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A Dash from Diamond City, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 22. Query: Freedom? |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. QUERY: FREEDOM? The dash for liberty had been well carried out, West getting his sturdy pony into a swinging gallop before he had gone far, and keeping it up straight away till he could hear Ingleborough's shout in close pursuit, when he drew rein a little, till in its efforts to rejoin its companion the second pony raced up alongside. "Bravo, West, lad!" panted Ingleborough, in a low tone that sounded terribly loud in their ears, which magnified everything in their excitement. "It's a pity you are not in the regulars!" "Why?" "You'd soon be a general!" "Rubbish!" said West shortly. "Don't talk or they'll be on us! Can you hear them coming?" "No; and I don't believe they will come! They'll leave it to me to catch you. I say, I didn't kill you when I fired, did I?" "No," said West, with a little laugh, "but you made me jump each time! The sensation was rather queer." "I took aim at an angle of forty-five degrees with the horizon or thereabouts, to be exact," said Ingleborough pedantically; "and those two, my first shots with a Mauser rifle, no doubt have travelled a couple of miles at what they call a high trajectory. But what glorious luck!" "Yes; I never dared to hope that the plan would succeed so well." "Talk about humbugging anyone--why, it was splendid!" "But oughtn't we to go off at right angles now?" said West anxiously, as he turned himself in his saddle and listened. "Quite time enough to do that when we hear them tearing along in full pursuit, and that will not be to-night." "Think not?" "I feel sure of it, lad! Of course they can't hatch it out in their thick skulls that their two prisoners were the actors in this little drama: they can't know till they get back that we have escaped." "Of course not." "And you may depend upon it that they'll stand fast for about a quarter of an hour waiting for me to come back, either with my prisoner alive or with his scalp--I mean his rifle, ammunition, and pony." "And when they find that you don't come back?" said West, laughing to himself. "Then they'll say that you've taken my scalp and gone on home with it: think it is just the fortune of war, and promise themselves that they'll ride out by daylight to save my body from the Aasvogels and bury it out of sight." "And by degrees they will put that and that together," said West, "and find that they have been thoroughly tricked." "Yes, and poor Anson will distil pearly tears from those beautiful eyes of his, and we shall not be there to see them rolling down his fat cheeks. West, lad, I never yet wanted to kill a man." "Of course not, and you don't now!" "That's quite correct, lad; but I should like to be a grand inquisitor sitting on Master Anson for his renegade ways and superintending in the torture-chamber. My word, shouldn't he have the question of the water; no, the rack; or better still, the extraction of his nails. Stop a minute: I think hanging from the ceiling by his wrists with a weight attached to his ankles, and a grand finish-off with the question of fire would be more fitting. Bless him for a walking tallow sausage, wouldn't he burn!" "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 circumstances 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 compass. 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 compass." "Why don't we strike a light and examine it now?" said West eagerly. "Because we haven't a match!" replied Ingleborough. "Didn't our sturdy honest captors take everything away but my knife, which was luckily in my inner belt along with my money?" "To be sure!" sighed West. "And if we had matches we dare not strike them for fear of the light being seen by one of the Boer patrols." "Yes," said West, with another sigh. "I suppose they are everywhere now!" At that moment the ponies stopped short, spun round, almost unseating their riders, and went off at full speed back along the way they had come; and it was some minutes before they could be checked and soothed and patted back into a walk. "The country isn't quite civilised yet," said West; "fancy lions being so near the line of a railway. Hark; there he goes again!" For once more the peculiar barking roar of a lion came from a distance, making the air seem to quiver and the ponies turn restless again and begin to snort with dread. "Steady, boys, steady!" said Ingleborough soothingly to the two steeds. "Don't you know that we've got a couple of patent foreign rifles, and that they would be more than a match for any lion that ever lived?" "If we shot straight!" said West banteringly. "There he goes again! How near do you think that fellow is?" "Quiet, boy!" cried Ingleborough, leaning forward and patting his pony on the neck, with satisfactory results. "How far? It's impossible to say! I've heard performers who called themselves ventriloquists, but their tricks are nothing to the roaring of a lion. It's about the most deceptive sound I know. One time it's like thunder, and another it's like Bottom the Weaver." "Like what?" cried West. "The gentleman I named who played lion, and for fear of frightening the ladies said he would roar him as gently as a sucking dove. Now then, what's to be done?" "I don't know," said West. "We did not calculate upon having lions to act as sentries on behalf of the Boers." "Let's bear off more to the north and try to outflank the great cat." Changing their course, they started to make a half-circle of a couple of miles' radius, riding steadily on, but only to have their shivering mounts startled again and again till they were ready to give up in despair. "We'd better wait till daybreak," said West. "There's no occasion to," said Ingleborough, "for there it is, coming right behind us, and we're going too much to the west. Bear off, and let's ride on. I don't suppose we shall be troubled any more. What we want now is another kopje--one which hasn't been turned into a trap." "There's what we want!" said West, half-an-hour later, as one of the many clumps of rock and trees loomed up in the fast lightening front. "Yes," said Ingleborough sharply, "and there's what we don't want, far nearer to us than I like." "Where?" asked West sharply. "Straight behind us!" "Why, Ingle," cried West, in despair, "they've been following us all through the night!" "No," said Ingleborough, shading his eyes with his hand; "that's a different patrol, I feel sure, coming from another direction." "What shall we do?" "Ride straight for that kopje; we're between it and the patrol, and perhaps they won't see us. If they do we must gallop away." "But suppose this kopje proves to be occupied?" said West. "We don't want to be taken prisoners again." "That's the truest speech you've made for twenty-four hours, my lad," said Ingleborough coolly, "but, all the same, that seems to be the wisest thing to do." "Make for the kopje?" "Yes, for we want water, shelter, and rest." "But if the Boers are there too?" "Hang it, lad, there aren't enough of the brutes to occupy every kopje in the country; some of them must be left for poor fellows in such a mess as we are." "Ride on and chance it then?" "To be sure!" was the reply; and they went on at a steady canter straight for the clump in front, a mile or so away, turning every now and then to watch the line of horsemen which seemed to be going at right angles to their track. Just as they reached the outskirts of the eminence the leading files of the patrol bore off a little and the fugitives had the misery of seeing that the enemy they wished to avoid seemed to be aiming straight for the place they had intended for a refuge, while to have ridden out to right or left meant going full in sight of the patrol. To make matters worse, the sun was beginning to light up the stony tops of the kopje, and in a very few minutes the lower portions would be glowing in the morning rays. "Cheer up!" said Ingleborough; "it's a big one! Now then, dismount and lead horses! Here's cover enough to hide in now, and we may be able to get round to the other side without being seen." "And then?" "Oh, we won't intrude our company upon the enemy; let's ride off as fast as we can." _ |
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