Denham nodded. He was cool as ever man was, but the thrill of battle was in his veins, and, like the mythical knights of old, he was spurred by the thought that he was fighting for a lady-love. Intently he watched his companion. The latter raised his piece suddenly, then dropped it again; then up it went as quickly, and the flame and roar of the report spurted forth, followed immediately by another detonation.

Simultaneously there rose from the gra.s.s a ma.s.s of dark forms, but no sound was uttered. They would be in upon the laager and surprise it asleep, having first made mincemeat of the unfortunate sentry. But-- would they? Acting upon Ben Halse's instructions, Denham, half concealed by a broad, flat-topped thorn-bush, poured his magazine fire into the thick of them, cartridge after cartridge, and aiming low. He could hear Ben Halse doing the same, and knew he was missing nothing and n.o.body. He himself knew he was missing n.o.body. It was just as Ben Halse had predicted. The attacking line was thoroughly demoralised, and reckoning, as it might well have reckoned, that there were about twenty more men here than was really the case, dropped flat to the earth, a manoeuvre of which the two daring watchers took advantage to sprint away to the laager, keeping as much under cover of the bushes as possible.

"Steady, boys; it's only ourselves," sung out Ben Halse, as several rifles went up ominously to greet them. "Good Lord! I don't know where you'd all be if it wasn't for our same selves. Now, then, let's get into position. We'll want it directly."

They did. Broad shields showed through the misty dawn, their bearers advancing at a sort of creeping run behind them, then the gleam of a.s.segais. A few shots were fired, but hummed high overhead, doing no harm. But the men within, now thoroughly aroused, were all the cool and daring pioneers of civilisation such men almost invariably are. Each instinctively sought out the most useful post, and their rifles crashed into the advancing rush, pouring in shot after shot from the magazines.

"Here, you mustn't be here. Go back into the house. You'll be hit."

The tone was gruff, and the speaker Harry Stride. Verna answered--

"No, I shan't. I can shoot, and I'm going to."

And she did. Afterwards she did not care to reckon up with what effect.

The loss to the a.s.sailants was great, terrific. They were at close quarters, and the defenders were firing low. And then they began to get entangled and tripped up on the barbed wires.

"_Usutu_!"

The war-cry rang out, fierce-throated, on the right. A derisive yell was the reply.

"Boy, bring the coffee, sharp," shouted someone inside, between the volleys.

"How much to the Point?" sung out someone else: the joke being that many of the a.s.sailants wore clothes, and had possibly been kitchen boys or ricksha pullers in Durban or Maritzburg. To which the a.s.sailants would shout back--

"How many women have you got there, _abelungu? Ha_! We shall find wives directly without having to pay _lobola_."

"Here is the price of one!" cried Verna grimly, as she drilled the head of a flitting savage who was glancing from one point of cover to another. A huge shout arose from the defenders.

"Good shot! Oh, good shot! Three cheers for Miss Halse!"

And they were heartily given, amid the roar of dropping volleys. Yet, at the moment, Verna felt disgusted. That old feeling came over her again.

But a voice dispelled it.

"Darling, you are too rash. There are enough of us. Why not go under shelter?" Denham was beside her. All the bitter thoughts vanished.

"Alaric, don't loathe me for this," she whispered. "I don't do it for choice, but we want all the defence we can make."

"We shall always be able to say we have fought literally side by side, at any rate," he answered, with a pressure of the hand. "How can I think any the worse of you for your splendid pluck?"

There was no more time, however, for anything of this sort. The attacking party had divided into two, and one section of it had crawled round, under cover of the thorn-bushes, to the other side. Now they opened fire, and the bullets began to hum and "ping" over the laager.

To their accompaniment the storekeeper's wife and children kept up an unintermittent howling.

"For G.o.d's sake, Ada, choke those brats," yelled the exasperated Minton, "and yourself helping them. Here's Miss Halse dropping her man to each shot with the best of us, and all you do is to sit and howl. That won't help any."

It grew lighter and lighter, and consequently more dangerous for the savages. They had reconnoitred this laager and its conditions at night, and had voted it a safe and easy walk over, and so it would have been but for the arrival of Ben Halse. Now they concluded it wasn't good enough, and drew off under cover of the long gra.s.s. Then the sun flamed up over the dark wall of forest-hung hill, and Ben Halse, and one or two more, were just able to get in a stray long shot at stragglers showing themselves in the retreating distance.

"They're done with," said the last named. "Tell you what it is, Minton, you deserved all you'd have got for leaving your shop to take its chance. You'd have got it too if it hadn't been for me and Denham, though I don't say it to brag."

"Oh, d.a.m.n it, old chap," was the answer. "Don't jaw and lecture like a bally Methodist parson. Come on in and have a drink all round. I'll swear we've deserved it. Then breakfast. All's well that ends well."

They counted the dead. There were thirty-three of them, nearly three times their own number, and not one of themselves was scratched, though a horse had been hit by a chance bullet. Of wounded none were found, their comrades having had time to carry them away.

Breakfast over there was a great cleaning of rifles, and much talk. All but one or two were wildly elate. They had had their first brush and had come out with flying colours. They thirsted for a second. So when someone said suddenly, "Look there!" and every head, turned in the direction pointed out, was conscious of a dust cloud coming along the road where it crossed a distant ridge, all hands rejoiced exceedingly, because they were going to get it.

They were, however, doomed to disappointment, for several binoculars soon revealed behind that whirling dust cloud, no Zulu impi, but a large contingent of the Natal Police, advancing at a quick trot.

Their pace slackened as they drew nearer, and recognised that all was well. As they rode up, nearly a hundred strong, in double file, the very simplicity of their khaki uniform and well-filled bandoliers, the sunburnt faces of the troopers, mostly young men, hard and athletic, and full of determination and dare-devil dash, seemed somehow far more imposing than any display of scarlet accompanied by the blare of a regimental band. These men were doing the hard work of their country, and they looked it.

"We've come to clear you out of this, Minton," said the inspector in command, when the first greetings were over, "Sapazani has broken out, and has nearly two thousand n.i.g.g.e.rs in the Lumisana. So roll up everything and be ready to trek to Esifeni with us as soon as our horses are rested. You've done well enough this morning, but a few of you like this are a mere mouthful in the long run. Besides--the ladies."

The storekeeper swore a bit. He wasn't going to be hustled off for any blooming Sapazani, not he. They had taught them a lesson that morning that wouldn't want repeating, and so on. Inspector Bray grew "short."

"Well, if you're a blanked idiot, Minton," he said, "stay, by all means; but I don't suppose there are any more such fools. Eh, Halse?"

"I'm not one of them, Bray," was the answer. "A man can risk his own skin as much as he's fool enough to do, but he's no business to risk that of his womenkind. My party goes with you."

That settled it. The consensus of opinion was against the storekeeper, wherefore, as he could not stay on by himself, the whole position was simplified. He occupied the remainder of the time burying the most valuable of his stock-in-trade, the liquor to wit, and such other things as were worth bothering about in an emergency. Meanwhile the two police officers and Ben Halse went round the line of attack, like a sort of informal coroner's court "viewing the bodies." Several of these the latter recognised as Sapazani's people. The others he did not think were.

Then, when the Force had sufficiently rested, there was saddling up and inspanning, and soon after midday the column pulled out.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

OF THE BUSH ROAD.

An advance guard of twenty men was thrown forward; Ben Halse's trap and that containing the other storekeeper's family being in the middle of the main body, which was ready to close up around both at a moment's warning. Scouts were thrown out, but there were places in which the thick bush rendered the services of such entirely useless.

The prospectors especially were inclined to treat the whole thing as a picnic; indeed, there was hardly a man there present who was not spoiling for a fight--and would have been intensely disappointed if no such were put up. The women and children were certainly a drawback; stray bullets have an uncomfortable knack of splattering in anywhere.

That the escort might be overwhelmed by weight of numbers and utterly wiped out never occurred to them. Nearly a hundred police in full fighting kit, and the dozen or so of extra rifles, ought to be able to hold their own against all Zululand. Isandhlwana? Oh yes; but that was out of date; out-of-date weapons and out-of-date men. With quick-firing rifles, and an abundance of ammunition, they could hold out for ever against a mob of ricksha pullers and kitchen boys, for such were the sorry subst.i.tutes for the old-time splendid legionaries of the last king. The civilian element, in view of its victory that morning, was inclined to treat the whole situation as a joke.

Denham, however, formed an exception to this spirit, so, too, did Ben Halse, for the same reason. Inspector Bray, an experienced officer, who was in command of the Force, felt not a little anxious; he would not have felt anything of the kind but for his charges; and there was a very critical bit of the road just beyond the Gilwana drift--several miles of thickly bushed country. If they were attacked at all it would be there, he prophesied to Denham, who was riding beside him.

It was a lovely afternoon, the air brisk, fresh and crisp, the sky cloudless. The scattered thorn-bushes were alive with bird voices, but that dark hang of forest on the rugged hills, now on the right hand, now on the left, there it was that the element of menace lay.

"It's the devil," he said, "to have women to look after. I beg your pardon, Denham, but I'm talking generally. You see, any tumble-down shanty of a brick building will stop a bullet, but nothing will here.

You can make 'em lie down in the bottom of a trap, for instance, but that's not bullet-proof. And I think I see Miss Halse, for instance, consenting to do anything of the kind."

"I'd be sorry for the chump, black or white, she had got the sights of a rifle on," he answered, with a thrill of pride. "She's just a dead shot."

"So I've heard," said Bray, with a twinkle in his eyes. "You must have had a good time together all this while. Good sport--and all that?"

"No, you don't draw me, Bray. I'm a collector, and I never heard that birds and snakes were 'royal' game."

"Rather hard to keep one's piece from going off--by accident, of course--when a waterbuck or something _strays_ across the road, eh?"