Dead Man's Land Part 17

CHAPTER TEN.

SHAM.

The doctor suggested that after such a broken night it would be as well to have an early breakfast before they started.

"Yes, capital," cried Mark. "I feel that that is just what I want to put me right."

"See to it at once, then, Dan," said the doctor. "Tell some of the men to get you some wood, and I will talk to the bullock drivers. Oh, there are the two keepers. They will help you to get wood and fetch water.

Mind they get it from a clear part of the river."

"Ay, ay, sir!" said the sailor.

"How wonderfully well that poor fellow begins to look," said the doctor.

"Yes," replied Sir James, laughing; "and he thoroughly deserves the name of the Handy Mann. He is never happy unless he is doing something-- regularly valeting me and the boys. What do you say to a walk round while they are preparing breakfast?"

"I am willing," replied the doctor, "and we will take Denham and his men as we go."

They started off, and before they reached the two long spans of oxen where they had been turned to graze, Buck Denham's voice was heard storming at somebody.

"Quarrel, seemingly, captain," said Sir James, smiling.

"Or a fit of bad temper," said the doctor, "because the big fellow's night, was disturbed. Here, what's the matter, Denham?" he continued, as they reached the shady pasture where the sleek bullocks were knee deep in rich gra.s.s, evidently laying in a store for emergencies when fodder might be scarce. "Don't say that any of the cattle have strayed?"

"Strayed, sir? Not they! They are all right--eight-and-forty of them.

I counted them over twice to make sure, after the night's scare. My bullocks are all right. I only wish I could trust my men as well as I can them."

"What has happened, then?"

"You ask him, sir," replied Denham, pointing to the miserable looking little Hottentot--"a pretty sort of a half-bred animal! Look at him squatting there grinning like one of them there dog-nosed baboons."

"Don't insult the man," said the doctor sharply. "What has he done?"

"Man, sir! I don't call him a man," said Buck Denham. "Got nothing to do but a bit of driving now and then and to give a shout at his span, and naturally I trusted him as I was keeping my eye on the oxen to keep his on the two forelopers. I let him do it because he understands their lingo better than I do."

"Well?" said the doctor. "What then?"

"What then, sir? Here are we just two days out from the town, and he's lost one of them already."

"Lost? Nonsense!"

"Well, where is he, then, sir? He has gone."

"Gone?"

"Yes, sir. Sniffed at his job, I suppose, and gone off. I saw him safe enough last night; this morning he is nowhere. My foreloper he was, and now we shall have to stop here three or four days, perhaps a week, while I go back and hunt up another; and I can tell you, sir, they are precious scarce."

"That's vexatious," said the doctor. "Don't be put out, Denham, I think I see how it is. The poor fellow was no doubt scared by the alarm of the lion in the night, and very likely we shall see him come creeping in before it is time to start."

"Oh, thank you, sir," said the big fellow. "I am very glad you take it so easy. Some gen'lemen would be ready to jump down a poor man's throat for half this."

"Indeed!" said the doctor, smiling. "Well, I don't think you will find Sir James and me so unreasonable as to bully a good servant for an unavoidable mishap."

"Thank you, sir," said the big fellow, smiling. "That's done me good.

I was afraid to meet you this morning, and I hope you are right, because we must have two of us to each waggon, and I don't suppose either of your servants would like to be asked to do such n.i.g.g.e.r's work. Hadn't I better start back at once and get another? It would save time if I took one of them ponies."

Sir James winced as he looked at the big fellow's proportions, and glanced uneasily at the doctor, who said, smiling, "No, we will wait to see if the man turns up, and if not our two boys shall mount the ponies and canter back to the station with a note to Captain Lawton asking him to help us to a fresh foreloper."

The man chuckled heartily.

"Why do you laugh?" said the doctor. "Do you think the captain cannot be trusted?"

"Oh, him, sir," replied the man. "Cap'n Lawton's a regular gen'leman.

He'd do anything to serve a fellow-countryman. I was grinning, sir, because you thought I should be too much for the pony. Well, I am a big 'un, out and outer; but I growed so. You are quite right, sir, it would be rather hard on one of the brave little beasts, and I hope that black 'un will show up again, but I'm afraid of it. That lion last night scared him, but he'd be more scared to come and face you gen'lemen again."

Meanwhile, Mark had proposed that they should go to look at the spot where he stood to fire at his disturber. This was agreed to, and as they had to pa.s.s Dan Mann, Mark put in a word or two about hurrying on the breakfast, and told him to be sure to frizzle the bacon well.

"Ay, ay, sir!" cried the little fellow, beaming upon them; and they went on, looked at the ground by daylight, and saw no trace of footprints, only finding the spot where the unpleasant thorn bush had been crushed by Mark's fall.

"Yes," said the boy, giving a bit of a writhe and rubbing his back softly, "that's where I went down, sure enough, and I believe I have got another thorn in there now. My word, how stiff my shoulder is! I shan't be in a hurry to fire two barrels of a rifle together again.

Yes, I stood just there when I fired, just as the beast had reared himself up--itself, I suppose I ought to say, for I don't know whether it was a c.o.c.k or a hen--but hallo, where are the ponies?"

"Oh, Peter and Bob have taken them down to water, I suppose," said Dean.

"That they haven't. There they are, over yonder."

"Well, then, Buck Denham must have driven them over there with the bullocks to have a feed before we start."

"Let's ask Dan. Here, cooky, where are the ponies?"

"Dunno, sir. They were gone when I came to see to the fire. I expect Denham has taken them along with the bullocks."

"Come on, Dean. Let's go and see how the little fellows look."

The boys hurried amongst the trees to where Denham, the Hottentot and the foreloper were watching the grazing cattle, with the Illaka seated upon a fallen tree nursing his spear and looking on, while in the distance, each with his gun over his arm, they could see Sir James and the doctor, evidently making a circuit of the camp.

"Ponies, gen'lemen?" said the big fellow. "No, I ain't seen them; I have been so busy over my bullocks. Somebody must have taken them down to the riverside to get a good feed a-piece of that strong reedy gra.s.s that they are so fond of. You will find them down there."

"Come along," cried Mark, and the two boys hurried off in the direction of the river, threading their way amongst the trees till they caught sight of the running water sparkling in the rays of the morning sun.

"There they are," cried Mark, "munching away and regularly enjoying themselves. Oh, you beauties! But hallo! Who's that chap watching them?" and he drew his cousin's attention to a tall, thin, peculiar looking fellow who was standing close to the water's edge watching the ponies as if to keep them from going farther along the stream.

The man turned his head as he heard the boys approach, and then looked back at the ponies and drove one a short distance nearer the camp.

"Hullo, you!" cried Mark sharply. "What are you doing here?"