Into the Unknown: A Romance of South Africa

by Lawrence Fletcher

  CHAPTER NINE.

  MINING AND COUNTER-MINING.

  The party at the rock now passed some little time in quiet andcomparative comfort. They were not in any way molested, and thoughstrict watch was kept both by night and day, the Mormons never venturednear their position, despite the fact that the oil well had apparentlyexhausted itself. This, however, caused Grenville no seriousuneasiness, for Winfield had found that by superficially boring theground near to the rock, he could easily get at and ignite severalsimilar reservoirs of inflammable oil.

  It was nevertheless patent that their enemies had quite determined theyshould not leave the country, for from the commanding height of aneighbouring tree Grenville constantly saw large parties carefullypatrolling the wide stretch of veldt lying between the rock and thegreat subterranean roadway, by which the little party hoped to escape.

  And now, having nothing else to do, Grenville turned his mind to theacquisition of wealth, and soon had Winfield at his favouriteoccupation, aided by Leigh and himself, whilst the Zulus kept watch andward, and the young girls enjoyed to the full their newly-acquired anddelicious sense of freedom.

  A neighbouring stream proved to be prodigiously rich in alluvialdeposits of gold, and at the end of a week of hard work, the miningparty found themselves possessed of close upon sixty pounds weight ofthe precious metal, mainly in small nuggets. In one pocket alone, whichfell to the lot of Leigh, _twelve pounds of gold was found and taken outin less than as many minutes_, the bed of the river being a regular TomTiddler's ground.

  The method of procedure adopted by Winfield was somewhat curious, yetwithal, extremely simple. Starting about two miles above their shelter,which was as far afield as the party dared to go, he followed the courseof the stream down to, and even for some little distance beyond, therock, and wherever he came across an eddy formed by the stones, placed alittle flag on the bank to mark the spot; then damming up the narrowstream with rocks and fallen trees, he temporarily turned its courseinto an adjacent hollow in the ground, and set his party to work in theriver-bed, on the spots where the eddies, as indicated by the flags, hadformerly disported themselves.

  The results were pleasing beyond their wildest anticipations, and inless than a fortnight the little river was again running peacefullyalong its former course, and our friends had acquired gold to the valueof _nearly twenty-five thousand pounds sterling_--as much, in fact, asthey could well carry. Only the Zulus looked on stolidly, andinternally wondered how such a mighty warrior as "the Inkoos theirfather" could trouble his head about the "shining yellow sand."Winfield told the cousins that the mountains in which the stream had itssource had always, amongst miners, borne the reputation of a veritableEl Dorado, but the insuperable difficulty--indeed, impossibility--ofaccess from the outside world had rendered it the reverse of likely thatNature's stores--at least in this place--would ever be rifled by therude hand of man.

  "When the alluvial workings pan out like this," he said, "what must thefountain head be! A wretched old Kaffir once told me that he had seenan entire mountain of solid gold in these parts, and, i' faith, I beginto believe that he was not telling such a colossal he as I at the timegave him credit for. If we could only carry the stuff away, I wouldrisk a good deal to get at the spot; but as it is, we have quite as muchas the quagga can well carry, and if we ever succeed in getting throughagain to the cave under the waterfall, it will puzzle us to raise eitherthe animal or the gold up to the surface."

  These days of restful peace were, however, suddenly and rudely disturbedby an accidental discovery, which once again brought home to our friendsthe cunning and unscrupulous nature of the fiendish enemies with whomthey had to deal.

  Amaxosa, with the perversity of a native, had always insisted--alldanger to the contrary notwithstanding--in sleeping outside the house ofrock, in a sort of hollow in the scrub which he had dignified by thename of "bed"; but one night, just as Grenville was comfortably dozingoff to sleep, whilst Myzukulwa kept watch, a hand was placed on hisshoulder, and the voice of Amaxosa whispered, "Let my father rise andfollow me; there is danger and witchcraft afoot."

  Springing to his feet, Grenville instantly joined the Zulus outside thecave, and heard strange and terrible tidings. It appeared that Amaxosa,when on the point of falling asleep in his "bed," had been disturbed bysingular noises, which apparently issued from the very bowels of theearth. Concluding, however, that the "spout of fire" was again about toburst out, he had paid but little attention, until the stroke of someiron instrument upon a rock and the muffled sound of a human voice hadbrought him to his senses in an instant.

  Following the Zulu to the place indicated, Grenville listened for somelittle time, and clearly heard the sounds of mining underground, withnow and then a word evidently of command or direction, the purport ofwhich it was, however, impossible to guess, the voices being too deeplyburied to admit of the words being heard.

  After a moment of paralysed stupor Grenville realised the extent of thefrightful danger to which his party was exposed by this diabolical plot.The Mormons _were undermining their position, and in a few hourswould blow them sky high with Winfield's blasting powder_.

  Hastily, returning to the rock he awoke Leigh and Winfield, andexplained matters, calling forth ejaculations of dismay from both men.

  "In four or at most five hours," said Grenville, "they will be underthis spot, and unless we are clear away, Heaven help us; but on theother hand you may be certain that the forest is full of these outlyingdevils ready to cut off our escape."

  After a short but excited argument it was determined to try and_counter-mine the foe_, and starting to their feet the little party setto work to dig through their own floor with the home-made picks andshovels which they had used when seeking for gold.

  All worked like blacks, and soon sank a hole forty feet deep in the softyet firm clayey sand, and then commenced tunnelling, still, however,tending downwards. The labour was enormous and the heat stifling; stillthe stake, beyond all price, was the life and liberty of the wholeparty; and when the tunnel had been unceasingly bored for three hoursGrenville pronounced it long enough, and ordered his party to strikework. He then carried down the keg of powder taken at the centralbridge, which proved to contain about thirty pounds, and the contents ofwhich were found to be in capital condition.

  Then sending all back into the cave with instructions to awake thegirls, pack the gold on the quagga, and prepare for a running fight toAmaxosa's Cave, in the not improbable event of the rock beingdemolished, he returned to his burrow, bored the keg and laid a thicktrain of powder for thirty feet along the tunnel.

  Then came a long anxious wait; but when our hero had been alone fornearly forty minutes, he at last heard the sound of a pick.

  Gliding back to his friends, he found them ready for a start, and afterseeing all outside in a safe place well on the leeside of the rock, heagain crept into the tunnel. Here he waited for some little time in afever of anxiety. He could distinctly hear the Mormons now, almostabove him, and was in deadly fear lest the floor between their tunneland his, should give way, when all would be lost. This, however, didnot happen, for their enemies, overlooking the fact that the groundoutside sank gradually towards the rock, and boring their shaft on thelevel, had approached dangerously near the upper crust of the earth.

  At last the time came, and hearing the foe well above his position, andguessing by the sound of their voices that they were discussing theadvisability of executing their diabolical scheme, our hero coollystepped back some thirty feet, placed a light to his train, and as hesaw the fire spurt forward along the sinuous inky-looking line ofpowder, darted out of his burrow, and reached the exit from the rock asthe whole place seemed to be rent and torn by an ear-splitting report,and the outside air, which was for one brief moment lighted by the awfulglare of the explosion, resumed its normal blackness, the silence ofwhich was instantly broken by the groans of agony from the mutilated anddying Mormons, who had indeed been hoisted with their own petar
d.Quickly calling his party back to the rock, which, to his delight, wasuninjured, Grenville directed Amaxosa to fire one of the oil wells,feeling sure that a Mormon rush would now be made under the impressionthat the audacious little band of invaders had perished.

  Scarcely was this done than a small army of Mormons debouched from thewoods at a run. Grenville let them get within three hundred yards ofthe rock, and then his party opened fire, knocking the astonishedcowards over like ninepins, and in less than ten minutes the blazingpillar of fire showed only the open glade, strewn thickly with corpses,its sickly glare revealing also a mighty gaping rent in the ground, fromwhich smoke still issued, looking as if Nature had herself prepared aStygian grave for the dishonoured dead.

  Seeing that all fear of another attack was over for the present, thelittle party thankfully regained the shelter of the rock, in order todiscuss at their leisure the probable result of the latest Mormondisaster; and in a very short time the tired and hungry quintette ofminers were enjoying a hearty breakfast, if a meal served at about threein the morning merits such a denomination.

  The men were all so utterly worn out that the girls, upon their ownearnest entreaty, were for once allowed to keep guard whilst thefighting brigade took their much-needed repose. Grenville felt that thewatch was a mere matter of form, and so the result proved, for it wasten in the morning before he was awakened by the soft hand of Rose, whocame with the astounding news that a Mormon had appeared on the edge ofthe forest belt, where he now stood waving a white flag, and signifyinghis desire to communicate with the besieged.

  In a moment all had shaken off their sleep, and every man was standingat his loophole rifle in hand, the two girls being also directed toproject the muzzles of two guns through the loops, whilst Grenville,from outside, guarded the opening to the rock.

  Picking up his rifle, Grenville passed through the aperture, and wavedhis white handkerchief to the messenger as a sign to him to advance.This he did with a cautious mien, stopping altogether, however, when hehad got half-way to the rock, and beckoning our friend to come and meethim. Seeing that the man was quite out of range of the rifles of hiscomrades, who were, no doubt, outlying in the bush, Grenville thoughtthe proposal not unreasonable, and first, in a low voice, cautioning hislittle garrison to keep a watchful eye on the clearing in their rear, hestrode boldly forward until he found himself within a few paces of theMormon chief, for such he unmistakably was. A handsome man with anevil-looking face, and restless eyes, which seemed to avoid your own byinstinct. A fine powerful fellow too, not much under six feet, andarmed with a sword, a musket, and a brace of pistols.

  The pair looked at each other for a few seconds, and then the Mormonreached out his hand with an affable smile, but Grenville contemptuouslyrejected his offered courtesy, saying coolly--

  "No offence, my friend, but it will be time enough to indulge inhandshaking when we understand each other better."

  Fire flashed from the Mormon's eyes at this affront, for such heevidently considered it; he, however, suppressed all outward exhibitionof feeling, and replied in English, as pure as Grenville's own--

  "You are right, sir! Now to business. I believe I am addressing theleader of your party, which is composed of brave men, and has given us agreat deal of trouble."

  "You may consider me the head of my party," replied Grenville.

  "Well, sir, I am here by command of the Holy Three, and now propose,before matters go beyond the possibility of arrangement, that we shouldbecome allies. If you and your friends will take the oaths of ourfraternity, you shall receive high personal rank in the nation, andyourself and friends will be liberally endowed with wives, with landsand cattle; Winfield the Englishman, and also the black man Amaxosa,must die by our laws, which they have transgressed; the Rose of Sharonbecomes my property as Commander of the Forces, and the Lily of theValley will fall to the lot of the Holy Three. All these munificentoffers must be accepted before sundown, or--his voice growing hard andstern as it had hitherto been winning and courteous--Englishman you die,you all die like dogs, without the hope of help or mercy. I am but themouthpiece of the Holy Three; they have spoken, and they will notrepent."

  For fully half a minute Grenville looked the Mormon in the face, andgave no answer; he could not trust himself to speak.

  Then in tones of thunder he uttered the one word. "Go!"

  "And my answer?" snarled the Mormon.

  "Tell your wretched Trinity that what Richard Grenville gets, he keepswith a strong hand, and that the English rifles which have alreadydecimated the cowardly Mormon nation, will very shortly sweep the HolyThree themselves from the face of the earth. Go! I have spoken."

  The Mormon's face worked convulsively, and his hand made a movementtowards the pistols in his belt, but at that instant he happened toglance towards the rock, and saw the fervid sun glinting on the brownedbarrels of three rifles, whose muzzles were pointed directly at him, andshaking his fist at Grenville he retreated, hissing out, "Englishman, weshall meet again--beware!"

  To which Grenville answered coolly, "The sooner the better, my friend;and when we do, look out for yourself--that's all I have to say." Hethen coolly retook his way to the rock, which he reached just as theMormon regained the forest.

  To the male portion of his friends Grenville gave the purport of theMormon message, together with his answer, Leigh swearing by all that washoly that he would never quit the country until the insult from theMormon Trinity to Miss Winfield was wiped out in rivers of blood.

  Winfield ruminated upon the message for some time, then turning toGrenville, he said, "Look here, my boy, just let me advise you, inYankee parlance, to keep your eyes skinned. That fellow who spoke toyou just now--Radford Custance by name--is one of the hottest-temperedmen I have ever met with in the course of my whole life; he twice kepthis temper with you to-day under intense provocation, and let me tellyou that that's record for him, and I infer from it that the scoundrelshave got a trump card to play; what it can be, Heaven alone knows."

  "Look here, Dick," said Leigh, "things have got to such a pass that Ifor one should like to see the English flag over us--can't wemanufacture one?" At first the idea seemed rather foolish, but afterconsideration, Grenville could not but feel that his cousin was right,and with the help of the ladies, who produced all sorts of curious andunexpected odds and ends, as well as needles and thread, and assisted bythe loan of several handkerchiefs, a rude Saint George's ensign wascontrived, and soon floated on the summit of the rock, over the heads ofthe little party, who saluted its appearance with three hearty cheers,and a volley from their rifles, Grenville, as they did so, takingpossession of the country in the Queen's name, with a laughing apologyto the Rose of Sharon. This act was answered almost instantly by asalvo from the enemy, and a flag was hoisted on the very top of a hugetree, some six hundred yards away. This ensign was a curiousproduction--a dead black ground, ornamented with three horrible-lookingeyes, and having also a motto sewn upon it in white letters, whichproved to be their usual legend about the eyes of their unsleepingTrinity. Taking a careful sight, Leigh sent a shell-bullet from hisWinchester clean through the flag, in which it tore a hole about a footlong, entirely destroying the effect of the basilisk-looking eyes. Uponthis, the symbol was at once run down, and did not again make itsappearance.