Part 20 (1/2)
”Some, I think, murderer,” but as I spoke the words a chill of fear struckno witnesses, and henceforward I should be a Cain aun was eht be said that I had fired it after his death And as for the graze upon ht have caused it What should I do, then? Drive him before me to the caainst his No, he had o, and trust that Heaven would avenge his crie was cooling, and to execute a man thus--
”Hernan Pereira,” I said, ”you are a liar and a coward You tried to butcher me because Marie loves me and hates you, and you want to force her to marry you Yet I cannot shoot you down in cold blood as you deserve I leave it to God to punish you, as, soon or late, He will, here or hereafter; you who thought to slaughter me and trust to the hyenas to hide your crione before I change my mind, and be swift”
Without another word he turned and ran swiftly as a buck, leaping from side to side as he ran, to disturb my aim in case I should shoot
When he was a hundred yards away orsafe till I knew there was a round between us
It was past ten o'clock that night when I got back to the camp, where I found Hans the Hottentot about to start to look for me, with two of the Zulus, and told hion
The Vrouw Prinsloo was still up also, waiting to hear of my arrival
”What was the accident, Allan?” she asked ”It looks as though there had been a bullet in it,” and she pointed to the bloody smear upon ain
I nodded a second tio It would have been said that I murdered him,” and I told her what had happened
”Ja, Allan,” she remarked when I had finished ”I think you ise, for you could have proved nothing But oh! for what fate, I wonder, is God Alo and tell Marie that you are back safe, for her father won't let her out of the hut so late; but nothingmore, at any rate at present”
Here I may state, however, that within a few days Marie and everyone else in the camp knew the story in detail, except perhaps Marais, to whom no one spoke of his nephew Evidently Vrouw Prinsloo had found herself unable to keep secret such an example of the villainy of her aversion, Pereira So she told her daughter, who told the others quickly enough, though I gathered that some of them set dohat had happened to accident Bad as they knew Pereira to be, they could not believe that he was guilty of so black a crime
About a week later the rest of us started fro the sadness of ret The trek before us, although not so very long, was of an extreh about two hundred miles of country of which all we kneas that its inhabitants were the Ae tribes Here I should explain that afterthe route followed by Marais on his ill-fated journey towards Delagoa
Had we taken this it would have involved our crossing the terrible Loboht cattle could drag the wagons Moreover, the country beyond the a On the other hand, if we kept to the east of the h which we must pass was thickly populated, which rain
What finally decided us to adopt this route, however, was that here in these warrass for the oxen Indeed, now, at the beginning of spring, in this part of Africa it was already pushi+ng Even if it were not, the beasts could live upon what herbage remained over from last summer and on the leaves of trees, neither of which in this winter veld ever become quite lifeless, whereas on the sere and fire-swept plains beyond theat all So we deterame into these hot districts, especially as it was not yet the fever season or that of the heavy rains, so that the rivers would be fordable
I do not propose to set out our adventures in detail, for these would be too long Until the great one of which I shall have to tell presently, they were of an annoying rather than of a serious nature Travelling as we did, between the mountains and the sea, we could not well lose our way, especially as h that country; and when their knowledge failed us, we generally uides The roads, however, or rather the game tracks and Kaffir paths which we folloere terrible, for with the single exception of that of Pereira for part of the distance, no wagon had ever gone over them before Indeed, a little later in the year they could not have been travelled at all So the wheels, and sometied literally to cut our way through a belt of dense bush froht days to escape
Our other chief trouble careat nury beasts forced us to watch our cattle very closely while they grazed, and at night, wherever it was possible, to protect them and ourselves in ”bombast,” or fences of thorns, within which we lit fires to scare aild beasts
Notwithstanding these precautions, we lost several of the oxen, and ourselves had soht, just as Marie was about to enter the wagon where the wo over the fence
She leapt away froht her foot and fell dohereon the lion came for her In another few seconds she would have been dead, or carried off living
But as it chanced, Vrouw Prinsloo was close at hand Seizing a flah from the fire, that intrepid woe h into its throat The lion closed its jaws upon it, then finding the mouthful not to its taste, departed eventheMarie quite unhurt
Needless to say, after this I really worshi+pped the Vrouw Prinsloo, though she, good soul, thought nothing of the business, which in those days was but a common incident of travel
I think it was on the day after this lion episode that we caon, or rather its re a steep, rocky bank which overhung a streaon had fallen into the stream-bed, then ala natives of the neighbourhood, who had burned most of the ork in order to secure the precious iron bolts and fittings, informed us that the white one forward on foot so their cattle with them Whether this story were true or not we had noout It was quite possible that Pereira and his coas very quiet folk if well treated and given the usual complimentary presents for wayleaves, this did not seem probable Indeed, a week later our doubts upon this point were cleared up thus
We had reached a big kraal called Fokoti, on the Umkusi River, which appeared to be almost deserted We asked an old woone She answered that they had fled towards the borders of Swaziland, fearing an attack froan beyond this Umkusi River It seeih there was no war at the tiht it wise to put themselves out of reach of those terrible spears
On hearing this nee debated whether it would not be well for us to follow their exa ards, try to find a pass in the mountains Upon this point there was a division of opinion ao on, saying that the good Lord would protect us, as He had done in the past