Thus the long hours passed unheeded, till at last a new-born freshnessin the air told them that they were not far from dawn. The death theywere awaiting had not found them. It must now be very near at hand.
"John," she whispered in his ear, "do you think that they will shootus?"
"Yes," he answered hoarsely; "they must for their own sakes."
"I wish it were over," she said.
Suddenly she started back from his arms with a little cry, causing thecart to rock violently.
"I forgot," she said; "you can swim, though I cannot. Why should younot swim to the bank, and escape under cover of the darkness? It is onlyfifty yards, and the current is not so very swift."
The idea of flight without Jess had never occurred to John, and nowthat she suggested it, it struck him as so absurd that he broke into theghost of a laugh.
"Don't be foolish, Jess," he said.
"Yes, yes, I will. Go! You _must_ go! It does not matter about me now.I know that you love me, and I can die happy. I will wait for you. Oh,John! wherever I am, if I have any individual life and any remembranceI will wait for you. Never forget that all your days. However far I mayseem away, if I live at all, I shall be waiting for you. And now go;you _shall_ go, I say. No, I will not be disobeyed. If you will not go Iwill throw myself into the water. Oh, the cart is turning over!"
"Hold on, for God's sake!" shouted John. "The traces have broken."
He was right; the tough leather was at length worn through by constantrubbing against the rock, and the strain and sway of the dead horses onthe one side, and of the cart upon the other. Round it spun, broadsideon to the current, and immediately began to heave over, till at lastthe angle was so sharp that the dead body of poor Mouti slid out witha splash and vanished into the darkness. This relieved the cart, and itrighted for a moment, but now being no longer held up by the bodies ofthe horses or by the sustaining power of the wind it began to fill andsink, and at the same time to revolve swiftly. John understood thatall was finished, and that to stop in the cart would only mean certaindeath, because they would be held under water by the canvas tent. Sowith a devout aspiration for assistance he seized Jess round the waistwith one arm and sprang off into the river. As he leapt the cart filledand sank.
"Lie still, for Heaven's sake!" he shouted, when they rose to thesurface.
In the dim light of the dawn which was now creeping over the earth hecould discover the line of the left bank of the Vaal, the same fromwhich they had been driven into the river on the previous night. Itappeared to be about forty yards away, but the current was runningquite six knots, and he saw that, burdened as he was, it would be quiteimpracticable for him to reach it. The only thing to do was to keepafloat. Luckily the water was warm and he was a strong swimmer. In aminute or so he saw that about fifty paces ahead some rocks jutted outtwenty yards into the bed of the stream. Then catching Jess by the hairwith his left hand he made his effort, and a desperate one it was. Thebroken water boiled furiously round the rocks. Presently he was in it,and, better still, his feet touched the ground. Next second he was sweptoff them and rolled over and over at the bottom of the river, to besadly knocked about against the boulders. Somehow he struggled to hislegs, still retaining his hold of Jess. Twice he fell, and twice hestruggled up again. One more effort--so. The water was only up to histhighs now, and he was obliged to half carry his companion.
As he lifted her he felt a deadly sickness come over him, but stillhe staggered on, till at last they both fell of a heap upon a big flatrock, and for a while he remembered no more.
When he came to himself again it was to see Jess, who had recoveredsooner than he had, standing over him and chafing his hands. Indeed,as the sun was up he guessed that he must have lost his senses for sometime. He rose with difficulty and shook himself. Except for some bruiseshe was sound enough.
"Are you hurt?" he asked of Jess, who, pale, faint and bruised, her hatgone, her dress torn by bullets and the rocks, and dripping water atevery step, looked an exceedingly forlorn object.
"No," she said feebly, "not very much."
He sat down on the rock in the sun, for they were both shivering withcold. "What is to be done?" he asked.
"Die," she said fiercely; "I meant to die--why did you not let me die?Ours is a position that only death can set straight."
"Don't be alarmed," he said, "your desire will soon be gratified: thosemurderous villains will hunt us up presently."
The bed and banks of the river were clothed with thin layers of mist,but as the sun gathered power these lifted. The spot at which they hadclimbed ashore was about three hundred yards below that where thetwo Boers and their horses had been destroyed by the lightning on theprevious night. Seeing the mist thin, John insisted upon Jess crouchingwith him behind a rock so that they could look up and down the riverwithout being seen themselves. Presently he made out the forms of twohorses grazing about a hundred yards away.
"Ah," he said, "I thought so; the devils have off-saddled there. ThankHeaven I have still got my revolver, and the cartridges are watertight.I mean to sell our lives as dearly as I can."
"Why, John," cried Jess, following the line of his out-stretched hand,"those are not the Boers' horses, they are our two leaders that brokeloose in the water. Look, their collars are still on."
"By Jove! so they are. Now if only we can catch them without beingcaught ourselves we have a chance of getting out of this."
"Well, there is no cover about, and I can't see any signs of Boers. Theymust have been sure of having killed us, and gone away," Jess answered.
John looked round, and for the first time a sense of hope began to creepinto his heart. Perhaps they would survive after all.
"Let's go up and look. It is no good stopping here; we must get foodsomewhere, or we shall faint."
She rose without a word, and taking his hand they advanced togetheralong the bank. They had not gone twenty yards before John uttered anexclamation of joy and rushed at something white that had lodged inthe reeds. It was the basket of food which was given to them by theinnkeeper's wife at Heidelberg that had been washed out of the cart, andas the lid was fastened nothing was lost out of it. He undid it. Therewas the bottle of three-star brandy untouched, also most of the eggs,meat, and bread, the last, of course, sodden and worthless. It did nottake long to draw the cork, and then John filled a broken wineglassthere was in the basket half full of water and half of brandy, and madeJess drink it, with the result that she began to look a little less likea corpse. Next, he repeated the process twice on his own account, andinstantly felt as though new life were flowing into him. Then they wenton cautiously.
The horses allowed themselves to be caught without trouble, and did notappear to be any the worse for the adventure, although the flank of onewas grazed by a bullet.
"There is a tree yonder where the bank shelves over; we had bettertie the horses up, dress, and eat some breakfast," said John, almostcheerfully; and accordingly they proceeded towards it. Suddenly John,who was ahead, started back with an exclamation of fear, and the horsesbegan to snort, for there, stark and stiff in death, already swollenand discoloured by decomposition--as is sometimes the case with peoplekilled by lightning--the rifles in their hands twisted and fused, theirclothes cut and blown from their bandoliers--lay the two Boer murderers.It was a terrifying sight, and, taken in conjunction with their ownremarkable escape, one to make the most careless and sceptical reflect.
"And yet there are people who say that there is no God, and nopunishment for wickedness," said John aloud.