“Stay, it would be better to ride forward as if we had not noticed them,” answered Rupert.
“But ought we not to watch them, and insist on their telling us why they are skulking in this place?” asked Crawford.
“The attempt would be dangerous in the extreme, for they are probably ready to hurl their assegais at us, should we approach them near enough,” answered Rupert. “Our only prudent course will be to get away from them, and to keep a look-out lest they should steal on, concealed by the underwood, and manage to get ahead, when they may salute us with a shower of assegais before we can get a glimpse of them. My father, who knows all their tricks, has enjoined me never to trust them, and considers that though they are savages they are much cleverer than we are when fighting in their own country.”
Crawford, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to follow Rupert’s wise advice, though he did not like the idea of running away from a foe for whom he felt the utmost contempt.
While they were speaking, a loud clap of thunder burst on their ears, and looking back they observed a dark bank of clouds rising from behind the trees, which had hitherto concealed it from sight.
“We have ample reason for galloping on, even though there were no Zulus in the neighbourhood,” exclaimed Rupert. “We shall ere long have a storm burst upon us, which it will be no joke to be caught in. We may, however, manage to distance it, as well as the Zulus.”
A second peal, louder than the first, made the horses start, and away they galloped at full speed. As they went on, the raindrops could be heard pattering on the ground behind them, but by urging on the horses they managed to keep ahead of the deluge.
As the gloom of evening drew on, the lightning grew more and more vivid, and the thunder rattled louder and louder.
“It is fortunate that we caught sight of those fellows; for they are very likely, while the herdsmen are keeping under shelter from the storm, to try and carry off some of the cattle,” said Rupert. “I’ll ride round and put the men on their guard; but as there is no necessity for you to get a wet jacket, you had better go on direct to the farm.”
“No, no,” answered Crawford; “I’ll accompany you; I don’t mind a wetting; and though the Zulus we saw cannot yet have got as far as this, even should they have pursued us, there may be others concealed near at hand, who, if they find you alone, might venture to attack you.”