Part 36 (2/2)
”Well, now we're in for it you'd better let me go first,” said Thorman.
”I know these rivers better than you do.”
Hicks acquiesced, and they plunged on. As they neared the bridge the current increased in strength, but not yet did they feel anything like its full force.
”Quick! Turn to your right,” shouted Thorman, wheeling his horse. His experienced eye detected one of those deep fissures above mentioned, into which his steed even then nearly slipped. A plunge and a splash, and he was on firm ground again, Hicks following.
And now, as they neared the bridge, the horses began to show signs of terror: snorting and tossing their heads, their eyes rolling wildly as they began to feel the effect of the swift, powerful current flowing round the great piers at the entrance to the bridge, and had the riders lost nerve their doom was sealed. And in truth the situation was somewhat awful, and well calculated to try the strongest nerves. Before them lay the submerged bridge, the water tearing over its roadway so as to hide it completely--to what depth they could hardly guess. Even Hicks began to repent of his headstrong rashness as he looked giddily at the red, heaving flood rearing up its great waves as it thundered against the bridge; but it was too late now, there was no turning back.
”So-ho, boy!--careful!--so-ho!” he cried, patting the neck of his frightened steed, which, terrified at the roar and rush of water through the ironwork, showed signs of backing; but the current upon the bridge shallowing after rather a deep plunge just before reaching it, in a measure rea.s.sured the animals.
”Don't look at the river, Hicks; keep your eyes on your horse, and look only at where you're going,” said Thorman, in a set, deep voice, speaking over his shoulder; but the warning was nearly lost in the deafening roar of the flood. Overhead, on either side, rose the parapet of the bridge, and, as they splashed along the submerged roadway, every now and then an uprooted tree or a huge stump would be hurled with an appalling crash upon the acc.u.mulation of drift-wood which lay against the quivering ma.s.s of ironwork. In one place the head of a drowned ox protruded through an aperture as though the animal were looking into a road; having been dashed there by the current, and its body being unable to follow. A bizarre and ghastly sight was this great head, with its fixed, gla.s.sy eyes, and yet living aspect, glaring from out of the ruin.
But such things as these our adventurers saw as in a dream. All their attention was turned to their horses and their own safety. They could feel the huge structure quiver and shake as they pa.s.sed along it, and ever in their ears was the stunning, deafening roar of the mighty flood as it boomed beneath and around them.
And now the worst was over. They had gained the other end of the bridge, but before them lay an expanse of submerged land, where the current, if not so strong and deep as on the side they had started from, was at any rate wide enough still to const.i.tute a source of peril in the exhausted state of their steeds. But the bottom was a smooth gentle slope, free from any of the occasional cracks and fissures which had troubled them at first.
”Don't stop, Hicks! Keep his head _up_ the stream. We'll be through in a minute!” cried Thorman; and cramming his hat down, he settled himself firmer in the saddle, and struck into the open flood again.
But the horses knew that the worst was over, and kept up bravely, snorting and puffing like traction-engines as they struggled to maintain their footing in the swirling tide. As in a dream, the riders could see a crowd of men at the water's edge; could hear their cheers of encouragement; then the resistance of the current slackened and ceased, and the exhausted animals walked despondently out, and stood, their dripping flanks panting and heaving, as Hicks and Thorman slid to the ground, little less done up than their steeds.
”I say--did you do that for a bet?” asked one of the crowd which had been standing ready to afford them what a.s.sistance they could, as well as to watch an event of some excitement, a perfect G.o.dsend to these men delayed there for many tedious days.
”No. Bet be d.a.m.ned,” growled Thorman. ”I did it because that fool persuaded me to; and I wouldn't do it again for a thousand pounds.”
”Oh, hang it, old man, don't be s.h.i.+rty,” cried Hicks. ”We are through now, you know, and the proof of the pudding's in the eating. Besides, we've shown what our horses can do.”
”By the way, Mister, d'you care to part with that same animal?” said a tall, lank transport-rider, critically eyeing Hicks' steed. ”Because I want a horse that ain't afraid o' water. I have a lot of drift work to do at times, and that critter o' yours 'ud just suit me. What's the figure?”
”Well, no, I don't,” answered Hicks. ”It would be rather rough to get rid of him, just as he's brought me through that, wouldn't it?”
”Oh, all right,” rejoined the other, good-humouredly, ”I'd kind of taken a fancy to him, that's all. When you do, just drop a line to John Kemp, Salem, Lower Albany.”
The two turned and waved their hats in response to a cheer which arose from the other side.
”Well, we shan't meet in the next world yet, my friends,” remarked Hicks, with a laugh, referring to the last G.o.d-speed hurled after them as they began their perilous crossing. Then, leading their horses, they turned towards the roadside inn, which lay a couple of hundred yards from the river bank, and whose landlord, by reason of the presence of a number of men in a state of enforced idleness, was driving a roaring trade. The inn, or ”hotel” as it was usually called, was, this afternoon, in a state of exceeding liveliness, for it was full of transport-riders, making merry--one or two of them, indeed, decidedly ”cut,” and in that condition affording huge entertainment to the rest.
Ordinarily a sober cla.s.s of men, they were now indulging through sheer _ennui_, being driven, as one of them expressed it, ”to get on the spree in self-defence,” and to keep their spirits up. So the place rang with the boisterous mirth of many jovial souls, and the air was heavy with the fumes of grog and Boer tobacco which not all the open windows and the door sufficed to carry off. Hicks started, as a dog and an empty whisky-bottle shot past his legs at the same time in the doorway.
”Beg pardon, mate,” cried a giant in corduroy, from across the room, not moving from his place on a dingy sofa, where he sat wedged in among other boon companions. ”Sims here bet me I couldn't hit that Kafir cur on the side of the ear, the loser to stand drinks all round.”
”And, by jingo, you've lost,” rejoined Hicks, good-humouredly, ”so we claim to cut in to the penalty.”
”Right you are,” cried the other, with a jolly laugh. ”What's it to be--'French'--Whisky? All right. Here, Sims, whisky and soda for these gentlemen here; Hennessy for me,” and then followed much discussion and questioning among the rest as to what they would take, one rather surly fellow coming near to having his head punched for curtly declining to benefit by the general ”treat.”
The hotel-keeper, a thin, wiry-looking man, with grey whiskers and a sharp face, now came forward.
”Where might you be from?” he began. ”Want to off-saddle? You see I'm pretty busy just now,” he went on, as if apologising for the delay.
”We _might_ be from the bottom of the river, thanks to this fellow, and we don't _want_ to off-saddle, because we have,” growled Thorman. He was determined, characteristically, to make the worst of the situation, and resented having been made a fool of, as he phrased it, by Hicks.
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