*Chapter XV.*
*THE KLOOF.*
The mutual congratulations that ensued were very real and heartfelt.
"My dear Guy," said his uncle, as he threw himself from his horse andwrung his nephew's hand, "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you safeand sound. I have imagined all sorts of dangers from your captivity.Now tell us what has happened."
Guy related as shortly as possible all his adventures since he had lefttheir camp. Then Poeskop told of his doings, and how he had managed therescue.
"Well, you have both done excellently well," said Mr. Blakeney. "It's aclever feat to have outwitted these scoundrels, and beaten them off asyou have done. We heard your firing as we waited at the edge of theforest yonder, and galloped this way. But you had really finished thefight, and well beaten Engelbrecht, before we could take a hand. Icongratulate you, Guy. Here comes in the advantage of an athletictraining and early practice in rifle-shooting. An old veldt man couldnot have done better. The question now is, What are these rascalslikely to be up to? I don't think Engelbrecht, after this mauling, willbe very keen to attack us again. And in our own camp, and with all ourown men about us, we should have no trouble in repelling him. Still, wemust keep a sharp lookout."
Poeskop, questioned as to his idea of the Boer's future movements, wasof opinion that Engelbrecht would never think of attacking them with hispresent force. He might go off and try to raise more men. But thatwould take time; and in the meanwhile they would be at the Gold Kloof,and could make more ample preparations against further assaults. On thewhole, the Bushman was of opinion that Engelbrecht would certainly tryto take his revenge; but he inclined to the belief that it wouldprobably be more in the way of an ambush on the coastward trek. Thiscould be guarded against by careful scouting.
They returned to their own camp, where Jan Kokerboom and the other menwelcomed them with great delight. Guy's first action on getting backwas to do something to show his gratitude to Poeskop for his clever andcourageous rescue. He knew that the little Bushman had always immenselyadmired a Marlin repeating carbine which he (Guy) sometimes used. Takingthis out of the wagon, he now handed it to his follower.
"Here, Poeskop," he said; "here's a little present for you. You did mea real good turn, and I shall never forget it. You are a good fellow,and when we come to the town again I hope to do something more for you.I was in a very tight place when you crept into Karl Engelbrecht's campand got me out of it."
Poeskop duly returned thanks, and the incident ended. But the realfeeling of friendship between the young Englishman and the half-wildBushman was yet further cemented by the events of these few days.
They trekked once more, and after steady travelling for some daysfurther, through a wild and remote wilderness, came at length to thatgoal of their desires, the Gold Kloof. One magnificent evening theyoutspanned under the shadow of a great mass of towering mountain, thehighest peak of which must have been full seven thousand feet high.Within this range lay their secret. As the white men looked up at thepeaked and serrated crests of the berg before them--now glowing withcrimson and rose under the magic of the African sunset--they could nothelp being sensible of the spell of mystery and expectation cast overthem by the witchery of that wonderful hour and the sight of thismagnificent mountain land, which had lain here during ages of the past,remote and unknown, hugging within its solitudes the wealth that allcivilized men covet so greatly. The fires of evening passed, and themountains sank into more sober colouring. Puces and mauves and brown,contrasted in the deeper shadows with cobalt and indigo, were succeededby yet darker and more sombre hues. Finally night sank, and only thefaint looming of the great berg could be perceived. A thin silvercrescent of a moon swam in the palest green sky; the stars pricked forthin amazing brilliancy; and the whole firmament became arrayed in itsnight robe of the deepest and most velvety blue-black.
They spent a most cheery evening by the camp fire, and turned in tosleep with all sorts of anticipations for the morrow.
After breakfast the next morning they advanced, under the guidance ofPoeskop, into the heart of the mountain. Trekking through a wide andwell-timbered valley, bordered on either side by towering and majesticwalls, they entered suddenly--after the dry country through which theyhad for six weeks been travelling--upon what seemed to the two lads aperfect fairyland. Rain had lately fallen, and nature, responding in hereager way to the welcome moisture, had awakened, as by the spell of amagician's wand, into a most wonderful and verdurous beauty. The grassgrew green in the valley, the trees were arrayed in new and brilliantfoliage, the flowers everywhere checkered the veldt and shed splendourupon the hillsides. Acres of lilies--white, pink and white, crimson,and pale blue--starred the earth; while irises, gladioli, pelargoniums,heliophilas, and many other flowers, flourished in wild luxuriance. Theround, plushlike, yellow and orange balls of the acacia trees spreadabroad upon the soft breeze a most delicious, honey-like scent. Up themountain sides various heaths, now in the full beauty of theirflowering, brilliantly relieved the dark greens and red browns of bushand rock. Huge aloes stood sentinel upon the kloofsides, and held aloftimmense spikes of dark crimson flowers. Amid all this wealth of flowerlife, innumerable birds of gay and brilliant plumage, now on their waysouth with the rains, flew hither and thither. Here were to be noticedespecially those lovely feathered creatures, the emerald, the golden,and Klaas's cuckoos, whose glorious colouring is among the chief marvelsof South African bird life. Gorgeous sunbirds dipped their long tonguesinto the sugary hearts of the blossoms scattered so plentifully around;and resplendent kingfishers of divers hues sped in arrowy flight up anddown the clear stream that murmured through the centre of the valley.Far aloft, wheeling and circling above the tall mountain peak whichdominated the range, numbers of vultures were to be seen, cleaving theclear air of morning with wonderfully majestic flight.
"Hullo, Poeskop!" said Tom; "aasvogels?"
"Ja, Baas Tom," rejoined the Bushman; "they nest in the cliffs yonder.So long as I can remember, and I first saw these valleys when I was sohigh"--he stooped his hand within a couple of feet of the earth--"theaasvogels have bred here. From the side of the berg yonder you canoverlook the Gold Kloof."
"Can you, though?" broke in Guy. "Let's push on. How long will it taketo reach the place?"
"It is a longish trek yet," said Poeskop. "We have to go windingthrough the hills, and it will be late afternoon before we reach thepoort."
They moved steadily up the lovely kloof until midday, when theyoutspanned for a couple of hours to rest and feed the oxen. The workhad been heavy. Many small trees had to be cut down to admit the passageof the wagon, boulders had to be pushed and levered aside, and all wereglad of rest and refreshment. At two o'clock they inspanned and trekkedagain. Two valleys lay before them. Poeskop led them up that lying onthe right hand. More tree-cutting and hard travel lay before them. Thegorge was in places so littered with monstrous boulders that progress attimes seemed almost impossible.
"I don't quite understand it, baas," said the Bushman, as he walked byMr. Blakeney's side in front of the wagon. "The mountain seems to havebeen falling about here. When I last came this way there was nothinglike the quantity of rocks that there now are about the valley."
"Perhaps there has been a bit of an earthquake in these parts," rejoinedMr. Blakeney. "I don't quite understand such a litter of bouldersmyself. The natural work of time and weather would hardly suffice toaccount for this valley of rocks. The mountains seem to have been inlabour hereabouts."
At four o'clock they came at length to a mighty angle of mountain, wherethe face of the cliff, jutting out from the main mass of rock wall,ought, according to Poeskop's notion, to bear some faint resemblance tothe profile of a man. But much of the cliff had fallen, and, as Poeskopconfessed, the likeness had vanished.
"Now, my baases," said the Bushman, his bleared eyes gleaming withsuppressed excitement, "after we turn tha
t hoek you will see a narrowpoort, and beyond that lies the kloof where the gold is. Come!"
Leaving the wagon, the four pressed on. The mountains encircling themhad here, at the farther end of the valley, narrowed greatly. Theprecipices that frowned above them seemed almost menacing in theirproximity. The place was wondrously silent. They turned the angle ofthe cliff, and then Poeskop suddenly halted in his tracks and staredabout him. He seemed utterly bewildered.
"Where, where is the poort?" he stammered, glaring wildly in front andupon either side. "Where?" He rubbed his eyes and looked again. "Thepoort is gone!" he said solemnly. "What has happened?--Poeskop knowsnot!"
"What do you mean, Poeskop?" demanded Mr. Blakeney, somewhat sternly."Don't play the fool."
"I am not playing the fool, baas," answered the little yellow man, astrange quiver of anguish in his voice. "The poort has gone. Look!"
And indeed it was not difficult for Mr. Blakeney and the two boys,staring in front of them, to picture what had happened. The mountainwalls, through which a narrow cleft--Poeskop's poort or pass--had, notthree years before, led, had fallen in. Some mighty convulsion ofnature had so shattered and shaken them that they had collapsed; andwhere, as the Bushman explained, he had passed through between beetlingwalls, a solid barrier of rock and boulders, strangely riven andtumbled, now rose in a vast mass before them to a height of at leastfour hundred feet.
Poeskop stood, with scared and fallen face, staring at this strange andutterly unlooked-for obstacle.
"What is to be done now?" he said ruefully, "and how are we to get atthe gold? We cannot climb that cliff; and if we could, we should not beable to get down on the other side."
"When you passed through the poort here, which is now blocked up," saidMr. Blakeney, "how far did you go before you came out into the GoldKloof?"
"About a quarter of a mile, baas," answered Poeskop.
"And do you mean to tell me," pursued his interrogator, "that there isno other passage into the kloof?"
"None whatever, baas," answered the Bushman. "I know it well--everyyard, every foot of it. In the old days, before this thinghappened"--he pointed to the barrier of cliff and _debris_--"you walkedthrough a quarter of a mile of narrow poort, in some places no more thanten feet across, and came out into the kloof. The kloof is shut in byhigh walls, much higher in some parts than this, and there is no otherway of getting in or out. Of that I am as certain as I am that in onehour it will be nightfall. If we had wings, we could get into thevalley. Without them, I don't think it is possible. The cliffs arehigh and sheer; not even a baboon could get down them."
They went sorrowfully back to the wagon, outspanned for the night, and,after supper, sat discussing long and earnestly the solution of thedifficult problem that lay before them.
"I know!" cried Guy suddenly. "We'll have to make a rope-ladder, or aladder of some sort. We're bound to get into this place. I know myfather would, if he were here!"
Mr. Blakeney smiled at the lad's enthusiasm.
"Rather a large order, isn't it?" he said. "Five or six hundred feet ofrope-ladder! And where's the rope to come from? We may have as much asa couple of hundred feet on the wagon. I brought that much, thinking wemight need it; but for the rest, I for one don't see my way to it."
"I know, baas!" cried Poeskop. "We can do it; but it will take time.There is plenty game round about here. We can shoot elands, andhartebeest, and zebras, and blue wildebeest, and cut riems and braythem; and there is your rope-ladder."
"I believe you are right," said Mr. Blakeney thoughtfully. "The thingnever occurred to my mind. It's an excellent idea, and if we can carryit through we shall be beholden to you, Guy. Our plan now is to startright away and begin shooting game. Only the largest animals will be ofuse to us. We shall want big and strong raw-hide riems, roughlydressed."
Next morning they set about the task to which they had now to devotethemselves. It was an unpleasant and most thankless business, this ofslaying game merely for their hides. They compared themselves with theskin-hunting Transvaal and Free State Boers of a generation before; andat the end of a week all thoroughly loathed the job. Yet it had to bedone. Day after day the three white men rode out into the plains andshot game, and rode back to camp laden with skins. These the fivenatives cut into long thongs, or riems, and dressed and brayed in therough but effectual South African fashion. At the end of fifteen daysthis part of the work was accomplished. Next they set to work to makethe ladder. First, Mr. Blakeney and Poeskop, after a careful survey ofthe country, found their way up a long, gently-sloping nek on thenortherly or left-hand side of the valley in which they were encamped,by which they attained the edge of the Gold Kloof. That evening, whenthey came in with their report, their discovery was received withrapturous applause by all in camp. Next morning Mr. Blakeney, Guy, Tom,and Poeskop sallied forth with four horses, laden with over five hundredfeet of rope and riems, to measure the depth of the cliff wall downwhich they were to hang their rope-ladder. It was a long and toilsomeascent; but at length the little party stood above the kloof, andknee-haltering the horses, crept to the edge of the chasm and lookedover.
It was a wonderful scene. Far below lay spread one of the fairestvalleys that the eye of man has ever rested upon. Green and well bushedit was in places, and here and there thorn trees and wild olives spreadtheir shade. Through the very centre of the valley ran a clear,shallowish stream, which seemed to take its source in a narrow cleft orravine far up at the eastern end of the kloof. A troop of graceful redpallah wandered along the stream, apparently no whit the worse for theirimprisonment in this lovely valley. Wildfowl and wading birds of variouskinds checkered the surface of the stream, or ran hither and thitheralong the yellowish-red sands of the shallows. The kloof appeared to beabout a mile and a half long by half a mile in breadth. Right in frontof the watchers, on the other side of the valley, towered the mountainof the aasvogels, around the summit of which numbers of huge vultureswere circling in the clear sunlit air.
"What a lovely spot!" exclaimed Tom. "It looks like gold all over."
"Yes," added Guy; "and it's quite certain we've got it all toourselves."
"How does the stream escape out of this kloof?" asked Mr. Blakeney ofPoeskop.
"It makes its way somewhere under the mountain, baas," answered theBushman, "and comes out to the right of the poort where I used toenter--"
"And from there flows down the valley where our camp lies?" interruptedMr. Blakeney.
"Ja, baas, that is just so," said the Bushman.
"Poeskop," again interrogated Guy, "whereabouts does the gold chieflylie?"
"All along the banks of the river-bed, Baas Guy," returned Poeskop, "andin the river, right through the kloof. But the most of it is in theupper half of the kloof. Right up towards the deep, narrow cleft wherethe stream runs down from the mountain," he added, pointing to the farend of the valley, "there is plenty gold; heaps of it. You may findnuggets about the stream every ten yards or so."
"That's all right, Guy," broke in Mr. Blakeney. "No doubt the matrix ofthe gold lies in the bowel of the mountain yonder. Ages of time and hotsun, and weathering, and no doubt such convulsions as lately barred thepoort through which Poeskop used to enter the kloof, loosened the gold,and the rains and torrents have washed the stuff down-stream and worn itinto nuggets. That roughly is, I suppose, how it all happened.--Now,"he continued, "let us get to work, and measure the depth of this wall ofcliff."
They undid the rope and riem, and fastened them together. Then theytied a big stone to one end and lowered it over the precipice. Itseemed ages before that stone touched the floor of the kloof. But atlast it did so; and carefully marking the distance, they hauled it upagain. Then, with a yard measure which they had brought with them, theymeasured the length required. Four hundred and twenty feet threeinches, exactly, lay between them and the level of the treasure theysought. Hastily repacking the rope and riem on the four horses, theyset off at once for cam
p, bent now on constructing their ladder of ropeand hide as expeditiously as possible.
For three long days all hands were busily employed at work on theladder. At length it was completed, and lay in four portions, ready tobe conveyed to the edge of the cliff. It was a question whether or notthey would use steps, or rungs, of wood or of hide. The latter werefinally settled upon. It would have taken much longer to cut andprepare and fasten wooden rungs; and, upon the whole, steps of raw hideseemed to the adventurers lighter and more easy to fasten to the rest ofthe structure.
A long night's rest, and then, leaving Jan Kokerboom and Mangwalaan toguard the camp, they packed the ladder upon four oxen, and taking withthem Seleti, the Bechuana lad, and September, the Zulu, set off for thecliff top. Arrived there, it was a matter of two long hours before theyhad pieced the four portions of the ladder together and made all ready.Then came the work of getting the ladder over the cliff. Poeskop hadbeen busily reconnoitring the wall of the precipice before they set towork. He had chosen an excellent spot, where the rock walls sheeredgently inwards towards the base. Very carefully they let the ladderover, and lowered it yard by yard. At last, after one or two delays, ittouched the bottom of the kloof. Hearty cheers from Guy and Tom, inwhich Poeskop's shrill voice joined, signalized the successfulaccomplishment of a difficult piece of work.
"Now then," said Mr. Blakeney, "who's first?"
"I think I ought to be," cried Guy eagerly, "by right of patrimony. Ifmy father had lived, he would certainly have gone down first."
"No, pater," urged Tom; "I'm the lighter of the two. Let me go. It willbe safer."
"Well, on the whole," said Mr. Blakeney, smiling at their enthusiasm, "Ithink Poeskop had better go first. His claims are undeniable. Hisweight is about two and a half stone less than either, and he was thefirst of us to set eyes on the kloof. Let him go."
"Very well," said Guy.--"Poeskop, you go first, and I'll follow."
They had fastened the top end of the ladder with the greatest care to asturdy wild olive tree which grew there. They had taken the utmostprecaution to guard against any chafing at the edge of the cliff, and,to strengthen the ladder yet more, had added two extra pieces of hide tothe side-supports for thirty feet from the end where it was fastened tothe tree. All being prepared, Poeskop, with his carbine slung to hisback, put his foot on the first rung of the ladder, and began thedescent. The little man had not an atom of fear in his composition, andhe went down steadily, hand under hand, with the greatest composure.The rope and hide structure bore his weight easily. There was nostrain, and it was evident that the great care which Mr. Blakeney hadbestowed on the making had not been thrown away.
At last, after what to the watchers at the top seemed an interminablelength of time, the Bushman reached the foot. Stepping out from underthe base of the cliff to a spot where he could see his masters, he wavedhis hat and called out in English, "All right."
"Now then, it's my turn," cried Guy.
"All right," said his uncle. "Away you go. But take care. Don't be ina hurry."
Stepping over the edge of the precipice, and hanging on firmly witheither hand, Guy went briskly down. It seemed a rather fearsome height;but the lad had a cool head and had been an expert climber, scaling manya lofty tree in search of hawks', rooks', and carrion crows' eggs.Still, more than three parts of the way down, as the cliff sheeredinward and the ladder hung dangling in mid-air, it was none toopleasant. The task was presently accomplished, however, and Guy stoodby Poeskop's side. Next came Tom, and after him Mr. Blakeney, Seletiand September remaining at the top to look after things and guard theend.
"My word," said Mr. Blakeney, as he set foot on the ground with a sighof relief, "that's one of the nastiest jobs I ever tackled. I was nevermuch of a climber as a boy, and I didn't quite realize what such adescent was like until I was ten paces over the cliff and lookeddownward. It's more the sort of game for rock rabbits and lizards thanfor a douce, middle-aged man."
"Never mind, pater," said Tom, who had slipped down the ladder with theease of a lamplighter, "you'll soon get used to it. After anotherascent and descent you'll think nothing of it."
"Don't you make any mistake, my boy," retorted his father. "It's veryeasy for a light, limber lad like you to get down that ladder. You'llfind it a vastly different job getting up. Four hundred and twenty feetof rope-ladder _upwards_ is a stiff task, and you'll find yourself notso keen to do it very often--I'm convinced of that fact."
All four now being safely landed at the bottom of the kloof, thequestion which instantly absorbed their attention was, Where was thegold? Poeskop led the way, and, walking swiftly, at a pace certainlyexceeding four miles an hour, they hastened towards the far end of thevalley.
"Hullo!" cried Tom, as a handsome little reddish antelope, spotted andlined with white, bounded away from one patch of bush to another."Bushbuck, by all that's wonderful! We've seen pallah. I wonder whatother kind of game is shut up in this kloof."
Almost as the words came out of his mouth he was answered, for amagnificent bull koodoo strolled out of a thorn grove by the river ahundred yards away, and, with a family party of hornless cows and younganimals, stood staring at the intruders, who now in their turn halted togaze at the spectacle.
"You beauties!" said Mr. Blakeney enthusiastically. "It seems a shamealmost to intrude upon you! And, indeed, we won't shoot here unless weare absolutely driven to it. It's a place of enchantment, and we oughtnot to bring death here if we can help it."
Forward they went again. After walking twenty minutes, Poeskop crossedthe river at a shallow ford where a sandbank ran out into the stream,and stopping, said, "Baas, I think we shall find the gelt here."