“Now what do you suppose is in the wind?” asked Eugene, as soon as they were out of earshot of the rest of the party.
“Let Archie guess; he’s a Yankee,” replied Fred. “There’s something up, I know, or Uncle Dick and Frank would not have talked as they did. What is it, Archie?”
“There’s no danger that any lions will come near the spring,” replied Archie.
“Why, didn’t Mack tell me this morning that the veldt was full of them, and that he had seen three troops of lions at that very fountain?” demanded Fred. “That can’t be it. Guess again.”
“They think that when night comes and it begins to grow dark, our courage will give way, and we will say no more about going out to the shooting-hole,” said Archie. “Am I any nearer the mark this time?”
“I think you are,” replied Eugene. “That’s the best guess you have made yet. They may think so—it is probable they do—but they will find that they are mistaken. Do they imagine that I proposed this thing just to hear myself talk? They ought to know me better than that.”
The boys having now got it into their heads that their courage was questioned, were more than ever determined to carry their plans into execution, provided, of course, that Uncle Dick did not change his mind before night came. They tried to look very unconcerned when they announced this decision, and perhaps they felt so just then, for it is always easy to talk carelessly of danger when the danger itself is far distant; but as the afternoon began to wane, and the range of hills toward which they had been journeying all day seemed to approach nearer and nearer to them, our three hunters began to be a little nervous and uneasy. Perhaps the actions of their companions had something to do with this. The Griquas, who had all the day been loitering far in the rear, suddenly urged their beasts into something resembling a canter, and drew nearer to the boys, as if for protection; while the trappers, after exchanging a few words in a hurried undertone, rode up to the head of the line and joined Uncle Dick and his party. They seemed to feel safer in the captain’s presence and Frank’s than they did anywhere else. The Griquas were prompt to follow their example, and thus the rear-guard was reduced to a mere handful.
Archie and his friends cared nothing for the company of the natives, for they knew that in case of trouble no dependence was to be placed upon them; but the hurried flight of the two trappers, who had faced so many dangers without flinching, had anything but a soothing effect upon them. They would have been glad to ride up to the head of the line, too, but that would not look well in three hunters who had announced their determination to perform an exploit that not another person in the company was willing to undertake. They staid because their pride compelled them to do so, and George staid to keep them company.
An hour later the wagon entered the valley. It was a dreary, lonely-looking place they found when they got fairly into it, and they did not wonder that travellers hurried through it with all possible speed. It was about two miles wide, and on both sides arose steep hills, which were covered with thick forests from base to summit. The surface of the valley was not a level plain, as they had expected to find it. It was undulating, and even hilly in some places; and although almost bare of trees, it was thickly covered with boulders, some the size of a man’s head, and others as large as the wagon. Among these huge boulders the road twisted and turned in a way that was quite bewildering, a few of the bends being so abrupt that in passing around them the leaders of the team and the wheel oxen were seen moving in opposite directions. What an ambuscade it would have formed for hostile natives—wild Bushmen, for instance—and how easily a hungry lion could spring out from behind one of the boulders beside the road, seize a goat or a man, and jump back again before a shot could be fired at him! Once safe behind a boulder he was certain to escape with his booty, for he could spring from one rock to the cover of a second, and thence to a third, faster than even the breechloaders could be charged and fired at him. But if there was any hungry lion in the neighborhood he did not show himself, and the travellers passed safely through the wilderness of rocks, and finally drew up in the edge of a little grove, where Mack intended to camp for the night. Our three friends were on the ground at last.
Archie and his companions did not dismount as the others did, but set off at once in search of the fountain. The first ox that was freed from the yoke showed them where it was. Knowing that the animal’s instinct would direct him aright, they followed in his lead, and presently found themselves standing on the bank of the spring. It was, perhaps, a hundred yards away from the wagon.