Part 12 (2/2)
They--up yonder--will kno to talk with you”
No further interruption occurred, and before us lay the tell-tale track, as clear as need be At length the wooded heights rose immediately in front, and we halted for another short off-saddle
”Now look here,” began Brian, throwing hi his pipe ”It's evident these chaps don't care whether we follow them or not, but I believe we shall co, and we shall have a little over three hours of daylight to do it in The sort of treatot to expect And there are only four of us”
”Hooray for a row!” cried Trask
”Yes, but we don't want a row if it can possibly be avoided We're between the devil and the deep sea, which for present purposes may be taken to mean that none of us must fire a shot unless our lives depend upon it, and then, if possible, fire blank”
This oration was interrupted, and that by a thud of approaching hoof strokes and a sound of deep voices and laughter A track wound round the hillside lower down, andabout a score ofat the top of their voices It was clear that this gang was returning from a visit to some canteen, for the condition of more than one of their nu in their ragged saddles as they belaboured their wretched undersized steeds
”All as drunk as pigs,” whispered Revell ”By George! That looks like Kuliso”
A tall, finely-made man, clad in an ancient pair of trousers and a red blanket and wearing an ivory ring on his left ar, evidently a chief, for he was rather reater share of attention
”No, it isn't,” returned Brian ”I don't knoho it is, though” And in a trice the weird equestrians, their red blankets streaiven theet further on their e resuloohts which now rose in front of us Peaceful solitude rather than lurking danger was the idea conveyed by that winding succession of deep valleys and lofty hills slu afternoon, yet the network of rugged ravines ere about to penetrate had, in former times, been the scene of es had all lain with the wild denizens of the place Many a dark episode could those tangled glens have told, of patrols surprised and outnumbered in the thick bush, of brave ed off, wounded and disabled, to be put to a lingering death of torture Even at that time the locality held an evil repute as the haunt of cattle thieves and desperate characters generally
We crossed a kind of deep basin shut in on all sides by wooded hills, then through a narrow _poort_ overhung by aloe-fringed krantzes widening out into just such another basin In fact, we seeh oing to get out? Then the clas in front, and we suddenly caht on,” said Brian ”We can't stop No tireeting, butsilence And now the way becaed still, and the spoor, yet plain as ever, led us far down into a jungly glade, where thelike trellis work froreat yelloood trees, and here in the shaded gloom of the forest--for this was no ht see in
”What's this?” said Brian, turning in his saddle to look back, as a long shrill cry arose in the distance, from the direction of the kraal we had left behind us
”I hope they are not raising the country on our heels”
We paused and listened The sound was repeated, far away behind us
”Well, we must take our chance 'Push on' is the word”
For soround as I have already described And now the sky was gloith blades of golden effulgence, as the rays of the declining sun lengthened, touching for aup, here and there, froed louris darted across our path, but otherwise sign of life was there none
Somehoe felt that we ht number ten or a hundred Every moment had become one of tense excitement and expectation
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AN OVERHAUL
”Magtig!” exclai”
”S-s-s-h!” warned Brian, crouching low on his horse's neck ”Dismount, every one”
A few hundred yards beneatha kraal It lay in a deep natural basin, walled in with rugged rocks and thick bush; but so shut in was it on all sides that this seemed the only way in or out A curl of s air, and the sound of several deep voices in conversation was plainly audible; and with it, the strong s th reached the object of our quest; for Kafirs very rarely kill their own cattle, and this circumstance combined with the freshness of the spoor, left no further doubt in our minds
And now, before we could for, and a nued forward by a single Kafir, as driving theate of the thorn enclosure There was no e fine animals, white, but speckled all over with bluish black It was Septimus Matterson's fine span