Your location, said his Dutch waggon-driver, with a curious smile, as though he should say, I wonder what youll do with yourselves.
But the Dutchman made no further remark. He was one of the taciturn specimens of his class, and began at once to unload the waggon. With the able assistance of Brook and his men, and the feeble aid of the Tottie, or Hottentot leader of the span of oxen, the boxes, ploughs, barrels, bags, cases, etcetera, which constituted the worldly wealth of the settlers, were soon placed on the green sward. Then the Dutchman said goeden-dag, or farewell, shook hands all round, cracked his long whip, and went off into the unknown wilderness, leaving the Brook family to its reflections.
Chapter Seven.
The Location.
In the midst of the confused heap of their property, Edwin Brook sat down on a large chest beside his wife and daughter, and gazed for some time in silence on his new estate and home.
To say truth, it was in many respects a pleasant prospect. A bright blue sky overhead, a verdant earth around. Grassy hills and undulations of rich pasture-land swept away from their feet like a green sea, until stopped in the far distance by the great blue sea itself. These were dotted everywhere with copses of the yellow-flowered mimosa-bush, through openings in which the glitter of a stream could be seen, while to the left and behind lay the dark masses of a dense jungle filled with arboreous and succulent plants, acacias and evergreens, wild-looking aloes, tall euphorbias, quaint cactuses, and a great variety of flowering shrubsfilled also, as was very soon discovered, with antelopes, snakes, jackals, hyenas, leopards, and other wild creatures. The only familiar objects which broke the wild beauty of the scene were the distant white specks which they knew to be the tents just put up by those settlers who chanced to be their next neighbours.
May God protect and bless us in our new home! said Edwin Brook, breaking the silence, and reverently taking off his cap.
A heartfelt Amen was murmured by Mrs Brook and Gertie, but a strange, though not unpleasant, feeling of loneliness had crept over their spirits, inducing them to relapse into silence, for they could not avoid realising strongly that at last they were fairly left alone to fight the great battle of life. Edwin Brook in particular, on seeing the long team of the Dutch driver disappear over a distant ridge, was for the first time deeply impressed with, as it were, the forsaken condition of himself and his family. It was plain that he must take root there and growor die. There was no neighbouring town or village from which help could be obtained in any case of emergency; no cart or other means of conveyance to remove their goods from the spot on which they had been left; no doctor in case of sickness; no minister in cases either of joy or sorrowexcept indeed (and it was a blessed exception) Him who came to our world not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
Strong in the comfort that this assurance gave, Edwin Brook shook off the lethargy that had been stealing over him, and set about the duties of the present hour. The tent had to be pitched, the trunks and boxes conveyed into it, a fire kindled, the kettle boiled, the goods and chattels piled and secured from the weather, firewood cut to prepare for the night-bivouac, etcetera.
Much of this work was already in progress, for George Dally,with that ready resource and quiet capacity of adaptation to circumstances which he had displayed on the voyage out and on the journey to the location,had already kindled a fire, sent Scholtz to cut firewood, and was busy erecting the tent when Brook joined him.
Thats right, George, he said, seizing a tent-peg and mallet; we have plenty to do here, and no time to waste.
Very true, sir, replied George, touching his cap, for George was an innately respectful manrespectful to all, though with a strong tendency to humorous impudence; very true, sir; thats just what I thought when I see you a-meditatin, so I went to work at once without wastin any time.
Is zat enough? asked Scholtz, staggering up at the moment with a heavy load of firewood, which he threw on the ground.
The question was put to George, for whom the big German had a special regard, and whose orders he consequently obeyed with unquestioning alacrity, although George had no special right to command.
Enough! exclaimed George, with a look of surprise, why, zat is not enough to scare a weasel with, much less a elephant or aa platzicumroggijoo.
George was ignorant of South African zoology, and possessed inventive powers.
Bring ten times as much, he added; we shall have to keep a blazin bonfire agoin all night.
Scholtz re-shouldered his axe, and went off to the jungle with a broad grin on his broader countenance.
He was a man who did not spare himself, yet of a temperament that kicked at useless labour, and of a size that forbade the idea of compulsion, but George Dally could have led him with a packthread to do anything.
Before he had reached the jungle, and while the smile was yet on his visage, his blood was curdled and his face elongated by a most appalling yell! It was not exactly a war-whoop, nor was it a cry of pain, though it partook of both, and filled the entire family with horror as they rushed to the tent on the mound from which the cry had issued.
The yell had been given by Junkie, who had been bitten or stung by something, and who, under the combined influence of surprise, agony, and wrath, had out-Junkied himself in the fervour and ferocity of his indignant protest.
The poor child was not only horrified, but inconsolable. He wriggled like an eel, and delivered a prolonged howl with intermittent bursts for full half an hour, while his distracted nurse and mother almost tore the garments off his back in their haste to discover the bite or the brute that had done it.
It must have bin a serpent! cried the nurse, agonising over a knotted string.
Perhaps a tarantula, suggested Gertie, who only clasped her hands and looked horrified.
Quick! exclaimed Mrs Brook, breaking the unmanageable tape.
Ze chile is growing black and vill bust! murmured Scholtz in real alarm.
It did seem as if there were some likelihood of such a catastrophe, for Junkies passion and struggles had rendered him blue in the face; but it wes found that the bite or sting, whichever it was, had done little apparent damage, and as the child cried himself out and sobbed himself to sleep in half an hour without either blackening or bursting, the various members of the family were relieved, and resumed their suspended labours.
The shades of evening had fallen, and, among other orbs of night, the stars of that much too highly complimented constellation, the Southern Cross, had for some time illumined the sky before these labours were completed, and the wearied Brook family and household retired to rest, with weapons ready at hand and fires blazing. Wild beaststo whose cries they were by that time accustomedsoon began their nightly serenade and carried it on till morning, but they were not wild enough to disturb the newcomers with anything more formidable than sound.
Next morning early, George Dally was the first to bestir himself. On taking a general view of surrounding nature he observed a thin column of smoke rising above the tree-tops in the direction of the stream or river to which reference has already been made.
Perhaps its Kafirs, thought George.
Following up that thought he returned to what we may style his lairthe place where he had spent the nightunder a mimosa-bush, and there girded himself with a belt containing a long knife. He further armed himself with a fowling-piece. Thus accoutred he sallied forth with the nonchalant air of a sportsman taking his pleasure. Going down to the stream, and following its course upwards, he quickly came in sight of the camp-fire whose smoke had attracted his attention. A tall man in dishabille was bending over it, coaxing the flame to kindle some rather green wood over which a large iron pot hung from a tripod. The fire was in front of a large, but not deep, cavern, in the recesses of which three slumbering figures were visible.