The Kopje Garrison Part 60

"What have you found, sir?"

"Ruts-wheel-marks made, of course, by our guns or their limbers. Can't we tell our way by those?"

"No, sir. It makes things a bit simpler; but we had a gun and wagon at each end, and we can't tell in the dark which end this is. If we start again by this we're just as likely to make straight off for the Boer camp as for ours."

"Yes; we'll wait for daylight, sergeant," said d.i.c.kenson. "We're all tired out, so let's have two or three hours' rest."

A few minutes later Lennox, still plunged in a stupor-like sleep, was lifted from the sergeant's pony, and at once subsided into the bed of short scrub found for him; the ponies, well hobbled, were cropping the tender parts of the bushes; and the weary party were sitting down.

There was silence for a few minutes, and then the sergeant spoke in a whisper.

"Think it would be safe for the men to light a pipe, sir?"

"Hum! Yes," said d.i.c.kenson, "if they light the match to start their pipes under a held-out jacket and in the shelter of one of the big stones."

He repented directly he had given the consent, on account of the risk.

"But, poor follows!" he said, "this will be the second night they have been out on the veldt, and it will help to keep them awake."

Lennox was at the end of a couple of hours sleeping as heavily as ever. d.i.c.kenson had seated himself close by him so that he could lay a hand upon his forehead from time to time; and he judged that the poor fellow must be in pain, for each time there was a sharp wincing, accompanied by a deep sigh, which resulted in the touch being laid on more lightly. It was only to satisfy himself in the darkness that his comrade was sleeping and not sinking into some horrible state of lethargy; and finding at last that there was no apparent need for his anxiety, the watcher directed his attention to listening for sounds out upon the veldt, and divided the time by making surmises as to the experiences through which Lennox must have pa.s.sed.

Captured and escaped! That was the conclusion to which he always came, and he wished that Lennox would wake up and enliven the tedium of the dark watch by relating all that he had gone through.

The lion made itself heard again and again, but at greater distances; and the prowling jackals and hyenas seemed to follow, for their cries grew fainter and fainter and then died out into the solemn silence of the veldt, which somehow appeared to the listener as if it were connected with an intense feeling of cold.

Then all at once, as d.i.c.kenson turned himself wearily and in pain from the crus.h.i.+ng he had received when the stone slipped, he became conscious of something dark close by, and his hand went involuntarily to his revolver.

The next minute he realised that what he saw was not darker, but the sky behind it lighter, and he sprang to his feet.

"You, sergeant?" he said.

"Yes, sir," was whispered back. "Be careful; one never knows who may be near. The light's coming fast."

Coming so fast that at the end of a quarter of an hour d.i.c.kenson could dimly make out the steep kopje by Groenfontein away to his left, and the low, hill-like laager that they had destroyed twenty-four hours before low down on the opposite horizon.

"Why, sergeant," he whispered eagerly, "if we had started again in the dark we should have gone right off to where the Boers might have been."

"Yes, sir, and away from home. That's the worst of being in the dark."

"As soon as it's a little lighter," whispered d.i.c.kenson, "we had better carefully examine this place. It is quite possible that there may be a patrol of the enemy occupying it, as we have done."

"Yes, sir, likely as not, for-"

The sergeant clapped his hand over his lips and dropped down upon his knees, s.n.a.t.c.hing at his officer's jacket to make him follow his example.

There was need enough, for all at once there was something loudly uttered in Dutch, replied to by another speaker, the voices coming from the other side of the woodland patch.

In another minute there was quite a burst of talking, and, making signs to his two companions, the sergeant stepped softly to where the ponies were browsing and led them in amongst the trees, which stood up densely, until they were well hidden.

The next idea was to lift Lennox well under cover; but he was not touched, for he was still sleeping, and already so well hidden that it would not have been possible for any one to see him if pa.s.sing round outside the trees and the thin belt of scrub.

"Get well down there, my lads," said d.i.c.kenson then. "We'll try and hold this little clump of stones if they do find us. If they do, we must give them a wild shout and a volley. They need not know how few we are."

The men crouched down among the stones while the pale grey dawn was broadening, and waited in the full expectation of being discovered; for though a mounted patrol might in pa.s.sing fail to see the men, the chances were that it would be impossible to go by without catching sight of the ponies.

It was evident enough to the listeners that the Boer party had pa.s.sed the night in this shelter, and that they must have been sleeping without a watch being kept; otherwise, in spite of the quiet movements of d.i.c.kenson and his men, their arrival must have been heard; and now, as they crouched there, rifle in hand, all waited in the hope that the party would ride off at once in the direction of the ruined laager.

But d.i.c.kenson waited in vain, for the crackling of burning sticks told that the enemy did not intend to start till they had made their breakfast, and the young officer's brain was busily employed debating as to whether it would not be better to try and drive them off with a surprise volley, putting them to flight in a panic. Under the circ.u.mstances he took the non-commissioned officer into consultation.

"If you think it's best, sir," said the sergeant, "do it; but you can't get much of a volley out of four rifles, and if you follow it up by emptying your magazines there'll be no panic, for they'll know what that means."

"What do you advise, then?"

"Waiting, sir. We're only four. There's Mr Lennox, but that seems like bringing us down to two instead of making us five. As we are we're in a strong position, and they may ride right away without seeing us; and that's what we want, I take it, for we don't want to fight-we want to get Mr Lennox safely back. If they don't ride straight off, and are coming round here and see us, we can try the panic plan while they're mounted. They're pretty well sure to scatter then. If we fire now they're not mounted, they'll take to cover, and that'll be bad, sir."

"Yes. It means a long, dull time," replied d.i.c.kenson. "We'll wait, sergeant; but how long it will be before they know we're here I'm sure I don't know. I've been expecting to hear one of the ponies neigh every moment, and that will be fatal."

"Oh, I don't know, sir. You never can tell. They may take fright even then after the startlings we've given them. They're brave enough chaps so long as they're fighting from behind stones, or in ambush, or when they think they've got the whip-hand of us; but a surprise, or the thought that we're getting round their flank and into their rear, is more than they can stand."

"Silence!" whispered d.i.c.kenson. "I think they're on the move."

But they were not, and the sun was well up before sundry sounds pointed to the fact that the enemy were preparing to start.

For sundry familiar cries were heard, such as a man would address to a fidgety horse which declined to have its saddle-girth tightened. The men were laughing and chatting, too, until a stern order rang out, one which was followed by the trampling of horses-so many that the sergeant turned and gave a significant glance at d.i.c.kenson.

"Now then, which way?" thought the latter. "If they come round this side they must see us, and they are bound to, for here lies their laager."

He was right, for the trampling came nearer, and it was quite evident that the little party were riding round in shelter of the patch of wood, so as to get it between them and the English camp before striking straight away.

They were only about a dozen yards distant, dimly seen through the intervening trees, and d.i.c.kenson was in the act of glancing right and left at his men when a chill ran through him. For Lennox, who had lain perfectly still in the shadow beneath the bush where he had been laid, suddenly began to mutter in a low, excited tone, indicating that he was just about waking up. It was impossible to warn him, even if he had been in a condition to be warned; and to attempt to stir so as to clap a hand over his lips must have resulted in being seen.

There was nothing for it but to crouch there in silence with hearts beating, and a general feeling that in another few seconds the order must come to fire.

The moments seemed to be drawn out to minutes as the Boers rode on, lessening their distance and talking loudly in a sort of formation two or three abreast, till the front pair were level, when one of them raised his hand to shade his eyes, and drew his comrade's attention to something in the distance.

"It's a party of the rooineks," he said in his Dutch patois; "or some of our horses left from that wretched surprise yesterday."

"I shall never do it in the dark," said Lennox half-aloud, and d.i.c.kenson's heart seemed to cease beating.

"What do you say, behind there?" cried the first speaker sharply, but without turning his head.

"I say they're rooineks," said one of the three who came next.

"Yes, they're rooineks, sure enough," said the first Boer; "but that's not what you said just now."

"Yes, I did," was the surly answer; "but every one here's talking at once."

"Yes," growled the first speaker. "Silence, there! Halt!"