"Yebo--they hunt us; and the men who enter the reeds are stationed in game tracks. It is good; they think we are still there."
"And if we had remained," said Laura, "could we not have hidden?"
"No, Inkosikasi; those men who continue will presently enter in the rear of our retreat. They will then spread out and advance. If we were there we should be driven ahead like game, and those stationed in the paths would see us sooner or later. Oh, ay, it is a good plan they have made, but we have made a better."
She put her hand on Hume"s shoulder.
"You were right, Frank."
They watched in breathless interest, and it followed as Sirayo had said.
When the main body of warriors reached the spot they entered the reeds, leaving half a dozen men on the outside, who turned and followed the line of beaters.
"Two of those are white men," said Klaas; "they carry guns."
"The devils," growled Webster; "there is some mystery in the hate with which they pursue us."
"No mystery," answered Laura; "they have the key to the Golden Rock, and know we are in search of it."
"I"m afraid it is so," said Hume. "They do not shout as they would if they were after game; and, see, a buffalo has broken cover, and the men on the outside do not fire."
For an hour the man hunt went on, and from time to time game of all kinds broke out, circled round unnoticed, and re-entered the reeds. At last a gun was fired as a signal, and the men straggled out in twos and threes till the whole body had re-a.s.sembled about a mile below the point they had entered. They remained for some time, after which they lit fires, while half a dozen men again advanced, quartering the ground along the reeds, searching evidently for spoor.
"It is well we were careful to leave no spoor when quitting the reeds,"
muttered Hume, as he brushed his hand across his brow.
Slowly the six men advanced until they were opposite the retreat, when they again entered the reeds, remaining hidden for some time, to emerge at last from the very game track followed by the fugitives.
Hume grasped his rifle, while Sirayo"s hand felt for his a.s.segai.
The men stayed a few minutes gesticulating; then four of them started back for the main body, leaving two, who moved about for some time with their bodies bent. Then, straightening up, they advanced swiftly.
"Good G.o.d!" muttered Hume; "they have hit off the spoor. Behind the rocks!"
Sirayo said a word to the Gaika, and, slipping off their blankets, they each took an a.s.segai and went down, one on each side of the ridge, taking so much advantage of the shelter, that, after a few moments, even Hume could not follow them.
"Have they deserted?" said Laura, with a gasp.
"No," said Hume, in a suppressed whisper; "they are taking the only measure that will save us. They are brave men and faithful, and our lives depend on them."
"It is true," she murmured, while her eyes grew large. "I said it when you first told me of the accursed Rock--it can only be reached through blood."
From the shelter of the rocks they saw the two men breast the ridge, following on the spoor like bloodhounds, and stopping at intervals to look over the ground ahead. Gradually their pace slackened, until, when they had reached the place where Laura had rested, they halted, and seemed reluctant to advance further; indeed, after looking long at the precipice which crossed the ridge, they turned to retreat.
They were about four hundred yards off, and Hume raised his rifle.
"If they escape," he said, "the whole crowd will be about us, and if I fire it will also draw them."
At this moment the men sprang aside as though suddenly alarmed, and in the same breath the two concealed foes hurled themselves upon them.
There was a shout, the sharp click of a.s.segais, a death hug and tumble, and two men arose to continue their flight down the hill.
The three spectators looked at each other horrified.
"Our men are killed," said Webster, moistening his lips.
"This is the beginning of the end," she whispered; "poor Klaas, who was so willing, and Sirayo so strong and brave."
Hume looked after the two men with despair in his eyes. They reached the bottom of the ridge, shouted after the four men, who were half-way to the main body, and then entered the reeds.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
THE FACE OF ROCK.
"It won"t be long before they attack us, will it?" asked Webster quietly; "the main body may be two miles away, or perhaps three, allowing for the roughness of the ground. They will learn where we are in half an hour. We"ve got an hour--plenty of time to build a circular wall from the base of the cliff."
"We three are left," murmured Laura; "and if we are to die, let us die together."
"Don"t let us talk of dying," said Hume, who had been in a brown study.
"We"ve beaten them off before, and we"ll do it again," continued Webster; "but we must have our bulwarks high and stanch. Let us begin."
"There is no necessity; at least, I hope so. Wait until I return," and he cautiously went down the ridge.
"What"s in the wind now?" muttered Webster, as the two looked anxiously at each other, and then stood waiting in silence while they searched the ground in vain for any sign of him. At last, after a torturing interval, they saw him reach the scene of the fight, saw him a moment, and then underwent the same suspense. It might have been an hour after he left them that he suddenly appeared below them from behind a bush, and his face told its tale before he cried, "It is all right."
"How," they said, "can it be right? Surely there were two men killed, and the others escaped?"
"Yes," said Hume, rubbing his knees, for he had crawled for many a yard; "but the two men killed were our enemies."
"But why, then, did our men leave us?"
"Be sure they have some good reason. When I saw the two retreat after the fight, I thought, with you, that Sirayo and Klaas had been killed; but I could not understand how a man like Sirayo could fall before a foe not armed with a gun, and something in their walk aroused my hopes.
When they entered the reeds, I was convinced they were our men; for, naturally, the others, if they had escaped, would have run on at once to the main body."
"Shake, old man," said Webster; "you"ve put me in good heart again;" and the two brown and sinewy hands came together in an iron grasp.
"Don"t leave me out," she whispered, and with the first laugh that had left their lips for some time, the three crossed hands. Then, seating themselves on the long gra.s.s between the rocks, they watched the Zulus right through the morning, and into the afternoon. There was no movement until the sun was on the downward slope, and the shadow of the mountain had lengthened out, when, the warriors fell into four companies, and entered upon what, from the deep-throated shouts that marked time to their antics, was evidently a war-dance.
"See!" said Hume anxiously, "they are preparing to attack; there can be no doubting that dance. Can it be possible that they know we are here?"
"If our men have told them," said Webster gloomily. "But," he added grimly, "let them come, and have done with this suspense."
"They are moving now!"
"And coming this way!"
"Yes, by heavens!"