Part 23 (1/2)
But a very few minutes' search convinced him that the place contained no human remains He was puzzled What had become of the unfortunate settlers? That there had been a fierce and sanguinary battle was evident, but it was ies could have been beaten off, else would the house not have been fired Herein was a loo deep within that lonely kloof, and, lying around, the grim earthly reed cliff, whose broas croith a grove of fantastically pluht a stealthy ave a slight start, and immediately was as ready for action as ever he had been in his life
Yes, so up there Theaerly upon the darkness of the straight euphorbia steures were flitting in and out Were others creeping up to assail hinalled by these? Was he in a trap, surrounded? Then he laughed--laughed aloud; for there went up fro bark:--
”Baugh- ained by further lingering, by extended investigation, he once more mounted his horse and took his way out of this valley of desolation and of death
And as he gained the opposite ridge, he found that the stor onward Before hirassy flats, fairly open, but dotted with _cloain, and, the cloud curtain now ree was a welco the traveller's spirits, soruesome scene he had just left And now, as the sun wanted but an hour to his setting, Roden decided to off-saddle for that space of time Then his steed, rested and refreshed, would carry hiht air, and but a very few hours should see hi inhabited dwellings oncea sequestered hollow, Roden off-saddled and knee-haltered his steed, and then betook hirew around a stony _kopje_, and which afforded hi-place and a most serviceable watch-tower, for it co veldt
CHAPTER TWENTY
MONA'S DREAM
Notwithstanding the splendid courage and quickness of resource she had shown upon a certain critical and, but for those qualities on her part, assuredly a fatal occasion, Mona Ridsdale was by no iven circumstances, which seems second nature with most women She preferred not to be left alone in the dark if possible to avoid it, and, in fact, had as dread a realisation of what it meant to be ”unprotected” as the most commonplace and unheroic of her sex: consequently, when Suffield found it unavoidable to be absent froht or two, Mona was apt to conjure up terrors which interfered materially with her peace of mind Now, just such an absence on the part of her hts after Roden's departure for the Main Ca!” she exclai, not for the first time, as one of the ordinary nocturnal wild sounds froh the open s
”Feel ht that one wants every square foot of air the ill admit”
”That is foolish, Mona,” replied her cousin ”Yes, your hands are indeed cold Why, to- back not only Charlie, but perhaps soer rejoinder ”But do you know, Grace, I have a horrible presentiment on that score too; I believe that is why I feel so shi+very to-night It is like a warning--I feel as if so!”
There was a wildness in the glance of the dilated eyes, a quick, spasmodic catch of the voice, which disconcerted the other, who, in ordinary matters, was the less tiive way to such fancies They grow upon one so And how you will laugh at the, when Charlie comes back, and perhaps soht was over I a”
The tere sitting together, the supper over, and the nursery departht Suffield had ridden away to attend a sale at a distance, and would hardly return before the following afternoon It was, as we have said, a hot night, and both s of the rooh impossible to breathe had they been shut At the black spaces thus fralance of apprehension, as though expecting, she knew not what, to heave into view froht, moreover, and every sound from without afted in with tenfold clearness--the weird shout of a night-bird from the mountain-side; the yelp of a jackal far out upon the plain; the loud and sudden, but ht locust, whose cry can hardly be credited to a mere insect, so powerful, so bird-like is it Even the splash of ainto the da sound swept past the openMona started again, and her face paled It was only soht which had half-attracted, half-scared hiht were her nerves that she could hardly repress a startled screa, and Grace Suffield felt that a littleherself
”My dear Mona,” she said; ”this is ht cold soo to bed; and I will o to bed, Grace, and I couldn't sleep if I did,” she answered
”Let's go out on the _stoep_ The air reed, and they went forth It was a grand and glorious night A faint ushed their rolling fires in the star-geht had been that other, when only the dark s had overheard those whispers--deep, pulsating, passionate--welling fro natures of those who uttered theh for astar darted down in a streak of light, seee in its rocket-like course ”There is so stars What are they, and where do they go to?”
”Everything is weird to your o to bed”
”Not yet, Grace I feel better already I knew the air would do ood Look there! what is that--and that?”
Her tone now belied her for intently
For there floated upon the still night air a sound--an eerie, wailing, long-drawn sound--faint, yet clear; very distant, yet plainly audible; rising and falling; now springing to a high pitch, now sinking to aroar--yet so faint, so distant Far away over the darkened waste where the great castellated pile of the Wildschutsberg rose gloo glow At the sound the dogs lying around the house sprang up, baying furiously
”Grace, I believe the Tambookie locations out yonder are up in ar the war-dance Listen!”