“when are you going to shoot another back for us, mr selmes?” hazel brandon was saying. “as officer in charge of the commissariat department, it’s my duty to tell you that if you don’t we shall have to begin on mutton, and it’s your especial mission to keep us in game. so—when are you?”
“when you come and help me do it.”
“help you? yes—like the other evening when we went to voor-ly for a bush-buck over slaang draai, and you talked so much that although we sat there till it was dark none came out. now what sort of ‘help’ is that?”
he looked down into the bright, teasing face, and thought he had seldom—or was it ever?—looked upon any sight which delighted him more.
“well, you helped me to talk anyhow,” he said. “now didn’t you?”
one form of sport was to gain a point overlooking this or that bushy kloof about an hour before sundown and sit still, waiting till the bush-bucks began to move. thus a shot was to be obtained when one showed upon an open space. dick selmes, who had become a very fair rifle shot, had bagged several this way. the occasion to which the girl had referred was one on which he had persuaded her to accompany him—with the remit described.
“never mind,” he went on, without waiting for her answer. “it was no end jolly all the same. wasn’t it?”
“i don’t know. i seem to remember it became no end cold,” she laughed. “but you’re trying to get away from the point. you must go and shoot a buck for me this afternoon. why, you hardly ever hunt now. you’re getting quite lazy.”
it was a coincidence that her uncle should be making substantially the same remark about a quarter of a mile away.
“lazy! i like that. how about all those jolly rides we’ve been having? lazy!”
“well, i didn’t mean it in its strictly literal sense,” she answered. “yes, i have enjoyed those rides.”
hazel had been about a fortnight at haakdoornfontein, and during that time she and dick selmes had become very friendly indeed. it was the old story—youth, mutual attraction and propinquity, and but for the fact that she was the stronger minded of the two, and adhered to a rigid resolution not to neglect her self-imposed household duties, it is probable that their elders would have seen very little of her or of either of them.
“you know, it was quite a surprise to me to find you and mr greenoak here,” she went on. “you know uncle eph by this time. well, he never writes a word that he isn’t obliged to; so when mother sent a boy with a note to say i was coming, he just returned for answer ‘glad to see her.’ that and no more.”
“by jove!” cried dick. “and you didn’t know we were here.”
“not an atom. i expected to find him alone, as usual. he never has people here.”
“we ought to be flattered then. greenoak thinks your uncle got him here on purpose to try and clear up that slaang kloof mystery. but that’s ancient history now, and he doesn’t seem to want us to go. he objected, quite strongly for him, when i suggested moving on.”
“did he? he has taken quite a fancy to you. i never knew him so gracious to any man under about fifty before. he’s usually grim.”
“i think him a dear old chap,” said dick, decisively. “such a character too. well, i’m jolly glad he didn’t take me at my word,” with a meaning look at the sweet sparkling face beside him; which look the owner of the said face chose utterly to ignore. but from the foregoing dialogue it is obvious that harley greenoak’s suspicions as to his host’s complicity in any possible complications with regard to his charge were without foundation in fact.
“i shouldn’t be surprised if mr greenoak was right, and that uncle eph did get him up here to clear up the mystery,” said hazel. “though none of you—not even you—will ever tell me what that mystery is,” she added reproachfully. “well, never mind. i’m not going to press you to. i believe i’ll ask kleinbooi though.”
whereby it will be seen that harley greenoak’s advice to the other two concerned, to keep silence as to the nature of the slaang kloof mystery, had been rigidly adhered to.
dick laughed. “you might as well ask that tree.”
“does he know?”
“i don’t suppose he knows, but if he guesses he’d sooner hang himself than let on a word.”
“do you know, mr greenoak has a reputation for clearing up mysteries. there was that haunted farm on the sneeuw river in our neighbourhood. no one could stay there; all sorts of weird things happened. the new owner—who bought it for a song, on the strength of its dark reputation—got mr greenoak to investigate the affair, and he cleared it up to the satisfaction of all concerned; and the new people never had any more bother or disturbance. they’ve lived there ever since. but mr greenoak never let go a word as to what the mystery was or how he had put an end to it; no, not even to the owner himself.”
“well, i shan’t ask him,” said dick selmes, very interested, “for it’s a dead cert that if he never told anybody else he won’t tell me.”
“there are other stories about him, too. once he was instrumental in saving two kafirs from being hanged—only just in the nick of time—for the murder of a dutchman’s wife, by finding out that it had been done by the dutchman himself.”
“was the dutchman hanged?”
“he would have been, only he got away to the transvaal in time. he was safe there, of course.”
“well, i hope if greenoak gets on to any more enterprises of the kind he’ll cut me into them with him—that’s all,” said dick. “hallo! here’s kleinbooi.”
“baas,” said the fingo, saluting, “i got very good bit news. there’s a big tiger fast in the trap, up there, in slaang kloof. i go tell ou’ baas. he come quick shoot it.”
“oh, good—and good again!” cried dick. “we’ll go up there sharp.”
“oh, never mind me. only, i don’t feel inclined to run,” said hazel, mischievously; for her companion in his excitement had started off with quick eager strides.
“so sorry,” answered dick, contritely, at once falling back.
“never mind,” said the girl, “go on ahead and tell them. things in traps break loose sometimes if left too long. so the sooner we get there the better.”
“we? are you going with us, then?” eagerly.
“certainly. so tell them to saddle up a horse for me too. now go on, and don’t lose any time, or the tiger may break loose before we get there and get clean away.”
presumably everybody knows that there is no such thing as a tiger on the whole african continent—north, south, east, or west. what everybody, however, may not know is that in the southern section of the same, “tiger” is the colloquial word used to designate leopard, and that invariably; hence, of course, the trapped beast in this case represented not “stripes” but “spots.”
“well, well,” said old hesketh, when he was told, “that’s good news certainly. how was he caught, kleinbooi?”
“by one fore leg, baas. he seems fast, but it might be as well to go and shoot him, now at once.”
“ja, that’s so. tell dirk to saddle up three horses—it don’t matter which—what’s that? four?” turning to his niece, who had just joined them. “four, did you say, girlie?”
“certainly,” said hazel. “i’m going too. i don’t why i should be left out of the fun.”
the old man chuckled.
“all right,” he said. then ironically, “how long’ll you take getting ready? half an hour?”
“half a minute,” she answered, withdrawing to change into a habit skirt, and reappearing in not more than double the time named. then they started. “get back, you schelms, get back!” vociferated old hesketh, whipping back the dogs, who, scenting sport, had sprung up, whining and yowling with delight. “we don’t want you to-day. they’d spoil the skin, you know, if they started to worry it,” he added in explanation to dick. “besides, some of ’em are bound to get badly chawed. a trapped tiger’s no joke to anything that gets within reach of the brute. clear them out, kleinbooi.”
this the fingo did with the aid of sticks and stones, and much forcible expostulation, and the disappointed pack slunk back, to console itself by getting up a civil war on its own account.
“don’t fire at anything on the way, dick,” enjoined greenoak, as they started. “no matter what gets up, let it go. our catch might quite possibly pull himself loose if he got a sudden schrek.”
dick nodded, and went on with his conversation with hazel, by whose side it is hardly necessary to explain he was riding. old hesketh was shambling along on a correspondingly veteran steed, but he had no firearm. it didn’t require three men to shoot one trapped tiger, he had declared, and he wasn’t going to be bothered carrying unnecessary articles. greenoak on this occasion had his .500 express, and dick selmes his combination rifle and smooth-bore.
“i only wish the beast was loose,” said the latter to his companion. “there’d be rare fun in hunting him then.”
“you may still have your wish, dick,” said greenoak over his shoulder.
“i hope not,” said hazel, quickly. “and yet—i oughtn’t to mind with two such dead shots beside me. yes—i think it would be rather exciting.”
secretly the girl was not quite at ease. they were in slaang kloof now. riding beneath the cool shade of the trees, the dim sunlight falling in network patches where it struggled through the “monkey-ropes” trailing from bough to ground, there was a sense of dim mystery seeming to grow out of the place. so strongly did it affect her, that although not in the least given to hysteria, hazel brandon realised that were she alone here now, she would be conscious of a deadly fear. as it was, what if the trapped beast had broken loose, and in its mad rage were to pounce upon them suddenly? no, the thought was not a reassuring one.
