Part 38 (1/2)
But this chaff was interrupted by a trooper, who had ridden back froht caused his superior to swear The river was down, and the passage of the Gilwana drift would be impossible for at least a couple of hours
”That's that infernal thunder burst up in the hills early this ave orders to off-saddle where they were, for, of course, he had originally intended to do so on the further side
However, it was open here, at any rate, and they erous part before dark
”This is a real old picnic now, Miss Halse,” pronounced Sub-Inspector Dering, as he helped to unpack fro for lunch ”Lord, what a nuisance those kids are!” he added in an undertone ”Always howling”
For Minton's s expostulation at the delayed meal The while vedettes were posted, and the police, split up into groups, were discussing their rations The officers and the civilian eleether, and as such it seemed, but the stacked rifles and full bandoliers told a different tale
”What d'you think, Halse?” said Inspector Bray, as the two talked apart while the others were laughing and joking and s ”Shall we slip through, or shall we get a chance at Sapazani?”
”Can't say You see, I've been cut off from communication ever since I left ho you may rely upon, we have been watched every inch of the way”
”Sure?”
”Dead cert However, let's fall-to, at any rate We'll be ready for them if they do come, and we can't do h Sub-Inspector Dering attached hiement, but he was an Irish wo with the other prospectors, a whom he had chosen to keep himself But when the after-lunch pipes came out, Bray, with an escort of a dozen men, started off to examine the drift for himself, and with him went Denham
It was barely two h, clayey banks fringed with dense bush If attacked at the point of crossing the h-water mark of the flood had left a broad, wet stripe between it and the surface The strea rapidly
”In half-an-hour we shall be able to take it,” he said ”Hallo! Don't see anything, Denhalasses to his eyes ”It looks like cattle Yes, it is; black and white ones But they are not being driven; they see”
Away on the hill, some seven hundred yards beyond the river, where the bush thinned out into rocks and open ground, white specks were visible to the naked eye
”It's a signal, I believe,” said Bray ”Well, we'll take the drift now, at any rate If we are to have a fight here, I prefer it by daylight”
And he ordered a trooper to gallop back to the camp with instructions to saddle up and inspan ily short space of tih Minton's rotten harness, which kept giving way in all sorts of unexpected directions Inspector Bray cursed hideously to hiht have earned heartfelt ade by reason of his proficient originality in that direction Willing hands, and handy ones, there were and plenty, but by the tie was repaired quite a considerable portion of precious tiain at the drift more delay The storekeeper's wretched horses stuck
All the flogging in the world was of no use; and there was the trap in the h the botto, and the wo disht have been disastrous But Ben Halse outspanned his pair and hitched the, the whole outfit ereat deal more valuable time had been lost And it was nearly sundown, and about seven erous and bushy part of the road had to be negotiated
The early afternoon was drawing in, and there is little or no twilight in those latitudes They had covered about threea mass of Zulus rose up fro ”_Usutu_!” charged down upon the front of the column They were naked, save for their _ cowhair, and carried shi+elds and bright, business-like assegais
”Sapazani's people,” exclaimed Ben Halse ”Look out for the chief, boys You can't ht hiest here”
There was not even time to dismount, but the revolvers of the police at such close quarters, ai mass that those behind could not co bodies that lay in front
”Give it the the top off the skull of a gigantic savage as clutching at his bridle rein with one hand, a broad assegai held ready to strike in the other The great body toppled over with a thud, and at the sa volley sent ain With splendid discipline the troop resues were slapped into the pistols; it seemed likely to prove a revolver duel, in that the bush was too thick to adether, had shown themselves wonderfully free from restiveness As for the h all ranks This was battle indeed, and, so far, they had held their own
For a few , but cool-nerved, alert, ready for any freshredly from the dim duskiness of the slope Bullets hu the side of Ben Halse's spider Verna, who had got out herher eyes in search of a mark, heard the, but whose revolver was ready to his hand, also took no notice But just before the volley ceased doent a trooper almost under the wheels of the trap
”In here with hi to lift the stricken man in He was badly hurt, too, and insensible, but there was little enough ti the wounded, for immediately a fresh volley was poured in This ties raised a deafening roar of exultation
But now soan to show theerness they began to cross this too soon