“I have a bright idea,” exclaimed Percy. “What do you say to letting the girls dress up in Rupert’s and my clothes? Perhaps we shall also find some among my father’s and Crawford’s which would suit them. They might show themselves while the enemy appeared at a distance, and then get out of harm’s way.”
Mrs Broderick could not help smiling, notwithstanding her anxiety at Percy’s proposal.
“The girls will be ready to do anything that is necessary, but I trust that after all no enemies will come near us, and I only wish you, as a precautionary measure, to convince yourself that none are in the neighbourhood,” she said.
“Very well, mother, I will go, and shout out loud enough for you all to hear, if I see any one,” answered Percy. “Then let the girls put on their male attire and hurry up, with muskets in their hands, to the ramparts. They need not put on any lower garments, as the Zulus would only see their heads and shoulders. By the bye, if they were to rig up a few dummies, it might assist to deceive the enemy, and they might be left to be shot at in case they should have firearms among them.”
On leaving his mother, Percy shouted to his sisters to come and hear the proposal he had to make.
The young ladies, who had been employed in various ways at the back of the premises, hearing his voice, hurried round to ascertain what he wanted. He had by this time reached the platform.
“I was telling mother that, should any enemy appear, I would advise you all to rig up in our clothes. I forgot Biddy; she would be a host in herself, if she will rout out father’s old uniform coat and his cocked hat and sword. If she flourishes the blade in the rays of the sun, and rushes about here and there, she’ll make the enemy believe that we have a large garrison, and they will hesitate to approach us. Tell Mangaleesu that he must disguise himself, and that he will not be recognised in a round hat and big necktie; and his wife too, she will prove useful. ‘We shall do finely,’ as Denis would say, and now I’ll just look out and see if any enemy is at hand. In all probability the Zulus have given up their search for Mangaleesu as hopeless, supposing him by this time to be miles away from the frontier, so you need not begin your preparations just yet, though I should like to see Biddy dressed up in our father’s cocked hat and uniform coat, with a sword by her side. She’d make a fine picture of an Amazon.”
Having thus delivered himself, Percy placed his telescope at his eye, and slowly sweeping it round, took in every spot between the farm and the most distant part of the landscape.
“Do you see any one?” asked Maud, who had climbed up and stood by his side.
“Nothing moving that I can make out,” he answered; “but that, of course, does not prove that no one is coming. Perhaps a whole army of Zulus may be advancing behind the trees, and it will be only by a lucky chance that my glass is pointed at them at the moment they are crossing some open space.”