Harley Greenoak's Charge Part 38

Slightly opening one of the windows, with the aid of a chair he adjusted a rocket horizontally on the sill, in such wise as to rake the quince hedge, as near as he could judge, at the point whence the man who _was_ a marksman had been making things lively for them. Then, striking a match, and carefully shading it, he touched the fuse.

It sputtered a moment. Then there was a deafening and appalling hiss, and a great fiery snake of sparks sped straight for the point designed, bursting with a crackling boom in among the quince hedge. The effect was ample. A hubbub of cries and shouts arose among the lurking savages, and immediately d.i.c.k had placed another rocket into position and touched it off with similar effect. Utterly panic-stricken now, the Kafirs thought of nothing but wild flight, and the cras.h.i.+ng of their demoralised retreat through the garden was the most welcome sound the beleaguered listeners had at one time ever expected to hear again.

Quick as thought d.i.c.k slipped out to the front, and applied a light to the upright rockets, one after another. Band after band of snake-red flame leapt up into the heavens, bursting with sh.e.l.l-like boom into beautiful blue and red and golden stars.

"There!" he said, coming back, and choking with laughter, in sheer reaction, "I believe Jack Kafir thinks the end of the world has come, or the Police artillery--doesn't matter which. Your idea has been the saving of this camp, Mrs Waybridge, if he doesn't get over his scare and come back."

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.

"IS IT TOO LATE?"

Waybridge, having delivered his contract stock, had intended staying the night at Fort Isiwa, but some news which was brought in at that post decided him to start for home at no longer notice than it took him to saddle up, and to get there as fast as his steed could carry him.

It was rather late when he clattered into Komgha, but, late as it was, quite a number of men were astir. There was no help for it. He must perforce off-saddle if only for a quarter of an hour, after the pace at which he had pushed his horse, and that all uphill.

"Anything in this news?" he asked eagerly as he gained the stoep at Pagets and called for a very long brandy and soda.

"Or is it all a yarn?"

"Yarn? Not much. The Gaikas have broken out, and are burning all the farms within reach. Yours among 'em, I expect, Waybridge."

"Mine among 'em! But, good Lord! man, my people are still there."

The other whistled blankly.

"Didn't they come in?" he said.

"No. We didn't believe in the scare, you see. Devil take that confounded horse of mine! I shall have to give him a few minutes more, and then I'll push him along if I kill him. Won't any of you fellows come with me? Women in danger, you know."

"Rather, I'll go," answered the man he had been talking to. Others joined, and soon a compact dozen started off to get their horses--if they could find them, and somebody else's if they couldn't--and whatever arms they happened to own.

"That you, Waybridge? Yes, it's time you started. They are beginning to send up rockets at your place." And Harley Greenoak, who had ridden up unperceived in the excitement, dismounted, and walked up the steps.

"I should think so," said Waybridge, impatiently. "By the way, Greenoak, I wish you'd sent us some sort of warning. I'd have taken it from you."

"Couldn't, earlier than this moment."

The rescue party now a.s.sembled. There were fifteen in all. But the presence of Harley Greenoak had the effect of sending up their confidence in themselves and each other. They felt as if their little force had suddenly been doubled.

"Have you been with Sandili, Greenoak?" said Waybridge, as they rode forth.

"No. With that fighting son of his, Matanzima. He's practically _baas_, and he means mischief. He'd have let me be killed, but I happened to do him an important service some time back, and whatever may be said about there being no grat.i.tude in a Kafir, there is. I've seen it in too many instances. Look. There are no less than six places ablaze."

They were travelling at a smart canter. Glow after glow had arisen, at intervals over the dim moonlight waste. The barbarous orgy was in full swing. But no such glare hovered over the site of Waybridge's homestead. Clearly, therefore, the Gaikas had not succeeded in capturing the place. The rocket flights had now ceased.

"That young Selmes is a plucky chap," muttered Waybridge, more to himself than to the others. "It's a G.o.dsend he should be on the place."

"He's all that," said Greenoak. "We shall find your crowd all safe, never fear."

A little more than an hour's sharp riding and they topped the last rise.

There stood the homestead, white in the moonlight. An exclamation of relief escaped Waybridge. But on a nearer approach this feeling was dashed.

"There's been a fight," he said quickly. "Those are dead Kafirs, and, there are no lights showing."

The dark, motionless forms lying in front of the house, and discernible in the moonlight, told their own tale. What other motionless forms would they find within? Instinctively they put their horses at a gallop now.

"Easy, easy!" warned Greenoak; "that line of quince hedge may cover any number. We don't need to rush bang headlong into a trap."

The warning told. Wildly excited as the men were now, such was the influence of its utterer that they slackened pace. Waybridge thought he had never known what tense, poignant anxiety was until that moment.

"I'll go forward and make sure," he said thickly. "If--if--anything has happened in there--it can't matter what happens to me, and--"

He rammed the spurs into his horse's flanks. But before he had shot ahead fifty yards, a sight met his eyes--met the eyes of all of them-- which caused such a wild burst of relief that it could only find vent in a ringing cheer.

Upon the stoep several figures were now standing, and prominent among them the tall form of d.i.c.k Selmes. Harley Greenoak, whose feeling of relief was certainly not inferior to that of the others, shook a disapproving head.

"We want to bring this off quietly," he said. "We don't want to let the whole Gaika nation know we're here, and that's about what all this hullabaloo is likely to effect."

"It's all right, old chap. We'll give 'em fits if they give us the chance," said one man, airily. Him Greenoak at once set down as a fool.

They galloped up to the house, and there was a vast amount of handshaking and congratulation all round. Harley Greenoak held aloof.

"Who's on guard at the back, d.i.c.k?" he said drily, when he could get in a word.

"At the back? Oh, we don't want a guard now, old chap," was the airy response. "We've beat 'em off, made 'em run like so many curs. It was the rockets did it, and the rockets were Mrs Waybridge's idea. But it was Elsie who generalled the whole sc.r.a.p. My hat, but you should have seen her swinging that axe! She 'downed' them one after another as hard as they came in. It was fine strategy, I can tell you."

"And didn't A' tell ye that A'd mak ony sax o' yon heathen black sauvages wish they'd never been born?" said the Scotswoman, complacently. "And A' just stopped short at one."

"Well, you didn't give them time to wish they'd never been born, or anything else," answered d.i.c.k.

"Ay, but they'll be wis.h.i.+n' it the noo, A'm thinking," was the dry rejoinder, which, with its uncompromising Calvinism, evoked a great laugh.

"Take care that Hazel doesn't go in there, Elsie," d.i.c.k managed to whisper, referring to the kitchen, which had been the opening scene of the drama, and where lay the four bodies of those first slain by that intrepid Amazon.

The said bodies, however, were promptly dragged outside, and the sight of these, together with those lying around the house, rendered it unmistakably clear that a most gallant defence had been made. The while the feminine side of the garrison was busy getting out liquid and other refreshment for the relief party, though its consumption must of necessity be hurried, for Greenoak had advised immediate removal to the settlement, and Waybridge was already inspanning the Cape cart.

Fortunately the Kafirs had not been able to get at the horses, the stable door being commanded by the firing-line. And the urgency of such advice was to receive prompt confirmation.

An exploration of the garden had been judged advisable, and this, accompanied by several others, was undertaken by Greenoak. Here they found one more body--and a badly wounded Kafir. He was shot through both legs, but had managed to drag himself into cover.

"It is Kulondeka," he said, recognising his questioner. "Then I will speak. There are several more wounded lying about--yes. The people have gone, but they will come again, with many others, before sunrise.

Take the white women and go, Kulondeka--now, at once. I know you. You and the other saved me, yonder, the day we fought Ndimba's people with sticks. Go. Lose no time."

Greenoak rejoined the others, feeling pretty anxious. They were by no means out of the wood yet. A large marauding band might appear at any moment, and, after all, their number was a mere handful. So it was with a modic.u.m of relief that he saw the cart inspanned, and its inmates duly installed. But having seen them once started, with their escort, Greenoak slipped back to the garden with the remains of a bottle of brandy in his hand, and administered an invigorating drink to the badly wounded savage.

"Your people will find you here," he said, "and the others. Now, you have felt how hard the white man's blow can fall. Tell them."

After the peril and relief a reaction ensued.