It was still dark, but the starlight
showed her that the horses were quite quiet; indeed, one of them was
lying down, and the other eating some green leaves from the branches
of the tree to which it was tethered. Therefore that noise had not come
from any wild animal of which they were afraid. She listened intently,
and presently heard it again; it was a murmur like to that of people
talking somewhere at the bottom of the hill. Then she woke her father
and told him, but although once or twice they thought they heard the
sound of footsteps, nothing else could be distinguished. Still they
rose, and having saddled and bridled the horses as noiselessly as might
be, waited for the dawn.
At last it came. Up on the side of the kopje they were in clear air,
above which shone the red lights of morning, but under them lay billows
of dense, pearl-hued mist. By degrees this thinned beneath the rays of
the risen sun, and through it, looking gigantic in that light, Benita
saw a savage wrapped in a kaross, who was walking up and down and
yawning, a great spear in his hand.
"Look," she whispered, "look!" and Mr. Clifford stared down the line of
her outstretched finger.
"The Matabele," he said. "My God! the Matabele!"
XV
THE CHASE
The Matabele it was, sure enough; there could be no doubt of it, for
soon three other men joined the sentry and began to talk with him,
pointing with their great spears at the side of the hill.
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