As soon as the cattle had been driven into the kraal, Percy supplied the Hottentots with fresh ammunition, and posted them in different parts of the walls, that they might make as great a show as possible, taking care to keep his white warriors, as he called his three sisters and Biddy, in the front.
“Wouldn’t Denis be in his element, if he were here!” he said to Maud, as he passed her. “He would be flying about in all directions, and putting spirit into every one. By the bye, I quite forgot the dummies. Do go down to mother, and see if she cannot rig out half a dozen, and hand them up as soon as they are ready. She might also make Mangaleesu understand what we want, and he’ll manufacture a whole army of Kaffir warriors with assegais and shields. It would make the enemy suppose that we had a strong force of natives inside, in addition to our own men.”
Maud did not like leaving the platform until Percy assured her that he was in earnest, and that such an array of dummies as he proposed would, he was certain, have a good effect in preventing the Zulus from coming close to the walls.
“They are cunning fellows, and would soon detect the dummies, if they were to remain stationary; but we will outwit them by moving them about and putting them in different positions,” he said to Helen. “I must, however, take another look through the telescope. Here come Crawford and Rupert, so that you don’t want it any longer.”
The horsemen indeed could now be seen clearly by the naked eye, galloping towards the fort. Percy turned his glass towards the party of Zulus.
“As far as I can make out they are considerably diminished in numbers, and I suspect that some of them have been stealing along towards the river, intending to cross lower down. If so, we must keep a watch upon them. I can see the channel of the river over a considerable distance, and they won’t get over without being detected.” Percy watched for some time, and at length said, “I can see nothing on the surface of the stream, not even a crocodile or hippopotamus. The Zulus, knowing that they have a chance of meeting one of those creatures, won’t venture to cross unless in considerable numbers.”
“Here come Rupert and Mr Crawford!” cried Helen in a joyful tone. “We shall be safe now, at all events.”
The horsemen soon rode in at the gate, which had not yet been closed. Rupert was as much amused as Crawford had been at seeing his sisters in their military attire. He fully approved of all Percy had done; and when he heard of the proposed dummies, he thought the idea excellent. While Crawford, who possessed a great deal of mechanical ingenuity, went in to assist Mrs Broderick, he hurried to the back of the house, where he found Mangaleesu and Kalinda employed in manufacturing Kaffir warriors. They had collected a number of poles and sticks, and had obtained from the storehouse a sufficient quantity of skins for dressing up their figures. Kalinda had brought in from the garden about a dozen pumpkins and melons. These served admirably for heads, while some other skins, bent over oblong hoops, formed shields. Indeed, Mangaleesu had already put together a sufficient supply of shields and bundles of seeming assegais, to arm the whole of the dummies. They had not forgotten to obtain some pigment, with which to darken the faces of their figures.
“Very good, indeed. The enemy will fully believe that these are real Kaffirs,” said Rupert. “Your idea of pumpkins for heads is capital. I’ll take some in for my mother; but we’ll paint them white to suit the dresses of the figures.”
“I suppose I must give up the command to you,” said Percy to Rupert, when the latter returned to the platform.