thereburst forth a volume of flame which enveloped for a minute or two thewhole waggon. Screaming, not with rage now, but with fright, themandrils leaped down and rushed away, scrambling up the sides of therocks more quickly than they had come down. At least twenty were lefton the ground, either dead or too severely wounded to effect theirretreat; while several others limped in the rear of their companions,scarcely able to accomplish the ascent.
"Stop, Mr Margetts," cried Hardy, as he saw Redgy raise his rifle;"don't fire at them. You may provoke them to come back. Well, that wasas near a thing as I remember to have seen. How did you manage it,Matamo?"
"Koboo and Utango and I had been piling a big heap of reeds to makefires of," answered the Bechuana. "It was lucky we made the heap solarge. When we saw Mr Margetts fire at the baboons, we knew what wouldhappen, and we heaped the reeds round the waggon while the brutes werecoming down the rocks. I dropped a match among the reeds as soon asthey began the attack, but for a long time it wouldn't catch. Lucky itdid catch at last, or we should have been torn to pieces!"
"Well, you managed famously, Matamo," said Hardy, "and we all owe ourlives to you."
"Yes, sir, and your dinners too. Very good eating is baboon, and thereis enough for a great many dinners."
"Eating!" repeated Redgy in great disgust. "You don't suppose any onewould eat these brutes, do you?"
"Wall, Redgy, I agree with you,--the idea isn't pleasant," said George."But they can be eaten, I believe. An old messmate told me that whenhis ship was at Gibraltar, many years before, the colonel of one of theregiments there sent Captain Waters the haunch of a large ape, which hadbeen shot a few days before. The captain didn't see the haunch, butinvited all the officers of the ship to dine off it. The colonel, whohad only intended a joke, sent a note explaining it. But somehow itwasn't delivered until just as the haunch was being removed from thetable, having been declared to be excellent. The captain put the noteinto the fire, and said nothing about the matter."
"He was a wise man," said Hardy, "and we shall be wise to follow hisexample, and make a good dinner off our late enemies."
His advice was at once followed. Fresh fuel was collected and fireslighted, and presently the cooks were busily engaged over their roastingand frying.
"Come and take a look at the soldiers," suggested Margetts to VanderHeyden and Rivers. "I wonder how they came off in their waggon."
"They were much luckier than we were," said Rivers. "Either the baboonsdidn't take any notice of their waggon, or they were bent, like Hardy'selephant, on punishing the culprit who fired on them. The soldiers werenot attacked at all."
"I am very sorry, I am sure," said Redgy; "I'll promise to be goodanother time, that is all I can say. But they made their preparationsagainst attack, I suppose."
"Yes," said Vander Heyden, "they took off the prisoners' handcuffs ofcourse. They couldn't have left them in that helpless state to themercy of those ferocious brutes. But I see they are going to put thehandcuffs on again now."
They moved nearer to the prisoners, and stood for a while watching thereplacing of the handcuffs. Then Rivers called out to Margetts, who wasstanding at a short distance, and asked him and Vander Heyden to ride alittle way on the road by which they had come that morning, to searchfor his revolver, which he must have dropped. The other two assented,and they went away together.
About half an hour afterwards, when the dinners were nearly ready,Vander Heyden and Rivers returned, looking a good deal put out.
"Corporal Sims," said the Dutchman, riding up to the person named, "thisis vexatious, but I am afraid we must stay here to-night. Mr Riverscannot find his revolver, and thinks he must have dropped it a long wayback--at the first stream which we crossed. Mr Margetts has offered toride back, and look for it, and I am afraid we shall, in consequence, beobliged to remain here all night. As some repairs must be made to ourwaggon, perhaps it is not of so much consequence. But are you able tostay?"
The corporal hesitated a moment, apparently a good deal surprised. Thenhe answered civilly that he saw no reason why they should not remain, asthere was plenty of food and a good spring of water, and there was noparticular need for haste.
"Very well, then," said Vander Heyden, riding on, "we will stay heretill to-morrow."
Nothing was said until the two horsemen were out of hearing. Then oneof the prisoners said in a guarded tone,--"Do they suspect anything, doyou think, Andrewes?"
"No," answered Andrews, "I am pretty sure they do not. Why do you askthat, Bostock?"
"I have been uneasy all day," was the answer, "lest either Rivers orVander Heyden should recognise us. It is quite true that I am stainedas dark as any Zulu in the country, and so are Gott and Sullivan. Andour beards and whiskers have been shaved, and our hair frizzled and dyedblack, so that we could hardly recognise ourselves in the glass. Butthey are both of them wide-awake fellows, and I shouldn't like this kindof thing to go on long. I suppose our intention holds good, to make theattack to-night, doesn't it?"
"I don't see why not," answered the pseudo-corporal. "It was agreedthat we should, all of us, approach the waggon together as soon as themoon sets, and that will be before twelve o'clock. They keep a watchall night, I know. One of them stands sentinel at the fire near thewaggon. But a rifle bullet will quiet him. Then we rush up and shootthe others. We shall have only four to deal with instead of five now.The Hottentots are sure to run off at the first shot."
"Margetts may return," remarked Gott.
"If he does, he'll hardly reach the camp," returned Bostock. "Some onehad better be on the look-out for him a mile or so on the Heidelbergroad. There will still be twelve of us left. That will be enough tosettle four men, won't it, even if they should not be asleep."
"You forget the women," said the corporal with a smirk.
"No, I don't forget them, Andrewes," answered Bostock angrily. "But youhad better do so--forget Miss Vander Heyden, at all events. You willremember that she is to become my wife as soon as we can reach Doomberg,where the missionary has promised to marry us. You had better all keepthat in your heads, or you may chance to find an ounce of lead there."
"Well, you needn't be so cranky about it, John Bostock," said Sullivan."Will Andrewes and the others have been your pals ever since we cameinto the country, nigh upon a twelvemonth ago, and Jem Gott and I wasyour pals long before. And we've never done nothing but please you, andwe ain't going to now."
"Well, that's as it should be, Sullivan. We need have no more wordsabout that. And now dinner's ready, I see, so we had better fall to atthat."
Meanwhile Vander Heyden and his two friends had no sooner completedtheir meal than they hastened to the waggon, and summoned Matamo andHaxo to assist in repairing the damage sustained. Their first step wasto renew the canvas covering, which had been torn down. Then theynailed thick boards all round the lower part of the waggon, andconstructed a kind of citadel in the middle, consisting of four strongboxes, about three feet high, inside which two persons might takerefuge.
"I wish you would not think so much of me," urged Annchen, from whom ithad been impossible to conceal the approaching danger. "My life is ofno more value than any one of yours. And you are neglecting, I am sure,your own safely. Henryk, will you not listen to me? Mr Rivers, willnot you?" She blushed deeply as she spoke.
"Say no more, Annchen," returned her brother sternly, though withevident tenderness of feeling. "We shall all do our best for ourselvesas well as for you. And there is every hope that Margetts will returnbefore these scoundrels even begin their attack. It cannot be more thana two hours' ride to Heidelberg. I could myself do it in little morethan one; but then, unfortunately, I was only on terms of distantcivility with Lieutenant Evetts."
"It will take Margetts at least two hours," observed Hardy; "and thenthere may be difficulty in finding Mr Evetts and in getting his mentogether. It was three o'clock when Margetts rode off. If he is backby ten, it is as early as can reasonably be hoped."
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"Ten will be time enough," remarked Rivers. "They will wait for themoon to set, or they would be an easy mark for our bullets."
"And the moon does not set till eleven," said Vander Heyden. "Besides,even if they do make their attack, it remains to be seen whether wecannot keep them off. It can hardly be worse than it was at Rorke'sDrift, when we three stood side by side together. But I think we havenow been as long at work in the waggon as it is safe for us to be. Wemight awaken suspicion if it was thought that we