Charge! Part 9

"Um! Plenty sleep," replied Joeboy. "Now ready? Come 'long."

"Yes, I'm ready," I said eagerly; "but tell me, have you been up towards the pa.s.s?"

"Um!" he said. "Plenty Boer. All dark."

"Do you think we can get through?"

"Um. Mustn't talk."

He led Sandho forward, and went down on one knee to unfasten the strap with which the horse was hobbled; then he offered me a leg up, and so enabled me to spring into the saddle without much difficulty. The next minute he was leading the horse in and out among the rocks, Sandho's hoofs striking a stone with a sharp click; after which he checked the active little animal, and we stood together listening. But all was still, and the night looked as if a black cloud had been drawn across the sky.

"n.o.body can possibly see us," I said half-aloud; "and if they do they'll think it some of their own people."

"Um!" said Joeboy, and as he said it I knew I was wrong, for I recalled what I had read, that in time of war sentries challenge, and, failing to receive the pa.s.sword of the night, fire at once. It was a startling thought; but we went on all the same, I for my part feeling I must trust to my good-luck.

As we got farther in towards the mountains the obscurity increased and the air grew cooler. I now began to feel how impossible it would have been for me to have come alone and found my way in the darkness, for in a few minutes I was quite helpless; but Joeboy seemed in nowise confused, and did not hesitate once. It was as much as I could do to make out his black head and shoulders, and only at times found that the nodding ostrich-plumes were bobbing about just in front of me, as their wearer walked steadily on, holding my horse's head. So we went on for nearly an hour, with Joeboy leading Sandho in and out among the great blocks of stone which strewed our way, keeping him where the sand was soft by getting well in front, so that the horse's steps were pretty nearly in his own. I could make out that we were gradually rising, and that the rocks towered up to a great height left and right; but though I rode with every sense upon the strain, I could neither hear nor see sign of the enemy.

Fortunately the night was cloudy, and I knew it would be long before the waning moon rose-not, I hoped, till we had been right through the pa.s.s. In fact, as we went steadily on without interruption, I began to believe the Boer I had seen must have been one of a small outpost placed there for observation during the daylight, and that they must have retired at dusk, while I was asleep; for I thought we must now be pretty well through the highest part of the opening, and had there been any one there I must have heard a challenge.

I was just about to whisper my opinion to Joeboy when he stopped our progress and stood holding the horse's head tightly, showing me something was wrong. I raised myself in the stirrups to peer forward, but everything in front was nearly black; and though I listened, holding my breath, there was not a sound. Then suddenly a voice from somewhere above on the right front demanded in Dutch, "Who goes there?"

For answer Joeboy stepped on at once, and for the first time Sandho kicked against a stone, one of his shoes not only giving out a sharp clink, but striking a spark of fire.

It was as if that spark of fire struck by iron off stone had ignited the powder in the pan of an old-fas.h.i.+oned gun; for from close at hand there was a flash, the heavy report, and then a rolling volley of echoes. I felt Sandho bound beneath me; but the next moment he was walking steadily along, following the hand holding his bit, and he paid no more heed when directly after another shot was fired on ahead, another behind, and again another and another, raising what seemed to be a continuous roar of echoes right, left, and in front, to go rolling among the mountains.

The hot blood flew to my face, and a thrill of excitement ran through me as I involuntarily c.o.c.ked the rifle I held across the saddle, sitting ready to fire at the first enemy who presented himself; in fact, I nearly drew trigger once, but my common-sense prevailed, as I felt that we could not be seen, neither could we be heard in the roar of echoes which took up and magnified the reports. Joeboy was doing exactly what was right under the circ.u.mstances-going straight on; and, unless we found a body of men confronting us and stopping our way, or an unlucky bullet struck one of us, it seemed probable that in a very short time we should have achieved our purpose.

I had often heard of Echo Nek before, and had some vague idea that if any one shouted there the tones of his voice would be reverberated from the face of the cliffs; but I had never realised the true reason as I did now.

The firing went steadily on, the Boer outpost being evidently under the impression that their action would drive back the force approaching to get into their country. This being so, the reports increased to an extent that showed plainly enough the presence of a strong body of men, who had been lying inside the valley, ready to hurry forward to the defence of the pa.s.s upon an alarm being given.

I now began to wonder how it was that we were not seen through some one of the flashes and hit by bullets sent spattering among the stones among which we wended our way; but none came near. Every now and then I heard a sharp shock against the rock, followed by a pattering downpour of fragments. Every shot struck high above our heads, and at the end of a few minutes, higher still; at which I wondered, till it suddenly occurred to me that Sandho was not climbing higher and higher up the pa.s.s, but descending.

All this time Joeboy kept steadily on, apparently as unconcerned as if he were leading the horse home from grazing peacefully away upon the veldt.

I too began to feel more at my ease, for we had gone on so far that there was a strong hope that we might be successful, unless there should prove to be another body lower down the pa.s.s. The next minute, though, I felt convinced this could not be the case, for if another body were lower down they would have been firing; or, on second thoughts, I concluded they must have fired first, since the Boers would never conclude that a body of men was leaving their territory.

The firing kept on for a few minutes longer, and then suddenly ceased; while as we proceeded, with Joeboy leading on as fast as Sandho could walk, we could hear voices behind us; men shouting and answering one another, though it was impossible to hear what was said; but it seemed as if they were asking one another what the firing was about, and whether any one had seen the attacking party. Of course this is only what I surmised; but it satisfied me at the time, and I could not help laughing at the waste of powder and lead occasioned by the harmless incident of a spark being struck from a stone by a horse's foot.

We were soon, however, satisfied about one thing: that we were not being pursued; for there was no more firing, and the voices soon died out as we went steadily on along a rough winding track pretty free from stones.

We must have been carefully making our way onward for about an hour, when suddenly we walked right into a mist, which made our progress more difficult, for the great blocks of stone seemed to loom up suddenly right in our way; and in avoiding these we somehow missed the track, good proof of which was given me by Joeboy's action; for he suddenly checked the horse, stooped down, felt about, and ended by lifting a stone as big as my head and casting it from him.

"Why did you do that, Joeboy?" I said.

"Boss wait," was the answer, and I waited, to hear the stone strike directly after, and then keep on striking, as it went on by leaps and bounds, making me shudder slightly as I grasped the fact that Joeboy had checked the horse suddenly just on the brink of some precipice, down which the stone went rolling and plunging till the sounds of its blows died away along with the echoes it raised.

Chapter Eleven.

Out of the Frying-Pan.

"What a narrow escape, Joeboy!" I whispered.

"Um!" he said. "No good go that way. Sandho break knees."

"Break his knees?" I said. "Yes, I should think he would! Can you find the way back to the track?"

"Um! No. All thick; all dark. Come back little way. Sit down and wait."

It was good counsel, and I sat fast-rather nervously, though-while Joeboy backed the horse. And I had cause for my nervous sensation. In fact, what followed proved that, in the darkness and confusion caused by our ignorance, Joeboy backed the horse along the edge of the precipice instead of right away from it; for there was a sudden slip, and one of Sandho's hind-legs went down, making the poor beast give a frantic plunge which nearly unseated me and drove Joeboy backwards. Then, as the horse leaped up again, he made three or four bounds before standing snorting and trembling; while I heard the rush and rattle of the dislodged stones as they went hurtling down into the gorge.

"Um! Mustn't try any more," said Joeboy coolly as he took hold of Sandho's bridle again, and petted and caressed the poor beast till he was calm once more.

"He'll stand now," I said, rather huskily, as I mastered a strong desire to get down. "Feel round for this edge, Joeboy, and find out which is the safe way to go."

"Um!" grunted the black; and after giving Sandho a final pat on the neck, he went down on all-fours and crawled away through the darkness so silently that at the end of a few minutes I began to feel alarmed, wondering whether he had made some terrible slip and gone over.

It was vain to argue with myself, for the shock I had received when the horse slipped had not pa.s.sed away. No doubt my previous experiences had weakened me, and made me less able to fight against what was a very ordinary trouble for a mountain rider.

Another five minutes pa.s.sed away-minutes which seemed terribly prolonged as I sat there in the darkness knowing I dared not stir, and convinced that we must be upon a projecting bracket of rock whose shape I could mentally picture, with only one narrow pathway off, and that hidden by the mist. At last I could bear it no longer, and, leaning forward to try and penetrate the darkness beyond the horse's head, I called twice:

"Joeboy! Joeboy!"

"Joeboy here, Boss," came from behind me, and I uttered a sigh of relief as the great fellow seemed to rise up close by and laid his hand upon my arm.

"Where have you been?" I said in a querulous, excited way.

"Where, Boss Val say? Go all round. Better stop till morning."

"Yes," I said, with a sigh of relief. "Let's stop till morning. Here, help me to get down."

I was obliged to ask for help, for the cold and damp air had made my injured limbs so stiff and painful that I could hardly move them, and it required a good strong effort to keep down a groan when I lowered myself on to my feet, and then gladly sat down upon the damp rock.

I had no fear about Sandho, whose rein had been pa.s.sed over his head and allowed to hang down, for he had been trained to stand, and having grazed for many hours, had no temptation to stir.

Joeboy soon settled himself close to my feet, and then began our long and painful watching, hour after hour, through a night which seemed as if it would never end. I had no desire to question the black, for his action fully proved to me that our position must be perilous unless we left the horse to s.h.i.+ft for himself, and all this was sufficient to keep off any desire for sleep; while a whisper from time to time was sufficient to satisfy myself that my companion was as wakeful as I. As the time pa.s.sed on the mist seemed to thicken around us, with this peculiarity striking me: it seemed to shut us completely in, so that not a sound reached our ears, the silence being to me perfectly awful.

At last the morning was heralded by a faint puff or two of chilly air which came and went again, till at last it settled into a soft breeze, whose effects were soon apparent. All at once, as I looked up, a cloud of mist became visible, then floated away; and as if by magic the sky, of a soft dark grey, dotted with a faint star or two, came into sight.

Then day began to advance with rapid strides, and I found my notion of our being upon a bracket of rock was not too far-fetched, for we were upon a jutting-out promontory of some fifty feet across, from whose edges the rock went down in places perpendicularly, in others with a tremendously steep slope, while the way by which we came on was not above half-a-dozen yards wide.

"You were very wise, Joeboy," I said as I rose to look round. "It would have been madness to try leading Sandho off there in the fog."

"Um!" said Joe quietly; and then: "Look!"