United States or Timor-Leste ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"God forgive him for that lie," thought I to myself as, having tightened the girths, I mounted my mare. Then gripping the riem I kicked the beast to a canter, Anscombe flogging up the team as we swung down the bank to the edge of the foaming torrent, on the further side of which the Swazis shouted and gesticulated to us to go back.
All had gone their several ways, and Clement, after the heat of the day, was pacing towards a secluded cove out of an inner bay which lay nearer than Anscombe Cove, but was not much frequented. However, he smelt tobacco, and heard sounds of boyish glee, and presently saw Adrian and Fergus Merrifield, bare-legged, digging in the mud. "Ha! youngsters! Do you know the tide has turned?
I think, however, that their best shots must have fallen, for not a bullet touched us, although before we got out of their range one or two went very near. "There," said Anscombe, as a last amazing hop brought him to the wagon rail, "there, you see how wise it is give Providence a chance sometimes." "In the shape of a lucky penny," I grumbled as I hoisted him up.
Whenever I made a particularly bad miss, my gun-bearer, who at some time seems to have been yours, would say, 'Ah! if only it had been the Inkosi Macumazahn, how different would have been the end! My name is Anscombe, Maurice Anscombe," he added rather shyly. Then we both laughed and he said "Tell me, Mr. Quatermain, if you will, what those Boers are saying behind us.
But of the alternative as to whether we should try to escape to Lydenburg and civilization, or to Zululand and savagery, I felt it to be my duty to speak. "To put it plainly," said Anscombe in his slow way when I had finished, "you mean that in the Transvaal I might be tried as a murderer and perhaps convicted, whereas if we vanish into Zululand the probability is that this would not happen."
For my part I became alarmed, especially as I perceived that Anscombe was on the verge of breaking into open merriment, and his legs being up I could not kick him under the table. "My partner ought to go to bed. Don't you think we should stop?" I said. "On the whole I do," replied Rodd, glowering at Marnham, who, somewhat unsteadily, was engaged in wiping drops of brandy from his long beard.
At any rate, perhaps through my own fault, we have drifted apart. I daresay they believe that I am dead, or not to be found somewhere in Africa. However, I always think of them with affection, for Anscombe was one of the best travelling companions I ever had, and his wife a most charming girl, and wonder whether Zikali's prophecy about their children will come true. Good luck go with them!
Afterwards, when I have spoken with him, Macumazahn can join them that they may eat before they sleep." These directions I translated to Anscombe, who went gladly enough with Heda, for I think they were both afraid of the terrible old dwarf and did not desire his company in the gathering gloom. "The sun sinks once more, Macumazahn," he said when they were gone, "and the air grows chill.
Outside the sun was setting and against its brightness I perceived two figures, a white man and a white woman who were walking hand in hand and gazing into each other's eyes. They were Anscombe and Heda passing the mouth of the cave. "Behold the murdered, O Macumazahn, dealer of hard words." "It is only a trick," I murmured. "Kaatje saw them dead and buried." "Yes, yes, I forgot.
We were in it now, for, as I had hoped, the horses followed the mare without hesitation. For the first twenty yards or so all went well, I heading up the stream. Then suddenly I felt that the mare was swimming. "Flog the horses and don't let them turn," I shouted to Anscombe. Ten more yards and I glanced over my shoulder.
Word Of The Day