VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SEVEN.
A TIMELY FLIGHT.
Marshall's prediction was verified. Claverton and his host returned toFountain's Gap at desk; but without the lost stock. They had spooredthe animals down to a drift of the Kei River, and had even crossed; butin the then state of things they deemed it imprudent to a degree toventure farther into the enemy's country; and the thieves, having a goodstart of them, escaped with their booty.
Careful watch was kept that night in Payne's household; but beyond acouple of alarms--not unjustifiable after the events of the lasttwenty-four hours, though happily false--nothing transpired.
Under the influence of the cheering sunshine all were disposed to thinkmore lightly of the situation; but Payne had formed his plans. It wouldnot do to remain there any longer. He, in common with other settlers onthat part of the Kaffrarian border, was very precariously situated.What with Kreli, just across the river, in a state of declared war; andthe powerful Gaika clans, within colonial territory, liable to rise atany moment and make common cause with their brethren, George fullyrealised that he was in a cleft stick, hemmed in as he would thus be byhostile natives on every side. So he made up his mind to abandonFountain's Gap, and remove his family to Komgha; then he would have hishands free to take the field if it were still necessary. The move wasto be made that morning, and all the household were hastily preparingfor it.
It was arranged that they should remain in the settlement for thepresent, till it could be seen how things would turn out. There theywould be safe, as the place would be a kind of depot and theheadquarters whence all operations for guarding the border would becarried on.
"And now, George, I suppose the Kafirs will have made a bonfire of thehouse before I see it again," remarked his wife, as a turn of the roadhid the homestead from view.
"Dunno. Impossible to predict. They may, and they may not,"sententiously replied George, whose chief object in life, at thatmoment, was the lighting of his pipe under the adverse circumstances ofbeing at the same time obliged to control a pair of strong, freshhorses, none of the quietest at the best of times. He was driving aCape cart, the ordinary family coach of the frontier settler, which,besides the said family, contained very little else, for he intended toreturn at once as soon as the womenkind were in safety, and load up awaggon with such of his lares and penates as it was most desirable topreserve; for the rest, well, he supposed it must take its chance.Lilian was riding--needless to specify with what escort--and Marshall,who was leading a young horse, and whose attention was wholly taken upwith that intractable animal--or at any rate, said it was--rode a littleway behind.
"I wonder when I shall get you all to myself again, Arthur," she said,softly.
"I was thinking very much the same," he replied. "But keep the mercuryup, dear. The row may not last long."
"Yes. I must not be such a coward," she said. "But somehow thismorning, in spite of the sunshine and the glorious weather, there issomething so awfully depressing over everything. The whole countryseems deserted. That farmhouse we just passed spoke volumes, standingthere all shut up; and there are no natives about even. It isdreadful."
She was rather pale, after the long, anxious night, depressed as withthe shadow of coming woe. Claverton looked tenderly at the sweet facein its sad, delicate beauty, and wished to Heaven the Kafirs would leavethem all in peace. A fight was very good fun, but, for his part, he hadhad enough in the way of excitement to last him all his life, at leastso he thought; and now he would ask nothing better than to spend theremainder of his days in calm, undisturbed quiet, with this, hislong-lost love.
"Look," he said; "there are some people coming across there--and theyare Kafirs."
Lilian started. "Where? Oh, there are only a few," said she, in arelieved tone. For now, every member of the Amaxosa race assumed, inher imagination, the form of a fierce enemy threatening destruction toher and hers.
The natives, who had been crossing a bushy hollow some four hundredyards off, suddenly stopped, and began peering over the trees at theparty, as if uncertain as to the reception they would meet with. Faraway stretched the rolling sunny plains, and the lines of wooded hills,where here and there a thick column of smoke ascended through the clearair. One or two distant homesteads were visible--empty, and theirpastures tenantless, for a general flight had taken place and the landseemed dead indeed; and there, a little way off, were the red forms ofthe Kafirs watching them from the bush, while the pleasant sun shoneupon the bright points of their assegais.
"It reminds me rather of our ride over to Thirlestane that day," saidClaverton. "It's just such another day for sunshine and scenery."
"But not for peace," she rejoined, softly. "Ah, if all was only aspeaceful now."
"But it will be, darling. Only a little while longer," replied he, gladto have diverted her thoughts from this unexpected source of fear. Andas they rode on further and further from it, the group of armed savagescould still be seen watching them from the hill, but these were too fewin number to be formidable, and, moreover, the settlement was near athand. To which another hour of journeying brought them in due course.
And how changed was the aspect of the ordinarily quiet little villagenow! Waggons stood about everywhere, the three or four irregularstreets were filled with a bustling crowd--men mounted and men afoot--men of every class and pursuit--farmer, mechanic, storekeeper, frontierpoliceman, with here and there a military uniform, and, amid the crowd,dark-skinned natives moved quietly about, or stood in knots at thecorners, discussing the latest _indaba_. And the softer sex, too, heldits own, in the shape of the wives and daughters of the settlers--these,for their part, of as varied a class as their lords--the ponderous frameof the blowzy Dutch _vrouw_, side by side with the regular features andstraight profile of some tastefully-attired daughter of an old Englishline.
But although at first sight the place wore an air of bustle andconfusion, it must not be supposed that chaos reigned. A regular systemof defence had been organised in the event of attack, and certain pointsof vantage entrenched and fortified, and the safety of the place wasprovided for ably and well. The surrounding country, undulating andgrassy, was dotted with horses and cattle grazing. These could bedriven in at a moment's warning; and the approaches to the place, beingquite open and devoid of cover, were abundantly commanded by theartillery barracks of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, which stoodupon a hill some eight hundred yards from the village. The church, abrick and plaster building of unparalleled ugliness, would make anefficient block-house in the last extremity--surrounded as it was with ahigh sod wall. For those to whom their fellows' necessities were theirown opportunities, the existing state of affairs promised a richharvest, for the stores were doing a brisk trade, and the canteens andhotels were full morning, noon, and night. On the steps of one of thelatter lounged a group of men as our friends arrived.
"Hullo, Payne! You don't mean to say that's yourself?" cried one."Why, I thought you were going to stick to your place through it all."
"Well, and who says I'm not?" retorted Payne. "Can't a fellow driveinto the village for the day without having trekked?"
"Oh, for the day!" repeated the first speaker, significantly. "Then, mygood fellow, let me recommend you to remain. After that last affair weshall have old Kreli coming straight across to give as a look up, he'llbe so cock-a-hoop."
"Wish he would," growled another. "We'd give him particular toko."
"What last affair?" said Payne, half anticipating the answer. "Hasthere been a fight?"
"I should jes' think there had. A few of the Police and a lot ofFingoes were tackled by the Gcalekas; but you must have heard!"
"No, I haven't; not a word."
"Well, then," went on the other, brightening up as a man will do when heis the first to impart to you a big bit of news; "the thing was this. Alot of Gcalekas--five thousand, they say--were going across to thrashthe Fingoes, and the Police were ordered out to support the Fingoes.They
met, and the gun opened fire--one of them seven-pounders they werepractising here with t'other day. It appears that they made very goodshootin', and mowed down the Kafirs like smoke; and then somehow orother the gun broke down, and, by George, sir, before you could say`knife' the Fingoes turned tail and ran--bolted clean. Well, of courseit wasn't to be expected a few Police--a mere handful as it were--Howmany were there, Jim?" broke off the narrator, turning to a companion.
"About one hundred and sixty."
"Yes. Well, it wasn't to be expected they could stand against fivethousand of Kreli's chaps; and they didn't. The order was given toretire, and then it became a job to catch the horses, and, as the Kafirscharged them, they were obliged to run for it. Some who couldn't catchtheir horses were killed--six--six privates and a sub-inspector; and nowold Kreli's cock of the walk--for the time being."
"Where was the row?" asked Claverton.
"Well, it was at a place called Guadana--just on the boundary of theIdutywa Reserve."
"When was it--yesterday?" inquired Payne.
"No--day before. I'm expecting a chap round here directly who'sstraight from up there. Come in and liquor, and we'll get him to tellus all about it."
"The day before yesterday!" echoed Payne, opening his eyes wide--and heand Claverton looked meaningly at each other--for it was on the eveningof that very day that the old Kafir had come to them with his stealthywarning, and the dread Fire Trumpet had blazed forth on the Kei hills,signalling to the expectant tribes within the colonial boundary, thenews of their brethren's victory. And it was on the following day thatthey two had so nearly carried the war into the enemy's country inpursuit of the stolen cattle, all unconscious, then, of the mad rashnessof the undertaking--an undertaking, which, had it been carried out,would assuredly have cost them their lives.