Part 56 (2/2)

”No, we won't!” roared the savage. ”We'll roast you in your own _winkel_ [shop] before long. Only wait a bit.” And then the others began all talking at once, louder and louder, and in a threatening and excited way, pressing closer and closer upon the two white men.

”Got a revolver, Joe? That's right; so have I. Always carry it in these troublous times. Now then, Umsila; off you go--you and all the rest of them.”

The Kafirs, who saw that both the white men were armed, drew back, and, still muttering and threatening, they began to depart. Then, with loud jeering laughter and many threats, they started off at a trot along the plain, sending forth a long, resounding whoop upon the evening air. It was taken up by the kraals on the hillsides, and echoed farther and farther, fainter and fainter, till it died in the distance. The two men looked at each other.

”I say, Thompson, if I were you I should pack up my traps and clear out of this,” said Marshall.

Lilian was rather silent as they rode away from the place. The sight of that fierce-looking, loud-talking group of angry savages confronting the two white men had frightened her, and then the voices rose more violent in tone.

”Don't be afraid, dear,” said her companion, tenderly, ”Those two are perfectly well able to take care of themselves, and Jack Kafir barks a great deal more than he bites. They're all right.”

”Yes, I know,” she replied, trying to smile. ”I am so easily frightened.”

”For your own sake I wish you were not, otherwise I like it, and it seems rather to suit you. But now, only think what a lot you'll have to tell them. Why, you've had an interview with no end of a big chief; and--well, it's a pity that row should have come in just in time to spoil the recollection of the ride, but it was really nothing.”

Suddenly arose that wild, weird whoop; and turning their heads, they could see the Kafirs bounding along the hillside waving their karosses and gesticulating, and calling to each other as they ran.

”There, I told you so,” he went on. ”They've had enough 'jaw,' and now they're going home.”

But a gloom seemed to have fallen upon Lilian's spirits. To her, in those fierce, dark forms bounding along the distant ridge, and in the weird, savage cry--like the gathering cry of a host--pealing forth and echoing in sudden answer from point to point till it died away against the purple slopes of the far mountains, there was something terrible, as though it pictured forth an earnest of the coming strife--and the smile faded from her lips.

”Oh, Arthur, can they do nothing to avert this dreadful war?”

”I'm afraid not, dearest. The only thing--if only it's done--will be to nip it in the bud. Let them break out, and then give them a cras.h.i.+ng defeat at the start.”

”And--you will have to go?”

He was silent for a moment. ”Yes,” he said at length, ”I don't see how I can sit still when the whole country turns out to a man.”

”Of course not; you must go. I shall have to spare you for a time-- darling. It will be only for a time, won't it?” she said, beseechingly.

”It will. There isn't a shadow of danger for me. I truly believe I bear a charmed life for some reason or other, a reason I think I've discovered,” he added, meaningly. ”But I've had so many narrow shaves-- more than fall to the lot of most people--that I have become a bit of a fatalist.”

A sudden impulse seized her. ”Arthur, I'm going to tell you something I never told you before.” And then she told him the events of that night at Seringa Vale, shortly before Mr Brathwaite's death. ”Now do you see why I said I thought you were dead? But you'll laugh at the whole thing as a mere fancy.”

He showed no disposition to laugh; his face wore a grave, even a solemn look.

”When was this?” he asked.

She told him the exact day and hour.

”Lilian,” he said, very solemnly, ”it was you and no other agency whatever that saved my life--saved it for yourself. Therefore, it is certain that it is not to be taken now, yet awhile.” And awestruck, she listened as he told her how he had lain fevered at the very point of death in the Matabili hut, and that the sight of her had sent him into that soothing sleep which was the turning-point.

And then, as they drew near home, and the soft light faded from the lofty Kei hills, between which the river flowed far down in the silent gloom between its frowning krantzes, the calming effects of the hour was upon these two. The present was very, very sweet. They had had a brief period of perfect happiness, after the years of dreary waiting, and now, if separation was to come, it would not be for long, and they would look forward hopefully to the time when, the disturbances over, peace should be restored.

That night Claverton and his host were sitting out on the _stoep_ smoking their pipes, the rest of the party having long since retired.

The conversation throughout the evening had turned upon the state of affairs, and now the same topic held.

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