CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
AFTER A LAPSE.
Oliver West was sleeping soundly that night from sheer fatigue; but allthe same his slumber was not pleasant, for though his body was restinghis brain was hard at work.
Before an hour had passed he was conscious of being cold, and in adreamy way he felt that he ought to do what under the circumstances wasimpossible: that is to say, put more clothes over him, or, failing them,as he had no more, roll himself over and over in the blanket that he hadbrought strapped to his saddle-bow and only thrown over him when he laydown to sleep. But his body was so steeped in sleep that he did notstir, and suffered from the freezing air of the night--so tremendous achange from the torrid heat of mid-day out on the veldt.
Later on, about midnight, the impression came upon him that he couldhear a lion far away, seeming to make the earth quiver beneath him bygiving forth in the fierce beast's strangely ventriloquial way itsawe-inspiring roar, so puzzling to the listener as to whether it is faroff or near. And even in his dreamy state West found himself doubtingthat it could be a lion's roar that he heard so near to wherecivilisation had driven off most of the savage beasts of the plain. Butthe roar came again, nearer, and in his dreams he felt sure that he wasright, and he recalled, still sleeping, the fact that now and then theking of beasts followed one or other of the straggling herds ofantelopes quite close to the Boers' farms. Then the curious barkingroar ceased, and with it consciousness for some time.
All at once he found himself wide awake, lying upon his back, and gazingstraight up through the transparent darkness at the stars. He lay forsome moments wondering what had awakened him, perfectly still, andlistening intently for steps or the trampling of horses, feeling surethat the Boers were close at hand.
Instinctively his hand was reached out to grasp the rifle, which he hadlaid by his side and covered from the dew or hoar frost, whichever mightcome, by throwing over it part of his blanket.
As he touched it the cold perspiration began to start from every pore,for there was a whiff of hot breath upon his face, and he could dimlysee that some large animal was stretching down its muzzle towards him,and for a few brief moments he lay as if paralysed, expecting to feelhimself seized and dragged away, for now came back with keen clearnessthe recollection of having heard the distant roaring of a lion.
He had hardly grasped this when once more, from somewhere near, thelion's terrifying cry arose, evidently, as he thought in a flash, one ofthe companions of the huge beast at his side. In an instant now he hadgrasped the truth, for as the distant lion roared there came from hisright the peculiar stumbling movement of one of the hobbled horsesstriving to get closer to where there would be human companionship, ifnot protection. "Poor beast!" thought West, as his fascinated eyesstared at the dim shape above him, so close that it shut out from himthe light of the stars.
Then the half-paralysed listener saw clearly, for the beast raised itshead and uttered a low whinnying cry, which was answered from thedirection where the other hobbled pony was moving.
"Woho, my boy!" whispered West, with the blood now tingling through hisveins, and as the pony whinnied softly again West raised himself up withhis rifle in his right hand and stretched out his left for it to come incontact with the soft warm muzzle of his pony, which pressed against it,the poor brute uttering a low sigh. Quite a minute then passed, the twoponies remaining motionless, and West listening with every nerve on thestrain, knowing as he did that a lion must be in very close proximity,and fully expecting every moment that there might be a tremendous boundand the savage brute would alight either upon him or upon one of thepoor shivering beasts.
Then, from evidently pretty close at hand, there was a low mutteringgrowl, the barrel of West's rifle fell into his left hand as he held theweapon pistol-wise and fired low down in the direction of the sounds.
At the flash and in company with the report there was a yelping snarland a couple of angry roars in quick succession.
West fired again as nearly as he could judge where the beast would be,and the next moment Ingleborough was kneeling by his side.
"What is it--lions?" he panted.
"Yes," whispered West, whose fingers were busy re-loading, and helistened for the next sound, but only to hear a deep sighing breath oneither side, telling that the horses had been too much terrified tostart away, or else felt that they would be safer with their masters,and that to try to gallop off meant the springing of a savage enemy upontheir backs.
The silence continued for nearly a minute, and then there was a vicioussnarling, apparently some fifty yards away, while without a moment'shesitation Ingleborough raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired asnearly as he could judge at the spot from whence the noise came. Hefired twice, the shots being so close together as almost to be like onefor a while. Then after a perceptible interval they were echoed fromthe walls of a distant kopje, and again from another, before they diedaway.
"That has startled the lions," said Ingleborough; "but I'm afraid itwill startle the Boers and bring them to see what's the matter."
"Yes, the lions are gone," said West. "Hark at that! Who says horseshave no sense?"
For the _crop, crop, crop_ of the browsing animals had begun again fromclose at hand, and the comrades stood listening for some little timewhile the otherwise unbroken stillness once more reigned.
"What's to be done?" said West. "Shall we make a start at once, or waitfor daylight?"
"I was thinking," replied Ingleborough. "If we start now we have theadvantage of the darkness to hide us, but the disadvantage too, for wemay go blundering right into the midst of some commando. I don't thinkthe firing could do us any harm, after all, for the enemy would not beable to tell where the sounds came from. I think we had better staywhere we are and wait for morning."
"I think so too," said West, with a sigh of relief; "but one of us oughtto watch in case the lions come back."
"They will not come back!" said Ingleborough decisively. "From what Iknow of their habits they'll have been too much scared to risk theirlives again. You hit one of them; there's no doubt about that."
"You think there was more than one?"
"I should say it was a family party of an old lioness and two or threehalf-grown cubs."
"Then we may lie down and sleep again?"
"Yes; we must trust to our luck, Noll; there's a good deal of chance inthese affairs."
West hesitated for a few minutes, and then followed his companion'sexample, lying awake for some time thinking of what a strange changethis was from his quiet life in the offices of the company; and then, ashe began to ponder over what might be to come, the subject grew toodifficult for him and he fell fast asleep.
But he was the first to awaken in the grey dawn, to find that the horseswere close at hand, browsing away contentedly enough, and ready to neighsoftly and submit to his caress when he walked up to them; while, assoon as he had satisfied himself that they had not suffered in any way,he walked in the direction in which he had fired during the night, tofind footprints in several directions, and in one place the dust amongsome stones torn up and scattered, as if one of the brutes had fallen onits side and scratched up the earth. Plainer still in the way of proofof what had happened, there were spots and smudges of blood, givingthorough evidence that one of the lions had been wounded by the chanceshot, and had fallen, and struggled fiercely to regain its feet.
He had just arrived at this conclusion when Ingleborough found him.
"Hallo!" cried his companion; "that was a good blind shot, Noll. Welldone, lad! A full-grown lion too! Look at its pads. It must have hada nasty flesh-wound to have bled like this."
"Do you think it'll be lying anywhere near, half-dead, or quite?"
"No! A cat has nine lives, they say; and really this kind of beast isvery, hard to kill. Look, there are the pugs, along with those of threemore, all half-grown, going right away yonder into the open veldt. Wemight hunt 'em down, but we don't want to, eh?"
> "Absurd! We want to get on at once. Can you see any pug, as you callit, of Boers?"
"No. I've had a good look round, and as soon as we've had a mouthfulwe'll be off. I say, it's wonderful, isn't it, how one can sleep outhere on the veldt?"
"Surrounded by dangers!" replied West. Then laconically: "Yes."
Their scanty meal was soon eaten and washed down with a draught of purewater, after which they both climbed to the top of the highest part ofthe kopje to take a good survey of the surrounding plain.
"There's nothing in sight," said Ingleborough quietly; "so we'll hurryon at once while our shoes are good."
The ponies looked as fresh as ever when they were saddled and ready tostart, and after an examination of the compass Ingleborough pointed outthat they ought to keep along north-east to strike the Vaal somewherethat evening, and then go along its southern bank till a ford wasreached, after which their journey would be north by west.
"But we must be on the look-out for some lonely farm to-day," said West."We ought to well fill our haversacks before we start again."
"Never fear; we shall find plenty of food for sale so long as we havemoney to show the Boer ladies. Ready?"
"Yes," replied West, and together they sprang into their saddles androde down the slope, their horses carefully picking their way among thestones, till the open veldt was reached. They then struck off at aquiet canter towards a rocky ridge so as to put that between them andthe kopje where they had slept, in case by any possibility their shotshad been heard and a party of the enemy should ride up to it to make asearch and in the course of it see them in the distance riding away.
"And that would mean pursuit, a race, and the fastest horses to win,"said West.
"As they generally do when there is fair play," replied Ingleboroughquietly. "Keep a sharp look-out forward, and I'll keep on casting aneye back at the kopje."
The ridge was only about a couple of miles distant from their previousnight's resting-place, proving to be fairly high, but with a gradualslope: while just as they reached the spot where the ascent beganIngleborough turned in his saddle from a long look-out backwards.
"This is like wringing one's own neck," he cried. "Now then, let'scanter up this bit, and as soon as we have topped it we need not be socautious. Ready?"
"Yes," cried West.
"Then off! Steady! No galloping; a gentle canter."
It was fortunate for the pair that they did not breathe their horses,but rode up the gentle slope at a regular lady's canter, to find theridge pleasantly fringed with a patch of open woodland, through whichtheir steeds easily picked their way, and on to the farther slope, whichwas more dotted with forest growth; but there was nothing to hindertheir rate of speed--in fact, the horses began to increase the pace as abroad grassy stretch opened before them.
The moment they passed out of the woodland on to the open space Westuttered a word of warning and pressed his pony's side, for the firstglance showed him that they had come right upon a Boer laager which wasin the course of being broken up. Oxen were being in-spanned, men weretightening the girths of their ponies, and preparations were in progresseverywhere for an advance in some direction.