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Updated: May 7, 2025
I don't think he would use his assagai except in an emergency." "That would be an emergency," said the Sergeant. "I've thought it out over my pipe, and this is what I make of it: he has followed Master Moriarty, and I expect that we shall never hear of him again." "What! Joeboy?" I cried. "No; Master Moriarty." "But that would be murder assassination," I cried.
I said anxiously as I rode alongside. "Um!" replied Joeboy. "'Fraid he gone dead, Boss Val." "No, no!" I said, laying my hand against Denham's neck. "I believe he is only stunned. Are you getting tired?" "Um!" growled the great black. It seemed wonderful what expression he could put into that one ejaculation, which sounded now as if he were saying, "Tired? No: I could go on like this till dark."
Truly we were in the dark; and as the air grew colder towards daybreak, everything looked, if possible, blacker still. "Morrow morning," said Joeboy, suddenly coming back to where I trudged alongside one of the wagons, whose drivers appeared to be all asleep. I looked in the direction he indicated, and there was a faint dawn low down on the horizon.
In fact, it grew to be a favourite saying with my father, "I don't know what we should have done without Joeboy."
"But about the drivers and forelopers? When they find where we're going they'll want to go back to the lines." "Um? No," said Joeboy decidedly. "Black Kaffir chap. Not think at all. Very sleepy, Boss Val. Jus' like big bullock. You an' Joeboy tell um go along and they go along." "But suppose they turned suspicious and said they wouldn't go with us?"
"It's not Joeboy: the hands are too small. It's my brother come to our help." I knew now that my previous night's experience was not a dream, and that Bob really was in the Boer camp with my father, and had crept under the wagon and whispered hope. "Are there two Val Morays in the world?" murmured poor Denham, with something which sounded very much like a sob.
I said. "Um? Did," he replied, "soon as Doppie captain went away. Going straight home now." "Ah!" I ejaculated. "Capital! But we shall be stopped again and sent back." "Um? Joeboy don't think so. Doppie over there, and Doppie over there," he said, pointing in opposite directions with his assagai. "You think we shall not meet another party, then?" "Um? Can't hear any," he replied.
Here, some one, cut that black fellow down if he resists." "Be quiet, Joeboy," I cried; "these are friends." Joeboy dropped into a peaceable attitude and stood scowling at the horsemen who surrounded us. "Now, sir," said the officer, "why don't you speak?" "Because you called me a spy," I said. "Well, that seems to be what you are, you young scoundrel.
"I'll be careful, sir;" and ten minutes later, to my surprise and delight at the way in which my position had altered during the last half-hour, I was riding close behind Lieutenant Denham, while, proud of his position, Joeboy was on in front, his knowledge of the pass we had just descended being most valuable at such a time, the probabilities tending to point out that he might be able to get well up to right or left of the track and gain a pretty good idea of the strength of the Boers without drawing a shot, whereas the sight of the horsemen, we felt, would have been the signal for a shower of bullets.
Yes, there beyond the shoulder of the peak was the crag just below which lay Echo Nek only a few miles away, not more than an hour's canter along the fairly even valley, and then Oh, if Joeboy should not be there! "He must; he is sure to be," I said half-aloud. "Even if he were not there, father would know how I should be pressed for food, and be there himself."
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