reached them the hunters had freed the legs of thehorses, and these struggled to their feet.
"You have given me a nice fright," Mr Harvey said, as he rode up.
"We have had a pretty good fright ourselves," Dick replied. "If it hadnot been for Blacking pluckily getting through them to take you thenews, I don't think we should have seen daylight. Is he much hurt,sir?"
"He has got a nasty wound," Mr Harvey replied. "An arrow has gonebetween his ribs. He fell down from loss of blood when he reached us,and had we gone much farther he would have been overtaken. They wereclose upon his heels when he got in. Fortunately I halted the caravansoon after you started; when I saw the herds making way I thought itbetter to wait till you rejoined us. It was well I did so; we noticedhim a couple of miles away, and when we saw he was pursued I went outwith six men and met him half a mile from the caravan. He had juststrength left to tell us what had happened. Then we went back to thecaravan, and moved out towards you. We were obliged to come slowly, forthere are a good many natives out on the plains, and twice they lookedso threatening that I had to laager and treat them to a few distantshots. They evidently did not like the range of my rifle, and so I havecome on without any serious fighting. I have been in a great frightabout you; but Blacking, when he recovered from his faint, told me thathe thought you were safe for a while, as nearly half the party which hadbeen attacking you had followed him, and that you had already killed somany that he thought they would not venture to attack before nightfall.Now, you had better come up to the waggons at once; you can tell me allabout it afterwards."
The deer which had formed such useful shelter were now lifted, and in aquarter of an hour the party reached the waggons without molestation. Avigilant watch was kept all night, but no alarm was given.
In the morning Mr Harvey rode down with the lads and the hunters intothe valley. Except that here and there were deep blood-stains, no signsof the conflict remained, the natives having carried off their dead inthe course of the night. The hunters, after examining the ground,declared that fifteen of the enemy had fallen, including those shot onthe slopes. The journey was now resumed.
At the next halt the natives came in to trade as usual, and whenquestioned professed entire ignorance of the attack on the hunters.
Three days later, without further adventure, they arrived at the kraalof the principal chief. It was a large village, and a great number ofcattle were grazing in the neighbourhood. The natives had a sullenappearance, but exhibited no active hostility. Mr Harvey formed hiswaggons in a laager a few hundred yards outside the village, and then,accompanied by the boys, proceeded to the chief's abode. They were atonce conducted to his presence. He was seated in a hut of bee-hiveform, rather larger than those which surrounded it. When the white mencrawled in through the door, which like all in native structures was notmore than three feet high, they were at first unable to see, so dark wasthe interior. The chief uttered the usual words of welcome.
"I have a complaint to make, chief," Mr Harvey said, "against some ofyour people. They attacked my two friends and some of my followers whenout hunting. Fortunately they were repulsed, with the loss of somefifteen of their number, but that does not make the attack upon them anythe less inexcusable."
"That is bad," the chief said; "how does my friend, the white trader,know that they were my men?"
"They were inside your territory anyhow," Mr Harvey said. "It was uponthe third day after I had left the Matabele."
"It must have been a party of Matabele," the chief said; "they oftencome into my territory to steal cattle; they are bad men--my people arevery good."
"I can't prove that they were your people," Mr Harvey said, "whatever Imay think; but I warn you, chief, that if there is any repetition of theattack while we are in your country you will have no more traders here.Those who attacked us have learned that we can defend ourselves, andthat they are more likely to get death than plunder out of the attempt."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
TRAPPED IN A DEFILE.
"What do you think of affairs?" Dick asked Mr Harvey, as, on leavingthe chief's hut, they walked back to their waggons.
"For the moment I think we are perfectly safe; the chief would notventure to attack us while we are in his village. In the first place itwould put a stop to all trade, and in the second, far as we are from thefrontier, he would not feel safe were a massacre to take place in hisvillage. He knows well enough that were a dozen white men to come outto avenge such a deed, with a few waggon-loads of goods to offer to hisneighbours as pay for their assistance, he and his tribe would beexterminated. When we are once on our way again we must beware. Thefeeling among the tribe at the loss they have sustained must be verybitter, although they may repress all outward exhibition of it to us,and if they attack us just as we are on the line between their land andtheir neighbour's they can deny all knowledge of it. However, theyshall not catch us asleep."
"I see the men have put the waggons in laager," Tom said.
"Yes, I told them to do so," Mr Harvey answered; "it is the customalways with traders travelling north of the Limpopo, and therefore willnot be taken as a sign of suspicion of their good faith. A fair indexto us of their disposition will be the amount of trade. If they bringtheir goods freely, we may assume that there is no fixed intention ofattacking us; for if they are determined to seize our goods, those whohave articles to trade would not care to part with them, when they wouldhope to obtain a share of our goods for nothing."
The next morning Mr Harvey spread out a few of his goods, but hardlyany of the natives came forward with articles for barter. In theafternoon Mr Harvey went across to the chief.
"How is it," he asked, "that your people do not bring in their goods forsale? Among the tribes through which I have passed I have done muchtrade; they see that I give good bargains--your people bring nothing.If they do not wish to trade with the white men, let them say so, and Iwill tell my brethren that it is of no use to bring their waggons sofar."
"My people are very poor," the chief said; "they have been at war withtheir neighbours, and have had no time to hunt the ostrich or to getskins."
"They cannot have been fighting all the time," Mr Harvey rejoined;"they must have taken furs and skins--it is clear that they do not wishto trade. Tomorrow morning I will go on my way; there are many othertribes who will be glad at the coming of the white trader."
After Mr Harvey's return to the waggons, it was evident that orders hadbeen issued that some trade should be done, for several parcels ofinferior kinds of ostrich feathers and skins were brought in. As it wasclear, however, that no genuine trade was to be done, at daybreak theoxen were inspanned, and the caravan continued its journey.
For the next two days the track lay across an open country, and no signsof molestation were met with.
"We are now coming," Mr Harvey said, "to the very worst part of ourjourney. The hills we have seen in front of us for the last two dayshave to be crossed. To-morrow we ascend the lower slopes, which aretolerably easy; but the next day we have to pass through a very wildgorge. The road, which is the bed of a stream, mounts rapidly; but theravine is nearly ten miles in length. Once at its head we are near thehighest point of the shoulder over which we have to cross, and thedescent on the other side is comparatively easy. If I could avoid thisspot, I would do so; but I know of no other road by which waggons couldcross the range for a very long distance either way; this is the onealways used by traders. In the wet season it is altogether impassable,for in some places the ravine narrows to fifteen yards, withperpendicular cliffs on either side, and at these points the river, whenin flood, rushes down twenty or thirty feet deep. Even putting asidethe danger of attack in going through it, I would gladly avoid it if Icould, for the weather is breaking; we have already had some showers,and may get heavy thunderstorms and a tremendous downfall of rain anyday."
The next day the journey was an arduous one; the ground was rough andbroken, and the valley up which the road la
y was frequently thicklystrewn with boulders, which showed the force with which the water inflood-time rushed down over what was now its empty bed.
After a long day's work the caravan halted for the night at the spotwhere the valley narrowed to the ravine.
"It has been a pretty hard day's work to-day!" Tom said.
"It is nothing to to-morrow's, as you will see," Mr Harvey replied."Traders consider this defile to be the very hardest passage anywhere inSouth Africa, and there are plenty of other bad bits too. In many casesyou will see we shall have to unload the waggons, and it will be allthat a double team can do to pull them up empty. Sometimes of coursethe defile is easier than at others; it depends much upon the action ofthe last floods. In some years