Yet Trent would have
no caution relaxed, the more they progressed. the more vigilant
the watch they kept. At last came signs of the men of Bekwando.
In the small hours of the morning a burning spear came hurtling
through the darkness and fell with a hiss and a quiver in the ground,
only a few feet from where Trent and the boy lay. Trent stamped on
it hastily and gave no alarm. But the boy stole round with a
whispered warning to those who could be trusted to fight.
Yet no attack came on that night or the next; on the third Trent
and the boy sat talking and the latter frankly owned that he was
nervous.
"It's not that I'm afraid," he said, smiling. "You know it isn't
that! But all day long I've had the same feeling - we're being
watched! I'm perfectly certain that the beggars are skulking round
the borders of the forest there. Before morning we shall hear
from them."
"If they mean to fight," Trent said, "the sooner they come out the
better. I'd send a messenger to the King only I'm afraid they'd
kill him. Oom Sam won't come! I've sent for him twice."
The boy was looking backwards and forwards along the long line of
disembowelled earth.
"Trent," he said suddenly, "you're a wonderful man. Honestly, this
road is a marvellous feat for untrained labour and with such rotten
odds and ends of machinery.
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