At this moment the Zulu rejoined the cousins, but as both eagerly welcomed him, and were about to speak, another diversion occurred. A gleaming, rushing thread of living fire suddenly shot up from the stairway and cut its way across the heavens, bursting at its extreme height into a shower of blazing and meteoric stars; and hardly had its radiance died out, than it was followed by a second and similar messenger, which in its turn was succeeded by a third, and then all was again as still as death.
“Three rockets,” said Grenville, “meaning three enemies in the camp; so look out for squalls. Watch keenly where the answer comes from.” And hardly had he spoken, when a single answering rocket was fired, probably a score of miles away, across the veldt.
Chapter Four.
Into the Unknown.
Grenville briefly detailed to the Zulu all they had seen in the cañon, eliciting many wondering comments from him as to the possible utility of the figure in warfare, after which he gave them an account of his reconnaissance. Suffice it to say that he had rigidly examined the adjacent rocks, and found several small fissures which appeared quite practicable of defence, but had ultimately concluded their present position to be the best, as they were free to strike out upon the veldt, without—so far as he could judge—bringing themselves within range of any likely rifle-posts.
On repassing the stairway, he had heard a subdued murmur of voices, and guessed that their enemies were consulting over the body of the sentinel, and had now realised that three men, already accountable for the deaths of two of their comrades, were by this time at large somewhere within the jealously-guarded precincts of their own secret kingdom; and thinking that the sooner he regained his party the better, Myzukulwa had returned at speed.
The Zulu proposed that their party should hold the cañon against all comers. There was water to be had close by, he said, under cover of their rifles; they had sufficient dried meat to last them for fully three days, and in the meantime they could form an opinion of the number and quality of their enemies. Neither Grenville nor Leigh would, however, consent to this plan of action, for they argued that if the stupendous rock which bounded the cañon was thin enough to admit of the hideous facial transparency they had seen, it was also capable of being pierced with loopholes, and a single marksman thus posted would make the place untenable by their party. Truth to tell, the unexplained horror of that diabolical face was strong upon the cousins, and each was anxious to be gone from its neighbourhood at all risks.
The Zulu continued to urge his view of the case, when his opposition was very strangely disposed of. The moonlight, which had all this time been gradually leaving the cañon, now crept along the nearer wall, and the party perceived, to their dismay, a human figure, apparently watching their movements; an instant more, and the waning light revealed a gruesome spectacle which fairly froze their blood. The man they had seen was dead—recently and ignominiously crucified; and upon wooden crosses, ranged at intervals along that awful wall, hung eight or ten hideous skeletons, their naked bones gleaming white and inexpressibly ghostly in the silvery moonlight; and on approaching these they found over each individual horror identically the same inscription—“By order of the Holy Three”—and realised that this was the Golgotha in which the infamous Mormon Trinity quietly, yet with infinite cruelty, executed their victims, whether innocent or otherwise. Pausing before one skeleton, Grenville pronounced it unmistakably that of a young woman, and Leigh, usually unimpressionable, rapped out a string of oaths, and vowed to pile a hecatomb of Mormon bodies to her manes.