Sirayo stopped when he was near the enemy, and then, striking his a.s.segai against his shield, he told them they had lied.
"You brought me against these people with false stories; I find they are my friends, and my shield is their shield, my a.s.segai is their a.s.segai.
But, inasmuch as you came here thinking you had the help of Sirayo, I stand here to meet any of you hand to hand, lest you say I fled from you when there was danger."
No one took up the challenge, which was received with a howl of rage, but presently man called to man until the news was carried to the Induna, who directed the attack from afar, and at his command there was a general movement towards that end of the laager where Sirayo stood.
At this the chief, not carrying defiance to the point of foolishness, returned into the camp, closing up the fence after him, and entered the laager. There was no time for talk, for the enemy appeared to be gathering for another rush, and fire was opened to check them, but when they altered their minds and drew off, Hume asked the chief the paramount question, whether the laager was strong enough to resist a determined attack.
Sirayo stretched his arms.
"You are in a hole; good if you can keep them out, but a death-trap if they enter, and when the night comes they will pull away the thorns.
See this tree? I already had marked it, and meant in the dark to send six young men. They would have climbed secretly into its branches and dropped among you. No; if you would live you must steal away."
"They will be on the watch."
"No. They know you cannot attack them, and before the dawn, after they have drawn away the thorns, they will come. By that time you must be away."
Hume interpreted, and it was resolved to take the chief"s advice. It was necessary, however, to get together as many necessaries as they could carry, and while Hume busied himself with this work, the others went out beyond the laager, for, as Sirayo advised, it was better to show they were not afraid. They paced round and round, longing, yet fearing, for the night to come, and frequently the glances of Miss Anstrade and Webster stole to the tall figure of the chief, half doubtful still of his intentions, while the Gaika regarded him sullenly in the light of an interloper.
Presently the two natives stood silently regarding some object on the plain, and, attracted by their attention, Miss Anstrade asked what it was they saw.
"White men," said Klaas.
"White men! Oh, then, we need not fly from our waggon, our home."
Klaas shook his head.
"Bad men, they."
"How can you tell, when they are so far that I cannot even see them?"
"They bad men," said Klaas, shaking his head, with the Kaffir"s reluctance or incapacity to explain the reasons that led up to his firm opinion.
White men they certainly were, and presently they were met by a native.
Were they friends or not? Anxiously they were watched as the men leisurely approached, and when they were close enough to be distinctly seen even by the untrained eyes of the Europeans, Miss Anstrade waved her handkerchief.
"Pa.s.s op," shouted Klaas, "he will skit," and at the cry four men sprang before Laura, while a tiny puff of smoke rolled up above the strangers, and a bullet whizzed unpleasantly near. That was the reply to the salute!
Hume, who had come out at the news of the strangers, flung up his rifle and fired, but the heavy Express carried wide at a long range.
"They are preparing," said Sirayo quietly, and took a pinch of snuff, while as he held the powder to his nostrils he pointed with his a.s.segai to where the gleam of shields showed thick among the bushes.
Hume took from Miss Anstrade her light and beautifully finished rifle.
Then, throwing a handful of dust into the air to get the direction of the wind, he put up the 500 yards sight.
"If I can pick that brute off I may stop the rush," and he nodded at one of the two whites who stood upon an ant-hill.
"Three hundred yards, I think," said Webster, measuring the distance with his eye.
"No; the clear air takes off from the distance. Now, Klaas, see where the bullet strikes. I will shoot better beyond the fence;" and pulling away a thorn, he walked out to an ant-hill.
"They come," cried Miss Anstrade, as the nodding plumes of the Zulus moved forward.
Hume knelt down, and resting the barrel on the conical top of the ant-mound, aimed long--so long, that Webster felt tempted to rush out and pull him in. At last came the crack.
"Missed, by heavens!" shouted Webster, and he emptied his two barrels at the dark ma.s.s which was now moving on the left in a direction parallel to the camp.
"Baas shoot too strong," cried Klaas, and Hume put up 450 yards, and inserted another cartridge.
"Come in, man, come in; they are running."
Sirayo moved out of the fence with the Express, after motioning Miss Anstrade to the laager.
Hume aimed again--longer than before--and the beat of the bare feet over the gra.s.s rose louder and louder, like the rush of a river in flood. At last!
"Oh, ay," shouted Klaas, "he is dead," and the man on the ant-hill, throwing up his arms, fell forward.
Then Hume, rising, took the Express from Sirayo, and, whipping round, dropped a warrior to each barrel, and, Webster firing rapidly too, caused a check, most of the men dropping to the gra.s.s to advance with more safety. But a dozen warriors, tempted by the chance of catching Hume outside the fence, leapt on, swallowing the ground with enormous strides, and twisting whenever the deadly rifle covered one of them. On they came in silence, their shields before them, and the short a.s.segais that won victory for the Zulus held in readiness, and now the gleam of their eyes could be seen, and now a low moan breaks from their lips as they feel their prey.
Webster gradually slipped nearer to the fence with Klaas at his side, and as the Zulus came together in the last rush, the four barrels were emptied and the revolvers drawn.
Now Sirayo"s terrible war-cry was raised as he suddenly bounded forward; in a few strides the lean Gaika was by his side with his sheaf of a.s.segais. There was a shock of shield striking shield, and the foremost Zulu fell with a groan, while, in the same breath almost, the tough shield of the chief met the thrust of the next man, and his red blade plunged deep beneath the arm. "Eh, Zu-tu!" he shouted, springing back from another blow, while his third a.s.sailant ate the a.s.segai of the Gaika. Then came the sharp crack-crack of heavy navy revolvers, and the five surviving Zulus turned and ran.
Then they retired into the laager, having taught the enemy a terrible lesson, and then the chief offered snuff with his red hand to the Gaika, who took this pledge of friendship.
"You are a great warrior," said Hume to Sirayo, "and you, Klaas, have fought like a lion."
"It is nought," said the Zulu. "I have killed ten men of the Nkobomokase in a feud when first I got my ring as a married man, and they were warriors every one--not men of the swamps like these, who are feeble. But it is well. They will not attack again to-night, and when the jackal calls we may go safely."
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
THE ESCAPE.
When the night swiftly settled down, a ring of fires sprang up about the little camp, and the warriors seated round chanted their battle songs with many a burst of merriment. But in the camp thus hemmed in there was silence--the silence of despair. Though they had beaten their foes off the victory would not lay with them, as they had to abandon their waggon, the home of many happy days; their possessions, which became more valuable with each day"s move from civilisation; and had to face the hardships and dangers of progress through savage country on foot, themselves their own porters.
"Is there no hope of holding out?" asked Webster.
Hume glanced significantly at Miss Anstrade, who, with head averted, was listening, with evident nervousness, to the ominous chants of the Zulus.
"We must escape," he muttered.
"At least, let us scuttle the ship before we leave her, lay a train to the powder-room, and blow her up."
"And so tell them that we have left the camp. No; I"m afraid we must leave everything standing. I have made four large bundles, and we can take away enough to last."
Blankets and rugs, rolled up and tied at their ends, were slung like horse-collars over their shoulders and across their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, rifles were picked up, bundles tied on with the ox rheims; and so prepared they waited the return of Sirayo, who had gone off scouting into the night.