A Dash from Diamond City by George Manville Fenn
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
QUERY: FREEDOM?
The dash for liberty had been well carried out, West getting his sturdypony into a swinging gallop before he had gone far, and keeping it upstraight away till he could hear Ingleborough's shout in close pursuit,when he drew rein a little, till in its efforts to rejoin its companionthe second pony raced up alongside.
"Bravo, West, lad!" panted Ingleborough, in a low tone that soundedterribly loud in their ears, which magnified everything in theirexcitement. "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 youhear them coming?"
"No; and I don't believe they will come! They'll leave it to me tocatch 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 orthereabouts, to be exact," said Ingleborough pedantically; "and thosetwo, my first shots with a Mauser rifle, no doubt have travelled acouple of miles at what they call a high trajectory. But what gloriousluck!"
"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, ashe turned himself in his saddle and listened.
"Quite time enough to do that when we hear them tearing along in fullpursuit, and that will not be to-night."
"Think not?"
"I feel sure of it, lad! Of course they can't hatch it out in theirthick skulls that their two prisoners were the actors in this littledrama: 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 quarterof an hour waiting for me to come back, either with my prisoner alive orwith his scalp--I mean his rifle, ammunition, and pony."
"And when they find that you don't come back?" said West, laughing tohimself.
"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'llride out by daylight to save my body from the Aasvogels and bury it outof sight."
"And by degrees they will put that and that together," said West, "andfind that they have been thoroughly tricked."
"Yes, and poor Anson will distil pearly tears from those beautiful eyesof his, and we shall not be there to see them rolling down his fatcheeks. 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 inquisitorsitting on Master Anson for his renegade ways and superintending in thetorture-chamber. My word, shouldn't he have the question of the water;no, the rack; or better still, the extraction of his nails. Stop aminute: I think hanging from the ceiling by his wrists with a weightattached to his ankles, and a grand finish-off with the question of firewould be more fitting. Bless him for a walking tallow sausage, wouldn'the burn!"
"Ugh! Don't be such a savage!" cried West angrily. "You wouldn't doanything of the kind. I should be far more hard-hearted and cruel thanyou'd be, for I would have him tied up to the wheel of a wagon and set aKaffir 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 hisplunder."
"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 ideathat some day we shall face that fellow again with the circumstancesreversed; and then I'm going to have his loot cleared out."
And this and much more as the fugitives cantered easily along throughthe darkness, giving their ponies their heads and letting them increasethe distance more and more, till all at once West broke the silence byexclaiming: "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 gowhere we please? It seems to me like a dream, and that in the morningwe 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 itisn'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 safeenough!"
"Well, that despatch says we must go to Mafeking; so we're prisoners toduty still."
"Of course!" said West cheerily. "But look here: it's of no use to tireour ponies. We're far enough off now to let them walk, or dismount andlet them graze till we know which way to steer."
"It's all right; keep on, lad! We're steering as straight as if we hada compass. I believe the ponies know where we want to go, and took theright line at once."
"Nonsense! You don't believe anything of the kind. What makes youthink we're going in the right direction?"
"Because the clouds yonder thinned out a bit half-an-hour ago, and I sawthree dim stars in a sort of arch, and continuing the line there wasanother brighter one just in the place where it ought to be. I knowthem 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 thatstar, so as to turn more to the north and straight for Mafeking. Idon't guarantee that we are keeping straight for it now the stars areshut 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 sturdyhonest captors take everything away but my knife, which was luckily inmy 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 lightbeing seen by one of the Boer patrols."
"Yes," said West, with another sigh. "I suppose they are everywherenow!"
At that moment the ponies stopped short, spun round, almost unseatingtheir riders, and went off at full speed back along the way they hadcome; and it was some minutes before they could be checked and soothedand patted back into a walk.
"The country isn't quite civilised yet," said West; "fancy lions beingso 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 andbegin 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, andthat 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 ponyon the neck, with satisfactory results. "How far? It's impossible tosay! I've heard performers who called themselves ventriloquists, buttheir tricks are nothing to the roaring of a lion. It's about the mostdeceptive sound I know. One time it's like thunder, and another it'slike Bottom the Weaver."
"Like what?" cried West.
"The gentleman I named who played lion, and for fear of frightening theladies 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
"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 ofmiles' radius, riding steadily on, but only to have their shiveringmounts startled again and again till they were ready to give up indespair.
"We'd better wait till daybreak," said West.
"There's no occasion to," said Ingleborough, "for there it is, comingright behind us, and we're going too much to the west. Bear off, andlet's ride on. I don't suppose we shall be troubled any more. What wewant 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 themany clumps of rock and trees loomed up in the fast lightening front.
"Yes," said Ingleborough sharply, "and there's what we don't want, farnearer to us than I like."
"Where?" asked West sharply.
"Straight behind us!"
"Why, Ingle," cried West, in despair, "they've been following us allthrough the night!"
"No," said Ingleborough, shading his eyes with his hand; "that's adifferent patrol, I feel sure, coming from another direction."
"What shall we do?"
"Ride straight for that kopje; we're between it and the patrol, andperhaps they won't see us. If they do we must gallop away."
"But suppose this kopje proves to be occupied?" said West. "We don'twant 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 thewisest 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 kopjein the country; some of them must be left for poor fellows in such amess as we are."
"Ride on and chance it then?"
"To be sure!" was the reply; and they went on at a steady canterstraight for the clump in front, a mile or so away, turning every nowand then to watch the line of horsemen which seemed to be going at rightangles to their track. Just as they reached the outskirts of theeminence the leading files of the patrol bore off a little and thefugitives had the misery of seeing that the enemy they wished to avoidseemed to be aiming straight for the place they had intended for arefuge, while to have ridden out to right or left meant going full insight of the patrol.
To make matters worse, the sun was beginning to light up the stony topsof the kopje, and in a very few minutes the lower portions would beglowing in the morning rays.
"Cheer up!" said Ingleborough; "it's a big one! Now then, dismount andlead horses! Here's cover enough to hide in now, and we may be able toget 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 fastas we can."