A Frontier Mystery Part 15

"Good Lord!" I thought, "I seem to be getting sentimental. No wonder she thinks I've got softening of the brain."

But if she thought so she gave no sign of anything of the sort. On the contrary her tone was kind and sympathetic, as she said:

"Strange how little we can enter into the lives of others. Now yours, I suppose, is lonely enough at times."

"Oh, I've nothing to complain of," I answered with a laugh, anxious to dispel any impression of sentimentality which my former words and tone might have set up. "I started on this sort of life young, and have been at it in one way or another ever since. It hasn't used me badly, either."

She looked at me, with that straight, clear glance, and again a little smile that was rather enigmatical, hovered around her lips. But before she could say anything, even if she had intended to, Falkner's voice was raised in front.

"Wake up, Aida, and come along. I'm just going to heave Arlo in."

"No. You're not to," she cried hurrying forward.

The others had already reached the waterhole, and there was Falkner, on the rock brink, holding on to Arlo, grinning mischievously. The dog was licking his hands, and whining softly, his tail agitating in deprecatory wags. He wasn't in the least anxious for the plunge--and speaking personally I should have been uncommonly sorry to have undertaken to make him take it against his will, but then Falkner was one of the family. Now there was a half playful scrimmage between him and his cousin, in the result of which Arlo was rescued from taking what really was rather a high leap, and frisked and gambolled around us in delight.

This waterhole or pool, was rather a curious one. It filled a cup-like basin about twenty-five yards across, surrounded by precipitous rocks save at the lower end, and here, overflowing, it trickled down to join the Tugela, about half a mile distant. It was fed from a spring from above, which flowed down a gully thickly festooned with maidenhair fern.

Where we now stood, viz. at the highest point, there was a sheer drop of about twenty feet to the surface of the water--a high leap for a dog, though this one had done it two or three times and had come to no harm.

The hole was of considerable depth, and right in the centre rose a flat-headed rock. It was a curious waterhole, as I said, and quite unique, and I more than suspected, though I could never get anything definite out of them, that the natives honoured it with some sort of superst.i.tious regard. Incidentally it held plenty of coa.r.s.e fish, of no great size, likewise stupendous eels--item of course mud-turtles galore.

"Hie in, old dog! Hie in!" cried Falkner.

But Arlo had no intention whatever of "hie-ing in," being in that sense very much of an "old dog." He barked in response and frisked and wagged his tail, the while keeping well beyond reach of Falkners treacherous grasp.

"Rum place this, Glanton," said the latter. "I wonder there ain't any crocs in it."

"How do you know there are not?" I said.

"Oh hang it, what d'you mean? Why we've swum here often enough, haven't we?"

"Not very. Still--it's jolly deep you know. There may be underground tunnels, connecting it with anywhere?"

"Oh hang it. I never thought of that. What a chap you are for putting one off a thing, Glanton."

"I never said there were, mind. I only suggested the possibility."

He raised himself on one elbow, and his then occupation--shying stones at every mud-turtle that showed an unwary head--was suspended.

"By Jove! Are there any holes like this round Hensley's place?" he said earnestly.

"Not any," I answered. "This one is unique; hence its curiosity."

"Because, if there were, that might account for where the old chap's got to. Underground tunnels! I never thought of that, by Jove. What d'you think of that, Edith? Supposing you were having a quiet swim here, and some jolly croc grabbed you by the leg and lugged you into one of those underground tunnels Glanton says there are. Eh?" grinned Falkner, who was fond of teasing his cousins.

"I wouldn't be having a quiet swim in it, for one thing. I think it's a horrid place," answered the girl, while I for my part, mildly disclaimed having made any such statement as that which he had attributed to me.

"Bos.h.!.+" he declared. "Why you can take splendid headers from the middle rock there. Oh--good Lord!"

The exclamation was forcible, and to it was appended a sort of amazed gasp from all who saw. And in truth I was not the least amazed of the lot. For there was a disturbance in the depths of the pool. One glimpse of something smooth, and sinuous, and s.h.i.+ny--something huge, and certainly horrible--was all we obtained, as not even breaking the surface to which it rose, the thing, whatever it might be--sank away from sight.

"What was it?"

"Can't say for certain," I said, replying to the general query. "It didn't come up high enough to take any shape at all. It might have been a big python lying at the bottom of the hole, and concluding it had lain there long enough came up, when the sight of us scared it down again.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a crocodile."

"Tell you what, Glanton. You don't catch me taking any more headers in there again in a hurry," said Falkner. "Ugh! If we'd only known!"

"There is prestige in the unknown," I said. "It may be something quite harmless--some big lizard, or a harmless snake."

"Well it's dashed odd we should just have been talking of that very sort of thing," said the Major. "Let's keep quiet now and watch, and see if it comes up again."

We did, but nothing came of it. Indeed if I alone had seen the thing I should have distrusted my senses, should have thought my imagination was playing me false. But they had all seen it.

"I shall come down here again with the rifle and watch for an hour or two a day," said Falkner. "Or how would it be to try bait for the beast, whatever it is--eh, Glanton?"

"Well you might try to-morrow. Otherwise there isn't much time," I answered. "We trek on Wednesday, remember."

Now all hands having grown tired of sitting there, on the watch for what didn't appear, a homeward move was suggested, and duly carried out. We had covered a good part of the distance when Miss Sewin made a discovery, and an unpleasant one. A gold coin which was wont to hang on her watch chain had disappeared.

"I must go back," she said. "I wouldn't lose that coin for anything.

You know, Mr Glanton, I have a superst.i.tion about it."

She went on to explain that she had it at the time we had seen the disturbance in the waterhole so that it must have come off on the way down, even if not actually while we were on the rocks up there. Of course I offered to go back and find it for her, but she would not hear of it. She must go herself, and equally of course I couldn't let her go alone. Would I if I could? Well, my only fear was that Falkner would offer his escort. But he did not, only suggesting that as it was late it was not worth while bothering about the thing to-night. He would be sure to find it in the morning when he came up with a rifle to try and investigate the mystery of the pool. But she would not hear of this.

She insisted on going back, and--I was jubilant.

I knew the coin well by sight. It was of heavy unalloyed gold, thickly stamped with an inscription in Arabic characters. But, as we took our way along the bush path, expecting every moment to catch the gleam of it amid the dust and stones, nothing of the sort rewarded our search, and finally we came to the rocks at the head of the pool.

"This is extraordinary and more than disappointing," she said, as a hurried glance around showed no sign of the missing coin. "I know I had it on here because I was fingering it while we were looking at the water. I wouldn't have lost it for anything. What can have become of it, Mr Glanton? Do you think it can have fallen into the water?"

"That, of course, isn't impossible," I said. "But--let's have another search."

I was bending down with a view to commencing this, when a cry from Aida arrested me.

"Oh, there it is. Look."

She was standing on the brink of the rocks where they were at their highest above water, peering over. Quickly I was at her side, and following her glance could make out something that glittered. It was in a crevice about five feet below, but as for being able to make it out for certain, why we could not. The crevice was narrow and dark.

"I think I can get at that," I said, having taken in the potentialities of hand and foothold.

"No--no," she answered. "I won't have it. What if you were to fall into the water--after what we have just seen? No. Leave it till to-morrow, and bring a rope."

This was absolutely sound sense, but I'll own to a sort of swagger, show-off, inclination coming into my mind. The climb down was undoubtedly risky, but it would be on her account.

"As to that," I answered with a laugh, "even if I were to tumble in, I should make such an almighty splash as to scare the father of all crocodiles, or whatever it is down there. By the time he'd recovered I should be out again on the other side."

"Don't risk it," she repeated earnestly. "Leave it till to-morrow.

With a long _reim_ you can easily get down."

But I was already partly over the rock. In another moment I should have been completely so, with the almost certain result, as I now began to realise, of tumbling headlong into the pool below, when a diversion occurred. Arlo, who had been lying at his mistress' feet, now sprang up, and charged furiously at the nearest line of bush, barking and growling like mad.