The Gold Kloof

by H. A. Bryden

And, in very sooth, Poeskop had reason for uneasiness. Karl Engelbrecht was not yet done with his revenge. After retiring beaten from the attack on the English camp, he had trekked out of the mountains, and outspanned with the remnant of his Boer allies some ten miles away. There, after mutual recriminations, the two parties split up, and the filibusters who had joined forces with him, disgusted with their losses and their ill-success, moved away for the coast. Engelbrecht himself, as had been observed by Poeskop, had trekked northward into unknown veldt. But the Boer, although he had betaken himself beyond the ken of the gold-seekers, had by no means abated one jot or tittle of the fierce anger and hatred that had for so long possessed him. In a few days he had recovered from the flesh wound sustained in the attack on the English camp. During these days of enforced quiet his mind, still consumed by an overpowering passion for revenge, turned over incessantly murderous plans against the men who had so lately defeated him. If, by some means, he could gain the gold valley and lie in ambush, he might surely, he thought to himself, with the aid of his henchman Quasip, a notably good shot, dispose of two of the most hated of his rivals without much difficulty. Poeskop and the man Blakeney should fall to their first two barrels, and they could surely manage the two lads thereafter. There were risks, it was true--risks which, in his calmer moments, he would have weighed in the balance many times before accepting; but in his present frame of mind the man saw red and nothing else. Revenge called him loudly back to the Gold Kloof; and go he must. Somehow or other he would find means of compassing the destruction of his foes.

Taking with him his Hottentot Quasip, and accompanied by a native after-rider mounted on a spare horse, Karl Engelbrecht then rode back for the mountains surrounding the Gold Kloof. He had with him a fortnight's supply of biltong and other necessaries, but he reckoned upon accomplishing his designs within a week. They approached the mountains by a narrow ravine some miles to the right of the main valley by which the gold-finders had found their way into the hills. By this means Engelbrecht hoped to escape any scouting observations made by the English party. From this ravine the after-rider, Klaas, was sent back with the three horses to Engelbrecht's outspan, two days distant, with minute instructions to return to the same place seven days thence.

Then, climbing the mountain, the Boer and his Hottentot set out to find the way to the Gold Kloof. It was a long and a difficult task, but, thanks to their instinct of locality, they made their way over the hills, and, passing under the vultures' peak, found themselves next day overlooking the Gold Kloof on the opposite side to that on which the rope-ladder hung. Several times during this day they reconnoitred most carefully for the gold-searchers, whom they could see at work far beneath them. They passed on to the head of the kloof, and marked very carefully the cliffs and edges of the ravine whence issued the stream that ran down the gold valley.

"Now," said Engelbrecht to his companion, after regarding the place from every point of view for a long hour, "supposing we get down into the kloof by the rope-ladder yonder, and supposing we settle these precious folk below, what are we to do if their servants in the camp above cut or pull up the ladder?"

"Ek wit nie, baas [I don't know, master]," replied the Hottentot. "We should be in a nasty place."

"Well, I'll tell you," answered the Boer. "We could build our way out of the kloof by light ladders. There are two difficult places down this krantz which we couldn't scale. The rest is climbable. If we are put to it, we will build ladders, set them against these places, and get out. It is to be done. The axes we have with us I brought for some such job. I can make a ladder as well as any man in Benguela or Mossamedes, and if we are shut up in the kloof yonder we'll just set to work and build ourselves out of it. Two ladders, one of forty feet at the base, another of thirty feet half-way up, will, I reckon, pass us over those dangerous places; the rest is climbable."

That afternoon the two men, making a wide circuit, got round the head of the ravine, and approached the Englishmen's camp in the rear. The camp, as we have seen, had at its back a shoulder of the mountain. Engelbrecht, in the evening, before sunset, reconnoitred this shoulder, and discovered that with care the descent could be made. There were many bushes, by the aid of which the steep declivity could be accomplished. The English party, as a matter of fact, had somewhat neglected this approach. They knew only of one avenue to their camp, that by which they themselves had made their way thither, and by which also their enemies had attacked them. And now all danger of any fresh assault seemed far remote.

That night Engelbrecht and his Hottentot slept among some bush on the mountain side, within three hundred yards of the English camp. They had well calculated the movements of the gold-seekers and their native servants guarding the camp, and had determined to hazard the descent by the rope-ladder at about two hours after sunrise next morning. By that time, they reckoned, the party down the kloof would have quitted their resting-place and gone off for the head of the valley, where their operations now lay. Three of the servants in the camp would probably be away--so Quasip, from his previous spying operations, reckoned it out--with the oxen and horses, grazing far down the hill. Jan Kokerboom would most likely be alone at the wagon. If they could avoid his scrutiny, as they hoped to be able to do, they could descend the ladder and conceal themselves without difficulty in the kloof below. In the afternoon, as the diggers returned to their sleeping-place, they could be easily ambuscaded. Some dangers there might be--dangers which had been pointed out to his master by Quasip; but in the mind of the Boer, thirsting as he was for revenge at any price, these were as naught compared with the chances of success. At dawn the pair of ruffians descended very softly from their place of concealment, and letting themselves down the steep declivity with the greatest care and caution, by means of bushes and stunted olive-wood trees, which lent them invaluable aid, safely accomplished their purpose. Now, seeking the centre of a clump of high bush close to the cliff edge, they lay within a hundred and fifty yards of the ladder, and about two hundred yards from the camp, from which they were still completely screened. Two hours went by. Surely by this time the coast must be nearly clear, and their attempt might be made? With extreme caution Engelbrecht raised himself from his hiding-place, and, peering through the bushes, looked down into the kloof. Far away, up near the head of the valley, he could discern two or three men, their figures dwarfed by the distance, at work. That was right enough. Now for the attempt on the ladder.

With beating hearts the two men crawled quietly from the bush in which they were ensconced, and crept, well under the lee of more bush, towards the ladder. Up to half an hour ago they had heard voices about the camp and the lowing of cattle. The voices had ceased, and the cattle had evidently been driven down hill to pasture; all was now quiet. If any one remained in camp it would be Jan Kokerboom, and presumably he would be asleep. Very slowly, very cautiously, the two men crawled on hands and knees towards the ladder. The journey was safely accomplished. They lay now by the ladder of rope and hide, seventy yards only from the camp, but concealed from it by some high bush and a little group of wild olive trees. Karl Engelbrecht now nodded to his henchman to begin the descent. Quasip little liked the job; but he was the servant of an iron-willed and ruthless master, and he knew he had to go through with it. Rising very cautiously, he gripped the upper part of the ladder and went over the side.

It was a breathless moment for both. The Hottentot, his face deeply puckered with anxiety, began the downward climb. Engelbrecht shuffled his huge form to the edge of the cliff and saw his man's descent. He watched him till the lower angle of the cliff concealed him from view. The movement of the ladder presently ceased. Quasip had reached the bottom. His own turn had now come. Mingled with some natural feeling of suspense was also a sense of elation. His man was down the cliff; half their difficulties were over. In ten minutes he himself would be safely at the foot, near to that great pile of gold--and then revenge and plunder. The blood of his hated enemies and a vast treasure would be his.