The ground was favourable to them. It was evident that Jim Courtney was following a river valley down towards the ocean. There was grazing and good water for his herds along this way. However, at one point the river was pinched into a narrow gorge where it ran through a line of rugged hills. Koots and Kadem surveyed the bottleneck from the height of the hills above.
They will have to come through here with the wagons,' Koots said, with satisfaction. The only other passage through these hills is four days' travel to the south.'
'It will take them days to traverse the gorge, which means that they must laager the wagons for at least one night in its confines,' Kadem agreed. 'We will be able to make a night attack. They will not be expecting that. The Nguni warriors they have with them will not fight in the dark. We will be the foxes in the hen coop, it will all be over before dawn breaks.'
They waited on the high ground, and at last watched the slow line of wagons enter the mouth of the gorge below them and follow the bank of the river deeper into the narrow way. Koots recognized Jim Courtney and his woman riding ahead of the lead wagon, and his smile was savage. He watched them make camp and out span in the gut of the gorge. Koots was relieved to see that they made no attempt to laager the wagons, but merely parked them casually among the trees on the river bank, widely separated from each other. Behind the wagons the herds of cattle flowed into the mouth of the gorge. They watered at the river and the Nguni herders began to unload the ivory tusks each beast carried on its back.
This was the first time that Koots had been close enough to the caravan to see the quantity of the booty. He tried to count the cattle, but in the dust and confusion that was not possible. It was like trying to count the individual fish in a shoal of sardines. He turned his spyglass on the mounds of ivory piled up on the bank of the river. Here was a treasure greater than he had allowed himself to imagine.
He watched as the cattle settled down for the night, guarded by their Nguni herders. Then, as the sun sank and the light began to fade, Koots and Kadem left their hiding-place on the high ground and sneaked back from the skyline to where Sergeant Oudeman was holding the horses.
'Good, so, Oudeman,' Koots told him as he mounted. They are in a Perfect position for the attack. We will go back now to join the others.'
They crossed the next ridgeline, then dropped down a steep game trail into the river gorge.
Bakkat watched them go. Even then he waited until the bottom limb of the sun touched the horizon before he stirred from his own place of concealment on the higher hilltop across the gorge. He was taking no chance on Koots doubling back. In the dusk he dropped swiftly and silently down the steep side of the gorge to report to Jim.
Jim listened until Bakkat had concluded. 'That does it,' he said, with satisfaction. 'Koots will attack tonight. Now that he has seen the cattle and the ivory, he will not be able to contain his greed. Follow them, Bakkat. Watch their every move. I will listen for your signals.'
As soon as it was dark enough to hide them from any watcher on the hilltops, Jim in spanned the wagons again and moved them into a narrow re-entrant at the foot of the hills, with steep cliffs on three sides. They worked as silently as possible, without whip cracking or shouting. In this readily defensible position they laagered the wagons securely and lashed them wheel to wheel. They drove the herd of spare horses into the centre of the square. The horses they would ride tonight were hitched to the outside of the wagons, saddled and with muskets and cutlasses in the scabbards, ready for an instant sortie.
Then Jim went out to where Inkunzi, the head herdsman, and his Nguni waited. Under Jim's orders they bunched up the cattle and moved them quietly another three cables' length up the gorge from the bedding ground Koots had spied out at sundown. Jim spoke to the herders and explained exactly what he wanted of them. There was some muttered protest from these men, who looked upon the cattle as their children and were highly solicitous of their welfare, but Jim snarled at them and their protests subsided.
The cattle had sensed the mood of their herders, and they were restless and fretful. Inkunzi moved among them and played them a lullaby on his reed flute. They began to settle and some couched for the night. However, they kept bunched up together; in these nervous hours they needed the mutual assurance of the herd.
Jim went back to the wagons and made sure that all his men had eaten their dinner, and that they were booted and armed, ready to ride. Then he and Louisa climbed a short way up the cliff above the laager. From there they would be able to hear Bakkat's signals. They sat close
together, sharing a woollen cape against the sudden night chill and talked quietly.
They won't come before moonrise,' Jim predicted.
'When is that?' Louisa asked. Earlier in the evening they had consulted the almanac together, but she asked again mainly to hear his voice.
'A few minutes before ten of the clock. We are seven days from full moon. Just enough light for it.'
At last the moonrise lightened the eastern horizon. Jim stiffened and threw off the cape. On the hills on the far side of the gorge an eagle owl hooted twice. An eagle owl never hoots twice. 'That is Bakkat,' Jim said quietly. They are coming.'
'Which side of the river?' Louisa asked, as she stood up beside him.
They will come to where they saw the wagons at sunset, on this side of the river.' The eagle owl hooted again, much closer.
'Koots is coming on fast.' Jim turned to the path down to the laager. Time to mount up.'
The men were waiting beside the horses, darkly muffled figures. Jim spoke a few words to each quietly. Some of the herd-boys had grown enough to be able to ride and handle a musket. The smallest, led by Izeze, the flea, would bring up the pack-horses with spare powder, shot and the waterbags, in case there was heavy fighting. Tegwane had twenty of the Nguni warriors under his command and he would stay to guard the wagons.
Intepe, Tegwane's granddaughter, was standing beside Zama, helping him secure his equipment on Crow's back. These days, the two spent much of their time together. Jim went to him now, and spoke low: 'Zama, you are my other arm. One of us must ride beside Welanga every minute. Do not become separated from her.'
'Welanga should stay in the laager with the other women,' Zama replied.
'You are right, old friend.' Jim grinned. 'She should do as I tell her, but I have never been able to find the words to convince her of that.'
The eagle owl hooted again, three times. They are close now.' Jim looked at the gibbous moon sailing above the hills.
'Mount!' he ordered. Every man knew what he had to do. Quietly they swung up on to the horses' backs. On Drumfire and Trueheart, Jim and Louisa led them to where Inkunzi waited with his warriors, guarding the bedded herds.
'Are you ready?' Jim asked, as he rode up. Inkunzi's shield was on his
shoulder, and his assegai glinted in the moonlight. His men pressed up close behind him.
'I will lay a feast for your hungry blades tonight. Let them eat and drink their fill,' Jim told them. 'Now you know what you have to do. Let us begin.'
Quickly and silently, in an orderly, disciplined evolution, the warriors formed into an extended double rank across the breadth of the gorge, from river bank to cliff wall. The horsemen drew up behind them.
'We are ready, great lord!' Inkunzi sang out. Jim drew his pistol from the holster on the front of his saddle and fired a shot into the air. Immediately the still night was plunged into hubbub and uproar. The Nguni drummed on their shield with the blades of their assegais and shouted their war-cries. The horsemen fired their muskets and yelled like banshees. They surged forward down the gorge, and the cattle lumbered to their feet. The bulls bellowed in alarm for they were sensitive to the temper and mood of their herders. The breeding cows lowed plaintively, but when the ranks of yelling, drumming warriors bore down on them they panicked and whirled away before them.
These were all heavy beasts with great humps and swinging dewlaps. The span of their horns was twice the reach of a man's spread arms. Over the centuries the Nguni had bred them for this attribute, so that the cattle might better defend themselves against lions and other predators. They could run like wild antelope and when threatened they would defend themselves with those great racks of horn. In a dark and solid mass they stampeded down the valley. The running warriors and galloping horsemen pressed close behind them.
Koots was well satisfied that they had made a silent approach, and that they had not been detected by Jim Courtney's pickets. There was a good moon and, apart from the usual night sounds of birds and small nocturnal animals, all was silent and still.
Koots and Kadem were riding stirrup to stirrup. They knew that they had still more than a mile to cover before they reached the spot on the river bank where they had seen the wagons out spanned All of the Hottentots and the three Arabs knew exactly what to do. Before the alarm went up, they must get among the wagons and shoot down Jim Courtney's people as they emerged. Then they could deal with the Ngunis. Even though they were greater in number, they were armed only with spears. They were the lesser threat. 'No quarter,' Koots had ordered. 'Kill them all.'
'What about the women?' Oudeman asked. 'I haven't had a
