Part 36 (2/2)
”Ugh! Don't be such a savage!” cried West angrily. ”You wouldn't do anything of the kind. I should be far more hard-hearted and cruel than you'd be, for I would have him tied up to the wheel of a wagon and set a Kaffir to flog him with a sjambok on his bare back.”
”Oh!” exclaimed Ingleborough sharply.
”What's the matter?”
”And I've come away without having the oily rascal stripped of his plunder.”
”What! His diamonds?”
”Yes. I know he has a regular pile hidden in that wagon of his, and, what's more, I know where to look and find them.”
”Where?”
”Never you mind till the time comes! I have a sort of prescient idea that some day we shall face that fellow again with the circ.u.mstances reversed; and then I'm going to have his loot cleared out.”
And this and much more as the fugitives cantered easily along through the darkness, giving their ponies their heads and letting them increase the distance more and more, till all at once West broke the silence by exclaiming: ”I say, Ingle, is it really true?”
”Is what really true--that Master Anson's a fat beast?”
”No, no; that we have escaped and are riding away at full liberty to go where we please? It seems to me like a dream, and that in the morning we shall awake and find ourselves once again in that dreary wagon.”
”Partly true, partly imaginary,” said Ingleborough bluntly.
”What do you mean?” said West, in a startled tone.
”It's true that we've made a jolly clever escape, thanks to you; but it isn't true that we're at liberty to go where we like.”
”Why not?” said West wonderingly.
”Because you've got that despatch in your jacket somewhere, I hope.”
”Yes,” said West, after running his hand down a seam. ”It's safe enough!”
”Well, that despatch says we must go to Mafeking; so we're prisoners to duty still.”
”Of course!” said West cheerily. ”But look here: it's of no use to tire our ponies. We're far enough off now to let them walk, or dismount and let them graze till we know which way to steer.”
”It's all right; keep on, lad! We're steering as straight as if we had a compa.s.s. I believe the ponies know where we want to go, and took the right line at once.”
”Nonsense! You don't believe anything of the kind. What makes you think we're going in the right direction?”
”Because the clouds yonder thinned out a bit half-an-hour ago, and I saw three dim stars in a sort of arch, and continuing the line there was another brighter one just in the place where it ought to be. I know them as well as can be of old: the big one sets just in the north-west.”
”Are you sure of that?” cried West eagerly.
”As sure as that I bore off a little to the right as soon as I saw that star, so as to turn more to the north and straight for Mafeking. I don't guarantee that we are keeping straight for it now the stars are shut out; but we shall know as soon as it's day by the compa.s.s.”
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