Under other circumstances I should have leaped down from my horse and crouched; but my leg had grown still and cold, so I sat perfectly motionless, trying to make out some plan of action I might follow out. To my dismay, the Boers had been quicker than I had given them credit for, and had, so to speak, shut the principal gate in the huge wall which in that particular part closed in their country from Natal. The man I had seen was doubtless one of their outposts, and for aught I knew to the contrary the pass might be held by hundreds of the sturdy burghers, every man a born rifleman. To go back by the way I came meant running into the arms of those who were scouring the country to retake me, while to make a détour and get round to the other side of the opening meant getting farther into the Boer country, the more populous part, where their troops would for certain now be on the move.
It seemed there was no going backward; and upon turning to look at Joeboy he showed he was of the same opinion. “No go back,” he said; “all Boer. Wait till sun gone.”
“And try to steal through the pass then,” I said eagerly, “in the dark?”
“Um!” he said. “All dark. No see Boss Val; no see horse.”
“But they’ll hear his hoofs. There are sure to be plenty of sentries.”
“Um, plenty much Boer. Go soft, soft. Then Sandho gallop.”
“And what about you?” I said, as I grasped that he meant we were to steal along softly in the darkness till we were heard, and then that I was to gallop. “What about you?”
“Joeboy hold stirrup and run,” he said, with a laugh. “Boer better get out o’ way.”
This seemed to be our only road out of the difficulty, and I carefully dismounted, Joeboy leading the horse farther in amongst what was now becoming a chaotic wilderness of stones; and here, pretty well hidden, but quite open to discovery by a wandering party of Boers at any time, we sat down to wait, listening to the steady crop, crop, as Sandho calmly set to work to improve the occasion on grass.
As far as I could make out, the sentry we had seen was about a fifth of a mile distant; but in all probability there were others perched up on the lookout in various points of vantage high on either side of the pass; while those below, I felt sure now, would be in strong force, fulfilling the double duty of preventing English settlers from passing out of the country save as the Boers pleased, and defending the place.