There was no more sleep for any of the three that night. Royce's nerves were on edge; the negroes, though they recovered sooner than he from the shock, remained in a high state of excitement. John related a dismal story of the absorption of a cousin of his by a snake, showing such a relish for gruesome details that Royce ordered him to choose another subject.
With the earliest glimmer of dawn they descended from their perches. At the foot of the tree lay an unusually large specimen of the African python, measuring at least eighteen feet. Royce shuddered at the thought of the fate which the Hausa had so narrowly escaped.
They made the best breakfast they could, and as soon as it was light enough to mark the trail, they set off again in the track of the enemy.
Royce knew that, lightly burdened as he and his companions were, their speed was likely to be much greater than that of the raiders, whose pace must be regulated by the men carrying heavy loads. So he was not surprised, after marching only two or three hours, to reach the spot where the party had encamped during the night.
From the aspect of the place, and the still warm embers of fires, John guessed that the camp had been broken up rather later in the morning than usual, and not very long before his arrival. This conclusion led him to press on with redoubled vigour, and at the same time with caution.
Royce asked himself more than once what he would do when he came up with the raiders. Always he had to admit that he did not know. It was hopeless to attempt to form a plan. Indeed, he acknowledged to himself that the whole enterprise was pretty hopeless. The hoof marks and the prints of feet were so numerous that the party must be a large one. The Hausa had spoken of thousands of Tubus. That was no doubt an exaggeration; the negro is always ready to magnify numbers; but it was almost certain that the horsemen mustered a score or two. What was more surprising was the character of the footprints. Royce's full party consisted of only sixteen carriers, of whom two were now with him; but the depth of the impressions on the sandy soil, rather than their number, indicated that there were many more than fourteen prisoners. African natives march nearly always in single file, each man stepping in the tracks of the man in front of him; the footprints now before him were so deeply impressed that they must have been made by a large number of men.
Of the three trackers, John went first, as the most experienced in travelling over this kind of country. Every now and again he would point to the marks of Challis's boots, when they were clearly distinguishable from the other prints. Presently he declared that Massa Chally must be tied to a horse, for his footprints corresponded regularly with the marks of four hoofs.
Towards midday the track struck into a well-beaten native path, on which the foot-prints were less clearly marked. It ran northward over undulating wooded country, broken now and then by open spaces of prairie-like land. John declared that there were signs of their approaching a river.
When they came to the open spaces, he slackened pace, and scouted forward with great caution, to make sure of not stumbling upon the rear of the enemy. It was very unlikely that these had any idea of being pursued, but they were in hostile country, the people in the far-distant villages were their bitter foes, and they would hardly neglect the usual precautions against surprise or sudden attack.
From one of these spaces, to which John had gone on ahead, he ran back by-and-by, his eyes lit with excitement.
"See horses, sah!" he cried.
"Going from us?" asked Royce anxiously.
"Tails dis way, sah."
"Lead on slowly. Be sure to keep out of sight."
Since the horses were moving, clearly the only thing to be done was to keep in touch with them for the present, and seek a favourable opportunity of ascertaining the exact strength of the party and their order of march.
As a precaution against being discovered, Royce suggested that they should leave the path, and pursue their course at some little distance on one side of it or the other. John agreed that this was wise, though it would retard their progress. This, however, mattered little, seeing that they were travelling considerably faster than the raiders were.
A little later, Royce himself, on ascending a slight eminence, caught sight of the horsemen.
The size of the party surprised him. At the rear were about a dozen mounted men, more or less clothed, turbaned and armed; the sunlight flashed on their weapons, though at the distance he could not yet discover what those weapons were. Beyond them, strung out in a long line that wound like a snake over the country, was a body of more than a hundred negroes on foot, with mounted men among them at intervals. At some distance ahead was another party of armed horsemen, larger than the one in the rear.
To determine their numbers exactly was impossible. Royce wished he had thought of taking his field-glasses with him when he left the camp a few nights before; they were now, he feared, among the captured baggage, but at a rough estimate he felt sure that there could not be fewer than forty mounted men, in charge of perhaps a hundred and twenty captives. It was clear that the Tubus had raided several small villages, and that Challis and the Hausas were the latest additions to their haul. No doubt they were now making for their own district across the Yo, in high spirits at the successful results of their expedition.
Only a few minutes after Royce caught sight of them, the straggling column came to a halt. It was the time for their midday meal.
"Eat now, sah?" asked John.
"You can go on a bit longer?" said Royce.
"Can do same as Massa," John replied.
"Very well, then. I suppose they will rest for a couple of hours or more. That gives us a chance of getting ahead of them."
"Oh yes, sah. Get ahead, sure 'nuff."
John regarded the suggestion as one that would merely score a point in the game. Royce, however, had a serious object in view. The size of the party had made clear what he had all along suspected: that direct intervention on his part was impossible. What could a little band of three, of whom only two were armed, do against so formidable a force?
When two combatants are unequally matched, the weaker tries to accomplish by guile what he cannot do by strength. Royce was wondering whether, by slipping past the raiders, and examining the country in front, he could discover a spot where by some trick or ambuscade he might throw them into confusion, and rescue Challis before they had recovered from their surprise. He had no definite plan in mind; everything depended upon the nature of the ground.
Increasing their distance from the path, the three marched rapidly through a belt of thin woodland which screened them sufficiently, and came back to the track, after a long round, at a point which Royce calculated to be a good mile ahead of the raiders.
They pressed on, avoiding the path, on which Royce's boots would have left tell-tale tracks, but keeping as near to it as was safe. John halted every now and then to look back, and to listen for sounds of the enemy's advance. Royce gave his whole attention to the features of the surrounding country.
As they covered mile after mile without finding a spot where anything in the nature of an ambush could be successfully attempted, Royce's hopes sank lower and lower. The country became more and more hilly, and the path followed the undulations in almost a straight line over bare soil. It did not pass through tracts of thick bush or clumps of woodland, which might have afforded opportunities for an ambuscade. Nor were there abrupt corners or overhanging banks that would have lent themselves to the springing of a surprise on the enemy.
The Hausas wondered why their master kept on marching so doggedly, now that they were miles ahead.
"Eat now, sah?" said John at last.
"You can eat as you walk, if you like," replied Royce, "but we won't rest yet."
Some little while later, as they were rounding the shoulder of a low hill, John suddenly cried:
"Ribber, sah! Savvy ribber here all same."
"I can't see it," said Royce.
This answer appeared to tickle John, who laughed heartily.
"See him bimeby," he said. "Hear him now."
And then Royce caught a faint sound like the rustle of leaves in the wind.
A few minutes' walking proved that John was right. The track made a sharp bend. On the left of it the ground fell away steeply to a river valley, down which a stream was tumbling rapidly, no doubt to join the Yo somewhere to the east.
Royce's drooping spirits took a joyous leap, for the path led down to a frail swinging bridge which spanned the stream. It was made of plant rope, and looked too slight to bear the weight of more than a few men at a time. The possibilities of the situation flashed upon his mind.
It was clear that the stream was not fordable at this spot, otherwise there would be no bridge. The African native never puts himself to unnecessary trouble. It was equally clear that the bridge was not strong enough to bear the weight of horses; therefore the mounted men would not cross here, but must go either to the right or to the left to seek a ford. Best of all, on the side of the track remote from the stream, the ground rose so steeply as to form almost a precipice. Here, if anywhere, an attempt to throw the party into confusion might succeed, and the idea of a plan to do even more than that had already suggested itself to Royce.
Would he be able to carry it out? Success depended on many conditions—the arrangements of the raiders, the nerve and quickness of his own men, a hundred and one chances. At any rate, it was worth attempting.
"Gambaru," he said to the second Hausa, "climb up to the top there, and watch for the enemy. Lie down behind a bush, so that they will not see you. When you are sure what they are going to do, slide down and tell me. John, come down to the river with me."
On reaching the bridge, Royce first ran across it to test its strength, then took out his pocket-knife, and cut as many of the plant ropes as he dared without bringing the whole structure down. John looked on in amazement.
The bridge took off from a low cliff on either side of the stream. The banks were overgrown with thick tall bushes and reeds.
"You can hide there?" said Royce, pointing to the vegetation beneath the nearer end of the bridge.
"Hide plenty all same, sah," replied John, looking puzzled and a little uneasy.
"Very well. We'll go back now, and wait for Gambaru's report. Then I'll tell you what to do."