They turned away from the dread spectacle of the dead Boer, and rekindled their fire. A kettle being boiled, they made some coffee. Mr. Blakeney ate some lunch, but the two lads, beyond drinking some coffee and eating a morsel of bread apiece, had little stomach for the meal. The horror of the tragedy of Karl Engelbrecht had upset them.
"Pater," said Tom, "I can eat no lunch, and I don't think Guy has much appetite either. That sight over yonder has fairly sickened me."
"Well," said his father, "it is rather horrible, I grant. I became hardened to horrors of this kind in the Basuto War of 1879. At the storming of Morosi's Mountain in that year we witnessed many unpleasant incidents, which hardened one's stomach to scenes of this kind. This fall of Engelbrecht is, I admit, far worse than the state of affairs the morning after our fight the other day, when we had to look after the enemy's dead and wounded."
"Yes, uncle, far worse," added Guy. "I, for one, shall never forget the ending of Karl Engelbrecht. It's horrible!"
After lunch they went back to the scene of the tragedy. The Hottentot Quasip, on being questioned, volunteered to help them.
"Baas," he said, addressing Mr. Blakeney, "you think badly of me, and I daresay you have good cause. But I am not so bad as you think me. I was Engelbrecht's servant, and had to do his bidding. If I dared to disobey him I should have been flogged, and perhaps shot. Like your own man, Poeskop, I was afraid of him, and only wanted to get out of his service."
"Well, that may or may not be," said Mr. Blakeney coolly. "Anyhow, I'll give you a chance. I'll untie you, and if you work for us quietly and well during the daytime you shall have your liberty. At night you'll have to be tied up, until we feel we can trust you."
"Very well, baas," said the man. "That is good enough for me. I'll prove to you that I am willing to work for my skorf, and that I am not so bad as you may think me."
Untying the Hottentot, therefore, they set him to work with pick and spade to dig a grave for his dead master. They themselves, meanwhile, proceeded to disentangle the ladder from the confusion in which it had fallen. This was a work of some little time. Then they removed the battered corpse of Karl Engelbrecht--a terrible spectacle--and laid it in the grave dug by Quasip. This done, they proceeded up the valley, and spent the remainder of the day in their gold-mining operations. They took the Hottentot with them; it was evident that he was sincere in his attempt to please them. He plied pick and shovel, and worked away steadily till dusk, when they relinquished their labours and returned to their camping ground.
For the next three days they steadily pushed on with their mining work. On the whole they did much better than they had anticipated, coming upon a fresh and very rich find of gold, which lay a few feet below the surface in some alluvial ground at the head of the stream. Each night they added considerably to the big pile of treasure already accumulated near the ladder foot. That morning Poeskop had appeared at daybreak at the top of the cliff, and shouted down to them. It was difficult to gather clearly what he said, but they understood him to mean that in two more days he would be ready for them.