," I said.

"Um! Joeboy carry."

"No, no," I replied. "We must part now, Joeboy. I can't go back home, nor stay here."

Joeboy shook his head.

"No stop," he said. "All bad."

"You don't understand," I said.

"Um!" he said, nodding. "Joeboy know. Boss Val fight Boers."

"Perhaps; but you must go back and help my father if he has to leave the farm."

There was another shake of the head and a frown; then a silence, during which the great black seemed to be thinking out what he was to say in English to make his meaning clear. At last it came as he sat there with his s.h.i.+eld on one side, his a.s.sagais on the other; and, to my surprise, he took up the big stabbing weapon and one of the light throwing-shafts before touching me on the chest with a finger.

"Boss John big boss," he said solemnly. "Boss Val little boss;" and he held up the two spears to ill.u.s.trate his words. "Big boss say, 'Go 'long my boy.' Little boss say, 'Go 'long my dad.' Joeboy say, 'Don't car'; shan't go. Got to go 'long Boss Val.'"

"My father told you this?"

"Um!" said the great fellow; "dat's all right."

"But you would be so much use to my father, Joe, to manage the bullocks in the wagon."

"No," he said. "No bullock. Boer boy take 'em all away. Boss John no got nothing soon."

"You are sure my father said you were to go with me, Joeboy?" I said after a few minutes' pause.

"Um," he said, nodding his head fiercely. "Say, 'Take care my boy, Joeboy.' Joeboy take care Boss Val."

He caught up his s.h.i.+eld and sprang to his feet, with the a.s.sagais trembling in his big hand, looking as if he could be a terrible adversary in a close conflict, though helpless against modern weapons of war.

This thought made me think of myself and my own position.

"Very well, Joeboy. I say you shall come with me."

He nodded.

"But you'll have to lend me one of your a.s.sagais till I can get a rifle."

"Boss Val got rifle gun," he said sharply.

"Where? No; I have only my knife."

Joeboy laughed, and ran to the side of the rift, where he began to scratch in the sand, and a few inches down laid bare the muzzle of my rifle, gave it a tug, and it came out with the well-filled bandolier attached.

I caught at it with a cry of eager joy, and began to carefully dust away every particle of sand that clung to it before slipping on the belt, forgetting the aching pains in my wrists and left leg, as something like a glow of confidence ran through me. Then came back the thought of home, with its smiling fields, orchard, and garden around the house we had raised upon the land won from the wilderness; and the thought that I was to be exiled from it all in consequence of this war; and the injustice of the Boers raised a spirit of anger against them which helped me to pull myself together and frowningly resolve to prove myself a man.

"Action, action," I muttered. "I should have liked to go back and see them all again; but I must begin at once, before I am taken. What would they do with me?" I said aloud; and a glance at Joeboy's face showed me that, awkward though he was at speaking, he comprehended every word I had said.

"Big Boss Boer," he said, nodding, "say Boss Val come fight. No Boss Val fight? Whish, whish, whish, crack, cruck!"

He went through the movement of one wielding a bullock-lash, and imitated the sound it made through the air and the loud cracking when it struck home upon quivering flesh. Then he went on, "Boss Val no fight now! Bang, bang!"

"Flog me the first time I refuse, Joeboy, and shoot me the next time."

"Um."

"Well, then, we will not give them the chance."

Joeboy shook his head violently.

"What Joeboy do now, Boss?"

"Rub my wrists, Joeboy," I said, stripping up my sleeves and showing him their bruised state and my swollen arms.

He understood why they were so, and took first one and then the other in his big soft grey palms, to mould and knead and rub them with untiring patience for long enough, the effect being pleasurable in the extreme.

But I checked him when he was in the midst of it, and pointed to my leg.

"Boer tie up leg?" he said wonderingly.

I explained what was wrong, and he knelt before me, carefully removing my laced-up boot, and giving me sickening pain as he drew off my coa.r.s.e home-knitted stocking, to lay bare the wrenched and swollen foot and ankle.

"Um!" he said. "Boss Val come to water."

He lifted me to the edge of the stream as easily as if I had been a child, and when I sat down, carefully bathed the joint for fully half-an-hour, dried it by pouring sand over it again and again, and then as tenderly as a woman replaced stocking and boot, which latter he laced very loosely.

"Boss Val go one leg when off Sandho."

"Yes, Joeboy," I said; "but it will soon get better."

"Um!" he said, and he looked at me inquiringly, as if for orders.

"Now we must be off, Joeboy, before the Boers hunt me out."

"Um!" he said, in token of a.s.sent; and upon my calling Sandho to my side Joeboy helped me to mount, securing the satchel to my saddle in obedience to my orders; and, making for Echo Nek, we went steadily on, my intention being to get through the pa.s.s and some distance on the other side towards the Natal border before dark.

"We shall know the road better there, Joeboy," I said after we had been walking some time; "it all seems strange to me here."

"Joeboy know," he said.

"What! the way about here?" I said, in surprise. "When did you come?"

"Long while," he replied. "Lost bullock. Come here."