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diff --git a/2841-h/2841-h.htm b/2841-h/2841-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c4321a --- /dev/null +++ b/2841-h/2841-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14992 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ivory Child, by H. Rider Haggard</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ivory Child, by H. Rider Haggard</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Ivory Child</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: H. Rider Haggard</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October, 2001 [eBook #2841]<br /> +[Most recently updated: March 10, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: John Bickers; Emma Dudding; Dagny; David Widger</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IVORY CHILD ***</div> + +<h1>The Ivory Child</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by H. Rider Haggard</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. ALLAN GIVES A SHOOTING LESSON</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. ALLAN MAKES A BET</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. MISS HOLMES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. HARÛT AND MARÛT</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. THE PLOT</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. THE BONA FIDE GOLD MINE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. LORD RAGNALL’S STORY</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. THE START</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. THE MEETING IN THE DESERT</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. CHARGE!</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. ALLAN IS CAPTURED</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. THE FIRST CURSE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. JANA</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. THE CHASE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV. THE DWELLER IN THE CAVE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI. HANS STEALS THE KEYS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII. THE SANCTUARY AND THE OATH</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII. THE EMBASSY</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX. ALLAN QUATERMAIN MISSES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX. ALLAN WEEPS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI. HOMEWARDS</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /> +ALLAN GIVES A SHOOTING LESSON</h2> + +<p> +Now I, Allan Quatermain, come to the story of what was, perhaps, one of the +strangest of all the adventures which have befallen me in the course of a life +that so far can scarcely be called tame or humdrum. +</p> + +<p> +Amongst many other things it tells of the war against the Black Kendah people +and the death of Jana, their elephant god. Often since then I have wondered if +this creature was or was not anything more than a mere gigantic beast of the +forest. It seems improbable, even impossible, but the reader of future days may +judge of this matter for himself. +</p> + +<p> +Also he can form his opinion as to the religion of the White Kendah and their +pretensions to a certain degree of magical skill. Of this magic I will make +only one remark: If it existed at all, it was by no means infallible. To take a +single instance, Harût and Marût were convinced by divination that I, and I +only, could kill Jana, which was why they invited me to Kendahland. Yet in the +end it was Hans who killed him. Jana nearly killed me! +</p> + +<p> +Now to my tale. +</p> + +<p> +In another history, called “The Holy Flower,” I have told how I +came to England with a young gentleman of the name of Scroope, partly to see +him safely home after a hunting accident, and partly to try to dispose of a +unique orchid for a friend of mine called Brother John by the white people, and +Dogeetah by the natives, who was popularly supposed to be mad, but, in fact, +was very sane indeed. So sane was he that he pursued what seemed to be an +absolutely desperate quest for over twenty years, until, with some humble +assistance on my part, he brought it to a curiously successful issue. But all +this tale is told in “The Holy Flower,” and I only allude to it +here, that is at present, to explain how I came to be in England. +</p> + +<p> +While in this country I stayed for a few days with Scroope, or, rather, with +his fiancée and her people, at a fine house in Essex. (I called it Essex to +avoid the place being identified, but really it was one of the neighbouring +counties.) During my visit I was taken to see a much finer place, a splendid +old castle with brick gateway towers, that had been wonderfully well restored +and turned into a most luxurious modern dwelling. Let us call it +“Ragnall,” the seat of a baron of that name. +</p> + +<p> +I had heard a good deal about Lord Ragnall, who, according to all accounts, +seemed a kind of Admirable Crichton. He was said to be wonderfully handsome, a +great scholar—he had taken a double first at college; a great +athlete—he had been captain of the Oxford boat at the University race; a +very promising speaker who had already made his mark in the House of Lords; a +sportsman who had shot tigers and other large game in India; a poet who had +published a successful volume of verse under a pseudonym; a good solider until +he left the Service; and lastly, a man of enormous wealth, owning, in addition +to his estates, several coal mines and an entire town in the north of England. +</p> + +<p> +“Dear me!” I said when the list was finished, “he seems to +have been born with a whole case of gold spoons in his mouth. I hope one of +them will not choke him,” adding: “Perhaps he will be unlucky in +love.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s just where he is most lucky of all,” answered the +young lady to whom I was talking—it was Scroope’s fiancée, Miss +Manners—“for he is engaged to a lady that, I am told, is the +loveliest, sweetest, cleverest girl in all England, and they absolutely adore +each other.” +</p> + +<p> +“Dear me!” I repeated. “I wonder what Fate <i>has</i> got up +its sleeve for Lord Ragnall and his perfect lady-love?” +</p> + +<p> +I was doomed to find out one day. +</p> + +<p> +So it came about that when, on the following morning, I was asked if I would +like to see the wonders of Ragnall Castle, I answered “Yes.” +Really, however, I wanted to have a look at Lord Ragnall himself, if possible, +for the account of his many perfections had impressed the imagination of a poor +colonist like myself, who had never found an opportunity of setting his eyes +upon a kind of human angel. Human devils I had met in plenty, but never a +single angel—at least, of the male sex. Also there was always the +possibility that I might get a glimpse of the still more angelic lady to whom +he was engaged, whose name, I understood, was the Hon. Miss Holmes. So I said +that nothing would please me more than to see this castle. +</p> + +<p> +Thither we drove accordingly through the fine, frosty air, for the month was +December. On reaching the castle, Mr. Scroope was told that Lord Ragnall, whom +he knew well, was out shooting somewhere in the park, but that, of course, he +could show his friend over the place. So we went in, the three of us, for Miss +Manners, to whom Scroope was to be married very shortly, had driven us over in +her pony carriage. The porter at the gateway towers took us to the main door of +the castle and handed us over to another man, whom he addressed as Mr. Savage, +whispering to me that he was his lordship’s personal attendant. +</p> + +<p> +I remember the name, because it seemed to me that I had never seen anyone who +looked much less savage. In truth, his appearance was that of a duke in +disguise, as I imagine dukes to be, for I never set eyes on one. His +dress—he wore a black morning cut-away coat—was faultless. His +manners were exquisite, polite to the verge of irony, but with a hint of +haughty pride in the background. He was handsome also, with a fine nose and a +hawk-like eye, while a touch of baldness added to the general effect. His age +may have been anything between thirty-five and forty, and the way he deprived +me of my hat and stick, to which I strove to cling, showed, I thought, +resolution of character. Probably, I reflected to myself, he considers me an +unusual sort of person who might damage the pictures and other objects of art +with the stick, and not seeing his way how to ask me to give it up without +suggesting suspicion, has hit upon the expedient of taking my hat also. +</p> + +<p> +In after days Mr. Samuel Savage informed me that I was quite right in this +surmise. He said he thought that, judging from my somewhat unconventional +appearance, I might be one of the dangerous class of whom he had been reading +in the papers, namely, a “hanarchist.” I write the word as he +pronounced it, for here comes the curious thing. This man, so flawless, so well +instructed in some respects, had a fault which gave everything away. His +h’s were uncertain. Three of them would come quite right, but the fourth, +let us say, would be conspicuous either by its utter absence or by its unwanted +appearance. He could speak, when describing the Ragnall pictures, in rotund and +flowing periods that would scarcely have disgraced the pen of Gibbon. Then +suddenly that “h” would appear or disappear, and the illusion was +over. It was like a sudden shock of cold water down the back. I never +discovered the origin of his family; it was a matter of which he did not speak, +perhaps because he was vague about it himself; but if an earl of Norman blood +had married a handsome Cockney kitchenmaid of native ability, I can quite +imagine that Samuel Savage might have been a child of the union. For the rest +he was a good man and a faithful one, for whom I have a high respect. +</p> + +<p> +On this occasion he conducted us round the castle, or, rather, its more public +rooms, showing us many treasures and, I should think, at least two hundred +pictures by eminent and departed artists, which gave him an opportunity of +exhibiting a peculiar, if somewhat erratic, knowledge of history. To tell the +truth, I began to wish that it were a little less full in detail, since on a +December day those large apartments felt uncommonly cold. Scroope and Miss +Manners seemed to keep warm, perhaps with the inward fires of mutual +admiration, but as I had no one to admire except Mr. Savage, a temperature of +about 35 degrees produced its natural effect upon me. +</p> + +<p> +At length we took a short cut from the large to the little gallery through a +warmed and comfortable room, which I understood was Lord Ragnall’s study. +Halting for a moment by one of the fires, I observed a picture on the wall, +over which a curtain was drawn, and asked Mr. Savage what it might be. +</p> + +<p> +“That, sir,” he replied with a kind of haughty reserve, “is +the portrait of her future ladyship, which his lordship keeps for his private +heye.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Manners sniggered, and I said: +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, thank you. What an ill-omened kind of thing to do!” +</p> + +<p> +Then, observing through an open door the hall in which my hat had been taken +from me, I lingered and as the others vanished in the little gallery, slipped +into it, recovered my belongings, and passed out to the garden, purposing to +walk there till I was warm again and Scroope reappeared. While I marched up and +down a terrace, on which, I remember, several very cold-looking peacocks were +seated, like conscientious birds that knew it was their duty to be ornamental, +however low the temperature, I heard some shots fired, apparently in a clump of +ilex oaks which grew about five hundred yards away, and reflected to myself +that they seemed to be those of a small rifle, not of a shotgun. +</p> + +<p> +My curiosity being excited as to what was to be an almost professional matter, +I walked towards the grove, making a circuit through a shrubbery. At length I +found myself near to the edge of a glade, and perceived, standing behind the +shelter of a magnificent ilex, two men. One of these was a young keeper, and +the other, from his appearance, I felt sure must be Lord Ragnall himself. +Certainly he was a splendid-looking man, very tall, very broad, very handsome, +with a peaked beard, a kind and charming face, and large dark eyes. He wore a +cloak upon his shoulders, which was thrown back from over a velvet coat, and, +except for the light double-barrelled rifle in his hand, looked exactly like a +picture by Van Dyck which Mr. Savage had just informed me was that of one of +his lordship’s ancestors of the time of Charles I. +</p> + +<p> +Standing behind another oak, I observed that he was trying to shoot +wood-pigeons as they descended to feed upon the acorns, for which the hard +weather had made them greedy. From time to time these beautiful blue birds +appeared and hovered a moment before they settled, whereon the sportsman fired +and—they flew away. <i>Bang! Bang!</i> went the double-barrelled rifle, +and off fled the pigeon. +</p> + +<p> +“Damn!” said the sportsman in a pleasant, laughing voice; +“that’s the twelfth I have missed, Charles.” +</p> + +<p> +“You hit his tail, my lord. I saw a feather come out. But, my lord, as I +told you, there ain’t no man living what can kill pigeons on the wing +with a bullet, even when they seem to sit still in the air.” +</p> + +<p> +“I have heard of one, Charles. Mr. Scroope has a friend from Africa +staying with him who, he swears, could knock over four out of six.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then, my lord, Mr. Scroope has a friend what lies,” replied +Charles as he handed him the second rifle. +</p> + +<p> +This was too much for me. I stepped forward, raising my hat politely, and said: +</p> + +<p> +“Sir, forgive me for interrupting you, but you are not shooting at those +wood-pigeons in the right way. Although they seem to hover just before they +settle, they are dropping much faster than you think. Your keeper was mistaken +when he said that you knocked a feather out of the tail of that last bird at +which you fired two barrels. In both cases you shot at least a foot above it, +and what fell was a leaf from the ilex tree.” +</p> + +<p> +There was a moment’s silence, which was broken by Charles, who ejaculated +in a thick voice: +</p> + +<p> +“Well, of all the cheek!” +</p> + +<p> +Lord Ragnall, however, for it was he, looked first angry and then amused. +</p> + +<p> +“Sir,” he said, “I thank you for your advice, which no doubt +is excellent, for it is certainly true that I have missed every pigeon which I +tried to shoot with these confounded little rifles. But if you could +demonstrate in practice what you so kindly set out in precept, the value of +your counsel would be enhanced.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus he spoke, mimicking, I have no doubt (for he had a sense of humour), the +manner of my address, which nervousness had made somewhat pompous. +</p> + +<p> +“Give me the rifle,” I answered, taking off my greatcoat. +</p> + +<p> +He handed it me with a bow. +</p> + +<p> +“Mind what you are about,” growled Charles. “That there thing +is full cocked and ‘air-triggered.” +</p> + +<p> +I withered, or, rather, tried to wither him with a glance, but this unbelieving +keeper only stared back at me with insolence in his round and bird-like eyes. +Never before had I felt quite so angry with a menial. Then a horrible doubt +struck me. Supposing I should miss! I knew very little of the manner of flight +of English wood-pigeons, which are not difficult to miss with a bullet, and +nothing at all of these particular rifles, though a glance at them showed me +that they were exquisite weapons of their sort and by a great maker. If I +muffed the thing now, how should I bear the scorn of Charles and the polite +amusement of his noble master? Almost I prayed that no more pigeons would put +in an appearance, and thus that the issue of my supposed skill might be left in +doubt. +</p> + +<p> +But this was not to be. These birds came from far in ones or twos to search for +their favourite food, and the fact that others had been scared away did not +cause them to cease from coming. Presently I heard Charles mutter: +</p> + +<p> +“Now, then, look out, guv’nor. Here’s your chance of teaching +his lordship how to do it, though he does happen to be the best shot in these +counties.” +</p> + +<p> +While he spoke two pigeons appeared, one a little behind the other, coming down +very straight. As they reached the opening in the ilex grove they hovered, +preparing to alight, for of us they could see nothing, one at a distance of +about fifty and the other of, say, seventy yards away. I took the nearest, got +on to it, allowing for the drop and the angle, and touched the trigger of the +rifle, which fell to my shoulder very sweetly. The bullet struck that pigeon on +the crop, out of which fell a shower of acorns that it had been eating, as it +sank to the ground stone dead. Number two pigeon, realizing danger, began to +mount upwards almost straight. I fired the second barrel, and by good luck shot +its head off. Then I snatched the other rifle, which Charles had been loading +automatically, from his outstretched hand, for at that moment I saw two more +pigeons coming. At the first I risked a difficult shot and hit it far back, +knocking out its tail, but bringing it, still fluttering, to the ground. The +other, too, I covered, but when I touched the trigger there was a click, no +more. +</p> + +<p> +This was my opportunity of coming even with Charles, and I availed myself of +it. +</p> + +<p> +“Young man,” I said, while he gaped at me open-mouthed, “you +should learn to be careful with rifles, which are dangerous weapons. If you +give one to a shooter that is not loaded, it shows that you are capable of +anything.” +</p> + +<p> +Then I turned, and addressing Lord Ragnall, added: +</p> + +<p> +“I must apologize for that third shot of mine, which was infamous, for I +committed a similar fault to that against which I warned you, sir, and did not +fire far enough ahead. However, it may serve to show your attendant the +difference between the tail of a pigeon and an oak leaf,” and I pointed +to one of the feathers of the poor bird, which was still drifting to the +ground. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, if this here snipe of a chap ain’t the devil in +boots!” exclaimed Charles to himself. +</p> + +<p> +But his master cut him short with a look, then lifted his hat to me and said: +</p> + +<p> +“Sir, the practice much surpasses the precept, which is unusual. I +congratulate you upon a skill that almost partakes of the marvellous, unless, +indeed, chance——” And he stopped. +</p> + +<p> +“It is natural that you should think so,” I replied; “but if +more pigeons come, and Mr. Charles will make sure that he loads the rifle, I +hope to undeceive you.” +</p> + +<p> +At this moment, however, a loud shout from Scroope, who was looking for me, +reinforced by a shrill cry uttered by Miss Manners, banished every pigeon +within half a mile, a fact of which I was not sorry, since who knows whether I +should have hit all, or any, of the next three birds? +</p> + +<p> +“I think my friends are calling me, so I will bid you good +morning,” I said awkwardly. +</p> + +<p> +“One moment, sir,” he exclaimed. “Might I first ask you your +name? Mine is Ragnall—Lord Ragnall.” +</p> + +<p> +“And mine is Allan Quatermain,” I said. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” he answered, “that explains matters. Charles, this is +Mr. Scroope’s friend, the gentleman that you said—exaggerated. I +think you had better apologize.” +</p> + +<p> +But Charles was gone, to pick up the pigeons, I suppose. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment Scroope and the young lady appeared, having heard our voices, +and a general explanation ensued. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Quatermain has been giving me a lesson in shooting pigeons on the +wing with a small-bore rifle,” said Lord Ragnall, pointing to the dead +birds that still lay upon the ground. +</p> + +<p> +“He is competent to do that,” said Scroope. +</p> + +<p> +“Painfully competent,” replied his lordship. “If you +don’t believe me, ask the under-keeper.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is the only thing I can do,” I explained modestly. +“Rifle-shooting is my trade, and I have made a habit of practising at +birds on the wing with ball. I have no doubt that with a shot-gun your lordship +would leave me nowhere, for that is a game at which I have had little practice, +except when shooting for the pot in Africa.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” interrupted Scroope, “you wouldn’t have any +chance at that, Allan, against one of the finest shots in England.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not so sure,” said Lord Ragnall, laughing pleasantly. +“I have an idea that Mr. Quatermain is full of surprises. However, with +his leave, we’ll see. If you have a day to spare, Mr. Quatermain, we are +going to shoot through the home coverts to-morrow, which haven’t been +touched till now, and I hope you will join us.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is most kind of you, but that is impossible,” I answered with +firmness. “I have no gun here.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, never mind that, Mr. Quatermain. I have a pair of +breech-loaders”—these were new things at that +date—“which have been sent down to me to try. I am going to return +them, because they are much too short in the stock for me. I think they would +just suit you, and you are quite welcome to the use of them.” +</p> + +<p> +Again I excused myself, guessing that the discomfited Charles would put all +sorts of stories about concerning me, and not wishing to look foolish before a +party of grand strangers, no doubt chosen for their skill at this particular +form of sport. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Allan,” exclaimed Scroope, who always had a talent for +saying the wrong thing, “you are quite right not to go into a competition +with Lord Ragnall over high pheasants.” +</p> + +<p> +I flushed, for there was some truth in his blundering remark, whereon Lord +Ragnall said with ready tact: +</p> + +<p> +“I asked Mr. Quatermain to shoot, not to a shooting match, Scroope, and I +hope he’ll come.” +</p> + +<p> +This left me no option, and with a sinking heart I had to accept. +</p> + +<p> +“Sorry I can’t ask you too, Scroope,” said his lordship, when +details had been arranged, “but we can only manage seven guns at this +shoot. But will you and Miss Manners come to dine and sleep to-morrow evening? +I should like to introduce your future wife to my future wife,” he added, +colouring a little. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Manners being devoured with curiosity as to the wonderful Miss Holmes, of +whom she had heard so much but never actually seen, accepted at once, before +her lover could get out a word, whereon Scroope volunteered to bring me over in +the morning and load for me. Being possessed by a terror that I should be +handed over to the care of the unsympathetic Charles, I replied that I should +be very grateful, and so the thing was settled. +</p> + +<p> +On our way home we passed through a country town, of which I forget the name, +and the sight of a gunsmith’s shop there reminded me that I had no +cartridges. So I stopped to order some, as, fortunately, Lord Ragnall had +mentioned that the guns he was going to lend me were twelve-bores. The +tradesman asked me how many cartridges I wanted, and when I replied “a +hundred,” stared at me and said: +</p> + +<p> +“If, as I understood, sir, you are going to the big winter shoot at +Ragnall to-morrow, you had better make it three hundred and fifty at least. I +shall be there to watch, like lots of others, and I expect to see nearly two +hundred fired by each gun at the last Lake stand.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” I answered, fearing to show more ignorance by further +discussion. “I will call for the cartridges on my way to-morrow morning. +Please load them with three drachms of powder.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, sir, and an ounce and an eighth of No. 5 shot, sir? That’s +what all the gentlemen use.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I answered, “No. 3; please be sure as to that. Good +evening.” +</p> + +<p> +The gunsmith stared at me, and as I left the shop I heard him remark to his +assistant: +</p> + +<p> +“That African gent must think he’s going out to shoot ostriches +with buck shot. I expect he ain’t no good, whatever they may say about +him.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /> +ALLAN MAKES A BET</h2> + +<p> +On the following morning Scroope and I arrived at Castle Ragnall at or about a +quarter to ten. On our way we stopped to pick up my three hundred and fifty +cartridges. I had to pay something over three solid sovereigns for them, as in +those days such things were dear, which showed me that I was not going to get +my lesson in English pheasant shooting for nothing. The gunsmith, however, to +whom Scroope gave a lift in his cart to the castle, impressed upon me that they +were dirt cheap, since he and his assistant had sat up most of the night +loading them with my special No. 3 shot. +</p> + +<p> +As I climbed out of the vehicle a splendid-looking and portly person, arrayed +in a velvet coat and a scarlet waistcoat, approached with the air of an +emperor, followed by an individual in whom I recognized Charles, carrying a gun +under each arm. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s the head-keeper,” whispered Scroope; “mind you +treat him respectfully.” +</p> + +<p> +Much alarmed, I took off my hat and waited. +</p> + +<p> +“Do I speak to Mr. Allan Quatermain?” said his majesty in a deep +and rumbling voice, surveying me the while with a cold and disapproving eye. +</p> + +<p> +I intimated that he did. +</p> + +<p> +“Then, sir,” he went on, pausing a little at the “sir,” +as though he suspected me of being no more than an African colleague of his +own, “I have been ordered by his lordship to bring you these guns, and I +hope, sir, that you will be careful of them, as they are here on sale or +return. Charles, explain the working of them there guns to this foreign +gentleman, and in doing so keep the muzzles up <i>or</i> down. They ain’t +loaded, it’s true, but the example is always useful.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you, Mr. Keeper,” I replied, growing somewhat nettled, +“but I think that I am already acquainted with most that there is to +learn about guns.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am glad to hear it, sir,” said his majesty with evident +disbelief. “Charles, I understand that Squire Scroope is going to load +for the gentleman, which I hope he knows how to do with safety. His +lordship’s orders are that you accompany them and carry the cartridges. +And, Charles, you will please keep count of the number fired and what is killed +dead, not reckoning runners. I’m sick of them stories of runners.” +</p> + +<p> +These directions were given in a portentous stage aside which we were not +supposed to hear. They caused Scroope to snigger and Charles to grin, but in me +they raised a feeling of indignation. +</p> + +<p> +I took one of the guns and looked at it. It was a costly and beautifully made +weapon of the period, with an under-lever action. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s nothing wrong with the gun, sir,” rumbled Red +Waistcoat. “If you hold it straight it will do the rest. But keep the +muzzle up, sir, keep it up, for I know what the bore is without studying the +same with my eye. Also perhaps you won’t take it amiss if I tell you that +here at Ragnall we hates a low pheasant. I mention it because the last +gentleman who came from foreign parts—he was French, he was—shot +nothing all day but one hen bird sitting just on the top of the brush, two +beaters, his lordship’s hat, and a starling.” +</p> + +<p> +At this point Scroope broke into a roar of idiotic laughter. Charles, from whom +Fortune decreed that I was not to escape, after all, turned his back and +doubled up as though seized with sudden pain in the stomach, and I grew +absolutely furious. +</p> + +<p> +“Confound it, Mr. Keeper,” I explained, “what do you mean by +lecturing me? Attend to your business, and I’ll attend to mine.” +</p> + +<p> +At this moment who should appear from behind the angle of some +building—we were talking in the stableyard, near the gun-room—but +Lord Ragnall himself. I could see that he had overheard the conversation, for +he looked angry. +</p> + +<p> +“Jenkins,” he said, addressing the keeper, “do what Mr. +Quatermain has said and attend to your own business. Perhaps you are not aware +that he has shot more lions, elephants, and other big game than you have cats. +But, however that may be, it is not your place to try to instruct him or any of +my guests. Now go and see to the beaters.” +</p> + +<p> +“Beg pardon, my lord,” ejaculated Jenkins, his face, that was as +florid as his waistcoat, turning quite pale; “no offence meant, my lord, +but elephants and lions don’t fly, my lord, and those accustomed to such +ground varmin are apt to shoot low, my lord. Beaters all ready at the Hunt +Copse, my lord.” +</p> + +<p> +Thus speaking he backed himself out of sight. Lord Ragnall watched him go, then +said with a laugh: +</p> + +<p> +“I apologize to you, Mr. Quatermain. That silly old fool was part of my +inheritance, so to speak; and the joke of it is that he is himself the worst +and most dangerous shot I ever saw. However, on the other hand, he is the best +rearer of pheasants in the county, so I put up with him. Come in, now, +won’t you? Charles will look after your guns and cartridges.” +</p> + +<p> +So Scroope and I were taken through a side entrance into the big hall and there +introduced to the other members of the shooting party, most of whom were +staying at the castle. They were famous shots. Indeed, I had read of the +prowess of some of them in <i>The Field</i>, a paper that I always took in +Africa, although often enough, when I was on my distant expeditions, I did not +see a copy of it for a year at a time. +</p> + +<p> +To my astonishment I found that I knew one of these gentlemen. We had not, it +is true, met for a dozen years; but I seldom forget a face, and I was sure that +I could not be mistaken in this instance. That mean appearance, those small, +shifty grey eyes, that red, pointed nose could belong to nobody except Van +Koop, so famous in his day in South Africa in connexion with certain gigantic +and most successful frauds that the law seemed quite unable to touch, of which +frauds I had been one of the many victims to the extent of £250, a large sum +for me. +</p> + +<p> +The last time we met there had been a stormy scene between us, which ended in +my declaring in my wrath that if I came across him on the veld I should shoot +him at sight. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why Mr. van Koop vanished +from South Africa, for I may add that he was a cur of the first water. I +believe that he had only just entered the room, having driven over from +wherever he lived at some distance from Ragnall. At any rate, he knew nothing +of my presence at this shoot. Had he known I am quite sure that he would have +been absent. He turned, and seeing me, ejaculated: “Allan Quatermain, by +heaven!” beneath his breath, but in such a tone of astonishment that it +attracted the attention of Lord Ragnall, who was standing near. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Mr. van Koop,” I answered in a cheerful voice, “Allan +Quatermain, no other, and I hope you are as glad to see me as I am to see +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think there is some mistake,” said Lord Ragnall, staring at us. +“This is Sir Junius Fortescue, who used to be Mr. Fortescue.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed,” I replied. “I don’t know that I ever remember +his being called by that particular name, but I do know that we are +old—friends.” +</p> + +<p> +Lord Ragnall moved away as though he did not wish to continue the conversation, +which no one else had overheard, and Van Koop sidled up to me. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Quatermain,” he said in a low voice, “circumstances have +changed with me since last we met.” +</p> + +<p> +“So I gather,” I replied; “but mine have remained much the +same, and if it is convenient to you to repay me that £250 you owe me, with +interest, I shall be much obliged. If not, I think I have a good story to tell +about you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Mr. Quatermain,” he answered with a sort of smile which made +me feel inclined to kick him, “you know I dispute that debt.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you?” I exclaimed. “Well, perhaps you will dispute the +story also. But the question is, will you be believed when I give the +proofs?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ever heard of the Statute of Limitations, Mr. Quatermain?” he +asked with a sneer. +</p> + +<p> +“Not where character is concerned,” I replied stoutly. “Now, +what are you going to do?” +</p> + +<p> +He reflected for a moment, and answered: +</p> + +<p> +“Look here, Mr. Quatermain, you were always a bit of a sportsman, and +I’ll make you an offer. If I kill more birds than you do to-day, you +shall promise to hold your tongue about my affairs in South Africa; and if you +kill more than I do, you shall still hold your tongue, but I will pay you that +£250 and interest for six years.” +</p> + +<p> +I also reflected for a moment, knowing that the man had something up his +sleeve. Of course, I could refuse and make a scandal. But that was not in my +line, and would not bring me nearer my £250, which, if I chanced to win, might +find its way back to me. +</p> + +<p> +“All right, done!” I said. +</p> + +<p> +“What is your bet, Sir Junius?” asked Lord Ragnall, who was +approaching again. +</p> + +<p> +“It is rather a long story,” he answered, “but, to put it +shortly, years ago, when I was travelling in Africa, Mr. Quatermain and I had a +dispute as to a sum of £5 which he thought I owed him, and to save argument +about a trifle we have agreed that I should shoot against him for it +to-day.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed,” said Lord Ragnall rather seriously, for I could see that +he did not believe Van Koop’s statement as to the amount of the bet; +perhaps he had heard more than we thought. “To be frank, Sir Junius, I +don’t much care for betting—for that’s what it comes +to—here. Also I think Mr. Quatermain said yesterday that he had never +shot pheasants in England, so the match seems scarcely fair. However, you +gentlemen know your own business best. Only I must tell you both that if money +is concerned, I shall have to set someone whose decision will be final to count +your birds and report the number to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Agreed,” said Van Koop, or, rather, Sir Junius; but I answered +nothing, for, to tell the truth, already I felt ashamed of the whole affair. +</p> + +<p> +As it happened, Lord Ragnall and I walked together ahead of the others, to the +first covert, which was half a mile or more away. +</p> + +<p> +“You have met Sir Junius before?” he said to me interrogatively. +</p> + +<p> +“I have met Mr. van Koop before,” I answered, “about twelve +years since, shortly after which he vanished from South Africa, where he was a +well-known and very successful—speculator.” +</p> + +<p> +“To reappear here. Ten years ago he bought a large property in this +neighbourhood. Three years ago he became a baronet.” +</p> + +<p> +“How did a man like Van Koop become a baronet?” I inquired. +</p> + +<p> +“By purchase, I believe.” +</p> + +<p> +“By purchase! Are honours in England purchased?” +</p> + +<p> +“You are delightfully innocent, Mr. Quatermain, as a hunter from Africa +should be,” said Lord Ragnall, laughing. “Your +friend——” +</p> + +<p> +“Excuse me, Lord Ragnall, I am a very humble person, not so elevated, +indeed, as that gamekeeper of yours; therefore I should not venture to call Sir +Junius, late Mr. van Koop, my friend, at least in earnest.” +</p> + +<p> +He laughed again. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, the individual with whom you make bets subscribed largely to the +funds of his party. I am telling you what I know to be true, though the amount +I do not know. It has been variously stated to be from fifteen to fifty +thousand pounds, and, perhaps by coincidence, subsequently was somehow created +a baronet.” +</p> + +<p> +I stared at him. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all the story,” he went on. “I don’t like +the man myself, but he is a wonderful pheasant shot, which passes him +everywhere. Shooting has become a kind of fetish in these parts, Mr. +Quatermain. For instance, it is a tradition on this estate that we must kill +more pheasants than on any other in the country, and therefore I have to ask +the best guns, who are not always the best fellows. It annoys me, but it seems +that I must do what was done before me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Under those circumstances I should be inclined to give up the thing +altogether, Lord Ragnall. Sport as sport is good, but when it becomes a +business it grows hateful. I know, who have had to follow it as a trade for +many years.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s an idea,” he replied reflectively. “Meanwhile, +I do hope that you will win back your—£5 from Sir Junius. He is so vain +that I would gladly give £50 to see you do so.” +</p> + +<p> +“There is little chance of that,” I said, “for, as I told +you, I have never shot pheasants before. Still, I’ll try, as you wish +it.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s right. And look here, Mr. Quatermain, shoot well forward of +them. You see, I am venturing to advise you now, as you advised me yesterday. +Shot does not travel so fast as ball, and the pheasant is a bird that is +generally going much quicker than you think. Now, here we are. Charles will +show you your stand. Good luck to you.” +</p> + +<p> +Ten minutes later the game began outside of a long covert, all the seven guns +being posted within sight of each other. So occupied was I in watching the +preliminaries, which were quite new to me, that I allowed first a hare and then +a hen pheasant to depart without firing at them, which hen pheasant, by the +way, curved round and was beautifully killed by Van Koop, who stood two guns +off upon my right. +</p> + +<p> +“Look here, Allan,” said Scroope, “if you are going to beat +your African friend you had better wake up, for you won’t do it by +admiring the scenery or that squirrel on a tree.” +</p> + +<p> +So I woke up. Just at that moment there was a cry of “cock +forward.” I thought it meant a cock pheasant, and was astonished when I +saw a beautiful brown bird with a long beak flitting towards me through the +tops of the oak trees. +</p> + +<p> +“Am I to shoot at that?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. It is a woodcock,” answered Scroope. +</p> + +<p> +By this time the brown bird was rocking past me within ten yards. I fired and +killed it, for where it had been appeared nothing but a cloud of feathers. It +was a quick and clever shot, or so I thought. But when Charles stepped out and +picked from the ground only a beak and a head, a titter of laughter went down +the whole line of guns and loaders. +</p> + +<p> +“I say, old chap,” said Scroope, “if you will use No. 3 shot, +let your birds get a little farther off you.” +</p> + +<p> +The incident upset me so much that immediately afterwards I missed three easy +pheasants in succession, while Van Koop added two to his bag. +</p> + +<p> +Scroope shook his head and Charles groaned audibly. Now that I was not in +competition with his master he had become suddenly anxious that I should win, +for in some mysterious way the news of that bet had spread, and my adversary +was not popular amongst the keeper class. +</p> + +<p> +“Here you come again,” said Scroope, pointing to an advancing +pheasant. +</p> + +<p> +It was an extraordinarily high pheasant, flushed, I think, outside the covert +by a stop, so high that, as it travelled down the line, although three guns +fired at it, including Van Koop, none of them seemed to touch it. Then I fired, +and remembering Lord Ragnall’s advice, far in front. Its flight changed. +Still it travelled through the air, but with the momentum of a stone to fall +fifty yards to my right, dead. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s better!” said Scroope, while Charles grinned all over +his round face, muttering: +</p> + +<p> +“Wiped his eye that time.” +</p> + +<p> +This shot seemed to give me confidence, and I improved considerably, though, +oddly enough, I found that it was the high and difficult pheasants which I +killed and the easy ones that I was apt to muff. But Van Koop, who was +certainly a finished artist, killed both. +</p> + +<p> +At the next stand Lord Ragnall, who had been observing my somewhat indifferent +performance, asked me to stand back with him behind the other guns. +</p> + +<p> +“I see the tall ones are your line, Mr. Quatermain,” he said, +“and you will get some here.” +</p> + +<p> +On this occasion we were placed in a dip between two long coverts which lay +about three hundred yards apart. That which was being beaten proved full of +pheasants, and the shooting of those picked guns was really a thing to see. I +did quite well here, nearly, but not altogether, as well as Lord Ragnall +himself, though that is saying a great deal, for he was a lovely shot. +</p> + +<p> +“Bravo!” he said at the end of the beat. “I believe you have +got a chance of winning your £5, after all.” +</p> + +<p> +When, however, at luncheon, more than an hour later, I found that I was thirty +pheasants behind my adversary, I shook my head, and so did everybody else. On +the whole, that luncheon, of which we partook in a keeper’s house, was a +very pleasant meal, though Van Koop talked so continuously and in such a +boastful strain that I saw it irritated our host and some of the other +gentlemen, who were very pleasant people. At last he began to patronize me, +asking me how I had been getting on with my “elephant-potting” of +late years. +</p> + +<p> +I replied, “Fairly well.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you should tell our friends some of your famous stories, which I +promise I won’t contradict,” he said, adding: “You see, they +are different from us, and have no experience of big-game shooting.” +</p> + +<p> +“I did not know that you had any, either, Sir Junius,” I answered, +nettled. “Indeed, I thought I remembered your telling me in Africa that +the only big game you had ever shot was an ox sick with the red-water. Anyway, +shooting is a business with me, not an amusement, as it is to you, and I do not +talk shop.” +</p> + +<p> +At this he collapsed amid some laughter, after which Scroope, the most loyal of +friends, began to repeat exploits of mine till my ears tingled, and I rose and +went outside to look at the weather. +</p> + +<p> +It had changed very much during luncheon. The fair promise of the morning had +departed, the sky was overcast, and a wind, blowing in strong gusts, was rising +rapidly, driving before it occasional scurries of snow. +</p> + +<p> +“My word,” said Lord Ragnall, who had joined me, “the Lake +covert—that’s our great stand here, you know—will take some +shooting this afternoon. We ought to kill seven hundred pheasants in it with +this team, but I doubt if we shall get five. Now, Mr. Quatermain, I am going to +stand Sir Junius Fortescue and you back in the covert, where you will have the +best of it, as a lot of pheasants will never face the lake against this wind. +What is more, I am coming with you, if I may, as six guns are enough for this +beat, and I don’t mean to shoot any more to-day.” +</p> + +<p> +“I fear that you will be disappointed,” I said nervously. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, I sha’n’t,” he answered. “I tell you +frankly that if only you could have a season’s practice, in my opinion +you would make the best pheasant shot of the lot of us. At present you +don’t quite understand the ways of the birds, that’s all; also +those guns are strange to you. Have a glass of cherry brandy; it will steady +your nerves.” +</p> + +<p> +I drank the cherry brandy, and presently off we went. The covert we were going +to shoot, into which we had been driving pheasants all the morning, must have +been nearly a mile long. At the top end it was broad, narrowing at the bottom +to a width of about two hundred yards. Here it ran into a horse-shoe shaped +piece of water that was about fifty yards in breadth. Four of the guns were +placed round the bow of this water, but on its farther side, in such a position +that the pheasants should stream over them to yet another covert behind at the +top of a slope, Van Koop and I, however, were ordered to take our places, he to +the right and I to the left, about seventy yards up the tongue in little glades +in the woodland, having the lake to our right and our left respectively. I +noticed with dismay that we were so set that the guns below us on its farther +side could note all that we did or did not do; also that a little band of +watchers, among whom I recognized my friend the gunsmith, were gathered in a +place where, without interfering with us, they could see the sport. On our way +to the boat, however, which was to row us across the water, an incident +happened that put me in very good spirits and earned some applause. +</p> + +<p> +I was walking with Lord Ragnall, Scroope and Charles, about sixty yards clear +of a belt of tall trees, when from far away on the other side of the trees came +a cry of “Partridges over!” in the hoarse voice of the +red-waistcoated Jenkins, who was engaged in superintending the driving in of +some low scrub before he joined his army at the top of the covert. +</p> + +<p> +“Look out, Mr. Quatermain, they are coming this way,” said Lord +Ragnall, while Charles thrust a loaded gun into my hand. +</p> + +<p> +Another moment and they appeared over the tree-tops, a big covey of them in a +long, straggling line, travelling at I know not what speed, for a fierce gust +from the rising gale had caught them. I fired at the first bird, which fell at +my feet. I fired again, and another fell behind me. I snatched up the second +gun and killed a third as it passed over me high up. Then, wheeling round, I +covered the last retreating bird, and lo! it too fell, a very long shot indeed. +</p> + +<p> +“By George!” said Scroope, “I never saw that done +before,” while Ragnall stared and Charles whistled. +</p> + +<p> +But now I will tell the truth and expose all my weakness. The second bird was +not the one I aimed at. I was behind it and caught that which followed. And in +my vanity I did not own up, at least not till that evening. +</p> + +<p> +The four dead partridges—there was not a runner among them—having +been collected amidst many congratulations, we went on and were punted across +the lake to the covert. As we entered the boat I observed that, in addition to +the great bags, Charles was carrying a box of cartridges under his arm, and +asked him where he got it from. +</p> + +<p> +He replied, from Mr. Popham—that was the gunsmith’s name—who +had brought it with him in case I should not have enough. I made no remark, but +as I knew I had quite half of my cartridges left out of the three hundred and +fifty that I had bought, I wondered to myself what kind of a shoot this was +going to be. +</p> + +<p> +Well, we took up our stands, and while we were doing so, suddenly the wind +increased to a tearing gale, which seemed to me to blow from all points of the +compass in turn. Rooks flying homewards, and pigeons disturbed by the beaters +were swept over us like drifting leaves; wild duck, of which I got one, went by +like arrows; the great bare oaks tossed their boughs and groaned; while not far +off a fir tree was blown down, falling with a splash into the water. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a wild afternoon,” said Lord Ragnall, and as he spoke +Van Koop came from his stand, looking rather scared, and suggested that the +shoot should be given up. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Ragnall asked me what I wished to do. I replied that I would rather go on, +but that I was in his hands. +</p> + +<p> +“I think we are fairly safe in these open places, Sir Junius,” he +said; “and as the pheasants have been so much disturbed already, it does +not much matter if they are blown about a bit. But if you are of another +opinion, perhaps you had better get out of it and stand with the others over +the lake. I’ll send for my guns and take your place.” +</p> + +<p> +On hearing this Van Koop changed his mind and said that he would go on. +</p> + +<p> +So the beat began. At first the wind blew from behind us, and pheasants in +increasing numbers passed over our heads, most of them rather low, to the guns +on the farther side of the water, who, skilled though they were, did not make +very good work with them. We had been instructed not to fire at birds going +forward, so I let these be. Van Koop, however, did not interpret the order in +the same spirit, for he loosed at several, killing one or two and missing +others. +</p> + +<p> +“That fellow is no sportsman,” I heard Lord Ragnall remark. +“I suppose it is the bet.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he sent Charles to ask him to desist. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly after this the gale worked round to the north and settled there, +blowing with ever-increasing violence. The pheasants, however, still flew +forward in the shelter of the trees, for they were making for the covert on the +hill, where they had been bred. But when they got into the open and felt the +full force of the wind, quite four out of six of them turned and came back at a +most fearful pace, many so high as to be almost out of shot. +</p> + +<p> +For the next three-quarters of an hour or more—as I think I have +explained, the beat was a very long one—I had such covert shooting as I +suppose I shall never see again. High above those shrieking trees, or over the +lake to my left, flashed the wind-driven pheasants in an endless procession. +Oddly enough, I found that this wild work suited me, for as time went on and +the pheasants grew more and more impossible, I shot better and better. One +after another down they came far behind me with a crash in the brushwood or a +splash in the lake, till the guns grew almost too hot to hold. There were so +many of them that I discovered I could pick my shots; also that nine out of ten +were caught by the wind and curved at a certain angle, and that the time to +fire was just before they took the curve. The excitement was great and the +sport splendid, as anyone will testify who has shot December pheasants breaking +back over the covert and in a tearing gale. Van Koop also was doing very well, +but the guns in front got comparatively little shooting. They were forced to +stand there, poor fellows, and watch our performance from afar. +</p> + +<p> +As the thing drew towards an end the birds came thicker and thicker, and I +shot, as I have said, better and better. This may be judged from the fact that, +notwithstanding their height and tremendous pace, I killed my last thirty +pheasants with thirty-five cartridges. The final bird of all, a splendid cock, +appeared by himself out of nothingness when we thought that all was done. I +think it must have been flushed from the covert on the hill, or been turned +back just as it reached it by the resistless strength of the storm. Over it +came, so high above us that it looked quite small in the dark snow-scud. +</p> + +<p> +“Too far—no use!” said Lord Ragnall, as I lifted the gun. +</p> + +<p> +Still, I fired, holding I know not how much in front, and lo! that pheasant +died in mid air, falling with a mighty splash near the bank of the lake, but at +a great distance behind us. The shot was so remarkable that everyone who saw +it, including most of the beaters, who had passed us by now, uttered a cheer, +and the red-waistcoated old Jenkins, who had stopped by us, remarked: +“Well, bust me if that bain’t a master one!” +</p> + +<p> +Scroope made me angry by slapping me so hard upon the back that it hurt, and +nearly caused me to let off the other barrel of the gun. Charles seemed to +become one great grin, and Lord Ragnall, with a brief congratulatory +“Never enjoyed a shoot so much in my life,” called to the men who +were posted behind us to pick up all the dead pheasants, being careful to keep +mine apart from those of Sir Junius Fortescue. +</p> + +<p> +“You should have a hundred and forty-three at this stand,” he said, +“allowing for every possible runner. Charles and I make the same +total.” +</p> + +<p> +I remarked that I did not think there were many runners, as the No. 3 shot had +served me very well, and getting into the boat was rowed to the other side, +where I received more congratulations. Then, as all further shooting was out of +the question because of the weather, we walked back to the castle to tea. +</p> + +<p> +As I emptied my cup Lord Ragnall, who had left the room, returned and asked us +to come and see the game. So we went, to find it laid out in endless lines upon +the snow-powdered grass in the quadrangle of the castle, arranged in one main +and two separate lots. +</p> + +<p> +“Those are yours and Sir Junius’s,” said Scroope. “I +wonder which of you has won. I’ll put a sovereign on you, old +fellow.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you’re a donkey for your pains,” I answered, feeling +vexed, for at that moment I had forgotten all about the bet. +</p> + +<p> +I do not remember how many pheasants were killed altogether, but the total was +much smaller than had been hoped for, because of the gale. +</p> + +<p> +“Jenkins,” said Lord Ragnall presently to Red Waistcoat, “how +many have you to the credit of Sir Junius Fortescue?” +</p> + +<p> +“Two hundred and seventy-seven, my lord, twelve hares, two woodcocks, and +three pigeons.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how many to that of Mr. Quatermain?” adding: “I must +remind you both, gentlemen, that the birds have been picked as carefully as +possible and kept unmixed, and therefore that the figures given by Jenkins must +be considered as final.” +</p> + +<p> +“Quite so,” I answered, but Van Koop said nothing. Then, while we +all waited anxiously, came the amazing answer: +</p> + +<p> +“Two hundred and seventy-seven pheasants, my lord, same number as those +of Sir Junius, Bart., fifteen hares, three pigeons, four partridges, one duck, +and a beak—I mean a woodcock.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it seems you have won your £5, Mr. Quatermain, upon which I +congratulate you,” said Lord Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +“Stop a minute,” broke in Van Koop. “The bet was as to +pheasants; the other things don’t count.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think the term used was ‘birds,’” I remarked. +“But to be frank, when I made it I was thinking of pheasants, as no doubt +Sir Junius was also. Therefore, if the counting is correct, there is a dead +heat and the wager falls through.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am sure we all appreciate the view you take of the matter,” said +Lord Ragnall, “for it might be argued another way. In these circumstances +Sir Junius keeps his £5 in his pocket. It is unlucky for you, +Quatermain,” he added, dropping the “mister,” “that the +last high pheasant you shot can’t be found. It fell into the lake, you +remember, and, I suppose, swam ashore and ran.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I replied, “especially as I could have sworn that it +was quite dead.” +</p> + +<p> +“So could I, Quatermain; but the fact remains that it isn’t +there.” +</p> + +<p> +“If we had all the pheasants that we think fall dead our bags would be +much bigger than they are,” remarked Van Koop, with a look of great +relief upon his face, adding in his horrid, patronizing way: “Still, you +shot uncommonly well, Quatermain. I’d no idea you would run me so +close.” +</p> + +<p> +I felt inclined to answer, but didn’t. Only Lord Ragnall said: +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Quatermain shot more than well. His performance in the Lake covert +was the most brilliant that I have ever seen. When you went in there together, +Sir Junius, you were thirty ahead of him, and you fired seventeen more +cartridges at the stand.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, just as we turned to go, something happened. The round-eyed Charles ran +puffing into the quadrangle, followed by another man with a dog, who had been +specially set to pick my birds, and carrying in his hand a much-bedraggled cock +pheasant without a tail. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve got him, my lord,” he gasped, for he had run very fast; +“the little gent’s—I mean that which he killed in the clouds +with the last shot he fired. It had gone right down into the mud and stuck +there. Tom and me fished him up with a pole.” +</p> + +<p> +Lord Ragnall took the bird and looked at it. It was almost cold, but evidently +freshly killed, for the limbs were quite flexible. +</p> + +<p> +“That turns the scale in favour of Mr. Quatermain,” he said, +“so, Sir Junius, you had better pay your money and congratulate him, as I +do.” +</p> + +<p> +“I protest,” exclaimed Van Koop, looking very angry and meaner than +usual. “How am I to know that this was Mr. Quatermain’s pheasant? +The sum involved is more than £5 and I feel it is my duty to protest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Because my men say so, Sir Junius; moreover, seeing the height from +which the bird fell, their story is obviously true.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he examined the pheasant further, pointing out that it appeared to have +only one wound—a shot through the throat almost exactly at the root of +the beak, of which shot there was no mark of exit. “What sized shot were +you using, Sir Junius?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“No. 4 at the last stand.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you were using No. 3, Mr. Quatermain. Now, was any other gun using +No. 3?” +</p> + +<p> +All shook their heads. +</p> + +<p> +“Jenkins, open that bird’s head. I think the shot that killed it +will be found in the brain.” +</p> + +<p> +Jenkins obeyed, using a penknife cleverly enough. Pressed against the bone of +the skull he found the shot. +</p> + +<p> +“No. 3 it is, sure enough, my lord,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“You will agree that settles the matter, Sir Junius,” said Lord +Ragnall. “And now, as a bet has been made here it had better be +paid.” +</p> + +<p> +“I have not enough money on me,” said Van Koop sulkily. +</p> + +<p> +“I think your banker is mine,” said Lord Ragnall quietly, “so +you can write a cheque in the house. Come in, all of you, it is cold in this +wind.” +</p> + +<p> +So we went into the smoking-room, and Lord Ragnall, who, I could see, was +annoyed, instantly fetched a blank cheque from his study and handed it to Van +Koop in rather a pointed manner. +</p> + +<p> +He took it, and turning to me, said: +</p> + +<p> +“I remember the capital sum, but how much is the interest? Sorry to +trouble you, but I am not very good at figures.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you must have changed a good deal during the last twelve years, Sir +Junius,” I could not help saying. “Still, never mind the interest, +I shall be quite satisfied with the principal.” +</p> + +<p> +So he filled up the cheque for £250 and threw it down on the table before me, +saying something about its being a bother to mix up business with pleasure. +</p> + +<p> +I took the draft, saw that it was correct though rather illegible, and +proceeded to dry it by waving it in the air. As I did so it came into my mind +that I would not touch the money of this successful scamp, won back from him in +such a way. +</p> + +<p> +Yielding to a perhaps foolish impulse, I said: +</p> + +<p> +“Lord Ragnall, this cheque is for a debt which years ago I wrote off as +lost. At luncheon to-day you were talking of a Cottage Hospital for which you +are trying to get up an endowment fund in this neighbourhood, and in answer to +a question from you Sir Junius Fortescue said that he had not as yet made any +subscription to its fund. Will you allow me to hand you Sir Junius’s +subscription—to be entered in his name, if you please?” And I +passed him the cheque, which was drawn to myself or bearer. +</p> + +<p> +He looked at the amount, and seeing that it was not £5, but £250, flushed, then +asked: +</p> + +<p> +“What do you say to this act of generosity on the part of Mr. Quatermain, +Sir Junius?” +</p> + +<p> +There was no answer, because Sir Junius had gone. I never saw him again, for +years ago the poor man died quite disgraced. His passion for semi-fraudulent +speculations reasserted itself, and he became a bankrupt in conditions which +caused him to leave the country for America, where he was killed in a railway +accident while travelling as an immigrant. I have heard, however, that he was +not asked to shoot at Ragnall any more. +</p> + +<p> +The cheque was passed to the credit of the Cottage Hospital, but not, as I had +requested, as a subscription from Sir Junius Fortescue. A couple of years +later, indeed, I learned that this sum of money was used to build a little room +in that institution to accommodate sick children, which room was named the +Allan Quatermain ward. +</p> + +<p> +Now, I have told this story of that December shoot because it was the beginning +of my long and close friendship with Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +When he found that Van Koop had gone away without saying good-bye, Lord Ragnall +made no remark. Only he took my hand and shook it. +</p> + +<p> +I have only to add that, although, except for the element of competition which +entered into it, I enjoyed this day’s shooting very much indeed, when I +came to count up its cost I felt glad that I had not been asked to any more +such entertainments. Here it is, taken from an old note-book: +</p> + +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Cartridges, including those not used and given to Charles £4 0 0 + Game Licence 3 0 0 + Tip to Red Waistcoat (keeper) 2 0 0 + Tip to Charles 0 10 0 + Tip to man who helped Charles to find pheasant 0 5 0 + Tip to man who collected pheasants behind me 0 10 0 + ———— + £10 5 0 + ———— +</pre> + +<p> +Truly pheasant shooting in England is, or was, a sport for the rich! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /> +MISS HOLMES</h2> + +<p> +Two and a half hours passed by, most of which time I spent lying down to rest +and get rid of a headache caused by the continual, rapid firing and the roar of +the gale, or both; also in rubbing my shoulder with ointment, for it was sore +from the recoil of the guns. Then Scroope appeared, as, being unable to find my +way about the long passages of that great old castle, I had asked him to do, +and we descended together to the large drawing-room. +</p> + +<p> +It was a splendid apartment, only used upon state occasions, lighted, I should +think, with at least two or three hundred wax candles, which threw a soft glow +over the panelled and pictured walls, the priceless antique furniture, and the +bejewelled ladies who were gathered there. To my mind there never was and never +will be any artificial light to equal that of wax candles in sufficient +quantity. The company was large; I think thirty sat down to dinner that night, +which was given to introduce Lord Ragnall’s future wife to the +neighbourhood, whereof she was destined to be the leader. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Manners, who was looking very happy and charming in her jewels and fine +clothes, joined us at once, and informed Scroope that “she” was +just coming; the maid in the cloakroom had told her so. +</p> + +<p> +“Is she?” replied Scroope indifferently. “Well, so long as +you have come I don’t care about anyone else.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he told her she was looking beautiful, and stared at her with such +affection that I fell back a step or two and contemplated a picture of Judith +vigorously engaged in cutting off the head of Holofernes. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the large door at the end of the room was thrown open and the +immaculate Savage, who was acting as a kind of master of the ceremonies, +announced in well-bred but penetrating tones, “Lady Longden and the +Honourable Miss Holmes.” I stared, like everybody else, but for a while +her ladyship filled my eye. She was an ample and, to my mind, rather +awful-looking person, clad in black satin—she was a widow—and very +large diamonds. Her hair was white, her nose was hooked, her dark eyes were +penetrating, and she had a bad cold in her head. That was all I found time to +notice about her, for suddenly her daughter came into my line of vision. +</p> + +<p> +Truly she was a lovely girl, or rather, young woman, for she must have been two +or three-and-twenty. Not very tall, her proportions were rounded and exquisite, +and her movements as graceful as those of a doe. Altogether she was doe-like, +especially in the fineness of her lines and her large and liquid eyes. She was +a dark beauty, with rich brown, waving hair, a clear olive complexion, a +perfectly shaped mouth and very red lips. To me she looked more Italian or +Spanish than Anglo-Saxon, and I believe that, as a matter of fact, she had some +southern blood in her on her father’s side. She wore a dress of soft rose +colour, and her only ornaments were a string of pearls and a single red +camellia. I could see but one blemish, if it were a blemish, in her perfect +person, and that was a curious white mark upon her breast, which in its shape +exactly resembled the crescent moon. +</p> + +<p> +The face, however, impressed me with other than its physical qualities. It was +bright, intelligent, sympathetic and, just now, happy. But I thought it more, I +thought it mystical. Something that her mother said to her, probably about her +dress, caused her smile to vanish for a moment, and then, from beneath it as it +were, appeared this shadow of innate mysticism. In a second it was gone and she +was laughing again; but I, who am accustomed to observe, had caught it, perhaps +alone of all that company. Moreover, it reminded me of something. +</p> + +<p> +What was it? Ah! I knew. A look that sometimes I had seen upon the face of a +certain Zulu lady named Mameena, especially at the moment of her wonderful and +tragic death. The thought made me shiver a little; I could not tell why, for +certainly, I reflected, this high-placed and fortunate English girl had nothing +in common with that fate-driven Child of Storm, whose dark and imperial spirit +dwelt in the woman called Mameena. They were as far apart as Zululand is from +Essex. Yet it was quite sure that both of them had touch with hidden things. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Ragnall, looking more like a splendid Van Dyck than ever in his evening +dress, stepped forward to greet his fiancée and her mother with a courtly bow, +and I turned again to continue my contemplation of the stalwart Judith and the +very ugly head of Holofernes. Presently I was aware of a soft voice—a +very rich and thrilling voice—asking quite close to me: +</p> + +<p> +“Which is he? Oh! you need not answer, dear. I know him from the +description.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” replied Lord Ragnall to Miss Holmes—for it was +she—“you are quite right. I will introduce you to him presently. +But, love, whom do you wish to take you in to dinner? I can’t—your +mother, you know; and as there are no titles here to-night, you may make your +choice. Would you like old Dr. Jeffreys, the clergyman?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” she replied, with quiet firmness, “I know him; he took +me in once before. I wish Mr. Allan Quatermain to take me in. He is +interesting, and I want to hear about Africa.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” he answered, “and he <i>is</i> more interesting +than all the rest put together. But, Luna, why are you always thinking and +talking about Africa? One might imagine that you were going to live +there.” +</p> + +<p> +“So I may one day,” she answered dreamily. “Who knows where +one has lived, or where one will live!” And again I saw that mystic look +come into her face. +</p> + +<p> +I heard no more of that conversation, which it is improbable that anyone whose +ears had not been sharpened by a lifetime of listening in great silences would +have caught at all. To tell the truth, I made myself scarce, slipping off to +the other end of the big room in the hope of evading the kind intentions of +Miss Holmes. I have a great dislike of being put out of my place, and I felt +that among all these local celebrities it was not fitting that I should be +selected to take in the future bride on an occasion of this sort. But it was of +no use, for presently Lord Ragnall hunted me up, bringing the young lady with +him. +</p> + +<p> +“Let me introduce you to Miss Holmes, Quatermain,” he said. +“She is anxious that you should take her in to dinner, if you will be so +kind. She is very interested in—in——” +</p> + +<p> +“Africa,” I suggested. +</p> + +<p> +“In Mr. Quatermain, who, I am told, is one of the greatest hunters in +Africa,” she corrected me, with a dazzling smile. +</p> + +<p> +I bowed, not knowing what to say. Lord Ragnall laughed and vanished, leaving us +together. Dinner was announced. Presently we were wending in the centre of a +long and glittering procession across the central hall to the banqueting +chamber, a splendid room with a roof like a church that was said to have been +built in the times of the Plantagenets. Here Mr. Savage, who evidently had been +looking out for her future ladyship, conducted us to our places, which were +upon the left of Lord Ragnall, who sat at the head of the broad table with Lady +Longden on his right. Then the old clergyman, Dr. Jeffreys, a pompous and +rather frowsy ecclesiastic, said grace, for grace was still in fashion at such +feasts in those days, asking Heaven to make us truly thankful for the dinner we +were about to consume. +</p> + +<p> +Certainly there was a great deal to be thankful for in the eating and drinking +line, but of all I remember little, except a general vision of silver dishes, +champagne, splendour, and things I did not want to eat being constantly handed +to me. What I do remember is Miss Holmes, and nothing but Miss Holmes; the +charm of her conversation, the light of her beautiful eyes, the fragrance of +her hair, her most flattering interest in my unworthy self. To tell the truth, +we got on “like fire in the winter grass,” as the Zulus say, and +when that dinner was over the grass was still burning. +</p> + +<p> +I don’t think that Lord Ragnall quite liked it, but fortunately Lady +Longden was a talkative person. First she conversed about her cold in the head, +sneezing at intervals, poor soul, and being reduced to send for another +handkerchief after the entrées. Then she got off upon business matters; to +judge from the look of boredom on her host’s face, I think it must have +been of settlements. Three times did I hear him refer her to the +lawyers—without avail. Lastly, when he thought he had escaped, she +embarked upon a quite vigorous argument with Dr. Jeffreys about church +matters—I gathered that she was “low” and he was +“high”—in which she insisted upon his lordship acting as +referee. +</p> + +<p> +“Do try and keep your attention fixed, George,” I heard her say +severely. “To allow it to wander when high spiritual affairs are under +discussion (sneeze) is scarcely reverent. Could you tell the man to shut that +door? The draught is dreadful. It is quite impossible for you to agree with +both of us, as you say you do, seeing that metaphorically Dr. Jeffreys is at +one pole and I am at the other.” (Sneeze.) +</p> + +<p> +“Then I wish I were at the Tropic of Cancer,” I heard him mutter +with a groan. +</p> + +<p> +In vain; he had to keep his “attention fixed” on this point for the +next three-quarters of an hour. So as Miss Manners was at the other side of me, +and Scroope, unhampered by the presence of any prospective mother-in-law, was +at the other side of her, for all practical purposes Miss Holmes and I were +left alone. +</p> + +<p> +She began by saying: +</p> + +<p> +“I hear you beat Sir Junius Fortescue out shooting to-day, and won a lot +of money from him which you gave to the Cottage Hospital. I don’t like +shooting, and I don’t like betting; and it’s strange, because you +don’t look like a man who bets. But I detest Sir Junius Fortescue, and +that is a bond of union between us.” +</p> + +<p> +“I never said I detested him.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, but I am sure you do. Your face changed when I mentioned his +name.” +</p> + +<p> +“As it happens, you are right. But, Miss Holmes, I should like you to +understand that you were also right when you said I did not look like a betting +man.” And I told her some of the story of Van Koop and the £250. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!” she said, when I had finished, “I always felt sure he +was a horror. And my mother wanted me, just because he pretended to be low +church—but that’s a secret.” +</p> + +<p> +Then I congratulated her upon her approaching marriage, saying what a joyful +thing it was now and again to see everything going in real, happy, storybook +fashion: beauty, male and female, united by love, high rank, wealth, troops of +friends, health of body, a lovely and an ancient home in a settled land where +dangers do not come—at present—respect and affection of crowds of +dependents, the prospect of a high and useful career of a sort whereof the door +is shut to most people, everything in short that human beings who are not +actually royalty could desire or deserve. Indeed after my second glass of +champagne I grew quite eloquent on these and kindred points, being moved +thereto by memories of the misery that is in the world which formed so great a +contrast to the lot of this striking and brilliant pair. +</p> + +<p> +She listened to me attentively and answered: +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you for your kind thoughts and wishes. But does it not strike you, +Mr. Quatermain, that there is something ill-omened in such talk? I believe that +it does; that as you finished speaking it occurred to you that after all the +future is as much veiled from all of us as—as the picture which hangs +behind its curtain of rose-coloured silk in Lord Ragnall’s study is from +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“How did you know that?” I asked sharply in a low voice. For by the +strangest of coincidences, as I concluded my somewhat old-fashioned little +speech of compliments, this very reflection had entered my mind, and with it +the memory of the veiled picture which Mr. Savage had pointed out to me on the +previous morning. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t say, Mr. Quatermain, but I did know it. You were thinking +of the picture, were you not?” +</p> + +<p> +“And if I was,” I said, avoiding a direct reply, “what of it? +Though it is hidden from everybody else, he has only to draw the curtain and +see—you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Supposing he should draw the curtain one day and see nothing, Mr. +Quatermain?” +</p> + +<p> +“Then the picture would have been stolen, that is all, and he would have +to search for it till he found it again, which doubtless sooner or later he +would do.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, sooner or later. But where? Perhaps you have lost a picture or two +in your time, Mr. Quatermain, and are better able to answer the question than I +am.” +</p> + +<p> +There was silence for a few moments, for this talk of lost pictures brought +back memories which choked me. +</p> + +<p> +Then she began to speak again, low, quickly, and with suppressed passion, but +acting wonderfully all the while. Knowing that eyes were on her, her gestures +and the expression of her face were such as might have been those of any young +lady of fashion who was talking of everyday affairs, such as dancing, or +flowers, or jewels. She smiled and even laughed occasionally. She played with +the golden salt-cellar in front of her and, upsetting a little of the salt, +threw it over her left shoulder, appearing to ask me if I were a victim of that +ancient habit, and so on. +</p> + +<p> +But all the while she was talking deeply of deep things, such as I should never +have thought would pass her mind. This was the substance of what she said, for +I cannot set it all down verbatim; after so many years my memory fails me. +</p> + +<p> +“I am not like other women. Something moves me to tell you so, something +very real and powerful which pushes me as a strong man might. It is odd, +because I have never spoken to anyone else like that, not to my mother for +instance, or even to Lord Ragnall. They would neither of them understand, +although they would misunderstand differently. My mother would think I ought to +see a doctor—and if you knew that doctor! He,” and she nodded +towards Lord Ragnall, “would think that my engagement had upset me, or +that I had grown rather more religious than I ought to be at my age, and been +reflecting too much—well, on the end of all things. From a child I have +understood that I am a mystery set in the midst of many other mysteries. It all +came to me one night when I was about nine years old. I seemed to see the past +and the future, although I could grasp neither. Such a long, long past and such +an infinite future. I don’t know what I saw, and still see sometimes. It +comes in a flash, and is in a flash forgotten. My mind cannot hold it. It is +too big for my mind; you might as well try to pack Dr. Jeffreys there into this +wineglass. Only two facts remain written on my heart. The first is that there +is trouble ahead of me, curious and unusual trouble; and the second, that +permanently, continually, I, or a part of me, have something to do with Africa, +a country of which I know nothing except from a few very dull books. Also, by +the way—this is a new thought—that I have a great deal to do with +<i>you</i>. That is why I am so interested in Africa and you. Tell me about +Africa and yourself now, while we have the chance.” And she ended rather +abruptly, adding in a louder voice, “You have lived there all your life, +have you not, Mr. Quatermain?” +</p> + +<p> +“I rather think your mother would be right—about the doctor, I +mean,” I said. +</p> + +<p> +“You <i>say</i> that, but you don’t <i>believe</i> it. Oh! you are +very transparent, Mr. Quatermain—at least, to me.” +</p> + +<p> +So, hurriedly enough, for these subjects seemed to be uncomfortable, even +dangerous in a sense, I began to talk of the first thing about Africa that I +remembered—namely, of the legend of the Holy Flower that was guarded by a +huge ape, of which I had heard from a white man who was supposed to be rather +mad, who went by the name of Brother John. Also I told her that there was +something in it, as I had with me a specimen of the flower. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! show it me,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +I replied that I feared I could not, as it was locked away in a safe in London, +whither I was returning on the morrow. I promised, however, to send her a +life-sized water-colour drawing of which I had caused several to be made. She +asked me if I were going to look for this flower, and I said that I hoped so if +I could make the necessary arrangements. Next she asked me if there chanced to +be any other African quests upon which I had set my mind. I replied that there +were several. For instance, I had heard vaguely through Brother John, and +indirectly from one or two other sources, of the existence of a certain tribe +in East Central Africa—Arabs or semi-Arabs—who were reported to +worship a child that always remained a child. This child, I took it, was a +dwarf; but as I was interested in native religious customs which were infinite +in their variety, I should much like to find out the truth of the matter. +</p> + +<p> +“Talking of Arabs,” she broke in, “I will tell you a curious +story. Once when I was a little girl, eight or nine years of age—it was +just before that kind of awakening of which I have spoken to you—I was +playing in Kensington Gardens, for we lived in London at the time, in the +charge of my nurse-governess. She was talking to some young man who she said +was her cousin, and told me to run about with my hoop and not to bother. I +drove the hoop across the grass to some elm trees. From behind one of the trees +came out two tall men dressed in white robes and turbans, who looked to me like +scriptural characters in a picture-book. One was an elderly man with flashing, +black eyes, hooked nose, and a long grey beard. The other was much younger, but +I do not remember him so well. They were both brown in colour, but otherwise +almost like white men; not Negroes by any means. My hoop hit the elder man, and +I stood still, not knowing what to say. He bowed politely and picked it up, but +did not offer to return it to me. They talked together rapidly, and one of them +pointed to the moon-shaped birthmark which you see I have upon my neck, for it +was hot weather, and I was wearing a low-cut frock. It was because of this mark +that my father named me Luna. The elder of the two said in broken English: +</p> + +<p> +“‘What is your name, pretty little girl?’ +</p> + +<p> +“I told him it was Luna Holmes. Then he drew from his robe a box made of +scented wood, and, opening it, took out some sweetmeat which looked as if it +had been frozen, and gave me a piece that, being very fond of sweet, I put into +my mouth. Next, he bowled the hoop along the ground into the shadow of the +trees—it was evening time and beginning to grow dark—saying, +‘Run, catch it, little girl!’ +</p> + +<p> +“I began to run, but something in the taste of that sweet caused me to +drop it from my lips. Then all grew misty, and the next thing I remember was +finding myself in the arms of the younger Eastern, with the nurse and her +‘cousin,’ a stalwart person like a soldier, standing in front of +us. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Little girl go ill,’ said the elder Arab. ‘We seek +policeman.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘You drop that child,’ answered the ‘cousin,’ +doubling his fists. Then I grew faint again, and when I came to myself the two +white-robed men had gone. All the way home my governess scolded me for +accepting sweets from strangers, saying that if my parents came to know of it, +I should be whipped and sent to bed. Of course, I begged her not to tell them, +and at last she consented. Do you know, I think you are the first to whom I +have ever mentioned the matter, of which I am sure the governess never breathed +a word, though after that, whenever we walked in the gardens, her +‘cousin’ always came to look after us. In the end I think she +married him.” +</p> + +<p> +“You believe the sweet was drugged?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +She nodded. “There was something very strange in it. It was a night or +two after I had tasted it that I had what just now I called my awakening, and +began to think about Africa.” +</p> + +<p> +“Have you ever seen these men again, Miss Holmes?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, never.” +</p> + +<p> +At this moment I heard Lady Longden say, in a severe voice: +</p> + +<p> +“My dear Luna, I am sorry to interrupt your absorbing conversation, but +we are all waiting for you.” +</p> + +<p> +So they were, for to my horror I saw that everyone was standing up except +ourselves. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Holmes departed in a hurry, while Scroope whispered in my ear with a +snigger: +</p> + +<p> +“I say, Allan, if you carry on like that with his young lady, his +lordship will be growing jealous of you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be a fool,” I said sharply. But there was something in +his remark, for as Lord Ragnall passed on his way to the other end of the +table, he said in a low voice and with rather a forced smile: +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Quatermain, I hope your dinner has not been as dull as mine, +although your appetite seemed so poor.” +</p> + +<p> +Then I reflected that I could not remember having eaten a thing since the first +entrée. So overcome was I that, rejecting all Scroope’s attempts at +conversation, I sat silent, drinking port and filling up with dates, until not +long afterwards we went into the drawing-room, where I sat down as far from +Miss Holmes as possible, and looked at a book of views of Jerusalem. +</p> + +<p> +While I was thus engaged, Lord Ragnall, pitying my lonely condition, or being +instigated thereto by Miss Holmes, I know not which, came up and began to chat +with me about African big-game shooting. Also he asked me what was my permanent +address in that country. I told him Durban, and in my turn asked why he wanted +to know. +</p> + +<p> +“Because Miss Holmes seems quite crazy about the place, and I expect I +shall be dragged out there one day,” he replied, quite gloomily. It was a +prophetic remark. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment our conversation was interrupted by Lady Longden, who came to +bid her future son-in-law good night. She said that she must go to bed, and put +her feet in mustard and water as her cold was so bad, which left me wondering +whether she meant to carry out this operation in bed. I recommended her to take +quinine, a suggestion she acknowledged rather inconsequently by remarking in +somewhat icy tones that she supposed I sat up to all hours of the night in +Africa. I replied that frequently I did, waiting for the sun to rise next day, +for that member of the British aristocracy irritated me. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we parted, and I never saw her again. She died many years ago, poor soul, +and I suppose is now freezing her former acquaintances in the Shades, for I +cannot imagine that she ever had a friend. They talk a great deal about the +influences of heredity nowadays, but I don’t believe very much in them +myself. Who, for instance, could conceive that persons so utterly different in +every way as Lady Longden and her daughter, Miss Holmes, could be mother and +child? Our bodies, no doubt, we do inherit from our ancestors, but not our +individualities. These come from far away. +</p> + +<p> +A good many of the guests went at the same time, having long distances to drive +on that cold frosty night, although it was only just ten o’clock. For as +was usual at that period even in fashionable houses, we had dined at seven. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +HARÛT AND MARÛT</h2> + +<p> +After Lord Ragnall had seen his guests to the door in the old-fashioned manner, +he returned and asked me if I played cards, or whether I preferred music. I was +assuring him that I hated the sight of a card when Mr. Savage appeared in his +silent way and respectfully inquired of his lordship whether any gentleman was +staying in the house whose Christian name was <i>Here-come-a-zany</i>. Lord +Ragnall looked at him with a searching eye as though he suspected him of being +drunk, and then asked what he meant by such a ridiculous question. +</p> + +<p> +“I mean, my lord,” replied Mr. Savage with a touch of offence in +his tone, “that two foreign individuals in white clothes have arrived at +the castle, stating that they wish to speak at once with a <i>Mr. +Here-come-a-zany</i> who is staying here. I told them to go away as the butler +said he could make nothing of their talk, but they only sat down in the snow +and said they would wait for <i>Here-come-a-zany</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you had better put them in the old guardroom, lock them up with +something to eat, and send the stable-boy for the policeman, who is a zany if +ever anybody was. I expect they are after the pheasants.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stop a bit,” I said, for an idea had occurred to me. “The +message may be meant for me, though I can’t conceive who sent it. My +native name is Macumazana, which possibly Mr. Savage has not caught quite +correctly. Shall I go to see these men?” +</p> + +<p> +“I wouldn’t do that in this cold, Quatermain,” Lord Ragnall +answered. “Did they say what they are, Savage?” +</p> + +<p> +“I made out that they were conjurers, my lord. At least when I told them +to go away one of them said, ‘You will go first, gentleman.’ Then, +my lord, I heard a hissing sound in my coat-tail pocket and, putting my hand +into it, I found a large snake which dropped on the ground and vanished. It +quite paralysed me, my lord, and while I stood there wondering whether I was +bitten, a mouse jumped out of the kitchenmaid’s hair. She had been +laughing at their dress, my lord, but <i>now</i> she’s screaming in +hysterics.” +</p> + +<p> +The solemn aspect of Mr. Savage as he narrated these unholy marvels was such +that, like the kitchenmaid, we both burst into ill-timed merriment. Attracted +by our laughter, Miss Holmes, Miss Manners, with whom she was talking, and some +of the other guests, approached and asked what was the matter. +</p> + +<p> +“Savage here declares that there are two conjurers in the kitchen +premises, who have been producing snakes out of his pocket and mice from the +hair of one of the maids, and who want to see Mr. Quatermain,” Lord +Ragnall answered. +</p> + +<p> +“Conjurers! Oh, do have them in, George,” exclaimed Miss Holmes; +while Miss Manners and the others, who were getting a little tired of +promiscuous conversation, echoed her request. +</p> + +<p> +“By all means,” he answered, “though we have enough mice here +without their bringing any more. Savage, go and tell your two friends that +<i>Mr. Here-come-a-zany</i> is waiting for them in the drawing-room, and that +the company would like to see some of their tricks.” +</p> + +<p> +Savage bowed and departed, like a hero to execution, for by his pallor I could +see that he was in a great fright. When he had gone we set to work and cleared +a space in the middle of the room, in front of which we arranged chairs for the +company to sit on. +</p> + +<p> +“No doubt they are Indian jugglers,” said Lord Ragnall, “and +will want a place to grow their mango-tree, as I remember seeing them do in +Kashmir.” +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke the door opened and Mr. Savage appeared through it, walking much +faster than was his wont. I noted also that he gripped the pockets of his +swallow-tail coat firmly in his hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Hare-root and Mr. Mare-root,” he announced. +</p> + +<p> +“Hare-root and Mare-root!” repeated Lord Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +“Harût and Marût, I expect,” I said. “I think I have read +somewhere that they were great magicians, whose names these conjurers have +taken.” (Since then I have discovered that they are mentioned in the +Koran as masters of the Black Art.) +</p> + +<p> +A moment later two men followed him through the doorway. The first was a tall, +Eastern-looking person with a grave countenance, a long, white beard, a hooked +nose, and flashing, hawk-like eyes. The second was shorter and rather stout, +also much younger. He had a genial, smiling face, small, beady-black eyes, and +was clean-shaven. They were very light in colour; indeed I have seen Italians +who are much darker; and there was about their whole aspect a certain air of +power. +</p> + +<p> +Instantly I remembered the story that Miss Holmes had told me at dinner and +looked at her covertly, to see that she had turned quite pale and was trembling +a little. I do not think that anyone else noticed this, however, as all were +staring at the strangers. Moreover she recovered herself in a moment, and, +catching my eye, laid her finger on her lips in token of silence. +</p> + +<p> +The men were clothed in thick, fur-lined cloaks, which they took off and, +folding them neatly, laid upon the floor, standing revealed in robes of a +beautiful whiteness and in large plain turbans, also white. +</p> + +<p> +“High-class Somali Arabs,” thought I to myself, noting the while +that as they arranged the robes they were taking in every one of us with their +quick eyes. One of them shut the door, leaving Savage on this side of it as +though they meant him to be present. Then they walked towards us, each of them +carrying an ornamental basket made apparently of split reeds, that contained +doubtless their conjuring outfit and probably the snake which Savage had found +in his pocket. To my surprise they came straight to me, and, having set down +the baskets, lifted their hands above their heads, as a person about to dive +might do, and bowed till the points of their fingers touched the floor. Next +they spoke, not in Arabic as I had expected that they would, but in Bantu, +which of course I understood perfectly well. +</p> + +<p> +“I, Harût, head priest and doctor of the White Kendah People, greet you, +O Macumazana,” said the elder man. +</p> + +<p> +“I, Marût, a priest and doctor of the People of the White Kendah, greet +you, O Watcher-by-night, whom we have travelled far to find,” said the +younger man. Then together, +</p> + +<p> +“We both greet you, O Lord, who seem small but are great, O Chief with a +troubled past and with a mighty future, O Beloved of Mameena who has +‘gone down’ but still speaks from beneath, Mameena who was and is +of our company.” +</p> + +<p> +At this point it was my turn to shiver and become pale, as any may guess who +may have chanced to read the history of Mameena, and the turn of Miss Holmes to +watch <i>me</i> with animated interest. +</p> + +<p> +“O Slayer of evil men and beasts!” they went on, in their +rich-voiced, monotonous chant, “who, as our magic tells us, are destined +to deliver our land from the terrible scourge, we greet you, we bow before you, +we acknowledge you as our lord and brother, to whom we vow safety among us and +in the desert, to whom we promise a great reward.” +</p> + +<p> +Again they bowed, once, twice, thrice; then stood silent before me with folded +arms. +</p> + +<p> +“What on earth are they saying?” asked Scroope. “I could +catch a few words”—he knew a little kitchen Zulu—“but +not much.” +</p> + +<p> +I told him briefly while the others listened. +</p> + +<p> +“What does Mameena mean?” asked Miss Holmes, with a horrible +acuteness. “Is it a woman’s name?” +</p> + +<p> +Hearing her, Harût and Marût bowed as though doing reverence to that name. I am +sorry to say that at this point I grew confused, though really there was no +reason why I should, and muttered something about a native girl who had made +trouble in her day. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Holmes and the other ladies looked at me with amused disbelief, and to my +dismay the venerable Harût turned to Miss Holmes, and with his inevitable bow, +said in broken English: +</p> + +<p> +“Mameena very beautiful woman, perhaps more beautiful than you, lady. +Mameena love the white lord Macumazana. She love him while she live, she love +him now she dead. She tell me so again just now. You ask white lord tell you +pretty story of how he kiss her before she kill herself.” +</p> + +<p> +Needless to say all this very misleading information was received by the +audience with an attention that I can but call rapt, and in a kind of holy +silence which was broken only by a sudden burst of sniggering on the part of +Scroope. I favoured him with my fiercest frown. Then I fell upon that venerable +villain Harût, and belaboured him in Bantu, while the audience listened as +intently as though they understood. +</p> + +<p> +I asked him what he meant by coming here to asperse my character. I asked him +who the deuce he was. I asked him how he came to know anything about Mameena, +and finally I told him that soon or late I would be even with him, and paused +exhausted. +</p> + +<p> +He stood there looking for all the world like a statue of the patriarch Job as +I imagine him, and when I had done, replied without moving a muscle and in +English: +</p> + +<p> +“O Lord, Zikali, Zulu wizard, friend of mine! All great wizard friend +just like all elephant and all snake. Zikali make me know Mameena, and she tell +me story and send you much love, and say she wait for you always.” (More +sniggers from Scroope, and still intenser interest evinced by Miss Holmes and +others.) “If you like, I show you Mameena ‘fore I go.” +(Murmurs from Miss Holmes and Miss Manners of “Oh, <i>please</i> +do!”) “But that very little business, for what one long-ago lady +out of so many?” +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly he broke into Bantu, and added: “A jest is a jest, +Macumazana, though often there is meaning in a jest, and you shall see Mameena +if you will. I come here to ask you to do my people a service for which you +shall not lack reward. We, the White Kendah, the People of the Child, are at +war with the Black Kendah, our subjects who outnumber us. The Black Kendah have +an evil spirit for a god, which spirit from the beginning has dwelt in the +largest elephant in all the world, a beast that none can kill, but which kills +many and bewitches more. While that elephant, which is named Jana, lives we, +the People of the Child, go in terror, for day by day it destroys us. We have +learned—how it does not matter—that you alone can kill that +elephant. If you will come and kill it, we will show you the place where all +the elephants go to die, and you shall take their ivory, many wagon-loads, and +grow rich. Soon you are going on a journey that has to do with a flower, and +you will visit peoples named the Mazitu and the Pongo who live on an island in +a lake. Far beyond the Pongo and across the desert dwell my people, the Kendah, +in a secret land. When you wish to visit us, as you will do, journey to the +north of that lake where the Pongo dwell, and stay there on the edge of the +desert shooting till we come. Now mock me if you will, but do not forget, for +these things shall befall in their season, though that time be far. If we meet +no more for a while, still do not forget. When you have need of gold or of the +ivory that is gold, then journey to the north of the lake where the Pongo +dwell, and call on the names of Harût and Marût.” +</p> + +<p> +“And call on the names of Harût and Marût,” repeated the younger +man, who hitherto appeared to take no interest in our talk. +</p> + +<p> +Next, before I could answer, before I could think the thing out indeed, for all +this breath from savage and mystical Africa blowing on me suddenly here in an +Essex drawing-room, seemed to overwhelm me, the ineffable Harût proceeded in +his English conjurer’s patter: +</p> + +<p> +“Rich ladies and gentlemen want see trick by poor old wizard from centre +Africa. Well, we show them, but please ‘member no magic, all quite simple +trick. Teach it you if you pay. Please not look too hard, no want you learn how +it done. What you like see? Tree grow out of nothing, eh? Good! Please lend me +that plate—what you call him—china.” +</p> + +<p> +Then the performance began. The tree grew admirably upon the china plate under +the cover of an antimacassar. A number of bits of stick danced together on the +said plate, apparently without being touched. At a whistle from Marût a second +snake crawled out of the pocket of the horrified Mr. Savage, who stood +observing these proceedings at a respectful distance, erected itself on its +tail upon the plate and took fire till it was consumed to ashes, and so forth. +</p> + +<p> +The show was very good, but to tell the truth I did not take much notice of it, +for I had seen similar things before and was engaged in thoughts much excited +by what Harût had said to me. At length the pair paused amidst the clapping of +the audience, and Marût began to pack up the properties as though all were +done. Then Harût observed casually: +</p> + +<p> +“The Lord Macumazana think this poor business and he right. Very poor +business, any conjurer do better. All common trick”—here his eye +fell upon Mr. Savage who was wriggling uneasily in the background. “What +matter with that gentleman? Brother Marût, go see.” +</p> + +<p> +Brother Marût went and freed Mr. Savage from two more snakes which seemed to +have taken possession of various parts of his garments. Also, amidst shouts of +laughter, from a large dead rat which he appeared to draw from his well-oiled +hair. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!” said Harût, as his confederate returned with these prizes, +leaving Savage collapsed in a chair, “snake love that gentleman much. He +earn great money in Africa. Well, he keep rat in hair; hungry snake always want +rat. But as I say, this poor business. Now you like to see some better, eh? +Mameena, eh?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I replied firmly, whereat everyone laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“Elephant Jana we want you kill, eh? Just as he look this minute.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I said, “very much indeed, only how will you show it +me?” +</p> + +<p> +“That quite easy, Macumazana. You just smoke little Kendah ‘bacco +and see many things, if you have gift, as I <i>think</i> you got, and as I +almost <i>sure</i> that lady got,” and he pointed to Miss Holmes. +“Sometimes they things people want see, and sometimes they things people +not want see.” +</p> + +<p> +“Dakka,” I said contemptuously, alluding to the Indian hemp on +which natives make themselves drunk throughout great districts of Africa. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! no, not dakka, that common stuff; this ‘bacco much better than +dakka, only grow in Kendah-land. You think all nonsense? Well, you see. Give me +match please.” +</p> + +<p> +Then while we watched he placed some tobacco, at least it looked like tobacco, +in a little wooden bowl that he also produced from his basket. Next he said +something to his companion, Marût, who drew a flute from his robe made out of a +thick reed, and began to play on it a wild and melancholy music, the sound of +which seemed to affect my backbone as standing on a great height often does. +Presently too Harût broke into a low song whereof I could not understand a +word, that rose and fell with the music of the flute. Now he struck a match, +which seemed incongruous in the midst of this semi-magical ceremony, and taking +a pinch of the tobacco, lit it and dropped it among the rest. A pale, blue +smoke arose from the bowl and with it a very sweet odour not unlike that of the +tuberoses gardeners grow in hot-houses, but more searching. +</p> + +<p> +“Now you breathe smoke, Macumazana,” he said, “and tell us +what you see. Oh! no fear, that not hurt you. Just like cigarette. Look,” +and he inhaled some of the vapour and blew it out through his nostrils, after +which his face seemed to change to me, though what the change was I could not +define. +</p> + +<p> +I hesitated till Scroope said: +</p> + +<p> +“Come, Allan, don’t shirk this Central African adventure. +I’ll try if you like.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Harût brusquely, “<i>you</i> no good.” +</p> + +<p> +Then curiosity and perhaps the fear of being laughed at overcame me. I took the +bowl and held it under my nose, while Harût threw over my head the antimacassar +which he had used in the mango trick, to keep in the fumes I suppose. +</p> + +<p> +At first these fumes were unpleasant, but just as I was about to drop the bowl +they seemed to become agreeable and to penetrate to the inmost recesses of my +being. The general effect of them was not unlike that of the laughing gas which +dentists give, with this difference, that whereas the gas produces +insensibility, these fumes seemed to set the mind on fire and to burn away all +limitations of time and distance. Things shifted before me. It was as though I +were no longer in that room but travelling with inconceivable rapidity. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly I appeared to stop before a curtain of mist. The mist rolled up in +front of me and I saw a wild and wonderful scene. There lay a lake surrounded +by dense African forest. The sky above was still red with the last lights of +sunset and in it floated the full moon. On the eastern side of the lake was a +great open space where nothing seemed to grow and all about this space were the +skeletons of hundreds of dead elephants. There they lay, some of them almost +covered with grey mosses hanging to their bones, through which their yellow +tusks projected as though they had been dead for centuries; others with the +rotting hide still on them. I knew that I was looking on a cemetery of +elephants, the place where these great beasts went to die, as I have since been +told the extinct moas did in New Zealand. All my life as a hunter had I heard +rumours of these cemeteries, but never before did I see such a spot even in a +dream. +</p> + +<p> +See! There was one dying now, a huge gaunt bull that looked as though it were +several hundred years old. It stood there swaying to and fro. Then it lifted +its trunk, I suppose to trumpet, though of course I could hear nothing, and +slowly sank upon its knees and so remained in the last relaxation of death. +</p> + +<p> +Almost in the centre of this cemetery was a little mound of water-washed rock +that had endured when the rest of the stony plain was denuded in past epochs. +Suddenly upon that rock appeared the shape of the most gigantic elephant that +ever I beheld in all my long experience. It had one enormous tusk, but the +other was deformed and broken off short. Its sides were scarred as though with +fighting and its eyes shone red and wickedly. Held in its trunk was the body of +a woman whose hair hung down upon one side and whose feet hung down upon the +other. Clasped in her arms was a child that seemed to be still living. +</p> + +<p> +The rogue, as a brute of this sort is called, for evidently such it was, +dropped the corpse to the ground and stood a while, flapping its ears. Then it +felt for and picked up the child with its trunk, swung it to and fro and +finally tossed it high into the air, hurling it far away. After this it walked +to the elephant that I had just seen die, and charged the carcass, knocking it +over. Then having lifted its trunk as though to trumpet in triumph, it shambled +off towards the forest and vanished. +</p> + +<p> +The curtain of mist fell again and in it, dimly, I thought I saw—well, +never mind who or what I saw. Then I awoke. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, did you see anything?” asked a chorus of voices. +</p> + +<p> +I told them what I had seen, leaving out the last part. +</p> + +<p> +“I say, old fellow,” said Scroope, “you must have been pretty +clever to get all that in, for your eyes weren’t shut for more than ten +seconds.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I wonder what you would say if I repeated everything,” I +answered, for I still felt dreamy and not quite myself. +</p> + +<p> +“You see elephant Jana?” asked Harût. “He kill woman and +child, eh? Well, he do that every night. Well, that why people of White Kendah +want you to kill <i>him</i> and take all that ivory which they no dare touch +because it in holy place and Black Kendah not let them. So he live still. That +what we wish know. Thank you much, Macumazana. You very good +look-through-distance man. Just what I think. Kendah ‘bacco smoke work +very well in you. Now, beautiful lady,” he added turning to Miss Holmes, +“you like look too? Better look. Who knows what you see?” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Holmes hesitated a moment, studying me with an inquiring eye. But I made +no sign, being in truth very curious to hear <i>her</i> experience. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“I would prefer, Luna, that you left this business alone,” remarked +Lord Ragnall uneasily. “I think it is time that you ladies went to +bed.” +</p> + +<p> +“Here is a match,” said Miss Holmes to Harût who was engaged in +putting more tobacco into the bowl, the suspicion of a smile upon his grave and +statuesque countenance. Harût received the match with a low bow and fired the +stuff as before. Then he handed the bowl, from which once again the blue smoke +curled upwards, to Miss Holmes, and gently and gracefully let the antimacassar +fall over it and her head, which it draped as a wedding veil might do. A few +seconds later she threw off the antimacassar and cast the bowl, in which the +fire was now out, on to the floor. Then she stood up with wide eyes, looking +wondrous lovely and, notwithstanding her lack of height, majestic. +</p> + +<p> +“I have been in another world,” she said in a low voice as though +she spoke to the air, “I have travelled a great way. I found myself in a +small place made of stone. It was dark in the place, the fire in that bowl lit +it up. There was nothing there except a beautiful statue of a naked baby which +seemed to be carved in yellow ivory, and a chair made of ebony inlaid with +ivory and seated with string. I stood in front of the statue of the Ivory +Child. It seemed to come to life and smile at me. Round its neck was a string +of red stones. It took them from its neck and set them upon mine. Then it +pointed to the chair, and I sat down in the chair. That was all.” +</p> + +<p> +Harût followed her words with an interest that I could see was intense, +although he attempted to hide it. Then he asked me to translate them, which I +did. +</p> + +<p> +As their full sense came home to him, although his face remained impassive, I +saw his dark eyes shine with the light of triumph. Moreover I heard him whisper +to Marût words that seemed to mean, +</p> + +<p> +“The Sacred Child accepts the Guardian. The Spirit of the White Kendah +finds a voice again.” +</p> + +<p> +Then as though involuntarily, but with the utmost reverence, both of them bowed +deeply towards Miss Holmes. +</p> + +<p> +A babel of conversation broke out. +</p> + +<p> +“What a ridiculous dream,” I heard Lord Ragnall say in a vexed +voice. “An ivory child that seemed to come to life and to give you a +necklace. Whoever heard such nonsense?” +</p> + +<p> +“Whoever heard such nonsense?” repeated Miss Holmes after him, as +though in polite acquiescence, but speaking as an automaton might speak. +</p> + +<p> +“I say,” interrupted Scroope, addressing Miss Manners, “this +is a drawing-room entertainment and a half, isn’t it, dear?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” answered Miss Manners, doubtfully, “it +is rather too queer for my taste. Tricks are all very well, but when it comes +to magic and visions I get frightened.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I suppose the show is over,” said Lord Ragnall. +“Quatermain, would you mind asking your conjurer friends what I owe +them?” +</p> + +<p> +Here Harût, who had understood, paused from packing up his properties and +answered, +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing, O great Lord, nothing. It is we owe you much. Here we learn +what we want know long time. I mean if elephant Jana still kill people of +Kendah. Kendah ‘bacco no speak to us. Only speak to new spirit. You got +great gift, lady, and you too, Macumazana. You not like smoke more Kendah +‘bacco and look into past, eh? Better look! Very full, past, learn much +there about all us; learn how things begin. Make you understand lot what seem +odd to-day. No! Well, one day you look p’raps, ‘cause past pull +hard and call loud, only no one hear what it say. Good night, O great Lord. +Good night, O beautiful lady. Good night, O Macumazana, till we meet again when +you come kill elephant Jana. Blessing of the Heaven-Child, who give rain, who +protect all danger, who give food, who give health, on you all.” +</p> + +<p> +Then making many obeisances they walked backwards to the door where they put on +their long cloaks. +</p> + +<p> +At a sign from Lord Ragnall I accompanied them, an office which, fearing more +snakes, Mr. Savage was very glad to resign to me. Presently we stood outside +the house amidst the moaning trees, and very cold it was there. +</p> + +<p> +“What does all this mean, O men of Africa?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Answer the question yourself when you stand face to face with the great +elephant Jana that has in it an evil spirit, O Macumazana,” replied +Harût. “Nay, listen. We are far from our home and we sought tidings +through those who could give it to us, and we have won those tidings, that is +all. We are worshippers of the Heavenly Child that is eternal youth and all +good things, but of late the Child has lacked a tongue. Yet to-night it spoke +again. Seek to know no more, you who in due season will know all things.” +</p> + +<p> +“Seek to know no more,” echoed Marût, “who already, perhaps, +know too much, lest harm should come to you, Macumazana.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where are you going to sleep to-night?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“We do not sleep here,” answered Harût, “we walk to the great +city and thence find our way to Africa, where we shall meet you again. You know +that we are no liars, common readers of thought and makers of tricks, for did +not Dogeetah, the wandering white man, speak to you of the people of whom he +had heard who worshipped the Child of Heaven? Go in, Macumazana, ere you take +harm in this horrible cold, and take with you this as a marriage gift from the +Child of Heaven whom she met to-night, to the beautiful lady stamped with the +sign of the young moon who is about to marry the great lord she loves.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he thrust a little linen-wrapped parcel into my hand and with his +companion vanished into the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +I returned to the drawing-room where the others were still discussing the +remarkable performance of the two native conjurers. +</p> + +<p> +“They have gone,” I said in answer to Lord Ragnall, “to walk +to London as they said. But they have sent a wedding-present to Miss +Holmes,” and I showed the parcel. +</p> + +<p> +“Open it, Quatermain,” he said again. +</p> + +<p> +“No, George,” interrupted Miss Holmes, laughing, for by now she +seemed to have quite recovered herself, “I like to open my own +presents.” +</p> + +<p> +He shrugged his shoulders and I handed her the parcel, which was neatly sewn +up. Somebody produced scissors and the stitches were cut. Within the linen was +a necklace of beautiful red stones, oval-shaped like amber beads and of the +size of a robin’s egg. They were roughly polished and threaded on what I +recognized at once to be hair from an elephant’s tail. From certain +indications I judged these stones, which might have been spinels or carbuncles, +or even rubies, to be very ancient. Possibly they had once hung round the neck +of some lady in old Egypt. Indeed a beautiful little statuette, also of red +stone, which was suspended from the centre of the necklace, suggested that this +was so, for it may well have been a likeness of one of the great gods of the +Egyptians, the infant Horus, the son of Isis. +</p> + +<p> +“That is the necklace I saw which the Ivory Child gave me in my +dream,” said Miss Holmes quietly. +</p> + +<p> +Then with much deliberation she clasped it round her throat. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /> +THE PLOT</h2> + +<p> +The sequel to the events of this evening may be told very briefly and of it the +reader can form his own judgment. I narrate it as it happened. +</p> + +<p> +That night I did not sleep at all well. It may have been because of the +excitement of the great shoot in which I found myself in competition with +another man whom I disliked and who had defrauded me in the past, to say +nothing of its physical strain in cold and heavy weather. Or it may have been +that my imagination was stirred by the arrival of that strange pair, Harût and +Marût, apparently in search of myself, seven thousand miles away from any place +where they can have known aught of an insignificant individual with a purely +local repute. Or it may have been that the pictures which they showed me when +under the influence of the fumes of their “tobacco”—or of +their hypnotism—took an undue possession of my brain. +</p> + +<p> +Or lastly, the strange coincidence that the beautiful betrothed of my host +should have related to me a tale of her childhood of which she declared she had +never spoken before, and that within an hour the two principal actors in that +tale should have appeared before my eyes and hers (for I may state that from +the beginning I had no doubt that they were the same men), moved me and filled +me with quite natural foreboding. Or all these things together may have tended +to a concomitant effect. At any rate the issue was that I could not sleep. +</p> + +<p> +For hour after hour I lay thinking and in an irritated way listening for the +chimes of the Ragnall stable-clock which once had adorned the tower of the +church and struck the quarters with a damnable reiteration. I concluded that +Messrs. Harût and Marût were a couple of common Arab rogues such as I had seen +performing at the African ports. Then a quarter struck and I concluded that the +elephants’ cemetery which I beheld in the smoke undoubtedly existed and +that I meant to collar those thousands of pounds’ worth of ivory before I +died. Then after another quarter I concluded that there was no elephants’ +cemetery—although by the way my old friend, Dogeetah or Brother John, had +mentioned such a thing to me—but that probably there was a tribe, as he +had also mentioned, called the Kendah, who worshipped a baby, or rather its +effigy. +</p> + +<p> +Well now, as had already occurred to me, the old Egyptians, of whom I was +always fond of reading when I got a chance, also worshipped a child, Horus the +Saviour. And that child had a mother called Isis symbolised in the crescent +moon, the great Nature goddess, the mistress of mysteries to whose cult ten +thousand priests were sworn—do not Herodotus and others, especially +Apuleius, tell us all about her? And by a queer coincidence Miss Holmes had the +mark of a crescent moon upon her breast. And when she was a child those two +men, or others very like them, had pointed out that mark to each other. And I +had seen them staring hard at it that night. And in her vapour-invoked dream +the “Heavenly Child,” <i>alias</i> Horus, or the double of Horus, +the <i>Ka</i>, I think the Egyptians called it, had awakened at the sight of +her and kissed her and given her the necklace of the goddess, and—all the +rest. What did it mean? +</p> + +<p> +I went to sleep at last wondering what on earth it <i>could</i> mean, till +presently that confounded clock woke me up again and I must go through the +whole business once more. +</p> + +<p> +By degrees, this was towards dawn, I became aware that all hope of rest had +vanished from me utterly; that I was most painfully awake, and what is more, +oppressed by a curious fear to the effect that something was going to happen to +Miss Holmes. So vivid did this fear become that at length I arose, lit a candle +and dressed myself. As it happened I knew where Miss Holmes slept. Her room, +which I had seen her enter, was on the same corridor as mine though at the +other end of it near the head of a stair that ran I knew not whither. In my +portmanteau that had been sent over from Miss Manners’s house, amongst +other things was a small double-barrelled pistol which from long habit I always +carried with me loaded, except for the caps that were in a little leather case +with some spare ammunition attached to the pistol belt. I took it out, capped +it and thrust it into my pocket. Then I slipped from the room and stood behind +a tall clock in the corridor, watching Miss Holmes’s door and reflecting +what a fool I should look if anyone chanced to find me. +</p> + +<p> +Half an hour or so later by the light of the setting moon which struggled +through a window, I saw the door open and Miss Holmes emerge in a kind of +dressing-gown and still wearing the necklace which Harût and Marût had given +her. Of this I was sure for the light gleamed upon the red stones. +</p> + +<p> +Also it shone upon her face and showed me without doubt that she was walking in +her sleep. +</p> + +<p> +Gliding as silently as a ghost she crossed the corridor and vanished. I +followed and saw that she had descended an ancient, twisting stairway which I +had noted in the castle wall. I went after her, my stockinged feet making no +noise, feeling my way carefully in the darkness of the stair, for I did not +dare to strike a match. Beneath me I heard a noise as of someone fumbling with +bolts. Then a door creaked on its hinges and there was some light. When I +reached the doorway I caught sight of the figure of Miss Holmes flitting across +a hollow garden that was laid out in the bottom of the castle moat which had +been drained. The garden, as I had observed when we walked through it on the +previous day on our way to the first covert that we shot, was bordered by a +shrubbery through which ran paths that led to the back drive of the castle. +</p> + +<p> +Across the garden glided the figure of Miss Holmes and after it went I, +crouching and taking cover behind every bush as though I were stalking big +game, which indeed I was. She entered the shrubbery, moving much more swiftly +now, for as she went she seemed to gather speed, like a stone which is rolled +down a hill. It was as though whatever might be attracting her, for I felt sure +that she was being drawn by something, acted more strongly upon her sleeping +will as she drew nearer to it. For a while I lost sight of her in the shadow of +the tall trees. Then suddenly I saw her again, standing quite still in an +opening caused by the blowing down in the gale of one of the avenue of elms +that bordered the back drive. But now she was no longer alone, for advancing +towards her were two cloaked figures in whom I recognized Harût and Marût. +</p> + +<p> +There she stood with outstretched arms, and towards her, stealthily as lions +stalking a buck, came Harût and Marût. Moreover, between the naked boughs of +the fallen elm I caught sight of what looked like the outline of a closed +carriage standing upon the drive. Also I heard a horse stamp upon the frosty +ground. Round the edge of the little glade I ran, keeping in the dark shadow, +as I went cocking the pistol that was in my pocket. Then suddenly I darted out +and stood between Harût and Marût and Miss Holmes. +</p> + +<p> +Not a word passed between us. I think that all three of us subconsciously were +anxious not to awake the sleeping woman, knowing that if we did so there would +be a terrible scene. Only after motioning to me to stand aside, of course in +vain, Harût and Marût drew from their robes curved and cruel-looking knives and +bowed, for even now their politeness did not forsake them. I bowed back and +when I straightened myself those enterprising Easterns found that I was +covering the heart of Harût with my pistol. Then with that perception which is +part of the mental outfit of the great, they saw that the game was up since I +could have shot them both before a knife touched me. +</p> + +<p> +“You have won this time, O Watcher-by-Night,” whispered Harût +softly, “but another time you will lose. That beautiful lady belongs to +us and the People of the White Kendah, for she is marked with the holy mark of +the young moon. The call of the Child of Heaven is heard in her heart, and will +bring her home to the Child as it has brought her to us to-night. Now lead her +hence still sleeping, O brave and clever one, so well named +Watcher-by-Night.” +</p> + +<p> +Then they were gone and presently I heard the sound of horses being driven +rapidly along the drive. +</p> + +<p> +For a moment I hesitated as to whether I would or would not run in and shoot +those horses. Two considerations stayed me. The first was that if I did so my +pistol would be empty, or even if I shot one horse and retained a barrel +loaded, with it I could only kill a single man, leaving myself defenceless +against the knife of the other. The second consideration was that now as before +I did not wish to wake up Miss Holmes. +</p> + +<p> +I crept to her and not knowing what else to do, took hold of one of her +outstretched hands. She turned and came with me at once as though she knew me, +remaining all the while fast asleep. Thus we went back to the house, through +the still open door, up the stairway straight to her own room, on the threshold +of which I loosed her hand. The room was dark and I could see nothing, but I +listened until I heard a sound as of a person throwing herself upon the bed and +drawing up the blankets. Then knowing that she was safe for a while, I shut the +door, which opened outwards as doors of ancient make sometimes do, and set +against it a little table that stood in the passage. +</p> + +<p> +Next, after reflecting for a minute, the circumstances being awkward in many +ways, I went to my room and lit a candle. Obviously it was my duty to inform +Lord Ragnall of what had happened and that as soon as possible. But I had no +idea in what part of that huge building his sleeping place might be, nor, for +patent reasons, was it desirable that I should disturb the house and so create +talk. In this dilemma I remembered that Lord Ragnall’s confidential +servant, Mr. Savage, when he conducted me to my room on the previous night, +which he made a point of doing perhaps because he wished to talk over the +matter of the snakes that had found their way into his pockets, had shown me a +bell in it which he said rang outside his door. He called it an +“emergency bell.” I remarked idly that it was improbable that I +should have any occasion for its use. +</p> + +<p> +“Who knows, sir?” said Mr. Savage prophetically. “There are +folk who say that this old castle is haunted, which after what I have seen +to-night I can well believe. If you should chance to meet a ghost looking, let +us say, like those black villains, Harum and Scarum, or whatever they call +themselves—well, sir, two’s better company than one.” +</p> + +<p> +I considered that bell but was loath to ring it for the reasons I have given. +Then I went outside the room and looked. As I had hoped might be the case, +there ran the wire on the face of the wall connected along its length by other +wires with the various rooms it passed. +</p> + +<p> +I set to work and followed that wire. It was not an easy job; indeed once or +twice it reminded me of that story of the old Greek hero who found his way +through a labyrinth by means of a silken thread. I forget whether it were a +bull or a lady he was looking for, but with care and perseverance he found one +or the other, or it may have been both. +</p> + +<p> +Down staircases and various passages I went with my eye glued upon the wire, +which occasionally got mixed up with other wires, till at length it led me +through a swing door covered with red baize into what appeared to be a modern +annexe to the castle. Here at last it terminated on the spring of an +alarming-looking and deep-throated bell that hung immediately over a certain +door. +</p> + +<p> +On this door I knocked, hoping that it might be that of Mr. Savage and praying +earnestly that it did not enclose the chaste resting-place of the cook or any +other female. Too late, I mean after I had knocked, it occurred to me that if +so my position would be painful to a degree. However in this particular Fortune +stood my friend, which does not always happen to the virtuous. For presently I +heard a voice which I recognized as that of Mr. Savage, asking, not without a +certain quaver in its tone, +</p> + +<p> +“Who the devil is that?” +</p> + +<p> +“Me,” I replied, being flustered. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Me’ won’t do,” said the voice. +“‘Me’ might be Harum or it might be Scarum, or it might be +someone worse. Who’s ‘Me’?” +</p> + +<p> +“Allan Quatermain, you idiot,” I whispered through the keyhole. +</p> + +<p> +“Anna who? Well, never mind. Go away, Hanna. I’ll talk to you in +the morning.” +</p> + +<p> +Then I kicked the door, and at length, very cautiously, Mr. Savage opened it. +</p> + +<p> +“Good heavens, sir,” he said, “what are you doing here, sir? +Dressed too, at this hour, and with the handle of a pistol sticking out of your +pocket—or is it—the head of a snake?” and he jumped back, a +strange and stately figure in a long white nightshirt which apparently he wore +over his underclothing. +</p> + +<p> +I entered the room and shut the door, whereon he politely handed me a chair, +remarking, +</p> + +<p> +“Is it ghosts, sir, or are you ill, or is it Harum and Scarum, of whom I +have been thinking all night? Very cold too, sir, being afraid to pull up the +bedclothes for fear lest there might be more reptiles in them.” He +pointed to his dress-coat hanging on the back of another chair with both the +pockets turned inside out, adding tragically, “To think, sir, that this +new coat has been a nest of snakes, which I have hated like poison from a +child, and me almost a teetotaller!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I said impatiently, “it’s Harum and Scarum as +you call them. Take me to Lord Ragnall’s bedroom at once.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! sir, burgling, I suppose, or mayhap worse,” he exclaimed as he +threw on some miscellaneous garments and seized a life-preserver which hung +upon a hook. “Now I’m ready, only I hope they have left their +snakes behind. I never could bear the sight of a snake, and they seem to know +it—the brutes.” +</p> + +<p> +In due course we reached Lord Ragnall’s room, which Mr. Savage entered, +and in answer to a stifled inquiry exclaimed, +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Allan Quatermain to see you, my lord.” +</p> + +<p> +“What is it, Quatermain?” he asked, sitting up in bed and yawning. +“Have you had a nightmare?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I answered, and Savage having left us and shut the door, I +told him everything as it is written down. +</p> + +<p> +“Great heavens!” he exclaimed when I had finished. “If it had +not been for you and your intuition and courage——” +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind me,” I interrupted. “The question is—what +should be done now? Are you going to try to arrest these men, or will +you—hold your tongue and merely cause them to be watched?” +</p> + +<p> +“Really I don’t know. Even if we can catch them the whole story +would sound so strange in a law-court, and all sorts of things might be +suggested.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Lord Ragnall, it would sound so strange that I beg you will come at +once to see the evidences of what I tell you, before rain or snow obliterates +them, bringing another witness with you. Lady Longden, perhaps.” +</p> + +<p> +“Lady Longden! Why one might as well write to <i>The Times</i>. I have +it! There’s Savage. He is faithful and can be silent.” +</p> + +<p> +So Savage was called in and, while Lord Ragnall dressed himself hurriedly, told +the outline of his story under pain of instant dismissal if he breathed a word. +Really to watch his face was as good as a play. So astonished was he that all +he could ejaculate was— +</p> + +<p> +“The black-hearted villains! Well, they ain’t friendly with snakes +for nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +Then having made sure that Miss Holmes was still in her room, we went down the +twisting stair and through the side doorway, locking the door after us. By now +the dawn was breaking and there was enough light to enable me in certain places +where the snow that fell after the gale remained, to show Lord Ragnall and +Savage the impress of the little bedroom slippers which Miss Holmes wore, and +of my stockinged feet following after. +</p> + +<p> +In the plantation things were still easier, for every detail of the movements +of the four of us could be traced. Moreover, on the back drive was the spoor of +the horses and the marks of the wheels of the carriage that had been brought +for the purposes of the abduction. Also my great good fortune, for this seemed +to prove my theory, we found a parcel wrapped in native linen that appeared to +have fallen out of the carriage when Harût and Marût made their hurried escape, +as one of the wheels had gone over it. It contained an Eastern woman’s +dress and veil, intended, I suppose, to be used in disguising Miss Holmes, who +thence-forward would have appeared to be the wife or daughter of one of the +abductors. +</p> + +<p> +Savage discovered this parcel, which he lifted only to drop it with a yell, for +underneath it lay a torpid snake, doubtless one of those that had been used in +the performance. +</p> + +<p> +Of these discoveries and many other details, on our return to the house, Lord +Ragnall made full notes in a pocket-book, that when completed were signed by +all three of us. +</p> + +<p> +There is not much more to tell, that is of this part of the story. The matter +was put into the hands of detectives who discovered that the Easterns had +driven to London, where all traces of the carriage which conveyed them was +lost. They, however, embarked upon a steamer called the <i>Antelope</i>, +together with two native women, who probably had been provided to look after +Miss Holmes, and sailed that very afternoon for Egypt. Thither, of course, it +was useless to follow them in those days, even if it had been advisable to do +so. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +To return to Miss Holmes. She came down to breakfast looking very charming but +rather pale. Again I sat next to her and took some opportunity to ask her how +she had rested that night. +</p> + +<p> +She replied, Very well and yet very ill, since, although she never remembered +sleeping more soundly in her life, she had experienced all sorts of queer +dreams of which she could remember nothing at all, a circumstance that annoyed +her much, as she was sure that they were most interesting. Then she added, +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know, Mr. Quatermain, I found a lot of mud on my dressing-gown +this morning, and my bedroom slippers were also a mass of mud and wet through. +How do you account for that? It is just as though I had been walking about +outside in my sleep, which is absurd, as I never did such a thing in my +life.” +</p> + +<p> +Not feeling equal to the invention of any convincing explanation of these +phenomena, I upset the marmalade pot on to the table in such a way that some of +it fell upon her dress, and then covered my retreat with profuse apologies. +Understanding my dilemma, for he had heard something of this talk, Lord Ragnall +came to my aid with a startling statement of which I forget the purport, and +thus that crisis passed. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly after breakfast Scroope announced to Miss Manners that her carriage was +waiting, and we departed. Before I went, as it chanced, I had a few private +words with my host, with Miss Holmes, and with the magnificent Mr. Savage. To +the last, by the way, I offered a tip which he refused, saying that after all +we had gone through together he could not allow “money to come between +us,” by which he meant, to pass from my pocket to his. Lord Ragnall asked +me for both my English and my African addresses, which he noted in his +pocket-book. Then he said, +</p> + +<p> +“Really, Quatermain, I feel as though I had known you for years instead +of three days; if you will allow me I will add that I should like to know a +great deal more of you.” (He was destined to do so, poor fellow, though +neither of us knew it at the time.) “If ever you come to England again I +hope you will make this house your headquarters.” +</p> + +<p> +“And if ever you come to South Africa, Lord Ragnall, I hope you will make +my four-roomed shanty on the Berea at Durban your headquarters. You will get a +hearty welcome there and something to eat, but little more.” +</p> + +<p> +“There is nothing I should like better, Quatermain. Circumstances have +put me in a certain position in this country, still to tell you the truth there +is a great deal about the life of which I grow very tired. But you see I am +going to be married, and that I fear means an end of travelling, since +naturally my wife will wish to take her place in society and the rest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course,” I replied, “for it is not every young lady who +has the luck to become an English peeress with all the etceteras, is it? Still +I am not so sure but that Miss Holmes will take to travelling some day, +although I <i>am</i> sure that she would do better to stay at home.” +</p> + +<p> +He looked at me curiously, then asked, +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t think there is anything really serious in all this +business, do you?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know what to think,” I answered, “except that +you will do well to keep a good eye upon your wife. What those Easterns tried +to do last night and, I think, years ago, they may try again soon, or years +hence, for evidently they are patient and determined men with much to win. Also +it is a curious coincidence that she should have that mark upon her which +appeals so strongly to Messrs. Harût and Marût, and, to be brief, she is in +some ways different from most young women. As she said to me herself last +night, Lord Ragnall, we are surrounded by mysteries; mysteries of blood, of +inherited spirit, of this world generally in which it is probable that we all +descended from quite a few common ancestors. And beyond these are other +mysteries of the measureless universe to which we belong, that may already be +exercising their strong and secret influences upon us, as perhaps, did we know +it, they have done for millions of years in the Infinite whence we came and +whither we go.” +</p> + +<p> +I suppose I spoke somewhat solemnly, for he said, +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know you frighten me a little, though I don’t quite +understand what you mean.” Then we parted. +</p> + +<p> +With Miss Holmes my conversation was shorter. She remarked, +</p> + +<p> +“It has been a great pleasure to me to meet you. I do not remember +anybody with whom I have found myself in so much sympathy—except one of +course. It is strange to think that when we meet again I shall be a married +woman.” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not suppose we shall ever meet again, Miss Holmes. Your life is +here, mine is in the wildest places of a wild land far away.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! yes, we shall,” she answered. “I learned this and lots +of other things when I held my head in that smoke last night.” +</p> + +<p> +Then we also parted. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly Mr. Savage arrived with my coat. “Goodbye, Mr. Quatermain,” +he said. “If I forget everything else I shall never forget you and those +villains, Harum and Scarum and their snakes. I hope it won’t be my lot +ever to clap eyes on them again, Mr. Quatermain, and yet somehow I don’t +feel so sure of that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nor do I,” I replied, with a kind of inspiration, after which +followed the episode of the rejected tip. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +THE BONA FIDE GOLD MINE</h2> + +<p> +Fully two years had gone by since I bade farewell to Lord Ragnall and Miss +Holmes, and when the curtain draws up again behold me seated on the stoep of my +little house at Durban, plunged in reflection and very sad indeed. Why I was +sad I will explain presently. +</p> + +<p> +In that interval of time I had heard once or twice about Lord Ragnall. Thus I +received from Scroope a letter telling of his lordship’s marriage with +Miss Holmes, which, it appeared, had been a very fine affair indeed, quite one +of the events of the London season. Two Royalties attended the ceremony, a duke +was the best man, and the presents according to all accounts were superb and of +great value, including a priceless pearl necklace given by the bridegroom to +the bride. A cutting from a society paper which Scroope enclosed dwelt at +length upon the splendid appearance of the bridegroom and the sweet loveliness +of the bride. Also it described her dress in language which was Greek to me. +One sentence, however, interested me intensely. +</p> + +<p> +It ran: “The bride occasioned some comment by wearing only one ornament, +although the Ragnall family diamonds, which have not seen the light for many +years, are known to be some of the finest in the country. It was a necklace of +what appeared to be large but rather roughly polished rubies, to which hung a +small effigy of an Egyptian god also fashioned from a ruby. It must be added +that although of an unusual nature on such an occasion this jewel suited her +dark beauty well. Lady Ragnall’s selection of it, however, from the many +she possesses was the cause of much speculation. When asked by a friend why she +had chosen it, she is reported to have said that it was to bring her good +fortune.” +</p> + +<p> +Now why did she wear the barbaric marriage gift of Harût and Marût in +preference to all the other gems at her disposal, I wondered. The thing was so +strange as to be almost uncanny. +</p> + +<p> +The second piece of information concerning this pair reached me through the +medium of an old <i>Times</i> newspaper which I received over a year later. It +was to the effect that a son and heir had been born to Lord Ragnall and that +both mother and child were doing well. +</p> + +<p> +So there’s the end to a very curious little story, thought I to myself. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Well, during those two years many things befell me. First of all, in company +with my old friend Sir Stephen Somers, I made the expedition to Pongoland in +search of the wonderful orchid which he desired to add to his collection. I +have already written of that journey and our extraordinary adventures, and need +therefore allude to it no more here, except to say that during the course of it +I was sorely tempted to travel to the territory north of the lake in which the +Pongos dwelt. Much did I desire to see whether Messrs. Harût and Marût would in +truth appear to conduct me to the land where the wonderful elephant which was +supposed to be animated by an evil spirit was waiting to be killed by my rifle. +However, I resisted the impulse, as indeed our circumstances obliged me to do. +In the end we returned safely to Durban, and here I came to the conclusion that +never again would I risk my life on such mad expeditions. +</p> + +<p> +Owing to circumstances which I have detailed elsewhere I was now in possession +of a considerable sum of cash, and this I determined to lay out in such a +fashion as to make me independent of hunting and trading in the wilder regions +of Africa. As usual when money is forthcoming, an opportunity soon presented +itself in the shape of a gold mine which had been discovered on the borders of +Zululand, one of the first that was ever found in those districts. A Jew trader +named Jacob brought it to my notice and offered me a half share if I would put +up the capital necessary to work the mine. I made a journey of inspection and +convinced myself that it was indeed a wonderful proposition. I need not enter +into the particulars nor, to tell the truth, have I any desire to do so, for +the subject is still painful to me, further than to say that this Jew and some +friends of his panned out visible gold before my eyes and then revealed to me +the magnificent quartz reef from which, as they demonstrated, it had been +washed in the bygone ages of the world. The news of our discovery spread like +wildfire, and as, whatever else I might be, everyone knew that I was honest, in +the end a small company was formed with Allan Quatermain, Esq., as the chairman +of the Bona Fide Gold Mine, Limited. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! that company! Often to this day I dream of it when I have indigestion. +</p> + +<p> +Our capital was small, £10,000, of which the Jew, who was well named Jacob, and +his friends, took half (for nothing of course) as the purchase price of their +rights. I thought the proportion large and said so, especially after I had +ascertained that these rights had cost them exactly three dozen of square-face +gin, a broken-down wagon, four cows past the bearing age and £5 in cash. +However, when it was pointed out to me that by their peculiar knowledge and +genius they had located and proved the value of a property of enormous +potential worth, moreover that this sum was to be paid to them in scrip which +would only be realizable when success was assured and not in money, after a +night of anxious consideration I gave way. +</p> + +<p> +Personally, before I consented to accept the chairmanship, which carried with +it a salary of £100 a year (which I never got), I bought and paid for in cash, +shares to the value of £1,000 sterling. I remember that Jacob and his friends +seemed surprised at this act of mine, as they had offered to give me five +hundred of their shares for nothing “in consideration of the guarantee of +my name.” These I refused, saying that I would not ask others to invest +in a venture in which I had no actual money stake; whereon they accepted my +decision, not without enthusiasm. In the end the balance of £4,000 was +subscribed and we got to work. Work is a good name for it so far as I was +concerned, for never in all my days have I gone through so harrowing a time. +</p> + +<p> +We began by washing a certain patch of gravel and obtained results which seemed +really astonishing. So remarkable were they that on publication the shares rose +to 10s. premium. Jacob and Co. took advantage of this opportunity to sell quite +half of their bonus holding to eager applicants, explaining to me that they did +so not for personal profit, which they scorned, but “to broaden the basis +of the undertaking by admitting fresh blood.” +</p> + +<p> +It was shortly after this boom that the gravel surrounding the rich patch +became very gravelly indeed, and it was determined that we should buy a small +battery and begin to crush the quartz from which the gold was supposed to flow +in a Pactolian stream. We negotiated for that battery through a Cape Town firm +of engineers—but why follow the melancholy business in all its details? +The shares began to decrease in value. They shrank to their original price of +£1, then to 15s., then to 10s. Jacob, he was managing director, explained to me +that it was necessary to “support the market,” as he was already +doing to an enormous extent, and that I as chairman ought to take a “lead +in this good work” in order to show my faith in the concern. +</p> + +<p> +I took a lead to the extent of another £500, which was all that I could afford. +I admit that it was a shock to such trust in human nature as remained to me +when I discovered subsequently that the 1,000 shares which I bought for my £500 +had really been the property of Jacob, although they appeared to be sold to me +in various other names. +</p> + +<p> +The crisis came at last, for before that battery was delivered our available +funds were exhausted, and no one would subscribe another halfpenny. Debentures, +it is true, had been issued and taken up to the extent of about £1,000 out of +the £5,000 offered, though who bought them remained at the time a mystery to +me. Ultimately a meeting was called to consider the question of liquidating the +company, and at this meeting, after three sleepless nights, I occupied the +chair. +</p> + +<p> +When I entered the room, to my amazement I found that of the five directors +only one was present besides myself, an honest old retired sea captain who had +bought and paid for 300 shares. Jacob and the two friends who represented his +interests had, it appeared, taken ship that morning for Cape Town, whither they +were summoned to attend various relatives who had been seized with illness. +</p> + +<p> +It was a stormy meeting at first. I explained the position to the best of my +ability, and when I had finished was assailed with a number of questions which +I could not answer to the satisfaction of myself or of anybody else. Then a +gentleman, the owner of ten shares, who had evidently been drinking, suggested +in plain language that I had cheated the shareholders by issuing false reports. +</p> + +<p> +I jumped up in a fury and, although he was twice my size, asked him to come and +argue the question outside, whereon he promptly went away. This incident +excited a laugh, and then the whole truth came out. A man with coloured blood +in him stood up and told a story which was subsequently proved to be true. +Jacob had employed him to “salt” the mine by mixing a heavy +sprinkling of gold in the gravel we had first washed (which the coloured man +swore he did in innocence), and subsequently had defrauded him of his wages. +That was all. I sank back in my chair overcome. Then some good fellow in the +audience, who had lost money himself in the affair and whom I scarcely knew, +got up and made a noble speech which went far to restore my belief in human +nature. +</p> + +<p> +He said in effect that it was well known that I, Allan Quatermain, after +working like a horse in the interests of the shareholders, had practically +ruined myself over this enterprise, and that the real thief was Jacob, who had +made tracks for the Cape, taking with him a large cash profit resulting from +the sale of shares. Finally he concluded by calling for “three cheers for +our honest friend and fellow sufferer, Mr. Allan Quatermain.” +</p> + +<p> +Strange to say the audience gave them very heartily indeed. I thanked them with +tears in my eyes, saying that I was glad to leave the room as poor as I had +ever been, but with a reputation which my conscience as well as their kindness +assured me was quite unblemished. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the winding-up resolution was passed and that meeting came to an end. +After shaking hands with my deliverer from a most unpleasant situation, I +walked homewards with the lightest heart in the world. My money was gone, it +was true; also my over-confidence in others had led me to make a fool of myself +by accepting as fact, on what I believed to be the evidence of my eyes, that +which I had not sufficient expert knowledge to verify. But my honour was saved, +and as I have again and again seen in the course of life, money is nothing when +compared with honour, a remark which Shakespeare made long ago, though like +many other truths this is one of which a full appreciation can only be gained +by personal experience. +</p> + +<p> +Not very far from the place where our meeting had been held I passed a side +street then in embryo, for it had only one or two houses situated in their +gardens and a rather large and muddy sluit of water running down one side at +the edge of the footpath. Save for two people this street was empty, but that +pair attracted my attention. They were a white man, in whom I recognized the +stout and half-intoxicated individual who had accused me of cheating the +company and then departed, and a withered old Hottentot who at that distance, +nearly a hundred yards away, much reminded me of a certain Hans. +</p> + +<p> +This Hans, I must explain, was originally a servant of my father, who was a +missionary in the Cape Colony, and had been my companion in many adventures. +Thus in my youth he and I alone escaped when Dingaan murdered Retief and his +party of Boers,<a href="#fn-1" name="fnref-1" id="fnref-1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +and he had been one of my party in our quest for the wonderful orchid, the +record of which I have written down in “The Holy Flower.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-1" id="fn-1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1">[1]</a> +See the book called “Marie.”—E<small>DITOR</small>. +</p> + +<p> +Hans had his weak points, among which must be counted his love of liquor, but +he was a gallant and resourceful old fellow as indeed he had amply proved upon +that orchid-seeking expedition. Moreover he loved me with a love passing the +love of women. Now, having acquired some money in a way I need not stop to +describe—for is it not written elsewhere?—he was settled as a kind +of little chief on a farm not very far from Durban, where he lived in great +honour because of the fame of his deeds. +</p> + +<p> +The white man and Hans, if Hans it was, were engaged in violent altercation +whereof snatches floated to me on the breeze, spoken in the Dutch tongue. +</p> + +<p> +“You dirty little Hottentot!” shouted the white man, waving a +stick, “I’ll cut the liver out of you. What do you mean by nosing +about after me like a jackal?” And he struck at Hans, who jumped aside. +</p> + +<p> +“Son of a fat white sow,” screamed Hans in answer (for the moment I +heard his voice I knew that it was Hans), “did you dare to call the Baas +a thief? Yes, a thief, O Rooter in the mud, O Feeder on filth and worms, O Hog +of the gutter—the Baas, the clipping of whose nail is worth more than you +and all your family, he whose honour is as clear as the sunlight and whose +heart is cleaner than the white sand of the sea.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I did,” roared the white man; “for he got my money in +the gold mine.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then, hog, why did you run away. Why did you not wait to tell him so +outside that house?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll teach you about running away, you little yellow dog,” +replied the other, catching Hans a cut across the ribs. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! you want to see me run, do you?” said Hans, skipping back a +few yards with wonderful agility. “Then look!” +</p> + +<p> +Thus speaking he lowered his head and charged like a buffalo. Fair in the +middle he caught that white man, causing him to double up, fly backwards and +land with a most resounding splash in the deepest part of the muddy sluit. Here +I may remark that, as his shins are the weakest, a Hottentot’s head is by +far the hardest and most dangerous part of him. Indeed it seems to partake of +the nature of a cannon ball, for, without more than temporary disturbance to +its possessor, I have seen a half-loaded wagon go over one of them on a muddy +road. +</p> + +<p> +Having delivered this home thrust Hans bolted round a corner and disappeared, +while I waited trembling to see what happened to his adversary. To my relief +nearly a minute later he crept out of the sluit covered with mud and dripping +with water and hobbled off slowly down the street, his head so near his feet +that he looked as though he had been folded in two, and his hands pressed upon +what I believe is medically known as the diaphragm. Then I also went upon my +way roaring with laughter. Often I have heard Hottentots called the lowest of +mankind, but, reflected I, they can at any rate be good friends to those who +treat them well—a fact of which I was to have further proof ere long. +</p> + +<p> +By the time I reached my house and had filled my pipe and sat myself down in +the dilapidated cane chair on the veranda, that natural reaction set in which +so often follows rejoicing at the escape from a great danger. It was true that +no one believed I had cheated them over that thrice-accursed gold mine, but how +about other matters? +</p> + +<p> +I mused upon the Bible narrative of Jacob and Esau with a new and very poignant +sympathy for Esau. I wondered what would become of my Jacob. Jacob, I mean the +original, prospered exceedingly as a result of his deal in porridge, and, as +thought I, probably would his artful descendant who so appropriately bore his +name. As a matter of fact I do not know what became of him, but bearing his +talents in mind I think it probable that, like Van Koop, under some other +patronymic he has now been rewarded with a title by the British Government. At +any rate I had eaten the porridge in the shape of worthless but dearly +purchased shares, after labouring hard at the chase of the golden calf, while +brother Jacob had got my inheritance, or rather my money. Probably he was now +counting it over in sovereigns upon the ship and sniggering as he thought of +the shareholders’ meeting with me in the chair. Well, he was a thief and +would run his road to whatever end is appointed for thieves, so why should I +bother my head more about him? As I had kept my honour—let him take my +savings. +</p> + +<p> +But I had a son to support, and now what was I to do with scarcely three +hundred pounds, a good stock of guns and this little Durban property left to me +in the world? Commerce in all its shapes I renounced once and for ever. It was +too high—or too low—for me; so it would seem that there remained to +me only my old business of professional hunting. Once again I must seek those +adventures which I had forsworn when my evil star shone so brightly over a gold +mine. What was it to be? Elephants, I supposed, since these are the only +creatures worth killing from a money point of view. But most of my old haunts +had been more or less shot out. The competition of younger professionals, of +wandering backveld Boers and even of poaching natives who had obtained guns, +was growing severe. If I went at all I should have to travel farther afield. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst I meditated thus, turning over the comparative advantages or +disadvantages of various possible hunting grounds in my mind, my attention was +caught by a kind of cough that seemed to proceed from the farther side of a +large gardenia bush. It was not a human cough, but rather resembled that made +by a certain small buck at night, probably to signal to its mate, which of +course it could not be as there were no buck within several miles. Yet I knew +it came from a human throat, for had I not heard it before in many an hour of +difficulty and danger? +</p> + +<p> +“Draw near, Hans,” I said in Dutch, and instantly out of a clump of +aloes that grew in front of the pomegranate hedge, crept the withered shape of +the old Hottentot, as a big yellow snake might do. Why he should choose this +method of advance instead of that offered by the garden path I did not know, +but it was quite in accordance with his secretive nature, inherited from a +hundred generations of ancestors who spent their lives avoiding the observation +of murderous foes. +</p> + +<p> +He squatted down in front of me, staring in a vacant way at the fierce ball of +the westering sun without blinking an eyelid, just as a vulture does. +</p> + +<p> +“You look to me as though you had been fighting, Hans,” I said. +“The crown of your hat is knocked out; you are splashed with mud and +there is the mark of a stick upon your left side.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas. You are right as usual, Baas. I had a quarrel with a man +about sixpence that he owed me, and knocked him over with my head, forgetting +to take my hat off first. Therefore it is spoiled, for which I am sorry, as it +was quite a new hat, not two years old. The Baas gave it me. He bought it in a +store at Utrecht when we were coming back from Pongoland.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you lie to me?” I asked. “You have been fighting a +white man and for more than sixpence. You knocked him into a sluit and the mud +splashed up over you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas, that is so. Your spirit speaks truly to you of the matter. +Yet it wanders a little from the path, since I fought the white man for less +than sixpence. I fought him for love, which is nothing at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you are even a bigger fool than I took you for, Hans. What do you +want now?” +</p> + +<p> +“I want to borrow a pound, Baas. The white man will take me before the +magistrate, and I shall be fined a pound, or fourteen days in the <i>trunk</i> +(i.e. jail). It is true that the white man struck me first, but the magistrate +will not believe the word of a poor old Hottentot against his, and I have no +witness. He will say, ‘Hans, you were drunk again. Hans, you are a liar +and deserve to be flogged, which you will be next time. Pay a pound and ten +shillings more, which is the price of good white justice, or go to the +<i>trunk</i> for fourteen days and make baskets there for the great Queen to +use.’ Baas, I have the price of the justice which is ten shillings, but I +want to borrow the pound for the fine.” +</p> + +<p> +“Hans, I think that just now you are better able to lend me a pound than +I am to lend one to you. My bag is empty, Hans.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it so, Baas? Well, it does not matter. If necessary I can make +baskets for the great white Queen to put her food in, for fourteen days, or +mats on which she will wipe her feet. The <i>trunk</i> is not such a bad place, +Baas. It gives time to think of the white man’s justice and to thank the +Great One in the Sky, because the little sins one did not do have been found +out and punished, while the big sins one did do, such as—well, never +mind, Baas—have not been found out at all. Your reverend father, the +Predikant, always taught me to have a thankful heart, Baas, and when I remember +that I have only been in the <i>trunk</i> for three months altogether who, if +all were known, ought to have been there for years, I remember his words, +Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why should you go to the <i>trunk</i> at all, Hans, when you are rich +and can pay a fine, even if it were a hundred pounds?” +</p> + +<p> +“A month or two ago it is true I was rich, Baas, but now I am poor. I +have nothing left except ten shillings.” +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said severely, “you have been gambling again; you +have been drinking again. You have sold your property and your cattle to pay +your gambling debts and to buy square-face gin.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas, and for no good it seems; though it is not true that I have +been drinking. I sold the land and the cattle for £650, Baas, and with the +money I bought other things.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did you buy?” I said. +</p> + +<p> +He fumbled first in one pocket of his coat and then in the other, and +ultimately produced a crumpled and dirty-looking piece of paper that resembled +a bank-note. I took and examined this document and next minute nearly fainted. +It certified that Hans was the proprietor of I know not how many debentures or +shares, I forget which they were, in the Bona Fide Gold Mine, Limited, that +same company of which I was the unlucky chairman, in consideration for which he +had paid a sum of over six hundred and fifty pounds. +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said feebly, “from whom did you buy this?” +</p> + +<p> +“From the baas with the hooked nose, Baas. He who was named Jacob, after +the great man in the Bible of whom your father, the Predikant, used to tell us, +that one who was so slim and dressed himself up in a goatskin and gave his +brother mealie porridge when he was hungry, after he had come in from shooting +buck, Baas, and got his farm and cattle, Baas, and then went to Heaven up a +ladder, Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +“And who told you to buy them, Hans?” +</p> + +<p> +“Sammy, Baas, he who was your cook when we went to Pongoland, he who hid +in the mealie-pit when the slavers burned Beza-Town and came out half cooked +like a fowl from the oven. The Baas Jacob stopped at Sammy’s hotel, Baas, +and told him that unless he bought bits of paper like this, of which he had +plenty, you would be brought before the magistrate and sent to the +<i>trunk</i>, Baas. So Sammy bought some, Baas, but not many for he had only a +little money, and the Baas Jacob paid him for all he ate and drank with other +bits of paper. Then Sammy came to me and showed me what it was my duty to do, +reminding me that your reverend father, the Predikant, had left you in my +charge till one of us dies, whether you were well or ill and whether you got +better or got worse—just like a white wife, Baas. So I sold the farm and +the cattle to a friend of the Baas Jacob’s, at a very low price, Baas, +and that is all the story.” +</p> + +<p> +I heard and, to tell the honest truth, almost I wept, since the thought of the +sacrifice which this poor old Hottentot had made for my sake on the instigation +of a rogue utterly overwhelmed me. +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I asked recovering myself, “tell me what was that new +name which the Zulu captain Mavovo gave you before he died, I mean after you +had fired Beza-Town and caught Hassan and his slavers in their own trap?” +</p> + +<p> +Hans, who had suddenly found something that interested him extremely out at +sea, perhaps because he did not wish to witness my grief, turned round slowly +and answered: +</p> + +<p> +“Mavovo named me Light-in-Darkness, and by that name the Kafirs know me +now, Baas, though some of them call me Lord-of-the-Fire.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then Mavovo named you well, for indeed, Hans, you shine like a light in +the darkness of my heart. I whom you think wise am but a fool, Hans, who has +been tricked by a <i>vernuker</i>, a common cheat, and he has tricked you and +Sammy as well. But as he has shown me that man can be very vile, you have shown +me that he can be very noble; and, setting the one against the other, my spirit +that was in the dust rises up once more like a withered flower after rain. +Light-in-Darkness, although if I had ten thousand pounds I could never pay you +back—since what you have given me is more than all the gold in the world +and all the land and all the cattle—yet with honour and with love I will +try to pay you,” and I held out my hand to him. +</p> + +<p> +He took it and pressed it against his wrinkled old forehead, then answered: +</p> + +<p> +“Talk no more of that, Baas, for it makes me sad, who am so happy. How +often have you forgiven me when I have done wrong? How often have you not +flogged me when I should have been flogged for being drunk and other +things—yes, even when once I stole some of your powder and sold it to buy +square-face gin, though it is true I knew it was bad powder, not fit for you to +use? Did I thank you then overmuch? Why therefore should you thank me who have +done but a little thing, not really to help you but because, as you know, I +love gambling, and was told that this bit of paper would soon be worth much +more than I gave for it. If it had proved so, should I have given you that +money? No, I should have kept it myself and bought a bigger farm and more +cattle.” +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said sternly, “if you lie so hard, you will +certainly go to hell, as the Predikant, my father, often told you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not if I lie for you, Baas, or if I do it doesn’t matter, except +that then we should be separated by the big kloof written of in the Book, +especially as there I should meet the Baas Jacob, as I very much want to do for +a reason of my own.” +</p> + +<p> +Not wishing to pursue this somewhat unchristian line of thought, I inquired of +him why he felt happy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! Baas,” he answered with a twinkle in his little black eyes, +“can’t you guess why? Now you have very little money left and I +have none at all. Therefore it is plain that we must go somewhere to earn +money, and I am glad of that, Baas, for I am tired of sitting on that farm out +there and growing mealies and milking cows, especially as I am too old to +marry, Baas, as you are tired of looking for gold where there isn’t any +and singing sad songs in that house of meeting yonder like you did this +afternoon. Oh! the Great Father in the skies knew what He was about when He +sent the Baas Jacob our way. He beat us for our good, Baas, as He does always +if we could only understand.” +</p> + +<p> +I reflected to myself that I had not often heard the doctrine of the Church +better or more concisely put, but I only said: +</p> + +<p> +“That is true, Hans, and I thank you for the lesson, the second you have +taught me to-day. But where are we to go to, Hans? Remember, it must be +elephants.” +</p> + +<p> +He suggested some places; indeed he seemed to have come provided with a list of +them, and I sat silent making no comment. At length he finished and squatted +there before me, chewing a bit of tobacco I had given him, and looking up at me +interrogatively with his head on one side, for all the world like a dilapidated +and inquisitive bird. +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said, “do you remember a story I told you when you +came to see me a year or more ago, about a tribe called the Kendah in whose +country there is said to be a great cemetery of elephants which travel there to +die from all the land about? A country that lies somewhere to the north-east of +the lake island on which the Pongo used to dwell?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you said, I think, that you had never heard of such a people.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Baas, I never said anything at all. I have heard a good deal about +them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then why did you not tell me so before, you little idiot?” I asked +indignantly. +</p> + +<p> +“What was the good, Baas? You were hunting gold then, not ivory. Why +should I make you unhappy, and waste my own breath by talking about beautiful +things which were far beyond the reach of either of us, far as that sky?” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t ask fool’s questions but tell me what you know, Hans. +Tell me at once.” +</p> + +<p> +“This, Baas: When we were up at Beza-Town after we came back from killing +the gorilla-god, and the Baas Stephen your friend lay sick, and there was +nothing else to do, I talked with everyone I could find worth talking to, and +they were not many, Baas. But there was one very old woman who was not of the +Mazitu race and whose husband and children were all dead, but whom the people +in the town looked up to and feared because she was wise and made medicines out +of herbs, and told fortunes. I used to go to see her. She was quite blind, +Baas, and fond of talking with me—which shows how wise she was. I told +her all about the Pongo gorilla-god, of which already she knew something. When +I had done she said that he was as nothing compared with a certain god that she +had seen in her youth, seven tens of years ago, when she became marriageable. I +asked her for that story, and she spoke it thus: +</p> + +<p> +“Far away to the north and east live a people called the Kendah, who are +ruled over by a sultan. They are a very great people and inhabit a most fertile +country. But all round their country the land is desolate and manless, peopled +only by game, for the reason that they will suffer none to dwell there. That is +why nobody knows anything about them: he that comes across the wilderness into +that land is killed and never returns to tell of it. +</p> + +<p> +“She told me also that she was born of this people, but fled because +their sultan wished to place her in his house of women, which she did not +desire. For a long while she wandered southwards, living on roots and berries, +till she came to desert land and at last, worn out, lay down to die. Then she +was found by some of the Mazitu who were on an expedition seeking ostrich +feathers for war-plumes. They gave her food and, seeing that she was fair, +brought her back to their country, where one of them married her. But of her +own land she uttered only lying words to them because she feared that if she +told the truth the gods who guard its secrets would be avenged on her, though +now when she was near to death she dreaded them no more, since even the Kendah +gods cannot swim through the waters of death. That is all she said about her +journey because she had forgotten the rest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Bother her journey, Hans. What did she say about her god and the Kendah +people?” +</p> + +<p> +“This, Baas: that the Kendah have not one god but two, and not one ruler +but two. They have a good god who is a child-fetish” (here I started) +“that speaks through the mouth of an oracle who is always a woman. If +that woman dies the god does not speak until they find another woman bearing +certain marks which show that she holds the spirit of the god. Before the woman +dies she always tells the priests in what land they are to look for her who is +to come after her; but sometimes they cannot find her and then trouble falls +because ‘the Child has lost its tongue,’ and the people become the +prey of the other god that never dies.” +</p> + +<p> +“And what is that god, Hans?” +</p> + +<p> +“That god, Baas, is an elephant” (here I started again), “a +very bad elephant to which human sacrifice is offered. I think, Baas, that it +is the devil wearing the shape of an elephant, at least that is what she said. +Now the sultan is a worshipper of the god that dwells in the elephant +Jana” (here I positively whistled) “and so are most of the people, +indeed all those among them who are black. For once far away in the beginning +the Kendah were two peoples, but the lighter-coloured people who worshipped the +Child came down from the north and conquered the black people, bringing the +Child with them, or so I understood her, Baas, thousands and thousands of years +ago when the world was young. Since then they have flowed on side by side like +two streams in the same channel, never mixing, for each keeps its own colour. +Only, she said, that stream which comes from the north grows weaker and that +from the south more strong.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then why does not the strong swallow up the weak?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because the weak are still the pure and the wise, Baas, or so the old +vrouw declared. Because they worship the good while the others worship the +devil, and as your father the Predikant used to say, Good is the cock which +always wins the fight at the last, Baas. Yes, when he seems to be dead he gets +up again and kicks the devil in the stomach and stands on him and crows, Baas. +Also these northern folk are mighty magicians. Through their Child-fetish they +give rain and fat seasons and keep away sickness, whereas Jana gives only evil +gifts that have to do with cruelty and war and so forth. Lastly, the priests +who rule through the Child have the secrets of wealth and ancient knowledge, +whereas the sultan and his followers have only the might of the spear. This was +the song which the old woman sang to me, Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why did you not tell me of these matters when we were at Beza-Town and I +could have talked with her myself, Hans?” +</p> + +<p> +“For two reasons, Baas. The first was that I feared, if I told you, you +would wish to go on to find these people, whereas I was tired of travelling and +wanted to come to Natal to rest. The second was that on the night when the old +woman finished telling me her story, she was taken sick and died, and therefore +it would have been no use to bring you to see her. So I saved it up in my head +until it was wanted. Moreover, Baas, all the Mazitu declared that old woman to +be the greatest of liars.” +</p> + +<p> +“She was not altogether a liar, Hans. Hear what I have learned,” +and I told him of the magic of Harût and Marût and of the picture that I had +seemed to see of the elephant Jana and of the prayer that Harût and Marût had +made to me, to all of which he listened quite stolidly. It is not easy to +astonish a Hottentot’s brain, which often draws no accurate dividing-line +between the possible and what the modern world holds to be impossible. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas,” he said when I had finished, “then it seems that +the old woman was not such a liar after all. Baas, when shall we start after +that hoard of dead ivory, and which way will you go? By Kilwa or through +Zululand? It should be settled soon because of the seasons.” +</p> + +<p> +After this we talked together for a long while, for with pockets as empty as +mine were then, the problem seemed difficult, if not insoluble. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +LORD RAGNALL’S STORY</h2> + +<p> +That night Hans slept at my house, or rather outside of it in the garden, or +upon the stoep, saying that he feared arrest if he went to the town, because of +his quarrel with the white man. As it happened, however, the other party +concerned never stirred further in the business, probably because he was too +drunk to remember who had knocked him into the sluit or whether he had +gravitated thither by accident. +</p> + +<p> +On the following morning we renewed our discussion, debating in detail every +possible method of reaching the Kendah people by help of such means as we could +command. Like that of the previous night it proved somewhat abortive. Obviously +such a long and hazardous expedition ought to be properly financed +and—where was the money? At length I came to the conclusion that if we +went at all it would be best, in the circumstances, for Hans and myself to +start alone with a Scotch cart drawn by oxen and driven by a couple of Zulu +hunters, which we could lade with ammunition and a few necessaries. +</p> + +<p> +Thus lightly equipped we might work through Zululand and thence northward to +Beza-Town, the capital of the Mazitu, where we were sure of a welcome. After +that we must take our chance. It was probable that we should never reach the +district where these Kendah were supposed to dwell, but at least I might be +able to kill some elephants in the wild country beyond Zululand. +</p> + +<p> +While we were talking I heard the gun fired which announced the arrival of the +English mail, and stepping to the end of the garden, saw the steamer lying at +anchor outside the bar. Then I went indoors to write a few business letters +which, since I had become immersed in the affairs of that unlucky gold mine, +had grown to be almost a daily task with me. I had got through several with +many groanings, for none were agreeable in their tenor, when Hans poked his +head through the window in a silent kind of a way as a big snake might do, and +said: “Baas, I think there are two baases out on the road there who are +looking for you. Very fine baases whom I don’t know.” +</p> + +<p> +“Shareholders in the Bona Fide Gold Mine,” thought I to myself, +then added as I prepared to leave through the back door: “If they come +here tell them I am not at home. Tell them I left early this morning for the +Congo River to look for the sources of the Nile.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas,” said Hans, collapsing on to the stoep. +</p> + +<p> +I went out through the back door, sorrowing that I, Allan Quatermain, should +have reached a rung in the ladder of life whence I shrank from looking any +stranger in the face, for fear of what he might have to say to me. Then +suddenly my pride asserted itself. After all what was there of which I should +be ashamed? I would face these irate shareholders as I had faced the others +yesterday. +</p> + +<p> +I walked round the little house to the front garden which was planted with +orange trees, and up to a big moonflower bush, I believe <i>datura</i> is its +right name, that grew near the pomegranate hedge which separated my domain from +the road. There a conversation was in progress, if so it may be called. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Ikona</i>” (that is: “I don’t know”), +“<i>Inkoosi</i>” (i.e. “Chief”), said some Kafir in a +stupid drawl. +</p> + +<p> +Thereon a voice that instantly struck me as familiar, answered: +</p> + +<p> +“We want to know where the great hunter lives.” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Ikona</i>,” said the Kafir. +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t you remember his native name?” asked another voice +which was also familiar to me, for I never forget voices though I am unable to +place them at once. +</p> + +<p> +“The great hunter, Here-come-a-zany,” said the first voice +triumphantly, and instantly there flashed back upon my mind a vision of the +splendid drawing-room at Ragnall Castle and of an imposing majordomo +introducing into it two white-robed, Arab-looking men. +</p> + +<p> +“Mr. Savage, by the Heavens!” I muttered. “What in the name +of goodness is he doing here?” +</p> + +<p> +“There,” said the second voice, “your black friend has +bolted, and no wonder, for who can be called by such a name? If you had done +what I told you, Savage, and hired a white guide, it would have saved us a lot +of trouble. Why will you always think that you know better than anyone +else?” +</p> + +<p> +“Seemed an unnecessary expense, my lord, considering we are travelling +incog., my lord.” +</p> + +<p> +“How long shall we travel ‘incog.’ if you persist in calling +me my lord at the top of your voice, Savage? There is a house beyond those +trees; go in and ask where——” +</p> + +<p> +By this time I had reached the gate which I opened, remarking quietly, +</p> + +<p> +“How do you do, Lord Ragnall? How do you do, Mr. Savage? I thought that I +recognized your voices on the road and came to see if I was right. Please walk +in; that is, if it is I whom you wish to visit.” +</p> + +<p> +As I spoke I studied them both, and observed that while Savage looked much the +same, although slightly out of place in these strange surroundings, the time +that had passed since we met had changed Lord Ragnall a good deal. He was still +a magnificent-looking man, one of those whom no one that had seen him would +ever forget, but now his handsome face was stamped with some new seal of +suffering. I felt at once that he had become acquainted with grief. The shadow +in his dark eyes and a certain worn expression about the mouth told me that +this was so. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Quatermain,” he said as he took my hand, “it is you +whom I have travelled seven thousand miles to visit, and I thank God that I +have been so fortunate as to find you. I feared lest you might be dead, or +perhaps far away in the centre of Africa where I should never be able to track +you down.” +</p> + +<p> +“A week later perhaps you would not have found me, Lord Ragnall,” I +answered, “but as it happens misfortune has kept me here.” +</p> + +<p> +“And misfortune has brought me here, Quatermain.” +</p> + +<p> +Then before I had time to answer Savage came up and we went into the house. +</p> + +<p> +“You are just in time for lunch,” I said, “and as luck will +have it there is a good rock cod and a leg of oribé buck for you to eat. Boy, +set two more places.” +</p> + +<p> +“One more place, if you please, sir,” said Savage. “I should +prefer to take my food afterwards.” +</p> + +<p> +“You will have to get over that in Africa,” I muttered. Still I let +him have his way, with the result that presently the strange sight was seen of +the magnificent English majordomo standing behind my chair in the little room +and handing round the square-face as though it were champagne. It was a +spectacle that excited the greatest interest in my primitive establishment and +caused Hans with some native hangers-on to gather at the window. However, Lord +Ragnall took it as a matter of course and I thought it better not to interfere. +</p> + +<p> +When we had finished we went on to the stoep to smoke, leaving Savage to eat +his dinner, and I asked Lord Ragnall where his luggage was. He replied that he +had left it at the Customs. “Then,” I said, “I will send a +native with Savage to arrange about getting it up here. If you do not mind my +rough accommodation there is a room for you, and your man can pitch a tent in +the garden.” +</p> + +<p> +After some demur he accepted with gratitude, and a little later Savage and the +native were sent off with a note to a man who hired out a mule-cart. +</p> + +<p> +“Now,” I said when the gate had shut behind them, “will you +tell me why you have come to Africa?” +</p> + +<p> +“Disaster,” he replied. “Disaster of the worst sort.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is your wife dead, Lord Ragnall?” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not know. I almost hope that she is. At any rate she is lost to +me.” +</p> + +<p> +An idea leapt to my mind to the effect that she might have run away with +somebody else, a thing which often happens in the world. But fortunately I kept +it to myself and only said, +</p> + +<p> +“She was nearly lost once before, was she not?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, when you saved her. Oh! if only you had been with us, Quatermain, +this would never have happened. Listen: About eighteen months ago she had a +son, a very beautiful child. She recovered well from the business and we were +as happy as two mortals could be, for we loved each other, Quatermain, and God +has blessed us in every way; we were so happy that I remember her telling me +that our great good fortune made her feel afraid. One day last September when I +was out shooting, she drove in a little pony cart we had, with the nurse, and +the child but no man, to call on Mrs. Scroope who also had been recently +confined. She often went out thus, for the pony was an old animal and quiet as +a sheep. +</p> + +<p> +“By some cursed trick of fate it chanced that when they were passing +through the little town which you may remember near Ragnall, they met a +travelling menagerie that was going to some new encampment. At the head of the +procession marched a large bull elephant, which I discovered afterwards was an +ill-tempered brute that had already killed a man and should never have been +allowed upon the roads. The sight of the pony cart, or perhaps a red cloak +which my wife was wearing, as she always liked bright colours, for some unknown +reason seems to have infuriated this beast, which trumpeted. The pony becoming +frightened wheeled round and overturned the cart right in front of the animal, +but apparently without hurting anybody. Then”—here he paused a +moment and with an effort continued—“that devil in beast’s +shape cocked its ears, stretched out its long trunk, dragged the baby from the +nurse’s arms, whirled it round and threw it high into the air, to fall +crushed upon the kerb. It sniffed at the body of the child, feeling it over +with the tip of its trunk, as though to make sure that it was dead. Next, once +more it trumpeted triumphantly, and without attempting to harm my wife or +anybody else, walked quietly past the broken cart and continued its journey, +until outside the town it was made fast and shot.” +</p> + +<p> +“What an awful story!” I said with a gasp. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, but there is worse to follow. My poor wife went off her head, with +the shock I suppose, for no physical injury could be found upon her. She did +not suffer in health or become violent, quite the reverse indeed for her +gentleness increased. She just went off her head. For hours at a time she would +sit silent and smiling, playing with the stones of that red necklace which +those conjurers gave her, or rather counting them, as a nun might do with the +beads of her rosary. At times, however, she would talk, but always to the baby, +as though it lay before her or she were nursing it. Oh! Quatermain, it was +pitiful, pitiful! +</p> + +<p> +“I did everything I could. She was seen by three of the greatest +brain-doctors in England, but none of them was able to help. The only hope they +gave was that the fit might pass off as suddenly as it had come. They said too +that a thorough change of scene would perhaps be beneficial, and suggested +Egypt; that was in October. I did not take much to the idea, I don’t know +why, and personally should not have acceded to it had it not been for a curious +circumstance. The last consultation took place in the big drawing-room at +Ragnall. When it was over my wife remained with her mother at one end of the +room while I and the doctors talked together at the other, as I thought quite +out of her earshot. Presently, however, she called to me, saying in a perfectly +clear and natural voice: +</p> + +<p> +“‘Yes, George, I will go to Egypt. I should like to go to +Egypt.’ Then she went on playing with the necklace and talking to the +imaginary child. +</p> + +<p> +“Again on the following morning as I came into her room to kiss her, she +exclaimed, +</p> + +<p> +“‘When do we start for Egypt? Let it be soon.’ +</p> + +<p> +“With these sayings the doctors were very pleased, declaring that they +showed signs of a returning interest in life and begging me not to thwart her +wish. +</p> + +<p> +“So I gave way and in the end we went to Egypt together with Lady +Longden, who insisted upon accompanying us although she is a wretched sailor. +At Cairo a large dahabeeyah that I had hired in advance, manned by an excellent +crew and a guard of four soldiers, was awaiting us. In it we started up the +Nile. For a month or more all went well; also to my delight my wife seemed now +and again to show signs of returning intelligence. Thus she took some interest +in the sculptures on the walls of the temples, about which she had been very +fond of reading when in health. I remember that only a few days before +the—the catastrophe, she pointed out one of them to me, it was of Isis +and the infant Horus, saying, ‘Look, George, the holy Mother and the holy +Child,’ and then bowed to it reverently as she might have done to an +altar. At length after passing the First Cataract and the Island of Philæ we +came to the temple of Abu Simbel, opposite to which our boat was moored. On the +following morning we explored the temple at daybreak and saw the sun strike +upon the four statues which sit at its farther end, spending the rest of that +day studying the colossal figures of Rameses that are carved upon its face and +watching some cavalcades of Arabs mounted upon camels travelling along the +banks of the Nile. +</p> + +<p> +“My wife was unusually quiet that afternoon. For hour after hour she sat +still upon the deck, gazing first at the mouth of the rock-hewn temple and the +mighty figures which guard it and then at the surrounding desert. Only once did +I hear her speak and then she said, ‘Beautiful, beautiful! Now I am at +home.’ We dined and as there was no moon, went to bed rather early after +listening to the Sudanese singers as they sang one of their weird chanties. +</p> + +<p> +“My wife and her mother slept together in the state cabin of the +dahabeeyah, which was at the stern of the boat. My cabin, a small one, was on +one side of this, and that of the trained nurse on the other. The crew and the +guard were forward of the saloon. A gangway was fixed from the side to the +shore and over it a sentry stood, or was supposed to stand. During the night a +Khamsin wind began to blow, though lightly as was to be expected at this season +of the year. I did not hear it for, as a matter of fact, I slept very soundly, +as it appears did everyone else upon the dahabeeyah, including the sentry as I +suspect. +</p> + +<p> +“The first thing I remember was the appearance of Lady Longden just at +daybreak at the doorway of my cabin and the frightened sound of her voice +asking if Luna, that is my wife, was with me. Then it transpired that she had +left her cabin clad in a fur cloak, evidently some time before, as the bed in +which she had been lying was quite cold. Quatermain, we searched everywhere; we +searched for four days, but from that hour to this no trace whatever of her has +been found.” +</p> + +<p> +“Have you any theory?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, or at least all the experts whom we consulted have a theory. It is +that she slipped down the saloon in the dark, gained the deck and thence fell +or threw herself into the Nile, which of course would have carried her body +away. As you may have heard, the Nile is full of bodies. I myself saw two of +them during that journey. The Egyptian police and others were so convinced that +this was what had happened that, notwithstanding the reward of a thousand +pounds which I offered for any valuable information, they could scarcely be +persuaded to continue the search.” +</p> + +<p> +“You said that a wind was blowing and I understand that the shores are +sandy, so I suppose that all footprints would have been filled in?” +</p> + +<p> +He nodded and I went on. “What is your own belief? Do you think she was +drowned?” +</p> + +<p> +He countered my query with another of: +</p> + +<p> +“What do <i>you</i> think?” +</p> + +<p> +“I? Oh! although I have no right to say so, I don’t think at all. I +am quite sure that she was <i>not</i> drowned; that she is living at this +moment.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where?” +</p> + +<p> +“As to that you had better inquire of our friends, Harût and +Marût,” I answered dryly. +</p> + +<p> +“What have you to go on, Quatermain? There is no clue.” +</p> + +<p> +“On the contrary I hold that there are a good many clues. The whole +English part of the story in which we were concerned, and the threats those +mysterious persons uttered are the first and greatest of these clues. The +second is the fact that your hiring of the dahabeeyah regardless of expense was +known a long time before your arrival in Egypt, for I suppose you did so in +your own name, which is not exactly that of Smith or Brown. The third is your +wife’s sleep-walking propensities, which would have made it quite easy +for her to be drawn ashore under some kind of mesmeric influence. The fourth is +that you had seen Arabs mounted on camels upon the banks of the Nile. The fifth +is the heavy sleep you say held everybody on board that particular night, which +suggests to me that your food may have been drugged. The sixth is the apathy +displayed by those employed in the search, which suggests to me that some +person or persons in authority may have been bribed, as is common in the East, +or perhaps frightened with threats of bewitchment. The seventh is that a night +was chosen when a wind blew which would obliterate all spoor whether of men or +of swiftly travelling camels. These are enough to begin with, though doubtless +if I had time to think I could find others. You must remember too that although +the journey would be long, this country of the Kendah can doubtless be reached +from the Sudan by those who know the road, as well as from southern or eastern +Africa.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you think that my wife has been kidnapped by those villains, Harût +and Marût?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, though villains is a strong term to apply to them. They might +be quite honest men according to their peculiar lights, as indeed I expect they +are. Remember that they serve a god or a fetish, or rather, as they believe, a +god <i>in</i> a fetish, who to them doubtless is a very terrible master, +especially when, as I understand, that god is threatened by a rival god.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you say that, Quatermain?” +</p> + +<p> +By way of answer I repeated to him the story which Hans said he had heard from +the old woman at Beza, the town of the Mazitu. Lord Ragnall listened with the +deepest interest, then said in an agitated voice: +</p> + +<p> +“That is a very strange tale, but has it struck you, Quatermain, that if +your suppositions are correct, one of the most terrible circumstances connected +with my case is that our child should have chanced to come to its dreadful +death through the wickedness of an elephant?” +</p> + +<p> +“That curious coincidence has struck me most forcibly, Lord Ragnall. At +the same time I do not see how it can be set down as more than a coincidence, +since the elephant which slaughtered your child was certainly not that called +Jana. To suppose because there is a war between an elephant-god and a child-god +somewhere in the heart of Africa, that therefore another elephant can be so +influenced that it kills a child in England, is to my mind out of all +reason.” +</p> + +<p> +That is what I said to him, as I did not wish to introduce a new horror into an +affair that was already horrible enough. But, recollecting that these priests, +Harût and Marût, believed the mother of this murdered infant to be none other +than the oracle of their worship (though how this chanced passed my +comprehension), and therefore the great enemy of the evil elephant-god, I +confess that at heart I felt afraid. If any powers of magic, black or white or +both, were mixed up with the matter as my experiences in England seemed to +suggest, who could say what might be their exact limits? As, however, it has +been demonstrated again and again by the learned that no such thing as African +magic exists, this line of thought appeared to be too foolish to follow. So +passing it by I asked Lord Ragnall to continue. +</p> + +<p> +“For over a month,” he went on, “I stopped in Egypt waiting +till emissaries who had been sent to the chiefs of various tribes in the Sudan +and elsewhere, returned with the news that nothing whatsoever had been seen of +a white woman travelling in the company of natives, nor had they heard of any +such woman being sold as a slave. Also through the Khedive, on whom I was able +to bring influence to bear by help of the British Government, I caused many +harems in Egypt to be visited, entirely without result. After this, leaving the +inquiry in the hands of the British Consul and a firm of French lawyers, +although in truth all hope had gone, I returned to England whither I had +already sent Lady Longden, broken-hearted, for it occurred to me as possible +that my wife might have drifted or been taken thither. But here, too, there was +no trace of her or of anybody who could possibly answer to her description. So +at last I came to the conclusion that her bones must lie somewhere at the +bottom of the Nile, and gave way to despair.” +</p> + +<p> +“Always a foolish thing to do,” I remarked. +</p> + +<p> +“You will say so indeed when you hear the end, Quatermain. My bereavement +and the sleeplessness which it caused preyed upon me so much, for now that the +child was dead my wife was everything to me, that, I will tell you the truth, +my brain became affected and like Job I cursed God in my heart and determined +to die. Indeed I should have died by my own hand, had it not been for Savage. I +had procured the laudanum and loaded the pistol with which I proposed to shoot +myself immediately after it was swallowed so that there might be no mistake. +One night only a couple of months or so ago, Quatermain, I sat in my study at +Ragnall, with the doors locked as I thought, writing a few final letters before +I did the deed. The last of them was just finished about twelve when hearing a +noise, I looked up and saw Savage standing before me. I asked him angrily how +he came there (I suppose he must have had another key to one of the other +doors) and what he wanted. Ignoring the first part of the question he replied: +</p> + +<p> +“‘My lord, I have been thinking over our trouble’—he +was with us in Egypt—‘I have been thinking so much that it has got +a hold of my sleep. To-night as you said you did not want me any more and I was +tired, I went to bed early and had a dream. I dreamed that we were once more in +the shrubbery, as happened some years ago, and that the little African gent who +shot like a book, was showing us the traces of those two black men, just as he +did when they tried to steal her ladyship. Then in my dream I seemed to go back +to bed and that beastly snake which we found lying under the parcel in the road +seemed to follow me. When I had got to sleep again, all in the dream, there it +was standing on its tail at the end of the bed, hissing till it woke me. Then +it spoke in good English and not in African as might have been expected. +</p> + +<p> +“‘“Savage,” it said, “get up and dress yourself +and go at once and tell his lordship to travel to Natal and find Mr. Allan +Quatermain” (you may remember that was the African gentleman’s +name, my lord, which, with so many coming and going in this great house, I had +quite forgotten, until I had the dream). “Find Mr. Allan +Quatermain,” that slimy reptile went on, opening and shutting its mouth +for all the world like a Christian making a speech, “for he will have +something to tell him as to that which has made a hole in his heart that is now +filled with the seven devils. Be quick, Savage, and don’t stop to put on +your shirt or your tie”—I have not, my lord, as you may see. +“He is shut up in the study, but you know how to get into it. If he will +not listen to you let him look round the study and he will see something which +will tell him that this is a true dream.” +</p> + +<p> +“‘Then the snake vanished, seeming to wriggle down the left bottom +bed-post, and I woke up in a cold sweat, my lord, and did what it had told +me.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Those were his very words, Quatermain, for I wrote them down afterwards +while they were fresh in my memory, and you see here they are in my +pocket-book. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I answered him, rather brusquely I am afraid, for a crazed man who +is about to leave the world under such circumstances does not show at his best +when disturbed almost in the very act, to the edge of which long agony has +brought him. I told him that all his dream of snakes seemed ridiculous, which +obviously it was, and was about to send him away, when it occurred to me that +the suggestion it conveyed that I should put myself in communication with you +was not ridiculous in view of the part you had already played in the +story.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very far from ridiculous,” I interpolated. +</p> + +<p> +“To tell the truth,” went on Lord Ragnall, “I had already +thought of doing the same thing, but somehow beneath the pressure of my +imminent grief the idea was squeezed out of my mind, perhaps because you were +so far away and I did not know if I could find you even if I tried. Pausing for +a moment before I dismissed Savage, I rose from the desk at which I was writing +and began to walk up and down the room thinking what I would do. I am not +certain if you saw it when you were at Ragnall, but it is a large room, fifty +feet long or so though not very broad. It has two fireplaces, in both of which +fires were burning on this night, and it was lit by four standing lamps besides +that upon my desk. Now between these fireplaces, in a kind of niche in the +wall, and a little in the shadow because none of the lamps was exactly opposite +to it, hung a portrait of my wife which I had caused to be painted by a +fashionable artist when first we became engaged.” +</p> + +<p> +“I remember it,” I said. “Or rather, I remember its +existence. I did not see it because a curtain hung over the picture, which +Savage told me you did not wish to be looked at by anybody but yourself. At the +time I remarked to him, or rather to myself, that to veil the likeness of a +living woman in such a way seemed to me rather an ill-omened thing to do, +though why I should have thought it so I do not quite know.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are quite right, Quatermain. I had that foolish fancy, a +lover’s freak, I suppose. When we married the curtain was removed +although the brass rod on which it hung was left by some oversight. On my +return to England after my loss, however, I found that I could not bear to look +upon this lifeless likeness of one who had been taken from me so cruelly, and I +caused it to be replaced. I did more. In order that it might not be disturbed +by some dusting housemaid, I myself made it fast with three or four tin-tacks +which I remember I drove through the velvet stuff into the panelling, using a +fireiron as a hammer. At the time I thought it a good job although by accident +I struck the nail of the third finger of my left hand so hard that it came off. +Look, it has not quite finished growing again,” and he showed the finger +on which the new nail was still in process of formation. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, as I walked up and down the room some impulse caused me to look +towards the picture. To my astonishment I saw that it was no longer veiled, +although to the best of my belief the curtain had been drawn over it as lately +as that afternoon; indeed I could have sworn that this was so. I called to +Savage to bring the lamp that stood upon my table, and by its light made an +examination. The curtain was drawn back, very tidily, being fastened in its +place clear of the little alcove by means of a thin brass chain. Also along one +edge of it, that which I had nailed to the panelling, the tin-tacks were still +in their places; that is, three of them were, the fourth I found afterwards +upon the floor. +</p> + +<p> +“‘She looks beautiful, doesn’t she, my lord,’ said +Savage, ‘and please God so we shall still find her somewhere in the +world.’ +</p> + +<p> +“I did not answer him, or even remark upon the withdrawal of the curtain, +as to which indeed I never made an inquiry. I suppose that it was done by some +zealous servant while I was pretending to eat my dinner—there were one or +two new ones in the house whose names and appearance I did not know. What +impressed itself upon my mind was that the face which I had never expected to +see again on the earth, even in a picture, was once more given to my eyes, it +mattered not how. This, in my excited state, for laudanum waiting to be +swallowed and a pistol at full cock for firing do not induce calmness in a man +already almost mad, at any rate until they have fulfilled their offices, did in +truth appear to me to be something of the nature of a sign such as that spoken +of in Savage’s idiotic dream, which I was to find if ‘I looked +round the study.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Savage,’ I said, ‘I don’t think much of your +dreams about snakes that talk to you, but I do think that it might be well to +see Mr. Quatermain. To-day is Sunday and I believe that the African mail sails +on Friday. Go to town early to-morrow and book passages.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Also I told him to see various gunsmiths and bid them send down a +selection of rifles and other weapons for me to choose from, as I did not know +whither we might wander in Africa, and to make further necessary arrangements. +All of these things he did, and—here we are.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I answered reflectively, “here you are. What is more, +here is your luggage of which there seems to be enough for a regiment,” +and I pointed to a Scotch cart piled up with baggage and followed by a long +line of Kafirs carrying sundry packages upon their heads that, marshalled by +Savage, had halted at my gate. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +THE START</h2> + +<p> +That evening when the baggage had been disposed of and locked up in my little +stable and arrangements were made for the delivery of some cases containing +tinned foods, etc., which had proved too heavy for the Scotch cart, Lord +Ragnall and I continued our conversation. First, however, we unpacked the guns +and checked the ammunition, of which there was a large supply, with more to +follow. +</p> + +<p> +A beautiful battery they were of all sorts from elephant guns down, the most +costly and best finished that money could buy at the time. It made me shiver to +think what the bill for them must have been, while their appearance when they +were put together and stood in a long line against the wall of my sitting-room, +moved old Hans to a kind of ecstasy. For a long while he contemplated them, +patting the stocks one after the other and giving to each a name as though they +were all alive, then exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +“With such weapons as these the Baas could kill the devil himself. Still, +let the Baas bring Intombi with him”—a favourite old rifle of mine +and a mere toy in size, that had however done me good service in the past, as +those who have read what I have written in “Marie” and “The +Holy Flower” may remember. “For, Baas, after all, the wife of +one’s youth often proves more to be trusted than the fine young ones a +man buys in his age. Also one knows all her faults, but who can say how many +there may be hidden up in new women however beautifully they are +tattooed?” and he pointed to the elaborate engraving upon the guns. +</p> + +<p> +I translated this speech to Lord Ragnall. It made him laugh, at which I was +glad for up till then I had not seen him even smile. I should add that in +addition to these sporting weapons there were no fewer than fifty military +rifles of the best make, they were large-bore Sniders that had just then been +put upon the market, and with them, packed in tin cases, a great quantity of +ammunition. Although the regulations were not so strict then as they are now, I +met with a great deal of difficulty in getting all this armament through the +Customs. Lord Ragnall however had letters from the Colonial Office to such +authorities as ruled in Natal, and on our giving a joint undertaking that they +were for defensive purposes only in unexplored territory and not for sale, they +were allowed through. Fortunate did it prove for us in after days that this +matter was arranged. +</p> + +<p> +That night before we went to bed I narrated to Lord Ragnall all the history of +our search for the Holy Flower, which he seemed to find very entertaining. Also +I told him of my adventures, to me far more terrible, as chairman of the Bona +Fide Gold Mine and of their melancholy end. +</p> + +<p> +“The lesson of which is,” he remarked when I had finished, +“that because a man is master of one trade, it does not follow that he is +master of another. You are, I should judge, one of the finest shots in the +world, you are also a great hunter and explorer. But when it comes to +companies, Quatermain——! Still,” he went on, “I ought +to be grateful to that Bona Fide Gold Mine, since I gather that had it not been +for it and for your rascally friend, Mr. Jacob, I should not have found you +here.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I answered, “it is probable that you would not, as by +this time I might have been far in the interior where a man cannot be traced +and letters do not reach him.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he made a few pointed inquiries about the affairs of the mine, noting my +answers down in his pocket-book. I thought this odd but concluded that he +wished to verify my statements before entering into a close companionship with +me, since for aught he knew I might be the largest liar in the world and a +swindler to boot. So I said nothing, even when I heard through a roundabout +channel on the morrow that he had sought an interview with the late secretary +of the defunct company. +</p> + +<p> +A few days later, for I may as well finish with this matter at once, the +astonishing object of these inquiries was made clear to me. One morning I found +upon my table a whole pile of correspondence, at the sight of which I groaned, +feeling sure that it must come from duns and be connected with that infernal +mine. Curiosity and a desire to face the worst, however, led me to open the +first letter which as it happened proved to be from that very shareholder who +had proposed a vote of confidence in me at the winding-up meeting. By the time +that it was finished my eyes were swimming and really I felt quite faint. It +ran: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“H<small>ONOURED</small> S<small>IR</small>,—I knew that I was +putting my money on the right horse when I said the other day that you were one +of the straightest that ever ran. Well, I have got the cheque sent me by the +lawyer on your account, being payment in full for every farthing I invested in +the Bona Fide Gold Mine, and I can only say that it is uncommonly useful, for +that business had pretty well cleaned me out. God bless you, Mr. +Quatermain.” +</p> + +<p> +I opened another letter, and another, and another. They were all to the same +effect. Bewildered I went on to the stoep, where I found Hans with an epistle +in his hand which he requested me to be good enough to read. I read it. It was +from a well-known firm of local lawyers and said: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“On behalf of Allan Quatermain, Esq., we beg to enclose a draft for the +sum of £650, being the value of the interest in the Bona Fide Gold Company, +Limited (in liquidation), which stands in your name on the books of the +company. Please sign enclosed receipt and return same to us.” +</p> + +<p> +Yes, and there was the draft for £650 sterling! +</p> + +<p> +I explained the matter to Hans, or rather I translated the document, adding: +</p> + +<p> +“You see you have got your money back again. But Hans, I never sent it; I +don’t know where it comes from.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it money, Baas?” asked Hans, surveying the draft with +suspicion. “It looks very much like the other bit of paper for which I +paid money.” +</p> + +<p> +Again I explained, reiterating that I knew nothing of the transaction. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Baas,” he said, “if you did not send it someone +did—perhaps your father the reverend Predikant, who sees that you are in +trouble and wishes to wash your name white again. Meanwhile, Baas, please put +that bit of paper in your pocket-book and keep it for me, for otherwise I might +be tempted to buy square-face with it.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I answered, “you can now buy your land back, or some +other land, and there will be no need for you to come with me to the country of +the Kendah.” +</p> + +<p> +Hans thought a moment and then very deliberately began to tear up the draft; +indeed I was only just in time to save it from destruction. +</p> + +<p> +“If the Baas is going to turn me off because of this paper,” he +said, “I will make it small and eat it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You silly old fool,” I said as I possessed myself of the cheque. +</p> + +<p> +Then the conversation was interrupted, for who should appear but Sammy, my old +cook, who began in his pompous language: +</p> + +<p> +“The perfect rectitude of your conduct, Mr. Quatermain, moves me to the +deepest gratitude, though indeed I wish that I had put something into the food +of the knave Jacob who beguiled us all, that would have caused him internal +pangs of a severe if not of a dangerous order. My holding in the gold mine was +not extensive, but the unpaid bill of the said Jacob and his +friends——” +</p> + +<p> +Here I cut him short and fled, since I saw yet another shareholder galloping to +the gate, and behind him two more in a spider. First I took refuge in my room, +my idea being to put away that pile of letters. In so doing I observed that +there was one still unopened. Half mechanically I took it from the envelope and +glanced at its contents. They were word for word identical with those of that +addressed to “Mr. Hans, Hottentot,” only my name was at the bottom +of it instead of that of Hans and the cheque was for £1,500, the amount I had +paid for the shares I held in the venture. +</p> + +<p> +Feeling as though my brain were in a melting-pot, I departed from the house +into a patch of native bush that in those days still grew upon the slope of the +hill behind. Here I sat myself down, as I had often done before when there was +a knotty point to be considered, aimlessly watching a lovely emerald cuckoo +flashing, a jewel of light, from tree to tree, while I turned all this +fairy-godmother business over in my mind. +</p> + +<p> +Of course it soon became clear to me. Lord Ragnall in this case was the little +old lady with the wand, the touch of which could convert worthless share +certificates into bank-notes of their face value. I remembered now that his +wealth was said to be phenomenal and after all the cash capital of the company +was quite small. But the question was—could I accept his bounty? +</p> + +<p> +I returned to the house where the first person whom I met was Lord Ragnall +himself, just arrived from some interview about the fifty Snider rifles, which +were still in bond. I told him solemnly that I wished to speak to him, whereon +he remarked in a cheerful voice, +</p> + +<p> +“Advance, friend, and all’s well!” +</p> + +<p> +I don’t know that I need set out the details of the interview. He waited +till I had got through my halting speech of mingled gratitude and +expostulation, then remarked: +</p> + +<p> +“My friend, if you will allow me to call you so, it is quite true that I +have done this because I wished to do it. But it is equally true that to me it +is a small thing—to be frank, scarcely a month’s income; what I +have saved travelling on that ship to Natal would pay for it all. Also I have +weighed my own interest in the matter, for I am anxious that you should start +upon this hazardous journey of ours up country with a mind absolutely free from +self-reproach or any money care, for thus you will be able to do me better +service. Therefore I beg that you will say no more of the episode. I have only +one thing to add, namely that I have myself bought up at par value a few of the +debentures. The price of them will pay the lawyers and the liquidation fees; +moreover they give me a status as a shareholder which will enable me to sue Mr. +Jacob for his fraud, to which business I have already issued instructions. For +please understand that I have not paid off any shares still standing in his +name or in those of his friends.” +</p> + +<p> +Here I may add that nothing ever came of this action, for the lawyers found +themselves unable to serve any writ upon that elusive person, Mr. Jacob, who by +then had probably adopted the name of some other patriarch. +</p> + +<p> +“Please put it all down as a rich man’s whim,” he concluded. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t call that a whim which has returned £1,500 odd to my +pocket that I had lost upon a gamble, Lord Ragnall.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you remember, Quatermain, how you won £250 upon a gamble at my place +and what you did with it, which sum probably represented to you twenty or fifty +times what it would to me? Also if that argument does not appeal to you, may I +remark that I do not expect you to give me your services as a professional +hunter and guide for nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!” I answered, fixing on this point and ignoring the rest, +“now we come to business. If I may look upon this amount as salary, a +very handsome salary by the way, paid in advance, you taking the risks of my +dying or becoming incapacitated before it is earned, I will say no more of the +matter. If not I must refuse to accept what is an unearned gift.” +</p> + +<p> +“I confess, Quatermain, that I did not regard it in that light, though I +might have been willing to call it a retaining fee. However, do not let us +wrangle about money any more. We can always settle our accounts when the bill +is added up, if ever we reach so far. Now let us come to more important +details.” +</p> + +<p> +So we fell to discussing the scheme, route and details of our proposed journey. +Expenditure being practically no object, there were several plans open to us. +We might sail up the coast and go by Kilwa, as I had done on the search for the +Holy Flower, or we might retrace the line of our retreat from the Mazitu +country which ran through Zululand. Again, we might advance by whatever road we +selected with a small army of drilled and disciplined retainers, trusting to +force to break a way through to the Kendah. Or we might go practically +unaccompanied, relying on our native wit and good fortune to attain our ends. +Each of these alternatives had so much to recommend it and yet presented so +many difficulties, that after long hours of discussion, for this talk was +renewed again and again, I found it quite impossible to decide upon any one of +them, especially as in the end Lord Ragnall always left the choice with its +heavy responsibilities to me. +</p> + +<p> +At length in despair I opened the window and whistled twice on a certain low +note. A minute later Hans shuffled in, shaking the wet off the new corduroy +clothes which he had bought upon the strength of his return to affluence, for +it was raining outside, and squatted himself down upon the floor at a little +distance. In the shadow of the table which cut off the light from the hanging +lamp he looked, I remember, exactly like an enormous and antique toad. I threw +him a piece of tobacco which he thrust into his corn-cob pipe and lit with a +match. +</p> + +<p> +“The Baas called me,” he said when it was drawing to his +satisfaction, “what does Baas want of Hans?” +</p> + +<p> +“Light in darkness!” I replied, playing on his native name, and +proceeded to set out the whole case to him. +</p> + +<p> +He listened without a word, then asked for a small glass of gin, which I gave +him doubtfully. Having swallowed this at a gulp as though it were water, he +delivered himself briefly to this effect: +</p> + +<p> +“I think the Baas will do well not to go to Kilwa, since it means waiting +for a ship, or hiring one; also there may be more slave-traders there by now +who will bear him no love because of a lesson he taught them a while ago. On +the other hand the road through Zululand is open, though it be long, and there +the name of Macumazana is one well known. I think also that the Baas would do +well not to take too many men, who make marching slow, only a wagon or two and +some drivers which might be sent back when they can go no farther. From +Zululand messengers can be dispatched to the Mazitu, who love you, and Bausi or +whoever is king there to-day will order bearers to meet us on the road, until +which time we can hire other bearers in Zululand. The old woman at Beza-Town +told me, moreover, as you will remember, that the Kendah are a very great +people who live by themselves and will allow none to enter their land, which is +bordered by deserts. Therefore no force that you could take with you and feed +upon a road without water would be strong enough to knock down their gates like +an elephant, and it seems better that you should try to creep through them like +a wise snake, although they appear to be shut in your face. Perhaps also they +will not be shut since did you not say that two of their great doctors promised +to meet you and guide you through them?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I interrupted, “I dare say it will be easier to get in +than to get out of Kendahland.” +</p> + +<p> +“Last of all, Baas, if you take many men armed with guns, the black part +of the Kendah people of whom I told you will perhaps think you come to make +war, whatever the white Kendah may say, and kill us all, whereas if we be but a +few perchance they will let us pass in peace. I think that is all, Baas. Let +the Baas and the Lord Igeza forgive me if my words are foolish.” +</p> + +<p> +Here I should explain that “Igeza” was the name which the natives +had given to Lord Ragnall because of his appearance. The word means a handsome +person in the Zulu tongue. Savage they called “Bena,” I don’t +know why. “Bena” in Zulu means to push out the breast and it may be +that the name was a round-about allusion to the proud appearance of the +dignified Savage, or possibly it had some other recondite signification. At any +rate Lord Ragnall, Hans and myself knew the splendid Savage thenceforward by +the homely appellation of Beans. His master said it suited him very well +because he was so green. +</p> + +<p> +“The advice seems wise, Hans. Go now. No, no more gin,” I answered. +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of fact careful consideration convinced us it was so wise that we +acted on it down to the last detail. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +So it came about that one fine afternoon about a fortnight later, for hurry as +we would our preparations took a little time, we trekked for Zululand over the +sandy roads that ran from the outskirts of Durban. Our baggage and stores were +stowed in two half-tented wagons, very good wagons since everything we had with +us was the best that money could buy, the after-part of which served us as +sleeping-places at night. Hans sat on the <i>voor-kisse</i> or driving-seat of +one of the wagons; Lord Ragnall, Savage and I were mounted upon +“salted” horses, that is, horses which had recovered from and were +therefore supposed to be proof against the dreadful sickness, valuable and +docile animals which were trained to shooting. +</p> + +<p> +At our start a little contretemps occurred. To my amazement I saw Savage, who +insisted upon continuing to wear his funereal upper servant’s cut-away +coat, engaged with grim determination in mounting his steed from the wrong +side. He got into the saddle somehow, but there was worse to follow. The horse, +astonished at such treatment, bolted a little way, Savage sawing at its mouth. +Lord Ragnall and I cantered after it past the wagons, fearing disaster. All of +a sudden it swerved violently and Savage flew into the air, landing heavily in +a sitting posture. +</p> + +<p> +“Poor Beans!” ejaculated Lord Ragnall as we sped forward. “I +expect there is an end of his journeyings.” +</p> + +<p> +To our surprise, however, we saw him leap from the ground with the most +marvellous agility and begin to dance about slapping at his posterior parts and +shouting, +</p> + +<p> +“Take it off! Kill it!” +</p> + +<p> +A few seconds later we discovered the reason. The horse had shied at a sleeping +puff adder which was curled up in the sand of that little frequented road, and +on this puff adder Savage had descended with so much force, for he weighed +thirteen stone, that the creature was squashed quite flat and never stirred +again. This, however, he did not notice in his agitation, being convinced +indeed that it was hanging to him behind like a bulldog. +</p> + +<p> +“Snakes! my lord,” he exclaimed, when at last after careful search +we demonstrated to him that the adder had died before it could come into +action. +</p> + +<p> +“I hate ‘em, my lord, and they haunts” (he said ‘aunts) +“me. If ever I get out of this I’ll go and live in Ireland, my +lord, where they say there ain’t none. But it isn’t likely that I +shall,” he added mournfully, “for the omen is horrid.” +</p> + +<p> +“On the contrary,” I answered, “it is splendid, for you have +killed the snake and not the snake you. ‘The dog it was that died,’ +Savage.” +</p> + +<p> +After this the Kafirs gave Savage a second very long name which meant +“He-who-sits-down-on-snakes-and-makes-them-flat.” Having remounted +him on his horse, which was standing patiently a few yards away, at length we +got off. I lingered a minute behind the others to give some directions to my +old Griqua gardener, Jack, who snivelled at parting with me, and to take a last +look at my little home. Alack! I feared it might be the last indeed, knowing as +I did that this was a dangerous enterprise upon which I found myself embarked, +I who had vowed that I would be done with danger. +</p> + +<p> +With a lump in my throat I turned from the contemplation of that peaceful +dwelling and happy garden in which each tree and plant was dear to me, and +waving a good-bye to Jack, cantered on to where Ragnall was waiting for me. +</p> + +<p> +“I am afraid this is rather a sad hour for you, who are leaving your +little boy and your home,” he said gently, “to face unknown +perils.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not so sad as others I have passed,” I answered, “and perils +are my daily bread in every sense of the word. Moreover, whatever it is for me +it is for you also.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Quatermain. For me it is an hour of hope; a faint hope, I admit, but +the only one left, for the letters I got last night from Egypt and England +report that no clue whatsoever has been found, and indeed that the search for +any has been abandoned. Yes, I follow the last star left in my sky and if it +sets I hope that I may set also, at any rate to this world. Therefore I am +happier than I have been for months, thanks to you,” and he stretched out +his hand, which I shook. +</p> + +<p> +It was a token of friendship and mutual confidence which I am glad to say +nothing that happened afterwards ever disturbed for a moment. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +THE MEETING IN THE DESERT</h2> + +<p> +Now I do not propose to describe all our journey to Kendahland, or at any rate +the first part thereof. It was interesting enough in its way and we met with a +few hunting adventures, also some others. But there is so much to tell of what +happened to us after we reached the place that I have not the time, even if I +had the inclination to set all these matters down. Let it be sufficient, then, +to say that although owing to political events the country happened to be +rather disturbed at the time, we trekked through Zululand without any great +difficulty. For here my name was a power in the land and all parties united to +help me. Thence, too, I managed to dispatch three messengers, half-bred border +men, lean fellows and swift of foot, forward to the king of the Mazitu, as Hans +had suggested that I should do, advising him that his old friends, Macumazana, +Watcher-by-Night, and the yellow man who was named Light-in-Darkness and +Lord-of-the-Fire, were about to visit him again. +</p> + +<p> +As I knew we could not take the wagons beyond a certain point where there was a +river called the Luba, unfordable by anything on wheels, I requested him, +moreover, to send a hundred bearers with whatever escort might be necessary, to +meet us on the banks of that river at a spot which was known to both of us. +These words the messengers promised to deliver for a fee of five head of cattle +apiece, to be paid on their return, or to their families if they died on the +road, which cattle we purchased and left in charge of a chief, who was their +kinsman. As it happened two of the poor fellows did die, one of them of cold in +a swamp through which they took a short cut, and the other at the teeth of a +hungry lion. The third, however, won through and delivered the message. +</p> + +<p> +After resting for a fortnight in the northern parts of Zululand, to give time +to our wayworn oxen to get some flesh on their bones in the warm bushveld where +grass was plentiful even in the dry season, we trekked forward by a route known +to Hans and myself. Indeed it was the same which we had followed on our journey +from Mazituland after our expedition in search for the Holy Flower. +</p> + +<p> +We took with us a small army of Zulu bearers. This, although they were +difficult to feed in a country where no corn could be bought, proved fortunate +in the end, since so many of our cattle died from tsetse bite that we were +obliged to abandon one of the wagons, which meant that the goods it contained +must be carried by men. At length we reached the banks of the river, and camped +there one night by three tall peaks of rock which the natives called “The +Three Doctors,” where I had instructed the messengers to tell the Mazitu +to meet us. For four days we remained here, since rains in the interior had +made the river quite impassable. Every morning I climbed the tallest of the +“Doctors” and with my glasses looked over its broad yellow flood, +searching the wide, bush-clad land beyond in the hope of discovering the Mazitu +advancing to meet us. Not a man was to be seen, however, and on the fourth +evening, as the river had now become fordable, we determined that we would +cross on the morrow, leaving the remaining wagon, which it was impossible to +drag over its rocky bottom, to be taken back to Natal by our drivers. +</p> + +<p> +Here a difficulty arose. No promise of reward would induce any of our Zulu +bearers even to wet their feet in the waters of this River Luba, which for some +reason that I could not extract from them they declared to be <i>tagati</i>, +that is, bewitched, to people of their blood. When I pointed out that three +Zulus had already undertaken to cross it, they answered that those men were +half-breeds, so that for them it was only half bewitched, but they thought that +even so one or more of them would pay the penalty of death for this rash crime. +</p> + +<p> +It chanced that this happened, for, as I have said, two of the poor fellows did +die, though not, I think, owing to the magical properties of the waters of the +Luba. This is how African superstitions are kept alive. Sooner or later some +saying of the sort fulfils itself and then the instance is remembered and +handed down for generations, while other instances in which nothing out of the +common has occurred are not heeded, or are forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +This decision on the part of those stupid Zulus put us in an awkward fix, since +it was impossible for us to carry over all our baggage and ammunition without +help. Therefore glad was I when before dawn on the fifth morning the nocturnal +Hans crept into the wagon, in the after part of which Ragnall and I were +sleeping, and informed us that he heard men’s voices on the farther side +of the river, though how he could hear anything above that roar of water passed +my comprehension. +</p> + +<p> +At the first break of dawn again we climbed the tallest of the +“Doctor” rocks and stared into the mist. At length it rolled away +and there on the farther side of the river I saw quite a hundred men who by +their dress and spears I knew to be Mazitu. They saw me also and raising a +cheer, dashed into the water, groups of them holding each other round the +middle to prevent their being swept away. Thereupon our silly Zulus seized +their spears and formed up upon the bank. I slid down the steep side of the +“Great Doctor” and ran forward, calling out that these were friends +who came. +</p> + +<p> +“Friends or foes,” answered their captain sullenly, “it is a +pity that we should walk so far and not have a fight with those Mazitu +dogs.” +</p> + +<p> +Well, I drove them off to a distance, not knowing what might happen if the two +peoples met, and then went down to the bank. By now the Mazitu were near, and +to my delight at the head of them I perceived no other than my old friend, +their chief general, Babemba, a one-eyed man with whom Hans and I had shared +many adventures. Through the water he plunged with great bounds and reaching +the shore, greeted me literally with rapture. +</p> + +<p> +“O Macumazana,” he said, “little did I hope that ever again I +should look upon your face. Welcome to you, a thousand welcomes, and to you +too, Light-in-Darkness, Lord-of-the-Fire, Cunning-one whose wit saved us in the +battle of the Gate. But where is Dogeetah, where is Wazeela, and where are the +Mother and the Child of the Flower?” +</p> + +<p> +“Far away across the Black Water, Babemba,” I answered. “But +here are two others in place of them,” and I introduced him to Ragnall +and Savage by their native names of Igeza and Bena. +</p> + +<p> +He contemplated them for a moment, then said: +</p> + +<p> +“This,” pointing to Ragnall, “is a great lord, but +this,” pointing to Savage, who was much the better dressed of the two, +“is a cock of the ashpit arrayed in an eagle’s feathers,” a +remark I did not translate, but one which caused Hans to snigger vacuously. +</p> + +<p> +While we breakfasted on food prepared by the “Cock of the Ashpit,” +who amongst many other merits had that of being an excellent cook, I heard all +the news. Bausi the king was dead but had been succeeded by one of his sons, +also named Bausi, whom I remembered. Beza-Town had been rebuilt after the great +fire that destroyed the slavers, and much more strongly fortified than before. +Of the slavers themselves nothing more had been seen, or of the Pongo either, +though the Mazitu declared that their ghosts, or those of their victims, still +haunted the island in the lake. That was all, except the ill tidings as to two +of our messengers which the third, who had returned with the Mazitu, reported +to us. +</p> + +<p> +After breakfast I addressed and sent away our Zulus, each with a handsome +present from the trade goods, giving into their charge the remaining wagon and +our servants, none of whom, somewhat to my relief, wished to accompany us +farther. They sang their song of good-bye, saluted and departed over the rise, +still looking hungrily behind them at the Mazitu, and we were very pleased to +see the last of them without bloodshed or trouble. +</p> + +<p> +When we had watched the white tilt of the wagon vanish, we set to work to get +ourselves and our goods across the river. This we accomplished safely, for the +Mazitu worked for us like friends and not as do hired men. On the farther bank, +however, it took us two full days so to divide up the loads that the bearers +could carry them without being overladen. +</p> + +<p> +At length all was arranged and we started. Of the month’s trek that +followed there is nothing to tell, except that we completed it without notable +accidents and at last reached the new Beza-Town, which much resembled the old, +where we were accorded a great public reception. Bausi II himself headed the +procession which met us outside the south gate on that very mound which we had +occupied in the great fight, where the bones of the gallant Mavovo and my other +hunters lay buried. Almost did it seem to me as though I could hear their deep +voices joining in the shouts of welcome. +</p> + +<p> +That night, while the Mazitu feasted in our honour, we held an <i>indaba</i> in +the big new guest house with Bausi II, a pleasant-faced young man, and old +Babemba. The king asked us how long we meant to stay at Beza-Town, intimating +his hope that the visit would be prolonged. I replied, but a few days, as we +were travelling far to the north to find a people called the Kendah whom we +wished to see, and hoped that he would give us bearers to carry our goods as +far as the confines of their country. At the name of Kendah a look of +astonishment appeared upon their faces and Babemba said: +</p> + +<p> +“Has madness seized you, Macumazana, that you would attempt this thing? +Oh surely you must be mad.” +</p> + +<p> +“You thought us mad, Babemba, when we crossed the lake to Rica Town, yet +we came back safely.” +</p> + +<p> +“True, Macumazana, but compared to the Kendah the Pongo were but as the +smallest star before the face of the sun.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you know of them then?” I asked. “But +stay—before you answer, I will speak what I know,” and I repeated +what I had learned from Hans, who confirmed my words, and from Harût and Marût, +leaving out, however, any mention of their dealings with Lady Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +“It is all true,” said Babemba when I had finished, “for that +old woman of whom Light-in-the-Darkness speaks, was one of the wives of my +uncle and I knew her well. Hearken! These Kendah are a terrible nation and +countless in number and of all the people the fiercest. Their king is called +Simba, which means Lion. He who rules is always called Simba, and has been so +called for hundreds of years. He is of the Black Kendah whose god is the +elephant Jana, but as Light-in-Darkness has said, there are also the White +Kendah who are Arab men, the priests and traders of the people. The Kendah will +allow no stranger within their doors; if one comes they kill him by torment, or +blind him and turn him out into the desert which surrounds their country, there +to die. These things the old woman who married my uncle told me, as she told +them to Light-in-Darkness, also I have heard them from others, and what she did +not tell me, that the White Kendah are great breeders of the beasts called +camels which they sell to the Arabs of the north. Go not near them, for if you +pass the desert the Black Kendah will kill you; and if you escape these, then +their king, Simba, will kill you; and if you escape him, then their god Jana +will kill you; and if you escape him, then their white priests will kill you +with their magic. Oh! long before you look upon the faces of those priests you +will be dead many times over.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then why did they ask me to visit them, Babemba?” +</p> + +<p> +“I know not, Macumazana, but perhaps because they wished to make an +offering of you to the god Jana, whom no spear can harm; no, nor even your +bullets that pierce a tree.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am willing to make trial of that matter,” I answered +confidently, “and any way we must go to see these things for +ourselves.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” echoed Ragnall, “we must certainly go,” while +even Savage, for I had been translating to them all this while, nodded his head +although he looked as though he would much rather stay behind. +</p> + +<p> +“Ask him if there are any snakes there, sir,” he said, and +foolishly enough I put the question to give me time to think of other things. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, O Bena. Yes, O Cock of the Ashpit,” replied Babemba. +“My uncle’s Kendar wife told me that one of the guardians of the +shrine of the White Kendah is such a snake as was never seen elsewhere in the +world.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then say to him, sir,” said Savage, when I had translated almost +automatically, “that shrine ain’t a church where <i>I</i> shall go +to say my prayers.” +</p> + +<p> +Alas! poor Savage little knew the future and its gifts. +</p> + +<p> +Then we came to the question of bearers. The end of it was that after some +hesitation Bausi II, because of his great affection for us, promised to provide +us with these upon our solemnly undertaking to dismiss them at the borders of +the desert, “so that they might escape our doom,” as he remarked +cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +Four days later we started, accompanied by about one hundred and twenty picked +men under the command of old Babemba himself, who, he explained, wished to be +the last to see us alive in the world. This was depressing, but other +circumstances connected with our start were calculated to weigh even more upon +my spirit. Thus the night before we left Hans arrived and asked me to +“write a paper” for him. I inquired what he wanted me to put in the +paper. He replied that as he was going to his death and had property, namely +the £650 that had been left in a bank to his credit, he desired to make a +“white man’s will” to be left in the charge of Babemba. The +only provision of the said will was that I was to inherit his property, if I +lived. If I died, which, he added, “of course you must, Baas, like the +rest of us,” it was to be devoted to furnishing poor black people in +hospital with something comforting to drink instead of the “cow’s +water” that was given to them there. Needless to say I turned him out at +once, and that testamentary deposition remained unrecorded. Indeed it was +unnecessary, since, as I reminded him, on my advice he had already made a will +before we left Durban, a circumstance that he had quite forgotten. +</p> + +<p> +The second event, which occurred about an hour before our departure, was, that +hearing a mighty wailing in the market-place where once Hans and I had been +tied to stakes to be shot to death with arrows, I went out to see what was the +matter. At the gateway I was greeted by the sight of about a hundred old women +plastered all over with ashes, engaged in howling their loudest in a melancholy +unison. Behind these stood the entire population of Beza-Town, who chanted a +kind of chorus. +</p> + +<p> +“What the devil are they doing?” I asked of Hans. +</p> + +<p> +“Singing our death-song, Baas,” he replied stolidly, “as they +say that where we are going no one will take the trouble to do so, and it is +not right that great lords should die and the heavens above remain uninformed +that they are coming.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s cheerful,” I remarked, and wheeling round, asked +Ragnall straight out if he wished to persevere in this business, for to tell +the truth my nerve was shaken. +</p> + +<p> +“I must,” he answered simply, “but there is no reason why you +and Hans should, or Savage either for the matter of that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! I’m going where you go,” I said, “and where I go +Hans will go. Savage must speak for himself.” +</p> + +<p> +This he did and to the same effect, being a very honest and faithful man. It +was the more to his credit since, as he informed me in private, he did not +enjoy African adventure and often dreamed at nights of his comfortable room at +Ragnall whence he superintended the social activities of that great +establishment. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +So we departed and marched for the matter of a month or more through every kind +of country. After we had passed the head of the great lake wherein lay the +island, if it really was an island, where the Pongo used to dwell (one clear +morning through my glasses I discerned the mountain top that marked the former +residence of the Mother of the Flower, and by contrast it made me feel quite +homesick), we struck up north, following a route known to Babemba and our +guides. After this we steered by the stars through a land with very few +inhabitants, timid and nondescript folk who dwelt in scattered villages and +scarcely understood the art of cultivating the soil, even in its most primitive +form. +</p> + +<p> +A hundred miles or so farther on these villages ceased and thenceforward we +only encountered some nomads, little bushmen who lived on game which they shot +with poisoned arrows. Once they attacked us and killed two of the Mazitu with +those horrid arrows, against the venom of which no remedy that we had in our +medicine chest proved of any avail. On this occasion Savage exhibited his +courage if not his discretion, for rushing out of our thorn fence, after +missing a bushman with both barrels at a distance of five yards—he was, I +think, the worst shot I ever saw—he seized the little viper with his +hands and dragged him back to camp. How Savage escaped with his life I do not +know, for one poisoned arrow went through his hat and stuck in his hair and +another just grazed his leg without drawing blood. +</p> + +<p> +This valorous deed was of great service to us, since we were able through Hans, +who knew something of the bushmen’s language, to explain to our prisoner +that if we were shot at again he would be hung. This information he contrived +to shout, or rather to squeak and grunt, to his amiable tribe, of which it +appeared he was a kind of chief, with the result that we were no more molested. +Later, when we were clear of the bushmen country, we let him depart, which he +did with great rapidity. +</p> + +<p> +By degrees the land grew more and more barren and utterly devoid of +inhabitants, till at last it merged into desert. At the edge of this desert +which rolled away without apparent limit we came, however, to a kind of oasis +where there was a strong and beautiful spring of water that formed a stream +which soon lost itself in the surrounding sand. As we could go no farther, for +even if we had wished to do so, and were able to find water there, the Mazitu +refused to accompany us into the desert, not knowing what else to do, we camped +in the oasis and waited. +</p> + +<p> +As it happened, the place was a kind of hunter’s paradise, since every +kind of game, large and small, came to the water to drink at night, and in the +daytime browsed upon the saltish grass that at this season of the year grew +plentifully upon the edge of the wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Amongst other creatures there were elephants in plenty that travelled hither +out of the bushlands we had passed, or sometimes emerged from the desert +itself, suggesting that beyond this waste there lay fertile country. So +numerous were these great beasts indeed that for my part I hoped earnestly that +it would prove impossible for us to continue our journey, since I saw that in a +few months I could collect an enormous amount of ivory, enough to make me +comparatively rich, if only I were able to get it away. As it was we only +killed a few of them, ten in all to be accurate, that we might send back the +tusks as presents to Bausi II. To slaughter the poor animals uselessly was +cruel, especially as being unaccustomed to the sight of man, they were as easy +to approach as cows. Even Savage slew one—by carefully aiming at another +five paces to its left. +</p> + +<p> +For the rest we lived on the fat of the land and, as meat was necessary to us, +had as much sport as we could desire among the various antelope. +</p> + +<p> +For fourteen days or so this went on, till at length we grew thoroughly tired +of the business, as did the Mazitu, who were so gorged with flesh that they +began to desire vegetable food. Twice we rode as far into the desert as we +dared, for our horses remained to us and had grown fresh again after the rest, +but only to return without information. The place was just a vast wilderness +strewn with brown stones beautifully polished by the wind-driven sand of ages, +and quite devoid of water. +</p> + +<p> +After our second trip, on which we suffered severely from thirst, we held a +consultation. Old Babemba said that he could keep his men no longer, even for +us, as they insisted upon returning home, and inquired what we meant to do and +why we sat here “like a stone.” I answered that we were waiting for +some of the Kendah who had bid me to shoot game hereabouts until they arrived +to be our guides. He remarked that the Kendah to the best of his belief lived +in a country that was still hundreds of miles away and that, as they did not +know of our presence, any communication across the desert being impossible, our +proceedings seemed to be foolish. +</p> + +<p> +I retorted that I was not quite so sure of this, since the Kendah seemed to +have remarkable ways of acquiring information. +</p> + +<p> +“Then, Macumazana, I fear that you will have to wait by yourselves until +you discover which of us is right,” he said stolidly. +</p> + +<p> +Turning to Ragnall, I asked him what he would do, pointing out that to journey +into the desert meant death, especially as we did not know whither we were +going, and that to return alone, without the stores which we must abandon, +through the country of the bushmen to Mazituland, would also be a risky +proceeding. However, it was for him to decide. +</p> + +<p> +Now he grew much perturbed. Taking me apart again he dwelt earnestly upon his +secret reasons for wishing to visit these Kendah, with which of course I was +already acquainted, as indeed was Savage. +</p> + +<p> +“I desire to stay here,” he ended. +</p> + +<p> +“Which means that we must all stay, Ragnall, since Savage will not desert +you. Nor will Hans desert me although he thinks us mad. He points out that I +came to seek ivory and here about is ivory in plenty for the trouble of +taking.” +</p> + +<p> +“I might remain alone, Quatermain——” he began, but I +looked at him in such a way that he never finished the sentence. +</p> + +<p> +Ultimately we came to a compromise. Babemba, on behalf of the Mazitu, agreed to +wait three more days. If nothing happened during that period we on our part +agreed to return with them to a stretch of well-watered bush about fifty miles +behind us, which we knew swarmed with elephants, that by now were growing shy +of approaching our oasis where there was so much noise and shooting. There we +would kill as much ivory as we could carry, an operation in which they were +willing to assist for the fun of it, and then go back with them to Mazituland. +</p> + +<p> +The three days went by and with every hour that passed my spirits rose, as did +those of Savage and Hans, while Lord Ragnall became more and more depressed. +The third afternoon was devoted to a jubilant packing of loads, for in +accordance with the terms of our bargain we were to start backwards on our +spoor at dawn upon the morrow. Most happily did I lay myself down to sleep in +my little bough shelter that night, feeling that at last I was rid of an +uncommonly awkward adventure. If I thought that we could do any good by staying +on, it would have been another matter. But as I was certain that there was no +earthly chance of our finding among the Kendah—if ever we reached +them—the lady who had tumbled in the Nile in Egypt, well, I was glad that +Providence had been so good as to make it impossible for us to commit suicide +by thirst in a desert, or otherwise. For, notwithstanding my former reasonings +to the contrary, I was now convinced that this was what had happened to poor +Ragnall’s wife. +</p> + +<p> +That, however, was just what Providence had not done. In the middle of the +night, to be precise, at exactly two in the morning, I was awakened by Hans, +who slept at the back of my shanty, into which he had crept through a hole in +the faggots, exclaiming in a frightened voice, +</p> + +<p> +“Open your eyes and look, Baas. There are two <i>spooks</i> waiting to +see you outside, Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +Very cautiously I lifted myself a little and stared out into the moonlight. +There, seated about five paces from the open end of the hut were the +“spooks” sure enough, two white-robed figures squatting silent and +immovable on the ground. At first I was frightened. Then I bethought me of +thieves and felt for my Colt pistol under the rug that served me as a pillow. +As I got hold of the handle, however, a deep voice said: +</p> + +<p> +“Is it your custom, O Macumazana, Watcher-by-Night, to receive guests +with bullets?” +</p> + +<p> +Now thought I to myself, who is there in the world who could see a man catch +hold of the handle of a pistol in the recesses of a dark place and under a +blanket at night, except the owner of that voice which I seemed to remember +hearing in a certain drawing-room in England? +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Harût,” I answered with an unconcerned yawn, “when the +guests come in such a doubtful fashion and in the middle of the night. But as +you are here at last, will you be so good as to tell us why you have kept us +waiting all this time? Is that your way of fulfilling an engagement?” +</p> + +<p> +“O Lord Macumazana,” answered Harût, for of course it was he, in +quite a perturbed tone, “I offer to you our humble apologies. The truth +is that when we heard of your arrival at Beza-Town we started, or tried to +start, from hundreds of miles away to keep our tryst with you here as we +promised we would do. But we are mortal, Macumazana, and accidents intervened. +Thus, when we had ascertained the weight of your baggage, camels had to be +collected to carry it, which were grazing at a distance. Also it was necessary +to send forward to dig out a certain well in the desert where they must drink. +Hence the delay. Still, you will admit that we have arrived in time, five, or +at any rate four hours before the rising of that sun which was to light you on +your homeward way.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, you have, O Prophets, or O Liars, whichever you may be,” I +exclaimed with pardonable exasperation, for really their knowledge of my +private affairs, however obtained, was enough to anger a saint. “So as +you are here at last, come in and have a drink, for whether you are men or +devils, you must be cold out there in the damp.” +</p> + +<p> +In they came accordingly, and, not being Mohammedans, partook of a tot of +square-face from a bottle which I kept locked in a box to put Hans beyond the +reach of temptation. +</p> + +<p> +“To your health, Harût and Marût,” I said, drinking a little out of +the pannikin and giving the rest to Hans, who gulped the fiery liquor down with +a smack of his lips. For I will admit that I joined in this unholy midnight +potation to gain time for thought and to steady my nerve. +</p> + +<p> +“To your health, O Lord Macumazana,” the pair answered as they +swallowed their tots, which I had made pretty stiff, and set down their +pannikins in front of them with as much reverence as though these had been holy +vessels. +</p> + +<p> +“Now,” I said, throwing a blanket over my shoulders, for the air +was chilly, “now let us talk,” and taking the lantern which Hans +had thoughtfully lighted, I held it up and contemplated them. +</p> + +<p> +There they were, Harût and Marût without doubt, to all appearance totally +unchanged since some years before I had seen them at Ragnall in England. +“What are you doing here?” I asked in a kind of fiery indignation +inspired by my intense curiosity. “How did you get out of England after +you had tried to steal away the lady to whom you sent the necklace? What did +you do with that lady after you had beguiled her from the boat at Abu-Simbel? +In the name of your Holy Child, or of Shaitan of the Mohammedans, or of Set of +the Egyptians, answer me, lest I should make an end of both of you, which I can +do here without any questions being asked,” and I whipped out my pistol. +</p> + +<p> +“Pardon us,” said Harût with a grave smile, “but if you were +to do as you say, Lord Macumazana, many questions would be asked which +<i>you</i> might find it hard to answer. So be pleased to put that death-dealer +back into its place, and to tell us before we reply to you, what you know of +Set of the Egyptians.” +</p> + +<p> +“As much or as little as you do,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +Both bowed as though this information were of the most satisfactory order. Then +Harût went on: “In reply to your requests, O Macumazana, we left England +by a steamboat and in due course after long journeyings we reached our own +country. We do not understand your allusions to a place called Abu-Simbel on +the Nile, whence, never having been there, we have taken no lady. Indeed, we +never meant to take that lady to whom we sent a necklace in England. We only +meant to ask certain questions of her, as she had the gift of vision, when you +appeared and interrupted us. What should we want with white ladies, who have +already far too many of our own?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” I replied, “but I do know that you are +the biggest liars I ever met.” +</p> + +<p> +At these words, which some might have thought insulting, Harût and Marût bowed +again as though to acknowledge a great compliment. Then Harût said: +</p> + +<p> +“Let us leave the question of ladies and come to matters that have to do +with men. You are here as we told you that you would be at a time when you did +not believe us, and we here to meet <i>you</i>, as we told you that we would +be. How we knew that you were coming and how we came do not matter at all. +Believe what you will. Are you ready to start with us, O Lord Macumazana, that +you may bring to its death the wicked elephant Jana which ravages our land, and +receive the great reward of ivory? If so, your camel waits.” +</p> + +<p> +“One camel cannot carry four men,” I answered, avoiding the +question. +</p> + +<p> +“In courage and skill you are more than many men, O Macumazana, yet in +body you are but one and not four.” +</p> + +<p> +“If you think that I am going with you alone, you are much mistaken, +Harût and Marût,” I exclaimed. “Here with me is my servant without +whom I do not stir,” and I pointed to Hans, whom they contemplated +gravely. “Also there is the Lord Ragnall, who in this land is named +Igeza, and his servant who here is named Bena, the man out of whom you drew +snakes in the room in England. They also must accompany us.” +</p> + +<p> +At this news the impassive countenances of Harût and Marût showed, I thought, +some signs of disturbance. They muttered together in an unknown tongue. Then +Harût said: +</p> + +<p> +“Our secret land is open to you alone, O Macumazana, for one purpose +only—to kill the elephant Jana, for which deed we promise you a great +reward. We do not wish to see the others there.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you can kill your own elephant, Harût and Marût, for not one step +do I go with you. Why should I when there is as much ivory here as I want, to +be had for the shooting?” +</p> + +<p> +“How if we take you, O Macumazana?” +</p> + +<p> +“How if I kill you both, O Harût and Marût? Fools, here are many brave +men at my command, and if you or any with you want fighting it shall be given +you in plenty. Hans, bid the Mazitu stand to their arms and summon Igeza and +Bena.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stay, Lord,” said Harût, “and put down that weapon,” +for once more I had produced the pistol. “We would not begin our +fellowship by shedding blood, though we are safer from you than you think. Your +companions shall accompany you to the land of the Kendah, but let them know +that they do so at their own risk. Learn that it is revealed to us that if they +go in there some of them will pass out again as spirits but not as men.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean that you will murder them?” +</p> + +<p> +“No. We mean that yonder are some stronger than us or any men, who will +take their lives in sacrifice. Not yours, Macumazana, for that, it is decreed, +is safe, but those of two of the others, which two we do not know.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed, Harût and Marût, and how am I to be sure that any of us are +safe, or that you do not but trick us to your country, there to kill us with +treachery and steal our goods?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because we swear it by the oath that may not be broken; we swear it by +the Heavenly Child,” both of them exclaimed solemnly, speaking with one +voice and bowing till their foreheads almost touched the ground. +</p> + +<p> +I shrugged my shoulders and laughed a little. +</p> + +<p> +“You do not believe us,” went on Harût, “who have not heard +what happens to those who break this oath. Come now and see something. Within +five paces of your hut is a tall ant-heap upon which doubtless you have been +accustomed to stand and overlook the desert.” (This was true, but how did +they guess it, I wondered.) “Go climb that ant-heap once more.” +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps it was rash, but my curiosity led me to accept this invitation. Out I +went, followed by Hans with a loaded double-barrelled rifle, and scrambled up +the ant-heap which, as it was twenty feet high and there were no trees just +here, commanded a very fine view of the desert beyond. +</p> + +<p> +“Look to the north,” said Harût from its foot. +</p> + +<p> +I looked, and there in the bright moonlight five or six hundred yards away, +ranged rank by rank upon a slope of sand and along the crest of the ridge +beyond, I saw quite two hundred kneeling camels, and by each camel a tall, +white-robed figure who held in his hand a long lance to the shaft of which, not +far beneath the blade, was attached a little flag. For a while I stared to make +sure that I was not the victim of an illusion or a mirage. Then when I had +satisfied myself that these were indeed men and camels I descended from the +ant-heap. +</p> + +<p> +“You will admit, Macumazana,” said Harût politely, “that if +we had meant you any ill, with such a force it would have been easy for us to +take a sleeping camp at night. But these men come here to be your escort, not +to kill or enslave you or yours. And, Macumazana, we have sworn to you the oath +that may not be broken. Now we go to our people. In the morning, after you have +eaten, we will return again unarmed and alone.” +</p> + +<p> +Then like shadows they slipped away. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.<br /> +CHARGE!</h2> + +<p> +Ten minutes later the truth was known and every man in the camp was up and +armed. At first there were some signs of panic, but these with the help of +Babemba we managed to control, setting the men to make the best preparations +for defence that circumstances would allow, and thus occupying their minds. For +from the first we saw that, except for the three of us who had horses, escape +was impossible. That great camel corps could catch us within a mile. +</p> + +<p> +Leaving old Babemba in charge of his soldiers, we three white men and Hans held +a council at which I repeated every word that had passed between Harût and +Marût and myself, including their absolute denial of their having had anything +to do with the disappearance of Lady Ragnall on the Nile. +</p> + +<p> +“Now,” I asked, “what is to be done? My fate is sealed, since +for purposes of their own, of which probably we know nothing, these people +intend to take me with them to their country, as indeed they are justified in +doing, since I have been fool enough to keep a kind of assignation with them +here. But they don’t want anybody else. Therefore there is nothing to +prevent you Ragnall, and you Savage, and you Hans, from returning with the +Mazitu.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! Baas,” said Hans, who could understand English well enough +although he seldom spoke it, “why are you always bothering me with such +<i>praatjes</i>?”—(that is, chatter). “Whatever you do I will +do, and I don’t care what you do, except for your own sake, Baas. If I am +going to die, let me die; it doesn’t at all matter how, since I must go +soon and make report to your reverend father, the Predikant. And now, Baas, I +have been awake all night, for I heard those camels coming a long while before +the two spook men appeared, and as I have never heard camels before, could not +make out what they were, for they don’t walk like giraffes. So I am going +to sleep, Baas, there in the sun. When you have settled things, you can wake me +up and give me your orders,” and he suited the action to the word, for +when I glanced at him again he was, or appeared to be, slumbering, just like a +dog at its master’s feet. +</p> + +<p> +I looked at Ragnall in interrogation. +</p> + +<p> +“I am going on,” he said briefly. +</p> + +<p> +“Despite the denial of these men of any complicity in your wife’s +fate?” I asked. “If their words are true, what have you to gain by +this journey, Ragnall?” +</p> + +<p> +“An interesting experience while it lasts; that is all. Like Hans there, +if what they say <i>is</i> true, my future is a matter of complete indifference +to me. But I do not believe a word of what they say. Something tells me that +they know a great deal which they do not choose to repeat—about my wife I +mean. That is why they are so anxious that I should not accompany you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You must judge for yourself,” I answered doubtfully, “and I +hope to Heaven that you are judging right. Now, Savage, what have you decided? +Remember before you reply that these uncanny fellows declare that if we four +go, two of us will never return. It seems impossible that they can read the +future, still, without doubt, they <i>are</i> most uncanny.” +</p> + +<p> +“Sir,” said Savage, “I will take my chance. Before I left +England his lordship made a provision for my old mother and my widowed sister +and her children, and I have none other dependent upon me. Moreover, I +won’t return alone with those Mazitu to become a barbarian, for how could +I find my way back to the coast without anyone to guide me? So I’ll go on +and leave the rest to God.” +</p> + +<p> +“Which is just what we have all got to do,” I remarked. +“Well, as that is settled, let us send for Babemba and tell him.” +</p> + +<p> +This we did accordingly. The old fellow received the news with more resignation +than I had anticipated. Fixing his one eye upon me, he said: +</p> + +<p> +“Macumazana, these words are what I expected from you. Had any other man +spoken them I should have declared that he was quite mad. But I remember that I +said this when you determined to visit the Pongo, and that you came back from +their country safe and sound, having done wonderful things there, and that it +was the Pongo who suffered, not you. So I believe it will be again, so far as +you are concerned, Macumazana, for I think that some devil goes with you who +looks after his own. For the others I do not know. They must settle the matter +with their own devils, or with those of the Kendah people. Now farewell, +Macumazana, for it comes to me that we shall meet no more. Well, that happens +to all at last, and it is good to have known you who are so great in your own +way. Often I shall think of you as you will think of me, and hope that in a +country beyond that of the Kendah I may hear from your lips all that has +befallen you on this and other journeys. Now I go to withdraw my men before +these white-robed Arabs come on their strange beasts to seize you, lest they +should take us also and there should be a fight in which we, being the fewer, +must die. The loads are all in order ready to be laden on their strange beasts. +If they declare that the horses cannot cross the desert, leave them loose and +we will catch them and take them home with us, and since they are male and +female, breed young ones from them which shall be yours when you send for them, +or Bausi the king’s if you never send. Nay, I want no more presents who +have the gun and the powder and the bullets you gave me, and the tusks of ivory +for Bausi the king, and what is best of all, the memory of you and of your +courage and wisdom. May these and the gods you worship befriend you. From +yonder hill we will watch till we see that you have gone. Farewell,” and +waiting for no answer, he departed with the tears running from his solitary +eye. +</p> + +<p> +Ten minutes later the Mazitu bearers had also saluted us and gone, leaving us +seated in that deserted camp surrounded by our baggage, and so far as I was +concerned, feeling most lonely. Another ten minutes went by which we occupied +in packing our personal belongings. Then Hans, who was now washing out the +coffee kettle at a little distance, looked up and said: +</p> + +<p> +“Here come the spook-men, Baas, the whole regiment of them.” We ran +and looked. It was true. Marshalled in orderly squadrons, the camels with their +riders were sweeping towards us, and a fine sight the beasts made with their +swaying necks and long, lurching gait. About fifty yards away they halted just +where the stream from our spring entered the desert, and there proceeded to +water the camels, twenty of them at a time. Two men, however, in whom I +recognized Harût and Marût, walked forward and presently were standing before +us, bowing obsequiously. +</p> + +<p> +“Good morning, Lord,” said Harût to Ragnall in his broken English. +“So you come with Macumazana to call at our poor house, as we call at +your fine one in England. You think we got the beautiful lady you marry, she we +give old necklace. That is not so. No white lady ever in Kendahland. We hear +story from Macumazana and believe that lady drowned in Nile, for you +‘member she walk much in her sleep. We very sorry for you, but gods know +their business. They leave when they will leave, and take when they will take. +You find her again some day more beautiful still and with her soul come +back.” +</p> + +<p> +Here I looked at him sharply. I had told him nothing about Lady Ragnall having +lost her wits. How then did he know of the matter? Still I thought it best to +hold my peace. I think that Harût saw he had made some mistake, for leaving the +subject of Lady Ragnall, he went on: +</p> + +<p> +“You very welcome, O Lord, but it right tell you this most dangerous +journey, since elephant Jana not like strangers, and,” he continued +slowly, “think no elephant like your blood, and all elephants brothers. +What one hate rest hate everywhere in world. See it in your face that you +already suffer great hurt from elephant, you or someone near you. Also some of +Kendah very fierce people and love fighting, and p’raps there war in the +land while you there, and in war people get killed.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very good, my friend,” said Ragnall, “I am prepared to take +my chance of these things. Either we all go to your country together, as +Macumazana has explained to you, or none of us go.” +</p> + +<p> +“We understand. That is our bargain and we no break word,” replied +Harût. +</p> + +<p> +Then he turned his benevolent gaze upon Savage, and said: “So you come +too, Mr. Bena. That your name here, eh? Well, you learn lot things in +Kendahland, about snakes and all rest.” +</p> + +<p> +Here the jovial-looking Marût whispered something into the ear of his +companion, smiling all over his face and showing his white teeth as he did so. +“Oh!” went on Harût, “my brother tells me you meet one snake +already, down in country called Natal, but sit on him so hard, that he grow +quite flat and no bite.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who told him that?” gasped Savage. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! forget. Think Macumazana. No? Then p’raps you tell him in +sleep, for people talk much in sleep, you know, and some other people got good +ears and hear long way. Or p’raps little joke Harût. You ‘member, +he first-rate conjurer. P’raps he send that snake. No trouble if know +how. Well, we show you much better snake Kendahland. But you no sit on +<i>him</i>, Mr. Bena.” +</p> + +<p> +To me, I know not why, there was something horrible in all this jocosity, +something that gave me the creeps as always does the sight of a cat playing +with a mouse. I felt even then that it foreshadowed terrible things. How +<i>could</i> these men know the details of occurrences at which they were not +present and of which no one had told them? Did that strange +“tobacco” of theirs really give them some clairvoyant power, I +wondered, or had they other secret methods of obtaining news? I glanced at poor +Savage and perceived that he too felt as I did, for he had turned quite pale +beneath his tan. Even Hans was affected, for he whispered to me in Dutch: +“These are not men; these are devils, Baas, and this journey of ours is +one into hell.” +</p> + +<p> +Only Ragnall sat stern, silent, and apparently quite unmoved. Indeed there was +something almost sphinx-like about the set and expression of his handsome face. +Moreover, I felt sure that Harût and Marût recognized the man’s strength +and determination and that he was one with whom they must reckon seriously. +Beneath all their smiles and courtesies I could read this knowledge in their +eyes; also that it was causing them grave anxiety. It was as though they knew +that here was one against whom their power had no avail, whose fate was the +master of their fate. In a sense Harût admitted this to me, for suddenly he +looked up and said in a changed voice and in Bantu: +</p> + +<p> +“You are a good reader of hearts, O Macumazana, almost as good as I am. +But remember that there is One Who writes upon the book of the heart, Who is +the Lord of us who do but read, and that what He writes, that will befall, +strive as we may, for in His hands is the future.” +</p> + +<p> +“Quite so,” I replied coolly, “and that is why I am going +with you to Kendahland and fear you not at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“So it is and so let it be,” he answered. “And now, Lords, +are you ready to start? For long is the road and who knows what awaits us ere +we see its end?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I replied, “long is the road of life and who knows +what awaits us ere we see its end—and after?” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Three hours later I halted the splendid white riding-camel upon which I was +mounted, and looked back from the crest of a wave of the desert. There far +behind us on the horizon, by the help of my glasses, I could make out the site +of the camp we had left and even the tall ant-hill whence I had gazed in the +moonlight at our mysterious escort which seemed to have sprung from the desert +as though by magic. +</p> + +<p> +This was the manner of our march: A mile or so ahead of us went a picket of +eight or ten men mounted on the swiftest beasts, doubtless to give warning of +any danger. Next, three or four hundred yards away, followed a body of about +fifty Kendah, travelling in a double line, and behind these the baggage men, +mounted like everyone else, and leading behind them strings of camels laden +with water, provisions, tents of skin and all our goods, including the fifty +rifles and the ammunition that Ragnall had brought from England. Then came we +three white men and Hans, each of us riding as swift and fine a camel as Africa +can breed. On our right at a distance of about half a mile, and also on our +left, travelled other bodies of the Kendah of the same numerical strength as +that ahead, while the rear was brought up by the remainder of the company who +drove a number of spare camels. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we journeyed in the centre of a square whence any escape would have been +impossible, for I forgot to say that our keepers Harût and Marût rode exactly +behind us, at such a distance that we could call to them if we wished. +</p> + +<p> +At first I found this method of travelling very tiring, as does everyone who is +quite unaccustomed to camel-back. Indeed the swing and the jolt of the swift +creature beneath me seemed to wrench my bones asunder to such an extent that at +the beginning I had once or twice to be lifted from the saddle when, after +hours of torture, at length we camped for the night. Poor Savage suffered even +more than I did, for the motion reduced him to a kind of jelly. Ragnall, +however, who I think had ridden camels before, felt little inconvenience, and +the same may be said of Hans, who rode in all sorts of positions, sometimes +sideways like a lady, and at others kneeling on the saddle like a monkey on a +barrel-organ. Also, being very light and tough as rimpis, the swaying motion +did not seem to affect him. +</p> + +<p> +By degrees all these troubles left us to such an extent that I could cover my +fifty miles a day, more or less, without even feeling tired. Indeed I grew to +like the life in that pure and sparkling desert air, perhaps because it was so +restful. Day after day we journeyed on across the endless, sandy plain, +watching the sun rise, watching it grow high, watching it sink again. Night +after night we ate our simple food with appetite and slept beneath the +glittering stars till the new dawn broke in glory from the bosom of the +immeasurable East. +</p> + +<p> +We spoke but little during all this time. It was as though the silence of the +wilderness had got hold of us and sealed our lips. Or perhaps each of us was +occupied with his own thoughts. At any rate I know that for my part I seemed to +live in a kind of dreamland, thinking of the past, reflecting much upon the +innumerable problems of this passing show called life, but not paying much heed +to the future. What did the future matter to me, who did not know whether I +should have a share of it even for another month, or week, or day, surrounded +as I was by the shadow of death? No, I troubled little as to any earthly +future, although I admit that in this oasis of calm I reflected upon that state +where past, present and future will all be one; also that those reflections, +which were in their essence a kind of unshaped prayer, brought much calm to my +spirit. +</p> + +<p> +With the regiment of escort we had practically no communication; I think that +they had been forbidden to talk to us. They were a very silent set of men, +finely-made, capable persons, of an Arab type, light rather than dark in +colour, who seemed for the most part to communicate with each other by signs or +in low-muttered words. Evidently they looked upon Harût and Marût with great +veneration, for any order which either of these brethren gave, if they were +brethren, was obeyed without dispute or delay. Thus, when I happened to mention +that I had lost a pocket-knife at one of our camping-places two days’ +journey back, three of them, much against my wish, were ordered to return to +look for it, and did so, making no question. Eight days later they rejoined us +much exhausted and having lost a camel, but with the knife, which they handed +to me with a low bow; and I confess that I felt ashamed to take the thing. +</p> + +<p> +Nor did we exchange many further confidences with Harût and Marût. Up to the +time of our arrival at the boundaries of the Kendah country, our only talk with +them was of the incidents of travel, of where we should camp, of how far it +might be to the next water, for water-holes or old wells existed in this +desert, of such birds as we saw, and so forth. As to other and more important +matters a kind of truce seemed to prevail. Still, I observed that they were +always studying us, and especially Lord Ragnall, who rode on day after day, +self-absorbed and staring straight in front of him as though he looked at +something we could not see. +</p> + +<p> +Thus we covered hundreds of miles, not less than five hundred at the least, +reckoning our progress at only thirty miles a day, including stoppages. For +occasionally we stopped at the water-holes or small oases, where the camels +drank and rested. Indeed, these were so conveniently arranged that I came to +the conclusion that once there must have been some established route running +across these wastelands to the south, of which the traditional knowledge +remained with the Kendah people. If so, it had not been used for generations, +for save those of one or two that had died on the outward march, we saw no +skeletons of camels or other beasts, or indeed any sign of man. The place was +an absolute wilderness where nothing lived except a few small mammals at the +oases and the birds that passed over it in the air on their way to more fertile +regions. Of these, by the way, I saw many that are known both to Europe and +Africa, especially ducks and cranes; also storks that, for aught I can say, may +have come from far-off, homely Holland. +</p> + +<p> +At last the character of the country began to change. Grass appeared on its +lower-lying stretches, then bushes, then occasional trees and among the trees a +few buck. Halting the caravan I crept out and shot two of these buck with a +right and left, a feat that caused our grave escort to stare in a fashion which +showed me that they had never seen anything of the sort done before. +</p> + +<p> +That night, while we were eating the venison with relish, since it was the +first fresh meat that we had tasted for many a day, I observed that the +disposition of our camp was different from its common form. Thus it was smaller +and placed on an eminence. Also the camels were not allowed to graze where they +would as usual, but were kept within a limited area while their riders were +arranged in groups outside of them. Further, the stores were piled near our +tents, in the centre, with guards set over them. I asked Harût and Marût, who +were sharing our meal, the reason of these alterations. +</p> + +<p> +“It is because we are on the borders of the Kendah country,” +answered old Harût. “Four days’ more march will bring us there, +Macumazana.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then why should you take precautions against your own people? Surely +they will welcome you.” +</p> + +<p> +“With spears perhaps. Macumazana, learn that the Kendah are not one but +two people. As you may have heard before, we are the White Kendah, but there +are also Black Kendah who outnumber us many times over, though in the beginning +we from the north conquered them, or so says our history. The White Kendah have +their own territory; but as there is no other road, to reach it we must pass +through that of the Black Kendah, where it is always possible that we may be +attacked, especially as we bring strangers into the land.” +</p> + +<p> +“How is it then that the Black Kendah allow you to live at all, Harût, if +they are so much the more numerous?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because of fear, Macumazana. They fear our wisdom and the decrees of the +Heavenly Child spoken through the mouth of its oracle, which, if it is +offended, can bring a curse upon them. Still, if they find us outside our +borders they may kill us, if they can, as we may kill them if we find them +within our borders.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed, Harût. Then it looks to me as though there were a war breeding +between you.” +</p> + +<p> +“A war is breeding, Macumazana, the last great war in which either the +White Kendah or the Black Kendah must perish. Or perhaps both will die +together. Maybe that is the real reason why we have asked you to be our guest, +Macumazana,” and with their usual courteous bows, both of them rose and +departed before I could reply. +</p> + +<p> +“You see how it stands,” I said to Ragnall. “We have been +brought here to fight for our friends, Harût, Marût and Co., against their +rebellious subjects, or rather the king who reigns jointly with them.” +</p> + +<p> +“It looks like it,” he replied quietly, “but doubtless we +shall find out the truth in time and meanwhile speculation is no good. Do you +go to bed, Quatermain, I will watch till midnight and then wake you.” +</p> + +<p> +That night passed in safety. Next day we marched before the dawn, passing +through country that grew continually better watered and more fertile, though +it was still open plain but sloping upwards ever more steeply. On this plain I +saw herds of antelopes and what in the distance looked like cattle, but no +human being. Before evening we camped where there was good water and plenty of +food for the camels. +</p> + +<p> +While the camp was being set Harût came and invited us to follow him to the +outposts, whence he said we should see a view. We walked with him, a matter of +not more than a quarter of a mile to the head of that rise up which we had been +travelling all day, and thence perceived one of the most glorious prospects on +which my eyes have fallen in all great Africa. From where we stood the land +sloped steeply for a matter of ten or fifteen miles, till finally the fall +ended in a vast plain like to the bottom of a gigantic saucer, that I presume +in some far time of the world’s history was once an enormous lake. A +river ran east and west across this plain and into it fell tributaries. Far +beyond this river the contours of the country rose again till, many, many miles +away, there appeared a solitary hill, tumulus-shaped, which seemed to be +covered with bush. +</p> + +<p> +Beyond and surrounding this hill was more plain which with the aid of my +powerful glasses was, we could see, bordered at last by a range of great +mountains, looking like a blue line pencilled across the northern distance. To +the east and west the plain seemed to be illimitable. Obviously its soil was of +a most fertile character and supported numbers of inhabitants, for everywhere +we could see their kraals or villages. Much of it to the west, however, was +covered with dense forest with, to all appearance, a clearing in its midst. +</p> + +<p> +“Behold the land of the Kendah,” said Harût. “On this side of +the River Tava live the Black Kendah, on the farther side, the White +Kendah.” +</p> + +<p> +“And what is that hill?” +</p> + +<p> +“That is the Holy Mount, the Home of the Heavenly Child, where no man may +set foot”—here he looked at us meaningly—“save the +priests of the Child.” +</p> + +<p> +“What happens to him if he does?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“He dies, my Lord Macumazana.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it is guarded, Harût?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is guarded, not with mortal weapons, Macumazana, but by the spirits +that watch over the Child.” +</p> + +<p> +As he would say no more on this interesting matter, I asked him as to the +numbers of the Kendah people, to which he replied that the Black Kendah might +number twenty thousand men of arm-bearing age, but the White Kendah not more +than two thousand. +</p> + +<p> +“Then no wonder you want spirits to guard your Heavenly Child,” I +remarked, “since the Black Kendah are your foes and with you warriors are +few.” +</p> + +<p> +At this moment our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a picket on a +camel, who reported something to Harût which appeared to disturb him. I asked +him what was the matter. +</p> + +<p> +“That is the matter,” he said, pointing to a man mounted on a rough +pony who just then appeared from behind some bushes about half a mile away, +galloping down the slope towards the plain. “He is one of the scouts of +Simba, King of the Black Kendah, and he goes to Simba’s town in yonder +forest to make report of our arrival. Return to camp, Macumazana, and eat, for +we must march with the rising of the moon.” +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the moon rose we marched accordingly, although the camels, many of +which were much worn with the long journey, scarcely had been given time to +fill themselves and none to rest. All night we marched down the long slope, +only halting for half an hour before daylight to eat something and rearrange +the loads on the baggage beasts, which now, I noticed, were guarded with extra +care. When we were starting again Marût came to us and remarked with his usual +smile, on behalf of his brother Harût, who was otherwise engaged, that it might +be well if we had our guns ready, since we were entering the land of the +elephant Jana and “who knew but that we might meet him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Or his worshippers on two legs,” I suggested, to which his only +reply was a nod. +</p> + +<p> +So we got our repeating rifles, some of the first that were ever made, +serviceable but rather complicated weapons that fired five cartridges. Hans, +however, with my permission, armed himself with the little Purdey piece that +was named “Intombi,” the singe-barrelled, muzzle-loading gun which +had done me so much service in earlier days, and even on my last journey to +Pongoland. He said that he was accustomed to it and did not understand these +new-fangled breechloaders, also that it was “lucky.” I consented as +I did not think that it made much difference with what kind of rifle Hans was +provided. As a marksman he had this peculiarity: up to a hundred yards or so he +was an excellent shot, but beyond that distance no good at all. +</p> + +<p> +A quarter of an hour later, as the dawn was breaking, we passed through a kind +of <i>nek</i> of rough stones bordering the flat land, and emerged into a +compact body on to the edge of the grassy plain. Here the word was given to +halt for a reason that became clear to me so soon as I was out of the rocks. +For there, marching rapidly, not half a mile away, were some five hundred +white-robed men. A large proportion of these were mounted, the best being +foot-soldiers, of whom more were running up every minute, appearing out of bush +that grew upon the hill-side, apparently to dispute our passage. These people, +who were black-faced with fuzzy hair upon which they wore no head-dress, all +seemed to be armed with spears. +</p> + +<p> +Presently from out of the mass of them two horsemen dashed forward, one of whom +bore a white flag in token that they came to parley. Our advance guard allowed +them to pass and they galloped on, dodging in and out between the camels with +wonderful skill till at length they came to where we were with Harût and Marût, +and pulling up their horses so sharply that the animals almost sat down on +their haunches, saluted by raising their spears. They were very fine-looking +fellows, perfectly black in colour with a negroid cast of countenance and long +frizzled hair which hung down on to their shoulders. Their clothing was light, +consisting of hide riding breeches that resembled bathing drawers, sandals, and +an arrangement of triple chains which seemed to be made of some silvery metal +that hung from their necks across the breast and back. Their arms consisted of +a long lance similar to that carried by the White Kendah, and a straight, +cross-handled sword suspended from a belt. This, as I ascertained afterwards, +was the regulation cavalry equipment among these people. The footmen carried a +shorter spear, a round leather shield, two throwing javelins or assegais, and a +curved knife with a horn handle. +</p> + +<p> +“Greeting, Prophets of the Child!” cried one of them. “We are +messengers from the god Jana who speaks through the mouth of Simba the +King.” +</p> + +<p> +“Say on, worshippers of the devil Jana. What word has Simba the King for +us?” answered Harût. +</p> + +<p> +“The word of war, Prophet. What do you beyond your southern boundary of +the Tava river in the territory of the Black Kendah, that was sealed to them by +pact after the battle of a hundred years ago? Is not all the land to the north +as far as the mountains and beyond the mountains enough for you? Simba the King +let you go out, hoping that the desert would swallow you, but return you shall +not.” +</p> + +<p> +“That we shall know presently,” replied Harût in a suave voice. +“It depends upon whether the Heavenly Child or the devil Jana is the more +powerful in the land. Still, as we would avoid bloodshed if we may, we desire +to explain to you, messengers of King Simba, that we are here upon a peaceful +errand. It was necessary that we should convey the white lords to make an +offering to the Child, and this was the only road by which we could lead them +to the Holy Mount, since they come from the south. Through the forests and the +swamps that lie to the east and west camels cannot travel.” +</p> + +<p> +“And what is the offering that the white men would make to the Child, +Prophet? Oh! we know well, for like you we have our magic. The offering that +they must make is the blood of Jana our god, which you have brought them here +to kill with their strange weapons, as though any weapon could prevail against +Jana the god. Now, give to us these white men that we may offer them to the +god, and perchance Simba the King will let you go through.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” asked Harût, “seeing that you declare that the white +men cannot harm Jana, to whom indeed they wish no harm. To surrender them to +you that they may be torn to pieces by the devil Jana would be to break the law +of hospitality, for they are our guests. Now return to Simba the King, and say +to Simba that if he lifts a spear against us the threefold curse of the Child +shall fall upon him and upon you his people: The curse of Heaven by storm or by +drought. The curse of famine. The curse of war. I the prophet have spoken. +Depart.” +</p> + +<p> +Watching, I could see that this ultimatum delivered by Harût in a most +impressive voice, and seconded as it was by the sudden and simultaneous lifting +of the spears of all our escort that were within hearing, produced a +considerable effect upon the messengers. Their faces grew afraid and they +shrank a little. Evidently the “threefold curse of the Child” +suggested calamities which they dreaded. Making no answer, they wheeled their +horses about and galloped back to the force that was gathering below as swiftly +as they had come. +</p> + +<p> +“We must fight, my Lord Macumazana,” said Harût, “and if we +would live, conquer, as I know that we shall do.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he issued some orders, of which the result was that the caravan adopted a +wedge-shaped formation like to that of a great flock of wildfowl on the wing. +Harût stationed himself almost at the apex of the triangle. I with Hans and +Marût were about the centre of the line, while Ragnall and Savage were placed +opposite to us in the right line, the whole width of the wedge being between +us. The baggage camels and their leaders occupied the middle space between the +lines and were followed by a small rear-guard. +</p> + +<p> +At first we white men were inclined to protest at this separation, but when +Marût explained to us that its object was to give confidence to the two +divisions of the force and also to minimize the risk of destruction or capture +of all three of us, of course we had nothing more to say. So we just shook +hands, and with as much assurance as we could command wished each other well +through the job. +</p> + +<p> +Then we parted, poor Savage looking very limp indeed, for this was his first +experience of war. Ragnall, however, who came of an old fighting stock, seemed +to be happy as a king. I who had known so many battles, was the reverse of +happy, for inconveniently enough there flashed into my mind at this juncture +the dying words of the Zulu captain and seer, Mavovo, which foretold that I too +should fall far away in war; and I wondered whether this were the occasion that +had been present to his foreseeing mind. +</p> + +<p> +Only Hans seemed quite unconcerned. Indeed I noted that he took the opportunity +of the halt to fill and light his large corn-cob pipe, a bit of bravado in the +face of Providence for which I could have kicked him had he not been perched in +his usual monkey fashion on the top of a very tall camel. The act, however, +excited the admiration of the Kendah, for I heard one of them call to the +others: +</p> + +<p> +“Look! He is not a monkey after all, but a man—more of a man than +his master.” +</p> + +<p> +The arrangements were soon made. Within a quarter of an hour of the departure +of the messengers Harût, after bowing thrice towards the Holy Mountain, rose in +his stirrups and shaking a long spear above his head, shouted a single word: +</p> + +<p> +“Charge!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br /> +ALLAN IS CAPTURED</h2> + +<p> +The ride that followed was really quite exhilarating. The camels, +notwithstanding their long journey, seemed to have caught some of the +enthusiasm of the war-horse as described in the Book of Job; indeed I had no +idea that they could travel at such a rate. On we swung down the slope, keeping +excellent order, the forest of tall spears shining and the little lancer-like +pennons fluttering on the breeze in a very gallant way. In silence we went save +for the thudding of the hoofs of the camels and an occasional squeal of anger +as some rider drove his lance handle into their ribs. Not until we actually +joined battle did a single man open his lips. Then, it is true, there went up +one simultaneous and mighty roar of: +</p> + +<p> +“The Child! Death to Jana! The Child! The Child!” +</p> + +<p> +But this happened a few minutes later. +</p> + +<p> +As we drew near the enemy I saw that they had massed their footmen in a dense +body, six or eight lines thick. There they stood to receive the impact of our +charge, or rather they did not all stand, for the first two ranks were kneeling +with long spears stretched out in front of them. I imagine that their +appearance must have greatly resembled that of the Greek phalanx, or that of +the Swiss prepared to receive cavalry in the Middle Ages. On either side of +this formidable body, which by now must have numbered four or five hundred men, +and at a distance perhaps of a quarter of a mile from them, were gathered the +horsemen of the Black Kendah, divided into two bodies of nearly equal strength, +say about a hundred horse in each body. +</p> + +<p> +As we approached, our triangle curved a little, no doubt under the direction of +Harût. A minute or so later I saw the reason. It was that we might strike the +foot-soldiers not full in front but at an angle. It was an admirable manoeuvre, +for when presently we did strike, we caught them swiftly on the flank and +crumpled them up. My word! we went through those fellows like a knife through +butter; they had as much chance against the rush of our camels as a brown-paper +screen has against a typhoon. Over they rolled in heaps while the White Kendah +spitted them with their lances. +</p> + +<p> +“The Child is top dog! My money on the Child,” reflected I in +irreverent ecstasy. But that exultation was premature, for those Black Kendah +were by no means all dead. Presently I saw that scores of them had appeared +among the camels, which they were engaged in stabbing, or trying to stab, in +the stomach with their spears. Also I had forgotten the horsemen. As our charge +slackened owing to the complication in front, these arrived on our flanks like +two thunderbolts. We faced about and did our best to meet the onslaught, of +which the net result was that both our left and right lines were pierced +through about fifty yards behind the baggage camels. Luckily for us the very +impetuosity of the Black Kendah rush deprived it of most of the fruits of +victory, since the two squadrons, being unable to check their horses, ended by +charging into each other and becoming mixed in inextricable confusion. Then, I +do not know who gave the order, we wheeled our camels in and fell upon them, a +struggling, stationary mass, with the result that many of them were speared, or +overthrown and trampled. +</p> + +<p> +I have said we, but that is not quite correct, at any rate so far as Marût, +Hans, I and about fifteen camelmen were concerned. How it happened I could not +tell in that dust and confusion, but we were cut off from the main body and +presently found ourselves fighting desperately in a group at which Black Kendah +horsemen were charging again and again. We made the best stand we could. By +degrees the bewildered camels sank under the repeated spear-thrusts of the +enemy, all except one, oddly enough that ridden by Hans, which by some strange +chance was never touched. The rest of us were thrown or tumbled off the camels +and continued the fight from behind their struggling bodies. +</p> + +<p> +That is where I came in. Up to this time I had not fired a single shot, partly +because I do not like missing, which it is so easy to do from the back of a +swaying camel, and still more for the reason that I had not the slightest +desire to kill any of these savage men unless I was obliged to do so in +self-defence. Now, however, the thing was different, as I was fighting for my +life. Leaning against my camel, which was dying and beating its head upon the +ground, groaning horribly the while, I emptied the five cartridges of the +repeater into those Black Kendah, pausing between each shot to take aim, with +the result that presently five riderless horses were galloping loose about the +veld. +</p> + +<p> +The effect was electrical, since our attackers had never seen anything of the +kind before. For a while they all drew off, which gave me time to reload. Then +they came on again and I repeated the process. For a second time they retreated +and after consultation which lasted for a minute or more, made a third attack. +Once more I saluted them to the best of my ability, though on this occasion +only three men and a horse fell. The fifth shot was a clean miss because they +came on in such a scattered formation that I had to turn from side to side to +fire. +</p> + +<p> +Now at last the game was up, for the simple reason that I had no more +cartridges save two in my double-barrelled pistol. It may be asked why. The +answer is, want of foresight. Too many cartridges in one’s pocket are apt +to chafe on camel-back and so is a belt full of them. In those days also the +engagements were few in which a man fired over fifteen. I had forty or fifty +more in a bag, which bag Savage with his usual politeness had taken and hung +upon his saddle without saying a word to me. At the beginning of the action I +found this out, but could not then get them from him as he was separated from +me. Hans, always careless in small matters, was really to blame as he ought to +have seen that I had the cartridges, or at any rate to have carried them +himself. In short, it was one of those accidents that will happen. There is +nothing more to be said. +</p> + +<p> +After a still longer consultation our enemies advanced on us for the fourth +time, but very slowly. Meanwhile I had been taking stock of the position. The +camel corps, or what was left of it, oblivious of our plight which the dust of +conflict had hidden from them, was travelling on to the north, more or less +victorious. That is to say, it had cut its way through the Black Kendah and was +escaping unpursued, huddled up in a mob with the baggage animals safe in its +centre. The Black Kendah themselves were engaged in killing our wounded and +succouring their own; also in collecting the bodies of the dead. In short, +quite unintentionally, we were deserted. Probably, if anybody thought about us +at all in the turmoil of desperate battle, they concluded that we were among +the slain. +</p> + +<p> +Marût came up to me, unhurt, still smiling and waving a bloody spear. +</p> + +<p> +“Lord Macumazana,” he said, “the end is at hand. The Child +has saved the others, or most of them, but us it has abandoned. Now what will +you do? Kill yourself, or if that does not please you, suffer me to kill you? +Or shoot on until you must surrender?” +</p> + +<p> +“I have nothing to shoot with any more,” I answered. “But if +we surrender, what will happen to us?” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall be taken to Simba’s town and there sacrificed to the +devil Jana—I have not time to tell you how. Therefore I propose to kill +myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I think you are foolish, Marût, since once we are dead, we are +dead; but while we are alive it is always possible that we may escape from +Jana. If the worst comes to the worst I have a pistol with two bullets in it, +one for you and one for me.” +</p> + +<p> +“The wisdom of the Child is in you,” he replied. “I shall +surrender with you, Macumazana, and take my chance.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he turned and explained things to his followers, who spoke together for a +moment. In the end these took a strange and, to my mind, a very heroic +decision. Waiting till the attacking Kendah were quite close to us, with the +exception of three men, who either because they lacked courage or for some +other reason, stayed with us, they advanced humbly as though to make +submission. A number of the Black Kendah dismounted and ran up, I suppose to +take them prisoners. The men waited till these were all round them. Then with a +yell of “The Child!” they sprang forward, taking the enemy unawares +and fighting like demons, inflicted great loss upon them before they fell +themselves covered with wounds. +</p> + +<p> +“Brave men indeed!” said Marût approvingly. “Well, now they +are all at peace with the Child, where doubtless we shall find them ere +long.” +</p> + +<p> +I nodded but answered nothing. To tell the truth, I was too much engaged in +nursing the remains of my own courage to enter into conversation about that of +other people. +</p> + +<p> +This fierce and cunning stratagem of desperate men which had cost their enemies +so dear, seemed to infuriate the Black Kendah. +</p> + +<p> +At us came the whole mob of them—we were but six now—roaring +“Jana! Jana!” and led by a grey-beard who, to judge from the number +of silver chains upon his breast and his other trappings, seemed to be a great +man among them. When they were about fifty yards away and I was preparing for +the worst, a shot rang out from above and behind me. At the same instant +Greybeard threw his arms wide and letting fall the spear he held, pitched from +his horse, evidently stone dead. I glanced back and saw Hans, the corn-cob pipe +still in his mouth and the little rifle, “Intombi,” still at his +shoulder. He had fired from the back of the camel, I think for the first time +that day, and whether by chance or through good marksmanship, I do not know, +had killed this man. +</p> + +<p> +His sudden and unexpected end seemed to fill the Black Kendah with grief and +dismay. Halting in their charge they gathered round him, while a fierce-looking +middle-aged man, also adorned with much barbaric finery, dismounted to examine +him. +</p> + +<p> +“That is Simba the King,” said Marût, “and the slain one is +his uncle, Goru, the great general who brought him up from a babe.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I wish I had another cartridge left for the nephew,” I began +and stopped, for Hans was speaking to me. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-bye, Baas,” he said, “I must go, for I cannot load +‘Intombi’ on the back of this beast. If you meet your reverend +father the Predikant before I do, tell him to make a nice place ready for me +among the fires.” +</p> + +<p> +Then before I could get out an answer, Hans dragged his camel round; as I have +said, it was quite uninjured. Urging it to a shambling gallop with blows of the +rifle stock, he departed at a great rate, not towards the home of the Child but +up the hill into a brake of giant grass mingled with thorn trees that grew +quite close at hand. Here with startling suddenness both he and the camel +vanished away. +</p> + +<p> +If the Black Kendah saw him go, of which I am doubtful, for they all seemed to +be lost in consultation round their king and the dead general, Goru, they made +no attempt to follow him. Another possibility is that they thought he was +trying to lead them into some snare or ambush. +</p> + +<p> +I do not know what they thought because I never heard them mention Hans or the +matter of his disappearance, if indeed they ever realized that there was such a +person. Curiously enough in the case of men who had just shown themselves so +brave, this last accident of the decease of Goru coming on the top of all their +other casualties, seemed to take the courage out of them. It was as though they +had come to the conclusion that we with our guns were something more than +mortal. +</p> + +<p> +For several minutes they debated in evident hesitation. At last from out of +their array rode a single man, in whom I recognized one of the envoys who had +met us in the morning, carrying in his hand a white flag as he had done before. +Thereon I laid down my rifle in token that I would not fire at him, which +indeed I could not do having nothing to fire. Seeing this he came to within a +few yards and halting, addressed Marût. +</p> + +<p> +“O second Prophet of the Child,” he said, “these are the +words of Simba the King: Your god has been too strong for us to-day, though in +a day to come it may be otherwise. I thought I had you in a pit; that you were +the bucks and I the hunter. But, though with loss, you have escaped out of the +pit,” and the speaker glanced towards our retreating force which was now +but a cloud of dust in the far distance, “while I the hunter have been +gored by your horns,” and again he glanced at the dead that were +scattered about the plain. “The noblest of the buck, the white bull of +the herd,” and he looked at me, who in any other circumstances would have +felt complimented, “and you, O Prophet Marût, and one or two others, +besides those that I have slain, are however still in the pit and your horn is +a magic horn,” here he pointed to my rifle, “which pierces from +afar and kills dead all by whom it is touched.” +</p> + +<p> +“So I caught those gentry well in the middle,” thought I to myself, +“and with soft-nosed bullets!” +</p> + +<p> +“Therefore I, Simba the King, make you an offer. Yield yourselves and I +swear that no spear shall be driven through your hearts and no knife come near +your throats. You shall only be taken to my town and there be fed on the best +and kept as prisoners, till once more there is peace between the Black Kendah +and the White. If you refuse, then I will ring you round and perhaps in the +dark rush on you and kill you all. Or perhaps I will watch you from day to day +till you, who have no water, die of thirst in the heat of the sun. These are my +words to which nothing may be added and from which nothing shall be taken +away.” +</p> + +<p> +Having finished this speech he rode back a few yards out of earshot, and +waited. +</p> + +<p> +“What will you answer, Lord Macumazana?” asked Marût. +</p> + +<p> +I replied by another question. “Is there any chance of our being rescued +by your people?” +</p> + +<p> +He shook his head. “None. What we have seen to-day is but a small part of +the army of the Black Kendah, one regiment of foot and one of horse, that are +always ready. By to-morrow thousands will be gathered, many more than we can +hope to deal with in the open and still less in their strongholds, also Harût +will believe that we are dead. Unless the Child saves us we shall be left to +our fate.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it seems that we are indeed in a pit, as that black brute of a king +puts it, Marût, and if he does what he says and rushes us at sundown, everyone +of us will be killed. Also I am thirsty already and there is nothing to drink. +But will this king keep his word? There are other ways of dying besides by +steel.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think that he will keep his word, but as that messenger said, he will +not add to his word. Choose now, for see, they are beginning to hedge us +round.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you say, men?” I asked of the three who had remained with +us. +</p> + +<p> +“We say, Lord, that we are in the hands of the Child, though we wish now +that we had died with our brothers,” answered their spokesman +fatalistically. +</p> + +<p> +So after Marût and I had consulted together for a little as to the form of his +reply, he beckoned to the messenger and said: +</p> + +<p> +“We accept the offer of Simba, although it would be easy for this lord to +kill him now where he stands, namely, to yield ourselves as prisoners on his +oath that no harm shall come to us. For know that if harm does come, the +vengeance will be terrible. Now in proof of his good faith, let Simba draw near +and drink the cup of peace with us, for we thirst.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not so,” said the messenger, “for then that white lord might +kill him with his tube. Give me the tube and Simba shall come.” +</p> + +<p> +“Take it,” I said magnanimously, handing him the rifle, which he +received in a very gingerly fashion. After all, I reflected, there is nothing +much more useless than a rifle without ammunition. +</p> + +<p> +Off he went holding the weapon at arm’s length, and presently Simba +himself, accompanied by some of his men, one of whom carried a skin of water +and another a large cup hollowed from an elephant’s tusk, rode up to us. +This Simba was a fine and rather terrifying person with a large moustache and a +chin shaved except for a little tuft of hair which he wore at its point like an +Italian. His eyes were big and dark, frank-looking, yet now and again with +sinister expression in the corners of them. He was not nearly so black as most +of his followers; probably in bygone generations his blood had been crossed +with that of the White Kendah. He wore his hair long without any head-dress, +held in place by a band of gold which I suppose represented a crown. On his +forehead was a large white scar, probably received in some battle. Such was his +appearance. +</p> + +<p> +He looked at me with great curiosity, and I have often wondered since what kind +of an impression I produced upon him. My hat had fallen off, or I had knocked +it off when I fired my last cartridge into his people, and forgotten to replace +it, and my intractable hair, which was longer than usual, had not been recently +brushed. My worn Norfolk jacket was dyed with blood from a wounded or dying man +who had tumbled against me in the scrimmage when the cavalry charged us, and my +right leg and boot were stained in a similar fashion from having rubbed against +my camel where a spear had entered it. Altogether I must have appeared a most +disreputable object. +</p> + +<p> +Some indication of his opinion was given, however, in a remark, which of course +I pretended not to understand, that I overheard him make to one of his +officers: +</p> + +<p> +“Truly,” he said, “we must not always look to the strong for +strength. And yet this little white porcupine is strength itself, for see how +much damage he has wrought us. Also consider his eyes that appear to pierce +everything. Jana himself might fear those eyes. Well, time that grinds the +rocks will tell us all.” +</p> + +<p> +All of this I caught perfectly, my ears being very sharp, although he thought +that he spoke out of my hearing, for after spending a month in their company I +understood the Kendah dialect of Bantu very well. +</p> + +<p> +Having delivered himself thus he rode nearer and said: +</p> + +<p> +“You, Prophet Marût, my enemy, have heard the terms of me, Simba the +King, and have accepted them. Therefore discuss them no more. What I have +promised I will keep. What I have given I give, neither greater nor less by the +weight of a hair.” +</p> + +<p> +“So be it, O King,” answered Marût with his usual smile, which +nothing ever seemed to disturb. “Only remember that if those terms are +broken either in the letter or in the spirit, especially the spirit” +(that is the best rendering I can give of his word), “the manifold curses +of the Child will fall upon you and yours. Yes, though you kill us all by +treachery, still those curses will fall.” +</p> + +<p> +“May Jana take the Child and all who worship it,” exclaimed the +king with evident irritation. +</p> + +<p> +“In the end, O King, Jana will take the Child and its followers—or +the Child will take Jana and his followers. Which of these things must happen +is known to the Child alone, and perchance to its prophets. Meanwhile, for +every one of those of the Child I think that three of the followers of Jana, or +more, lie dead upon this field. Also the caravan is now out of your reach with +two of the white lords and many of such tubes which deal death, like that which +we have surrendered to you. Therefore because we are helpless, do not think +that the Child is helpless. Jana must have been asleep, O King, or you would +have set your trap better.” +</p> + +<p> +I thought that this coolly insolent speech would have produced some outburst, +but in fact it seemed to have an opposite effect. Making no reply to it, Simba +said almost humbly: +</p> + +<p> +“I come to drink the cup of peace with you and the white lord, O Prophet. +Afterwards we can talk. Give me water, slave.” +</p> + +<p> +Then a man filled the great ivory cup with water from the skin he carried. +Simba took it and having sprinkled a little upon the ground, I suppose as an +offering, drank from the cup, doubtless to show that it was not poisoned. +Watching carefully, I made sure that he swallowed what he drank by studying the +motions of his throat. Then he handed the cup with a bow to Marût, who with a +still deeper bow passed it to me. Being absolutely parched I absorbed about a +pint of it, and feeling a new man, passed the horn to Marût, who swallowed the +rest. Then it was filled again for our three White Kendah, the King first +tasting the water as before, after which Marût and I had a second pull. +</p> + +<p> +When at length our thirst was satisfied, horses were brought to us, serviceable +and docile little beasts with sheepskins for saddles and loops of hide for +stirrups. On these we mounted and for the next three hours rode across the +plain, surrounded by a strong escort and with an armed Black Kendah running on +each side of our horses and holding in his hand a thong attached to the ring of +the bridle, no doubt to prevent any attempt to escape. +</p> + +<p> +Our road ran past but not through some villages whence we saw many women and +children staring at us, and through beautiful crops of mealies and other sorts +of grain that in this country were now just ripening. The luxuriant appearance +of these crops suggested that the rains must have been plentiful and the season +all that could be desired. From some of the villages by the track arose a +miserable sound of wailing. Evidently their inhabitants had already heard that +certain of their menkind had fallen in that morning’s fight. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of the third hour we began to enter the great forest which I had +seen when first we looked down on Kendahland. It was filled with splendid +trees, most of them quite strange to me, but perhaps because of the denseness +of their overshadowing crowns there was comparatively no undergrowth. The +general effect of the place was very gloomy, since little light could pass +through the interlacing foliage of the tops of those mighty trees. +</p> + +<p> +Towards evening we came to a clearing in this forest, it may have been four or +five miles in diameter, but whether it was natural or artificial I am not sure. +I think, however, that it was probably the former for two reasons: the hollow +nature of the ground, which lay a good many feet lower than the surrounding +forest, and the wonderful fertility of the soil, which suggested that it had +once been deposited upon an old lake bottom. Never did I see such crops as +those that grew upon that clearing; they were magnificent. +</p> + +<p> +Wending our way along the road that ran through the tall corn, for here every +inch was cultivated, we came suddenly upon the capital of the Black Kendah, +which was known as Simba Town. It was a large place, somewhat different from +any other African settlement with which I am acquainted, inasmuch as it was not +only stockaded but completely surrounded by a broad artificial moat filled with +water from a stream that ran through the centre of the town, over which moat +there were four timber bridges placed at the cardinal points of the compass. +These bridges were strong enough to bear horses or stock, but so made that in +the event of attack they could be destroyed in a few minutes. +</p> + +<p> +Riding through the eastern gate, a stout timber structure on the farther side +of the corresponding bridge, where the king was received with salutes by an +armed guard, we entered one of the main streets of the town which ran from +north to south and from east to west. It was broad and on either side of it +were the dwellings of the inhabitants set close together because the space +within the stockade was limited. These were not huts but square buildings of +mud with flat roofs of some kind of cement. Evidently they were built upon the +model of Oriental and North African houses of which some debased tradition +remained with these people. Thus a stairway or ladder ran from the interior to +the roof of each house, whereon its inhabitants were accustomed, as I +discovered afterwards, to sleep during a good part of the year, also to eat in +the cool of the day. Many of them were gathered there now to watch us pass, +men, women, and children, all except the little ones decently clothed in long +garments of various colours, the women for the most part in white and the men +in a kind of bluish linen. +</p> + +<p> +I saw at once that they had already heard of the fight and of the considerable +losses which their people had sustained, for their reception of us prisoners +was most unfriendly. Indeed the men shook their fists at us, the women screamed +out curses, while the children stuck out their tongues in token of derision or +defiance. Most of these demonstrations, however, were directed at Marût and his +followers, who only smiled indifferently. At me they stared in wonder not +unmixed with fear. +</p> + +<p> +A quarter of a mile or so from the gate we came to an inner enclosure, that +answered to the South African cattle kraal, surrounded by a dry ditch and a +timber palisade outside of which was planted a green fence of some shrub with +long white thorns. Here we passed through more gates, to find ourselves in an +oval space, perhaps five acres in extent. Evidently this served as a market +ground, but all around it were open sheds where hundreds of horses were +stabled. No cattle seemed to be kept there, except a few that with sheep and +goats were driven in every day for slaughter purposes at a shambles at the +north end, from the great stock kraals built beyond the forest to the south, +where they were safe from possible raiding by the White Kendah. +</p> + +<p> +A tall reed fence cut off the southern end of this marketplace, outside of +which we were ordered to dismount. Passing through yet another gate we found +within the fence a large hut or house built on the same model as the others in +the town, which Marût whispered to me was that of the king. Behind it were +smaller houses in which lived his queen and women, good-looking females, who +advanced to meet him with obsequious bows. To the right and left were two more +buildings of about equal size, one of which was occupied by the royal guard and +the other was the guest-house whither we were conducted. +</p> + +<p> +It proved to be a comfortable dwelling about thirty feet square but containing +only one room, with various huts behind it that served for cooking and other +purposes. In one of these the three camelmen were placed. Immediately on our +arrival food was brought to us, a lamb or kid roasted whole upon a wooden +platter, and some green mealie-cobs boiled upon another platter; also water to +drink and wash with in earthenware jars of sun-dried clay. +</p> + +<p> +I ate heartily, for I was starving. Then, as it was useless to attempt +precautions against murder, without any talk to my fellow prisoner, for which +we were both too tired, I threw myself down on a mattress stuffed with corn +husks in a corner of the hut, drew a skin rug over me and, having commended +myself to the protection of the Power above, fell fast asleep. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br /> +THE FIRST CURSE</h2> + +<p> +The next thing I remember was feeling upon my face the sunlight that poured +through a window-place which was protected by immovable wooden bars. For a +while I lay still, reflecting as memory returned to me upon all the events of +the previous day and upon my present unhappy position. Here I was a prisoner in +the hands of a horde of fierce savages who had every reason to hate me, for +though this was done in self-defence, had I not killed a number of their people +against whom personally I had no quarrel? It was true that their king had +promised me safety, but what reliance could be put upon the word of such a man? +Unless something occurred to save me, without doubt my days were numbered. In +this way or in that I should be murdered, which served me right for ever +entering upon such a business. +</p> + +<p> +The only satisfactory point in the story was that, for the present at any rate, +Ragnall and Savage had escaped, though doubtless sooner or later fate would +overtake them also. I was sure that they had escaped, since two of the camelmen +with us had informed Marût that they saw them swept away surrounded by our +people and quite unharmed. Now they would be grieving over my death, since none +survived who could tell them of our capture, unless the Black Kendah chose to +do so, which was not likely. I wondered what course they would take when +Ragnall found that his quest was vain, as of course must happen. Try to get out +of the country, I suppose, as I prayed they might succeed in doing, though this +was most improbable. +</p> + +<p> +Then there was Hans. He of course would attempt to retrace our road across the +desert, if he had got clear away. Having a good camel, a rifle and some +ammunition, it was just possible that he might win through, as he never forgot +a path which he had once travelled, though probably in a week’s time a +few bones upon the desert would be all that remained of him. Well, as he had +suggested, perhaps we should soon be talking the event over in some far sphere +with my father—and others. Poor old Hans! +</p> + +<p> +I opened my eyes and looked about me. The first thing I noticed was that my +double-barrelled pistol, which I had placed at full cock beside me before I +went to sleep, was gone, also my large clasp-knife. This discovery did not tend +to raise my spirits, since I was now quite weaponless. Then I observed Marût +seated on the floor of the hut staring straight in front of him, and noted that +at length even he had ceased to smile, but that his lips were moving as though +he were engaged in prayer or meditation. +</p> + +<p> +“Marût,” I said, “someone has been in this place while we +were asleep and stolen my pistol and knife.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Lord,” he answered, “and my knife also. I saw them come +in the middle of the night, two men who walked softly as cats, and searched +everything.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then why did you not wake me?” +</p> + +<p> +“What would have been the use, Lord? If we had caught hold of the men, +they would have called out and we should have been murdered at once. It was +best to let them take the things, which after all are of no good to us +here.” +</p> + +<p> +“The pistol might have been of some good,” I replied significantly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” he said, nodding, “but at the worst death is easy to +find.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think, Marût, that we could manage to let Harût and the others +know our plight? That smoke which I breathed in England, for instance, seemed +to show me far-off things—if we could get any of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“The smoke was nothing, Lord, but some harmless burning powder which +clouded your mind for a minute, and enabled you to see the thoughts that were +in <i>our</i> minds. <i>We</i> drew the pictures at which you looked. Also here +there is none.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” I said, “the old trick of suggestion; just what I +imagined. Then there’s an end of that, and as the others will think that +we are dead and we cannot communicate with them, we have no hope except in +ourselves.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or the Child,” suggested Marût gently. +</p> + +<p> +“Look here!” I said with irritation. “After you have just +told me that your smoke vision was a mere conjurer’s trick, how do you +expect me to believe in your blessed Child? Who is the Child? What is the +Child, and—this is more important—what can it do? As your throat is +going to be cut shortly you may as well tell me the truth.” +</p> + +<p> +“Lord Macumazana, I will. Who and what the Child is I cannot say because +I do not know. But it has been our god for thousands of years, and we believe +that our remote forefathers brought it with them when they were driven out of +Egypt at some time unknown. We have writings concerning it done up in little +rolls, but as we cannot read them they are of no use to us. It has an +hereditary priesthood, of which Harût my uncle, for he is my uncle, is the +head. We believe that the Child is God, or rather a symbol in which God dwells, +and that it can save us in this world and the next, for we hold that man is an +immortal spirit. We believe also that through its Oracle—a priestess who +is called Guardian of the Child—it can declare the future and bring +blessings or curses upon men, especially upon our enemies. When the Oracle dies +we are helpless since the Child has no ‘mouth’ and our enemies +prevail against us. This happened a long while ago, and the last Oracle having +declared before her death that her successor was to be found in England, my +uncle and I travelled thither disguised as conjurers and made search for many +years. We thought that we had found the new Oracle in the lady who married the +Lord Igeza, because of that mark of the new moon upon her neck. After our +return to Africa, however, for as I have spoken of this matter I may as well +tell you all,” here he stared me full in the eyes and spoke in a clear +metallic voice which somehow no longer convinced me, “we found that we +had made a mistake, for the real Oracle, a mere girl, was discovered among our +own people, and has now been for two years installed in her office. Without +doubt the last Guardian of the Child was wandering in her mind when she told us +that story before her death as to a woman in England, a country of which she +had heard through Arabs. That is all.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you,” I replied, feeling that it would be useless to show +any suspicion of his story. “Now will you be so good as to tell me who +and what is the god, or the elephant Jana, whom you have brought me here to +kill? Is the elephant a god, or is the god an elephant? In either case what has +it to do with the Child?” +</p> + +<p> +“Lord, Jana among us Kendah represents the evil in the world, as the +Child represents the good. Jana is he whom the Mohammedans call Shaitan and the +Christians call Satan, and our forefathers, the old Egyptians, called +Set.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!” thought I to myself, “now we have got it. Horus the +Divine Child, and Set the evil monster, with whom it strives +everlastingly.” +</p> + +<p> +“Always,” went on Marût, “there has been war between the +Child and Jana, that is, between Good and Evil, and we know that in the end one +of them must conquer the other.” +</p> + +<p> +“The whole world has known that from the beginning,” I interrupted. +“But who and what is this Jana?” +</p> + +<p> +“Among the Black Kendah, Lord, Jana is an elephant, or at any rate his +symbol is an elephant, a very terrible beast to which sacrifices are made, that +kills all who do not worship him if he chances to meet them. He lives farther +on in the forest yonder, and the Black Kendah make use of him in war, for the +devil in him obeys their priests.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed, and is this elephant always the same?” +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot tell you, but for many generations it has been the same, for it +is known by its size and by the fact that one of its tusks is twisted +downwards.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” I remarked, “all this proves nothing, since elephants +certainly live for at least two hundred years, and perhaps much longer. Also, +after they become ‘rogues’ they acquire every kind of wicked and +unnatural habit, as to which I could tell you lots of stories. Have you seen +this elephant?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Macumazana,” he answered with a shiver. “If I had seen +it should I have been alive to-day? Yet I fear I am fated to see it ere long, +not alone,” and again he shivered, looking at me in a very suggestive +manner. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of two Black +Kendahs who brought us our breakfast of porridge and a boiled fowl, and stood +there while we ate it. For my part I was not sorry, as I had learned all I +wanted to know of the theological opinions and practice of the land, and had +come to the conclusion that the terrible devil-god of the Black Kendah was +merely a rogue elephant of unusual size and ferocity, which under other +circumstances it would have given me the greatest pleasure to try to shoot. +</p> + +<p> +When we had finished eating, that is soon, for neither of our appetites was +good that morning, we walked out of the house into the surrounding compound and +visited the camelmen in their hut. Here we found them squatted on the ground +looking very depressed indeed. When I asked them what was the matter they +replied, “Nothing,” except that they were men about to die and life +was pleasant. Also they had wives and children whom they would never see again. +</p> + +<p> +Having tried to cheer them up to the best of my ability, which I fear I did +without conviction, for in my heart I agreed with their view of the case, we +returned to the guest-house and mounted the stair which led to the flat roof. +Hence we saw that some curious ceremony was in progress in the centre of the +market-place. At that distance we could not make out the details, for I forgot +to say that my glasses had been stolen with the pistol and knife, probably +because they were supposed to be lethal weapons or instruments of magic. +</p> + +<p> +A rough altar had been erected, on which a fire burned. Behind it the king, +Simba, was seated on a stool with various councillors about him. In front of +the altar was a stout wooden table, on which lay what looked like the body of a +goat or a sheep. A fantastically dressed man, assisted by other men, appeared +to be engaged in inspecting the inside of this animal with, we gathered, +unsatisfactory results, for presently he raised his arms and uttered a loud +wail. Then the creature’s viscera were removed from it and thrown upon +the fire, while the rest of the carcass was carried off. +</p> + +<p> +I asked Marût what he thought they were doing. He replied dejectedly: +</p> + +<p> +“Consulting their Oracle; perhaps as to whether we should live or die, +Macumazana.” +</p> + +<p> +Just then the priest in the strange, feathered attire approached the king, +carrying some small object in his hand. I wondered what it could be, till the +sound of a report reached my ears and I saw the man begin to jump round upon +one leg, holding the other with both his hands at the knee and howling loudly. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!” I said, “that pistol was full cocked, and the bullet +got him in the foot.” +</p> + +<p> +Simba shouted out something, whereon a man picked up the pistol and threw it +into the fire, round which the others gathered to watch it burn. +</p> + +<p> +“You wait,” I said to Marût, and as I spoke the words the +inevitable happened. +</p> + +<p> +Off went the other barrel of the pistol, which hopped out of the fire with the +recoil like a living thing. But as it happened one of the assistant priests was +standing in front of the mouth of that barrel, and he also hopped once, but +never again, for the heavy bullet struck him somewhere in the body and killed +him. Now there was consternation. Everyone ran away, leaving the dead man lying +on the ground. Simba led the rout and the head-priest brought up the rear, +skipping along upon one leg. +</p> + +<p> +Having observed these events, which filled me with an unholy joy, we descended +into the house again as there was nothing more to see, also because it occurred +to me that our presence on the roof, watching their discomfiture, might +irritate these savages. About ten minutes later the gate of the fence round the +guest-house was thrown open, and through it came four men carrying on a +stretcher the body of the priest whom the bullet had killed, which they laid +down in front of our door. Then followed the king with an armed guard, and +after him the befeathered diviner with his foot bound up, who supported himself +upon the shoulders of two of his colleagues. This man, I now perceived, wore a +hideous mask, from which projected two tusks in imitation of those of an +elephant. Also there were others, as many as the space would hold. +</p> + +<p> +The king called to us to come out of the house, which, having no choice, we +did. One glance at him showed me that the man was frantic with fear, or rage, +or both. +</p> + +<p> +“Look upon your work, magicians!” he said in a terrible voice, +pointing first to the dead priest, then to the diviner’s wounded foot. +</p> + +<p> +“It is no work of ours, King Simba,” answered Marût. “It is +your own work. You stole the magic weapon of the white lord and made it angry, +so that it has revenged itself upon you.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is true,” said Simba, “that the tube has killed one of +those who took it away from you and wounded the other” (here was luck +indeed). “But it was you who ordered it to do so, magicians. Now, hark! +Yesterday I promised you safety, that no spear should pierce your hearts and no +knife come near your throats, and drank the cup of peace with you. But you have +broken the pact, working us more harm, and therefore it no longer holds, since +there are many other ways in which men can die. Listen again! This is my +decree. By your magic you have taken away the life of one of my servants and +hurt another of my servants, destroying the middle toe of his left foot. If +within three days you do not give back the life to him who seems to be dead, +and give back the toe to him who seems to be hurt, as you well can do, then you +shall join those whom you have slain in the land of death, how I will not tell +you.” +</p> + +<p> +Now when I heard this amazing sentence I gasped within myself, but thinking it +better to keep up my rôle of understanding nothing of their talk, I preserved +an immovable countenance and left Marût to answer. This, to his credit be it +recorded, he did with his customary pleasant smile. +</p> + +<p> +“O King,” he said, “who can bring the dead back to life? Not +even the Child itself, at any rate in this world, for there is no way.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then, Prophet of the Child, you had better find a way, or, I repeat, I +send you to join them,” he shouted, rolling his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“What did my brother, the great Prophet, promise to you but yesterday, O +King, if you harmed us?” asked Marût. “Was it not that the three +great curses should fall upon your people? Learn now that if so much as one of +us is murdered by you, these things shall swiftly come to pass. I, Marût, who +am also a Prophet of the Child, have said it.” +</p> + +<p> +Now Simba seemed to go quite mad, so mad that I thought all was over. He waved +his spear and danced about in front of us, till the silver chains clanked upon +his breast. He vituperated the Child and its worshippers, who, he declared, had +worked evil on the Black Kendah for generations. He appealed to his god Jana to +avenge these evils, “to pierce the Child with his tusks, to tear it with +his trunk, and to trample it with his feet,” all of which the wounded +diviner ably seconded through his horrid mask. +</p> + +<p> +There we stood before him, I leaning against the wall of the house with an air +of studied nonchalance mingled with mild interest, at least that is what I +meant to do, and Marût smiling sweetly and staring at the heavens. Whilst I was +wondering what exact portion of my frame was destined to become acquainted with +that spear, of a sudden Simba gave it up. Turning to his followers, he bade +them dig a hole in the corner of our little enclosure and set the dead man in +it, “with his head out so that he may breathe,” an order which they +promptly executed. +</p> + +<p> +Then he issued a command that we should be well fed and tended, and remarking +that if the departed was not alive and healthy on the third morning from that +day, we should hear from him again, he and his company stalked off, except +those men who were occupied with the interment. +</p> + +<p> +Soon this was finished also. There sat the deceased buried to the neck with his +face looking towards the house, a most disagreeable sight. Presently, however, +matters were improved in this respect by one of the sextons fetching a large +earthenware pot and several smaller pots full of food and water. The latter +they set round the head, I suppose for the sustenance of the body beneath, and +then placed the big vessel inverted over all, “to keep the sun off our +sleeping brother,” as I heard one say to the other. +</p> + +<p> +This pot looked innocent enough when all was done, like one of those that +gardeners in England put over forced rhubarb, no more. And yet, such is the +strength of the imagination, I think that on the whole I should have preferred +the object underneath naked and unadorned. For instance, I have forgotten to +say that the heads of those of the White Kendah who had fallen in the fight had +been set up on poles in front of Simba’s house. They were unpleasant to +contemplate, but to my mind not so unpleasant as that pot. +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of fact, this precaution against injury from the sun to the late +diviner proved unnecessary, since by some strange chance from that moment the +sun ceased to shine. Quite suddenly clouds arose which gradually covered the +whole sky and the weather began to turn very cold, unprecedentedly so, Marût +informed me, for the time of year, which, it will be remembered, in this +country was the season just before harvest. Obviously the Black Kendah thought +so also, since from our seats on the roof, whither we had retreated to be as +far as possible from the pot, we saw them gathered in the market-place, staring +at the sky and talking to each other. +</p> + +<p> +The day passed without any further event, except the arrival of our meals, for +which we had no great appetite. The night came, earlier than usual because of +the clouds, and we fell asleep, or rather into a series of dozes. Once I +thought that I heard someone stirring in the huts behind us, but as it was +followed by silence I took no more notice. At length the light broke very +slowly, for now the clouds were denser than ever. Shivering with the cold, +Marût and I made a visit to the camel-drivers, who were not allowed to enter +our house. On going into their hut we saw to our horror that only two of them +remained, seated stonily upon the floor. We asked where the third was. They +replied they did not know. In the middle of the night, they said, men had crept +in, who seized, bound and gagged him, then dragged him away. As there was +nothing to be said or done, we returned to breakfast filled with horrid fears. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing happened that day except that some priests arrived, lifted the +earthenware pot, examined their departed colleague, who by now had become an +unencouraging spectacle, removed old dishes of food, arranged more about him, +and went off. Also the clouds grew thicker and thicker, and the air more and +more chilly, till, had we been in any northern latitude, I should have said +that snow was pending. From our perch on the roof-top I observed the population +of Simba Town discussing the weather with ever-increasing eagerness; also that +the people who were going out to work in the fields wore mats over their +shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +Once more darkness came, and this night, notwithstanding the cold, we spent +wrapped in rugs, on the roof of the house. It had occurred to us that +kidnapping would be less easy there, as we could make some sort of a fight at +the head of the stairway, or, if the worst came to the worst, dive from the +parapet and break our necks. We kept watch turn and turn about. During my watch +about midnight I heard a noise going on in the hut behind us; scuffling and a +stifled cry which turned my blood cold. About an hour later a fire was lighted +in the centre of the market-place where the sheep had been sacrificed, and by +the flare of it I could see people moving. But what they did I could not see, +which was perhaps as well. +</p> + +<p> +Next morning only one of the camelmen was left. This remaining man was now +almost crazy with fear, and could give no clear account of what had happened to +his companion. +</p> + +<p> +The poor fellow implored us to take him away to our house, as he feared to be +left alone with “the black devils.” We tried to do so, but armed +guards appeared mysteriously and thrust him back into his own hut. +</p> + +<p> +This day was an exact repetition of the others. The same inspection of the +deceased and renewal of his food; the same cold, clouded sky, the same agitated +conferences in the market-place. +</p> + +<p> +For the third time darkness fell upon us in that horrible place. Once more we +took refuge on the roof, but this night neither of us slept. We were too cold, +too physically miserable, and too filled with mental apprehensions. All nature +seemed to be big with impending disaster. The sky appeared to be sinking down +upon the earth. The moon was hidden, yet a faint and lurid light shone now in +one quarter of the horizon, now in another. There was no wind, but the air +moaned audibly. It was as though the end of the world were near as, I +reflected, probably might be the case so far as we were concerned. Never, +perhaps, have I felt so spiritually terrified as I was during the dreadful +inaction of that night. Even if I had known that I was going to be executed at +dawn, I think that by comparison I should have been light-hearted. But the +worst part of the business was that I knew nothing. I was like a man forced to +walk through dense darkness among precipices, quite unable to guess when my +journey would end in space, but enduring all the agonies of death at every +step. +</p> + +<p> +About midnight again we heard that scuffle and stifled cry in the hut behind +us. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s gone,” I whispered to Marût, wiping the cold sweat from +my brow. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” answered Marût, “and very soon we shall follow him, +Macumazana.” +</p> + +<p> +I wished that his face were visible so that I could see if he still smiled when +he uttered those words. +</p> + +<p> +An hour or so later the usual fire appeared in the marketplace, round which the +usual figures flitted dimly. The sight of them fascinated me, although I did +not want to look, fearing what I might see. Luckily, however, we were too far +off to discern anything at night. +</p> + +<p> +While these unholy ceremonies were in progress the climax came, that is so far +as the weather was concerned. Of a sudden a great gale sprang up, a gale of icy +wind such as in Southern Africa sometimes precedes a thunderstorm. It blew for +half an hour or more, then lulled. Now lightning flashed across the heavens, +and by the glare of it we perceived that all the population of Simba Town +seemed to be gathered in the market-place. At least there were some thousands +of them, talking, gesticulating, pointing at the sky. +</p> + +<p> +A few minutes later there came a great crash of thunder, of which it was +impossible to locate the sound, for it rolled from everywhere. Then suddenly +something hard struck the roof by my side and rebounded, to be followed next +moment by a blow upon my shoulder which nearly knocked me flat, although I was +well protected by the skin rugs. +</p> + +<p> +“Down the stair!” I called. “They are stoning us,” and +suited the action to the word. +</p> + +<p> +Ten seconds later we were both in the room, crouched in its farther corner, for +the stones or whatever they were seemed to be following us. I struck a match, +of which fortunately I had some, together with my pipe and a good pocketful of +tobacco—my only solace in those days—and, as it burned up, saw +first that blood was running down Marût’s face, and secondly, that these +stones were great lumps of ice, some of them weighing several ounces, which +hopped about the floor like live things. +</p> + +<p> +“Hailstorm!” remarked Marût with his accustomed smile. +</p> + +<p> +“Hell storm!” I replied, “for whoever saw hail like that +before?” +</p> + +<p> +Then the match burnt out and conversation came to an end for the reason that we +could no longer hear each other speak. The hail came down with a perpetual, +rattling roar, that in its sum was one of the most terrible sounds to which I +ever listened. And yet above it I thought that I could catch another, still +more terrible, the wail of hundreds of people in agony. After the first few +minutes I began to be afraid that the roof would be battered in, or that the +walls would crumble beneath this perpetual fire of the musketry of heaven. But +the cement was good and the place well built. +</p> + +<p> +So it came about that the house stood the tempest, which had it been roofed +with tiles or galvanized iron I am sure it would never have done, since the +lumps of ice must have shattered one and pierced the other like paper. Indeed I +have seen this happen in a bad hailstorm in Natal which killed my best horse. +But even that hail was as snowflakes compared to this. +</p> + +<p> +I suppose that this natural phenomenon continued for about twenty minutes, not +more, during ten of which it was at its worst. Then by degrees it ceased, the +sky cleared and the moon shone out beautifully. We climbed to the roof again +and looked. It was several inches deep in jagged ice, while the market-place +and all the country round appeared in the bright moonlight to be buried beneath +a veil of snow. +</p> + +<p> +Very rapidly, as the normal temperature of that warm land reasserted itself, +this snow or rather hail melted, causing a flood of water which, where there +was any fall, began to rush away with a gurgling sound. Also we heard other +sounds, such as that from the galloping hoofs of many of the horses which had +broken loose from their wrecked stables at the north end of the market-place, +where in great number they had been killed by the falling roofs or had kicked +each other to death, and a wild universal wail that rose from every quarter of +the big town, in which quantities of the worst-built houses had collapsed. +Further, lying here and there about the market-place we could see scores of +dark shapes that we knew to be those of men, women and children, whom those +sharp missiles hurled from heaven had caught before they could escape and slain +or wounded almost to death. For it will be remembered that perhaps not fewer +than two thousand people were gathered on this market-place, attending the +horrid midnight sacrifice and discussing the unnatural weather when the storm +burst upon them suddenly as an avalanche. +</p> + +<p> +“The Child is small, yet its strength is great. Behold the first +curse!” said Marût solemnly. +</p> + +<p> +I stared at him, but as he chose to believe that a very unusual hailstorm was a +visitation from heaven I did not think it worth while arguing the point. Only I +wondered if he really did believe this. Then I remembered that such an event +was said to have afflicted the old Egyptians in the hour of their pride because +they would not “let the people go.” Well, these blackguardedly +Black Kendah were certainly worse than the Egyptians can ever have been; also +they would not let <i>us</i> go. It was not wonderful therefore that Marût +should be the victim of phantasies on the matter. +</p> + +<p> +Not until the following morning did we come to understand the full extent of +the calamity which had overtaken the Black Kendah. I think I have said that +their crops this year were magnificent and just ripening to harvest. From our +roof on previous days we could see a great area of them stretching to the edge +of the forest. When the sun rose that morning this area had vanished, and the +ground was covered with a carpet of green pulp. Also the forest itself appeared +suddenly to have experienced the full effects of a northern winter. Not a leaf +was left upon the trees, which stood there pointing their naked boughs to +heaven. +</p> + +<p> +No one who had not seen it could imagine the devastating fury of that storm. +For example, the head of the diviner who was buried in the court-yard awaiting +resurrection through our magic was, it may be recalled, covered with a stout +earthenware pot. Now that pot had shattered into sherds and the head beneath +was nothing but bits of broken bone which it would have been impossible for the +very best magic to reconstruct to the likeness of a human being. +</p> + +<p> +Calamity indeed stalked naked through the land. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +JANA</h2> + +<p> +No breakfast was brought to us that morning, probably for the reason that there +was none to bring. This did not matter, however, seeing that plenty of food +accumulated from supper and other meals stood in a corner of the house +practically untouched. So we ate what we could and then paid our usual visit to +the hut in which the camelmen had been confined. I say had been, for now it was +quite empty, the last poor fellow having vanished away like his companions. +</p> + +<p> +The sight of this vacuum filled me with a kind of fury. +</p> + +<p> +“They have all been murdered!” I said to Marût. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” he replied with gentle accuracy. “They have been +sacrificed to Jana. What we have seen on the market-place at night was the rite +of their sacrifice. Now it will be our turn, Lord Macumazana.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” I exclaimed, “I hope these devils are satisfied with +Jana’s answer to their accursed offerings, and if they try their fiendish +pranks on us——” +</p> + +<p> +“Doubtless there will be another answer. But, Lord, the question is, will +that help us?” +</p> + +<p> +Dumb with impotent rage I returned to the house, where presently the remains of +the reed gate opened. Through it appeared Simba the King, the diviner with the +injured foot walking upon crutches, and others of whom the most were more or +less wounded, presumably by the hailstones. Then it was that in my wrath I put +off the pretence of not understanding their language and went for them before +they could utter a single word. +</p> + +<p> +“Where are our servants, you murderers?” I asked, shaking my fist +at them. “Have you sacrificed them to your devil-god? If so, behold the +fruits of sacrifice!” and I swept my arm towards the country beyond. +“Where are your crops?” I went on. “Tell me on what you will +live this winter?” (At these words they quailed. In their imagination +already they saw famine stalking towards them.) “Why do you keep us here? +Is it that you wait for a worse thing to befall you? Why do you visit us here +now?” and I paused, gasping with indignation. +</p> + +<p> +“We came to look whether you had brought back to life that doctor whom +you killed with your magic, white man,” answered the king heavily. +</p> + +<p> +I stepped to the corner of the court-yard and, drawing aside a mat that I had +thrown there, showed them what lay beneath. +</p> + +<p> +“Look then,” I said, “and be sure that if you do not let us +go, as yonder thing is, so shall all of you be before another moon has been +born and died. Such is the life we shall give to evil men like you.” +</p> + +<p> +Now they grew positively terrified. +</p> + +<p> +“Lord,” said Simba, for the first time addressing me by a title of +respect, “your magic is too strong for us. Great misfortune has fallen +upon our land. Hundreds of people are dead, killed by the ice-stones that you +have called down. Our harvest is ruined, and there is but little corn left in +the storepits now when we looked to gather the new grain. Messengers come in +from the outlying land telling us that nearly all the sheep and goats and very +many of the cattle are slain. Soon we shall starve.” +</p> + +<p> +“As you deserve to starve,” I answered. “Now—will you +let us go?” +</p> + +<p> +Simba stared at me doubtfully, then began to whisper into the ear of the lamed +diviner. I could not catch what they said, so I watched their faces. That of +the diviner whose head I was glad to see had been cut by a hailstone so that +both ends of him were now injured, told me a good deal. His mask had been ugly, +but now that it was off the countenance beneath was far uglier. Of a negroid +type, pendulous-lipped, sensuous and loose-eyed, he was indeed a hideous +fellow, yet very cunning and cruel-looking, as men of his class are apt to be. +Humbled as he was for the moment, I felt sure that he was still plotting evil +against us, somewhat against the will of his master. The issue showed that I +was right. At length Simba spoke, saying: +</p> + +<p> +“We had intended, Lord, to keep you and the priest of the Child here as +hostages against mischief that might be worked on us by the followers of the +Child, who have always been our bitter enemies and done us much undeserved +wrong, although on our part we have faithfully kept the pact concluded in the +days of our grandfathers. It seems, however, that fate, or your magic, is too +strong for us, and therefore I have determined to let you go. To-night at +sundown we will set you on the road which leads to the ford of the River Tava, +which divides our territory from that of the White Kendah, and you may depart +where you will, since our wish is that never again may we see your ill-omened +faces.” +</p> + +<p> +At this intelligence my heart leapt in joy that was altogether premature. But, +preserving my indignant air, I exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +“To-night! Why to-night? Why not at once? It is hard for us to cross +unknown rivers in the dark.” +</p> + +<p> +“The water is low, Lord, and the ford easy. Moreover, if you started now +you would reach it in the dark; whereas if you start at sundown, you will reach +it in the morning. Lastly, we cannot conduct you hence until we have buried our +dead.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, without giving me time to answer, he turned and left the place, followed +by the others. Only at the gateway the diviner wheeled round on his crutches +and glared at us both, muttering something with his thick lips; probably it was +curses. +</p> + +<p> +“At any rate they are going to set us free,” I said to Marût, not +without exultation, when they had all vanished. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Lord,” he replied, “but <i>where</i> are they going to +set us free? The demon Jana lives in the forests and the swamps by the banks of +the Tava River, and it is said that he ravages at night.” +</p> + +<p> +I did not pursue the subject, but reflected to myself cheerfully that this +mystic rogue-elephant was a long way off and might be circumvented, whereas +that altar of sacrifice was extremely near and very difficult to avoid. +</p> + +<p> +Never did a thief with a rich booty in view, or a wooer having an assignation +with his lady, wait for sundown more eagerly than I did that day. Hour after +hour I sat upon the house-top, watching the Black Kendah carrying off the dead +killed by the hailstones and generally trying to repair the damage done by the +terrific tempest. Watching the sun also as it climbed down the cloudless sky, +and literally counting the minutes till it should reach the horizon, although I +knew well that it would have been wiser after such a night to prepare for our +journey by lying down to sleep. +</p> + +<p> +At length the great orb began to sink in majesty behind the tattered western +forest, and, punctual to the minute, Simba, with a mounted escort of some +twenty men and two led horses, appeared at our gate. As our preparations, which +consisted only of Marût stuffing such food as was available into the breast of +his robe, were already made, we walked out of that accursed guest-house and, at +a sign from the king, mounted the horses. Riding across the empty market-place +and past the spot where the rough stone altar still stood with charred bones +protruding from the ashes of its extinguished fire—were they those of our +friends the camel-drivers? I wondered—we entered the north street of the +town. +</p> + +<p> +Here, standing at the doors of their houses, were many of the inhabitants who +had gathered to watch us pass. Never did I see hate more savage than was +written on those faces as they shook their fists at us and muttered curses not +loud but deep. +</p> + +<p> +No wonder! for they were all ruined, poor folk, with nothing to look forward to +but starvation until long months hence the harvest came again for those who +would live to gather it. Also they were convinced that we, the white magician +and the prophet of their enemy the Child, had brought this disaster on them. +Had it not been for the escort I believe they would have fallen on us and torn +us to pieces. Considering them I understood for the first time how disagreeable +real unpopularity <i>can be</i>. But when I saw the actual condition of the +fruitful gardens without in the waning daylight, I confess that I was moved to +some sympathy with their owners. It was appalling. Not a handful of grain was +there left to gather, for the corn had been not only “laid” but +literally cut to ribbons by the hail. +</p> + +<p> +After running for some miles through the cultivated land the road entered the +forest. Here it was dark as pitch, so dark that I wondered how our guides found +their way. In that blackness dreadful apprehensions seized me, for I became +convinced that we had been brought here to be murdered. Every minute I expected +to feel a knife-thrust in my back. I thought of digging my heels into the +horse’s sides and trying to gallop off anywhere, but abandoned the idea, +first because I could not desert Marût, of whom I had lost touch in the gloom, +and secondly because I was hemmed in by the escort. For the same reason I did +not try to slip from the horse and glide away into the forest. There was +nothing to be done save to go on and await the end. +</p> + +<p> +It came at last some hours later. We were out of the forest now, and there was +the moon rising, past her full but still very bright. Her light showed me that +we were on a wild moorland, swampy, with scattered trees growing here and +there, across which what seemed to be a game track ran down hill. That was all +I could make out. Here the escort halted, and Simba the King said in a sullen +voice: +</p> + +<p> +“Dismount and go your ways, evil spirits, for we travel no farther across +this place which is haunted. Follow the track and it will lead you to a lake. +Pass the lake and by morning you will come to the river beyond which lies the +country of your friends. May its waters swallow you if you reach them. For +learn, there is one who watches on this road whom few care to meet.” +</p> + +<p> +As he finished speaking men sprang at us and, pulling us from the horses, +thrust us out of their company. Then they turned and in another minute were +lost in the darkness, leaving us alone. +</p> + +<p> +“What now, friend Marût?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, Lord, all we can do is to go forward, for if we stay here Simba and +his people will return and kill us at the daylight. One of them said so to +me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then, ‘come on, Macduff,’” I exclaimed, stepping out +briskly, and though he had never read Shakespeare, Marût understood and +followed. +</p> + +<p> +“What did Simba mean about ‘one on the road whom few care to +meet’?” I asked over my shoulder when we had done half a mile or +so. +</p> + +<p> +“I think he meant the elephant Jana,” replied Marût with a groan. +</p> + +<p> +“Then I hope Jana isn’t at home. Cheer up, Marût. The chances are +that we shall never meet a single elephant in this big place.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yet many elephants have been here, Lord,” and he pointed to the +ground. “It is said that they come to die by the waters of the lake and +this is one of the roads they follow on their death journey, a road that no +other living thing dare travel.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” I exclaimed. “Then after all that was a true dream I +had in the house in England.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Lord, because my brother Harût once lost his way out hunting when +he was young and saw what his mind showed you in the dream, and what we shall +see presently, if we live to come so far.” +</p> + +<p> +I made no reply, both because what he said was either true or false, which I +should ascertain presently, and because I was engaged in searching the ground +with my eyes. He was right; many elephants had travelled this path—one +quite recently. I, a hunter of those brutes, could not be deceived on this +point. Once or twice also I thought that I caught sight of the outline of some +tall creature moving silently through the scattered thorns a couple of hundred +yards or so to our right. It might have been an elephant or a giraffe, or +perhaps nothing but a shadow, so I said nothing. As I heard no noise I was +inclined to believe the latter explanation. In any case, what was the good of +speaking? Unarmed and solitary amidst unknown dangers, our position was +desperate, and as Marût’s nerve was already giving out, to emphasize its +horrors to him would be mere foolishness. +</p> + +<p> +On we trudged for another two hours, during which time the only living thing +that I saw was a large owl which sailed round our heads as though to look at +us, and then flew away ahead. +</p> + +<p> +This owl, Marût informed me, was one of “Jana’s spies” that +kept him advised of all that was passing in his territory. I muttered +“Bosh” and tramped on. Still I was glad that we saw no more of the +owl, for in certain circumstances such dark fears are catching. +</p> + +<p> +We reached the top of a rise, and there beneath us lay the most desolate scene +that ever I have seen. At least it would have been the most desolate if I did +not chance to have looked on it before, in the drawing-room of Ragnall Castle! +There was no doubt about it. Below was the black, melancholy lake, a large +sheet of water surrounded by reeds. Around, but at a considerable distance, +appeared the tropical forest. To the east of the lake stretched a stony plain. +At the time I could make out no more because of the uncertain light and the +distance, for we had still over a mile to go before we reached the edge of the +lake. +</p> + +<p> +The aspect of the place filled me with tremblings, both because of its utter +uncanniness and because of the inexplicable truth that I had seen it before. +Most people will have experienced this kind of moral shock when on going to +some new land they recognize a locality as being quite familiar to them in all +its details. Or it may be the rooms of a house hitherto unvisited by them. Or +it may be a conversation of which, when it begins, they already foreknow the +sequence and the end, because in some dim state, when or how who can say, they +have taken part in that talk with those same speakers. If this be so even in +cheerful surroundings and among our friends or acquaintances, it is easy to +imagine how much greater was the shock to me, a traveller on such a journey and +in such a night. +</p> + +<p> +I shrank from approaching the shores of this lake, remembering that as yet all +the vision was not unrolled. I looked about me. If we went to the left we +should either strike the water, or if we followed its edge, still bearing to +the left, must ultimately reach the forest, where probably we should be lost. I +looked to the right. The ground was strewn with boulders, among which grew +thorns and rank grass, impracticable for men on foot at night. I looked behind +me, meditating retreat, and there, some hundreds of yards away behind low, +scrubby mimosas mixed with aloe-like plants, I saw something brown toss up and +disappear again that might very well have been the trunk of an elephant. Then, +animated by the courage of despair and a desire to know the worst, I began to +descend the elephant track towards the lake almost at a run. +</p> + +<p> +Ten minutes or so more brought us to the eastern head of the lake, where the +reeds whispered in the breath of the night wind like things alive. As I +expected, it proved to be a bare, open space where nothing seemed to grow. Yes, +and all about me were the decaying remains of elephants, hundreds of them, some +with their bones covered in moss, that may have lain here for generations, and +others more newly dead. They were all old beasts as I could tell by the tusks, +whether male or female. Indeed about me within a radius of a quarter of a mile +lay enough ivory to make a man very rich for life, since although discoloured, +much of it seemed to have kept quite sound, like human teeth in a mummy case. +The sight gave me a new zest for life. If only I could manage to survive and +carry off that ivory! I would. In this way or in that I swore that I would! Who +could possibly die with so much ivory to be had for the taking? Not that old +hunter, Allan Quatermain. +</p> + +<p> +Then I forgot about the ivory, for there in front of me, just where it should +be, just as I had seen it in the dream-picture, was the bull elephant dying, a +thin and ancient brute that had lived its long life to the last hour. It +searched about as though to find a convenient resting-place, and when this was +discovered, stood over it, swaying to and fro for a full minute. Then it lifted +its trunk and trumpeted shrilly thrice, singing its swan-song, after which it +sank slowly to its knees, its trunk outstretched and the points of its worn +tusks resting on the ground. Evidently it was dead. +</p> + +<p> +I let my eyes travel on, and behold! about fifty yards beyond the dead bull was +a mound of hard rock. I watched it with gasping expectation and—yes, on +the top of the mound something slowly materialized. Although I knew what it +must be well enough, for a while I could not see quite clearly because there +were certain little clouds about and one of them had floated over the face of +the moon. It passed, and before me, perhaps a hundred and forty paces away, +outlined clearly against the sky, I perceived the devilish elephant of my +vision. +</p> + +<p> +Oh! what a brute was that! In bulk and height it appeared to be half as big +again as any of its tribe which I had known in all my life’s experience. +It was enormous, unearthly; a survivor perhaps of some ancient species that +lived before the Flood, or at least a very giant of its kind. Its grey-black +sides were scarred as though with fighting. One of its huge tusks, much worn at +the end, for evidently it was very old, gleamed white in the moonlight. The +other was broken off about halfway down its length. When perfect it had been +malformed, for it curved downwards and not upwards, also rather out to the +right. +</p> + +<p> +There stood this mammoth, this leviathan, this <i>monstrum horrendum, informe, +ingens</i>, as I remember my old father used to call a certain gigantic and +misshapen bull that we had on the Station, flapping a pair of ears that looked +like the sides of a Kafir hut, and waving a trunk as big as a weaver’s +beam—whatever a weaver’s beam may be—an appalling and a +petrifying sight. +</p> + +<p> +I squatted behind the skeleton of an elephant which happened to be handy and +well covered with moss and ferns and watched the beast, fascinated, wishing +that I had a large-bore rifle in my hand. What became of Marût I do not exactly +know, but I think that he lay down on the ground. +</p> + +<p> +During the minute or so that followed I reflected a good deal, as we do in +times of emergency, often after a useless sort of a fashion. For instance, I +wondered why the brute appeared thus upon yonder mound, and the thought +suggested itself to me that it was summoned thither from some neighbouring lair +by the trumpet call of the dying elephant. It occurred to me even that it was a +kind of king of the elephants, to which they felt bound to report themselves, +as it were, in the hour of their decease. Certainly what followed gave some +credence to my fantastical notion which, if there were anything in it, might +account for this great graveyard at that particular spot. +</p> + +<p> +After standing for a while in the attitude that I have described, testing the +air with its trunk, Jana, for I will call him so, lumbered down the mound and +advanced straight to where the elephant that I had thought to be dead was +kneeling. As a matter of fact it was not quite dead, for when Jana arrived it +lifted its trunk and curled it round that of Jana as though in affectionate +greeting, then let it fall to the ground again. Thereon Jana did what I had +seen it do in my dream or vision at Ragnall, namely, attacked it, knocking it +over on to its side, where it lay motionless; quite dead this time. +</p> + +<p> +Now I remembered that the vision was not accurate after all, since in it I had +seen Jana destroy a woman and a child, who on the present occasion were +wanting. Since then I have thought that this was because Harût, clairvoyantly +or telepathically, had conveyed to me, as indeed Marût declared, a scene which +he had witnessed similar to that which I was witnessing, but not identical in +its incidents. Thus it happened, perhaps, that while the act of the woman and +the child was omitted, in our case there was another act of the play to follow +of which I had received no inkling in my Ragnall experience. Indeed, if I had +received it, I should not have been there that night, for no inducement on +earth would have brought me to Kendahland. +</p> + +<p> +This was the act. Jana, having prodded his dead brother to his satisfaction, +whether from viciousness or to put it out of pain, I cannot say, stood over the +carcass in an attitude of grief or pious meditation. At this time, I should +mention, the wind, which had been rustling the hail-stripped reeds at the lake +border, had died away almost, but not completely; that is to say, only a very +faint gust blew now and again, which, with a hunter’s instinct, I +observed with satisfaction drew <i>from</i> the direction of Jana towards +ourselves. This I knew, because it struck on my forehead, which was wet with +perspiration, and cooled the skin. +</p> + +<p> +Presently, however, by a cursed spite of fate, one of these gusts—a very +little one—came from some quarter behind us, for I felt it in my back +hair, that was as damp as the rest of me. Just then I was glancing to my right, +where it seemed to me that out of the corner of my eye I had caught sight of +something passing among the stones at a distance of a hundred yards or so, +possibly the shadow of a cloud or another elephant. At the time I did not +ascertain which it was, since a faint rattle from Jana’s trunk +reconcentrated all my faculties on him in a painfully vivid fashion. +</p> + +<p> +I looked to see that all the contemplation had departed from his attitude, now +as alert as that of a fox-terrier which imagines he has seen a rat. His vast +ears were cocked, his huge bulk trembled, his enormous trunk sniffed the air. +</p> + +<p> +“Great Heavens!” thought I to myself, “he has winded +us!” Then I took such consolation as I could from the fact that the next +gust once more struck upon my forehead, for I hoped he would conclude that he +had made a mistake. +</p> + +<p> +Not a bit of it! Jana was far too old a bird—or beast—to make any +mistake. He grunted, got himself going like a luggage train, and with great +deliberation walked towards us, smelling at the ground, smelling at the air, +smelling to the right, to the left, and even towards heaven above, as though he +expected that thence might fall upon him vengeance for his many sins. A dozen +times as he came did I cover him with an imaginary rifle, marking the exact +spots where I might have hoped to send a bullet to his vitals, in a kind of +automatic fashion, for all my real brain was contemplating my own approaching +end. +</p> + +<p> +I wondered how it would happen. Would he drive that great tusk through me, +would he throw me into the air, or would he kneel upon my poor little body, and +avenge the deaths of his kin that had fallen at my hands? Marût was speaking in +a rattling whisper: +</p> + +<p> +“His priests have told Jana to kill us; we are about to die,” he +said. “Before I die I want to say that the lady, the wife of the +lord——” +</p> + +<p> +“Silence!” I hissed. “He will hear you,” for at that +instant I took not the slightest interest in any lady on the earth. Fiercely I +glared at Marût and noted even then how pitiful was his countenance. There was +no smile there now. All its jovial roundness had vanished. It had sunk in; it +was blue and ghastly with large, protruding eyes, like to that of a man who had +been three days dead. +</p> + +<p> +I was right—Jana <i>had</i> heard. Low as the whisper was, through that +intense silence it had penetrated to his almost preternatural senses. Forward +he came at a run for twenty paces or more with his trunk held straight out in +front of him. Then he halted again, perhaps the length of a cricket pitch away, +and smelt as before. +</p> + +<p> +The sight was too much for Marût. He sprang up and ran for his life towards the +lake, purposing, I suppose, to take refuge in the water. Oh! how he ran. After +him went Jana like a railway engine—express this time—trumpeting as +he charged. Marût reached the lake, which was quite close, about ten yards +ahead, and plunging into it with a bound, began to swim. +</p> + +<p> +Now, I thought, he may get away if the crocodiles don’t have him, for +that devil will scarcely take to the water. But this was just where I made a +mistake, for with a mighty splash in went Jana too. Also he was the better +swimmer. Marût soon saw this and swung round to the shore, by which manoeuvre +he gained a little as he could turn quicker than Jana. +</p> + +<p> +Back they came, Jana just behind Marût, striking at him with his great trunk. +They landed, Marût flew a few yards ahead doubling in and out among the rocks +like a hare and, to my horror, making for where I lay, whether by accident or +in a mad hope of obtaining protection, I do not know. +</p> + +<p> +It may be asked why I had not taken the opportunity to run also in the opposite +direction. There are several answers. The first was that there seemed to be +nowhere to run; the second, that I felt sure, if I did run, I should trip up +over the skeletons of those elephants or the stones; the third, that I did not +think of it at once; the fourth, that Jana had not yet seen me, and I had no +craving to introduce myself to him personally; and the fifth and greatest, that +I was so paralysed with fear that I did not feel as though I could lift myself +from the ground. Everything about me seemed to be dead, except my powers of +observation, which were painfully alive. +</p> + +<p> +Of a sudden Marût gave up. Less than a stone’s throw from me he wheeled +round and, facing Jana, hurled at him some fearful and concentrated curse, of +which all that I could distinguish were the words: “The Child!” +</p> + +<p> +Oddly enough it seemed to have an effect upon the furious rogue, which halted +in its rush and, putting its four feet together, slid a few paces nearer and +stood still. It was just as though the beast had understood the words and were +considering them. If so, their effect was to rouse him to perfect madness. He +screamed terribly; he lashed his sides with his trunk; his red and wicked eyes +rolled; foam flew from the cavern of his open mouth; he danced upon his great +feet, a sort of hideous Scottish reel. Then he charged! +</p> + +<p> +I shut my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again it was to see poor Marût +higher in the air than ever he flew before. I thought that he would never come +down, but he did at last with an awesome thud. Jana went to him and very +gently, now that he was dead, picked him up in his trunk. I prayed that he +might carry him away to some hiding-place and leave me in peace. But not so. +With slow and stately strides, rocking the deceased Marût up and down in his +trunk, as a nurse might rock a baby, he marched on to the very stone where I +lay, behind which I suppose he had seen or smelt me all the time. +</p> + +<p> +For quite a long while, it seemed more than a century, he stood over me, +studying me as though I interested him very much, the water of the lake +trickling in a refreshing stream from his great ears on to my back. Had it not +been for that water I think I should have fainted, but as it was I did the next +best thing—pretended to be dead. Perhaps this monster would scorn to +touch a dead man. Watching out of the corner of my eye, I saw him lift one vast +paw that was the size of an arm-chair and hold it over me. +</p> + +<p> +Now good-bye to the world, thought I. Then the foot descended as a steam-hammer +does, but also as a steam-hammer sometimes does when used to crack nuts, +stopped as it touched my back, and presently came to earth again alongside of +me, perhaps because Jana thought the foothold dangerous. At any rate, he took +another and better way. Depositing the remains of Marût with the most tender +care beside me, as though the nurse were putting the child to bed, he unwound +his yards of trunk and began to feel me all over with its tip, commencing at +the back of my neck. Oh! the sensation of that clammy, wriggling tip upon my +spinal column! +</p> + +<p> +Down it went till it reached the seat of my trousers. There it pinched, +presumably to ascertain whether or no I were malingering, a most agonizing +pinch like to that of a pair of blacksmith’s tongs. So sharp was it that, +although I did not stir, who was aware that the slightest movement meant death, +it tore a piece out of the stout cloth of my breeches, to say nothing of a +portion of the skin beneath. This seemed to astonish the beast, for it lifted +the tip of its trunk and shifted its head, as though to examine the fragment by +the light of the moon. +</p> + +<p> +Now indeed all was over, for when it saw blood upon that cloth——! I +put up one short, piteous prayer to Heaven to save me from this terrible end, +and lo, it was answered! +</p> + +<p> +For just as Jana, the results of the inspection being unsatisfactory, was +cocking his ears and making ready to slay me, there rang out the short, sharp +report of a rifle fired within a few yards. Glancing up at the instant, I saw +blood spurt from the monster’s left eye, where evidently the bullet had +found a home. +</p> + +<p> +He felt at his eye with his trunk; then, uttering a scream of pain, wheeled +round and rushed away. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br /> +THE CHASE</h2> + +<p> +I suppose that I swooned for a minute or two. At any rate I remember a long and +very curious dream, such a dream as is evolved by a patient under laughing gas, +that is very clear and vivid at the time but immediately afterwards slips from +the mind’s grasp as water does from the clenched hand. It was something +to the effect that all those hundreds of skeleton elephants rose and marshalled +themselves before me, making obeisance to me by bending their bony knees, +because, as I quite understood, I was the only human being that had ever +escaped from Jana. Moreover, on the foremost elephant’s skull Hans was +perched like a mahout, giving words of command to their serried ranks and +explaining to them that it would be very convenient if they would carry their +tusks, for which they had no further use, and pile them in a certain +place—I forget where—that must be near a good road to facilitate +their subsequent transport to a land where they would be made into billiard +balls and the backs of ladies’ hair-brushes. Next, through the figments +of that retreating dream, I heard the undoubted voice of Hans himself, which of +course I knew to be absurd as Hans was lost and doubtless dead, saying: +</p> + +<p> +“If you are alive, Baas, please wake up soon, as I have finished +reloading Intombi, and it is time to be going. I think I hit Jana in the eye, +but so big a beast will soon get over so little a thing as that and look for +us, and the bullet from Intombi is too small to kill him, Baas, especially as +it is not likely that either of us could hit him in the other eye.” +</p> + +<p> +Now I sat up and stared. Yes, there was Hans himself looking just the same as +usual, only perhaps rather dirtier, engaged in setting a cap on to the nipple +of the little rifle Intombi. +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said in a hollow voice, “why the devil are you +here?” +</p> + +<p> +“To save you from the devil, of course, Baas,” he replied aptly. +Then, resting the gun against the stone, the old fellow knelt down by my side +and, throwing his arms around me, began to blubber over me, exclaiming: +</p> + +<p> +“Just in time, Baas! Only just in time, for as usual Hans made a mess of +things and judged badly—I’ll tell you afterwards. Still, just in +time, thanks be to your reverend father, the Predikant. Oh! if he had delayed +me for one more minute you would have been as flat as my nose, Baas. Now come +quickly. I’ve got the camel tied up there, and he can carry two, being +fat and strong after four days’ rest with plenty to eat. This place is +haunted, Baas, and that king of the devils, Jana, will be back after us +presently, as soon as he has wiped the blood out of his eye.” +</p> + +<p> +I didn’t make any remark, having no taste for conversation just then, but +only looked at poor Marût, who lay by me as though he was sleeping. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Baas,” said Hans, “there is no need to trouble about +him, for his neck is broken and he’s quite dead. Also it is as +well,” he added cheerfully. “For, as your reverend father doubtless +remembered, the camel could never carry three. Moreover, if he stops here, +perhaps Jana will come back to play with him instead of following us.” +</p> + +<p> +Poor Marût! This was his requiem as sung by Hans. +</p> + +<p> +With a last glance at the unhappy man to whom I had grown attached in a way +during our time of joint captivity and trial, I took the arm of the old +Hottentot, or rather leant upon his shoulder, for at first I felt too weak to +walk by myself, and picked my path with him through the stones and skeletons of +elephants across the plateau eastwards, that is, away from the lake. About two +hundred yards from the scene of our tragedy was a mound of rock similar to that +on which Jana had appeared, but much smaller, behind which we found the camel, +kneeling as a well-trained beast of the sort should do and tethered to a stone. +</p> + +<p> +As we went, in brief but sufficient language Hans told me his story. It seemed +that after he had shot the Kendah general it came into his cunning, foreseeing +mind that he might be of more use to me free than as a companion in captivity, +or that if I were killed he might in that case live to bring vengeance on my +slayers. So he broke away, as has been described, and hid till nightfall on the +hill-side. Then by the light of the moon he tracked us, avoiding the villages, +and ultimately found a place of shelter in a kind of cave in the forest near to +Simba Town, where no people lived. Here he fed the camel at night, concealing +it at dawn in the cave. The days he spent up a tall tree, whence he could watch +all that went on in the town beneath, living meanwhile on some food which he +carried in a bag tied to the saddle, helped out by green mealies which he stole +from a neighbouring field. +</p> + +<p> +Thus he saw most of what passed in the town, including the desolation wrought +by the fearful tempest of hail, which, being in their cave, both he and the +camel escaped without harm. On the next evening from his post of outlook up the +tree, where he had now some difficulty in hiding himself because the hail had +stripped off all its leaves, he saw Marût and myself brought from the +guest-house and taken away by the escort. Descending and running to the cave, +he saddled the camel and started in pursuit, plunging into the forest and +hiding there when he perceived that the escort were leaving us. +</p> + +<p> +Here he waited until they had gone by on their return journey. So close did +they pass to him that he could overhear their talk, which told him they +expected, or rather were sure, that we should be destroyed by the elephant +Jana, their devil god, to whom the camelmen had been already sacrificed. After +they had departed he remounted and followed us. Here I asked him why he had not +overtaken us before we came to the cemetery of elephants, as I presumed he +might have done, since he stated that he was close in our rear. This indeed was +the case, for it was the head of the camel I saw behind the thorn trees when I +looked back, and not the trunk of an elephant as I had supposed. +</p> + +<p> +At the time he would give me no direct answer, except that he grew muddled as +he had already suggested, and thought it best to keep in the background and see +what happened. Long afterwards, however, he admitted to me that he acted on a +presentiment. +</p> + +<p> +“It seemed to me, Baas,” he said, “that your reverend father +was telling me that I should do best to let you two go on and not show myself, +since if I did so we should all three be killed, as one of us must walk whom +the other two could not desert. Whereas if I left you as you were, one of you +would be killed and the other escape, and that the one to be killed would not +be <i>you</i>, Baas. All of which came about as the Spirit spoke in my head, +for Marût was killed, who did not matter, and—you know the rest, +Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +To return to Hans’ story. He saw us march down to the borders of the +lake, and, keeping to our right, took cover behind the knoll of rock, whence he +watched also all that followed. When Jana advanced to attack us Hans crept +forward in the hope, a very wild one, of crippling him with the little Purdey +rifle. Indeed, he was about to fire at the hind leg when Marût made his run for +life and plunged into the lake. Then he crawled on to lead me away to the +camel, but when he was within a few yards the chase returned our way and Marût +was killed. +</p> + +<p> +From that moment he waited for an opportunity to shoot Jana in the only spot +where so soft a bullet would, as he knew, have the faintest chance of injuring +him vitally—namely, in the eye—for he was sure that its penetration +would not be sufficient to reach the vitals through that thick hide and the +mass of flesh behind. With an infinite and wonderful patience he waited, +knowing that my life or death hung in the balance. While Jana held his foot +over me, while he felt me with his trunk, still Hans waited, balancing the +arguments for and against firing upon the scales of experience in his clever +old mind, and in the end coming to a right and wise conclusion. +</p> + +<p> +At length his chance came, the brute exposed his eye, and by the light of the +clear moon Hans, always a very good shot at a distance when it was not +necessary to allow for trajectory and wind, let drive and <i>hit</i>. The +bullet did not get to the brain as he had hoped; it had not strength for that, +but it destroyed this left eye and gave Jana such pain that for a while he +forgot all about me and everything else except escape. +</p> + +<p> +Such was the Hottentot’s tale as I picked it up from his laconic, +colourless, Dutch <i>patois</i> sentences, then and afterwards; a very +wonderful tale I thought. But for him, his fidelity and his bushman’s +cunning, where should I have found myself before that moon set? +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +We mounted the camel after I had paused a minute to take a pull from a flask of +brandy which remained in the saddlebags. Although he loved strong drink so well +Hans had saved it untouched on the mere chance that it might some time be of +service to me, his master. The monkey-like Hottentot sat in front and directed +the camel, while I accommodated myself as best I could on the sheepskins +behind. Luckily they were thick and soft, for Jana’s pinch was not +exactly that of a lover. +</p> + +<p> +Off we went, picking our way carefully till we reached the elephant track +beyond the mound where Jana had appeared, which, in the light of faith, we +hoped would lead us to the River Tava. Here we made better progress, but still +could not go very fast because of the holes made by the feet of Jana and his +company. Soon we had left the cemetery behind us, and lost sight of the lake +which I devoutly trusted I might never see again. +</p> + +<p> +Now the track ran upwards from the hollow to a ridge two or three miles away. +We reached the crest of this ridge without accident, except that on our road we +met another aged elephant, a cow with very poor tusks, travelling to its last +resting place, or so I suppose. I don’t know which was the more +frightened, the sick cow or the camel, for camels hate elephants as horses hate +camels until they get used to them. The cow bolted to the right as quickly as +it could, which was not very fast, and the camel bolted to the left with such +convulsive bounds that we were nearly thrown off its back. However, being an +equable brute, it soon recovered its balance, and we got back to the track +beyond the cow. +</p> + +<p> +From the top of the rise we saw that before us lay a sandy plain lightly +clothed in grass, and, to our joy, about ten miles away at the foot of a very +gentle slope, the moonlight gleamed upon the waters of a broad river. It was +not easy to make out, but it was there, we were both sure it was there; we +could not mistake the wavering, silver flash. On we went for another quarter of +a mile, when something caused me to turn round on the sheepskin and look back. +</p> + +<p> +Oh Heavens! At the very top of the rise, clearly outlined against the sky, +stood Jana himself with his trunk lifted. Next instant he trumpeted, a furious, +rattling challenge of rage and defiance. +</p> + +<p> +“Allemagte! Baas,” said Hans, “the old devil is coming to +look for his lost eye, and has seen us with that which remains. He has been +travelling on our spoor.” +</p> + +<p> +“Forward!” I answered, bringing my heels into the camel’s +ribs. +</p> + +<p> +Then the race began. The camel was a very good camel, one of the real running +breed; also, as Hans said, it was comparatively fresh, and may, moreover, have +been aware that it was near to the plains where it had been bred. Lastly, the +going was now excellent, soft to its spongy feet but not too deep in sand, nor +were there any rocks over which it could fall. It went off like the wind, +making nothing of our united weights which did not come to more than two +hundred pounds, or a half of what it could carry with ease, being perhaps urged +to its top speed by the knowledge that the elephant was behind. For mile after +mile we rushed down the plain. But we did not go alone, for Jana came after us +like a cruiser after a gunboat. Moreover, swiftly as we travelled, he travelled +just a little swifter, gaining say a few yards in every hundred. For the last +mile before we came to the river bank, half an hour later perhaps, though it +seemed to be a week, he was not more than fifty paces to our rear. I glanced +back at him, and in the light of the moon, which was growing low, he bore a +strange resemblance to a mud cottage with broken chimneys (which were his ears +flapping on each side of him), and the yard pump projecting from the upper +window. +</p> + +<p> +“We shall beat him now, Hans,” I said looking at the broad river +which was now close at hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas,” answered Hans doubtfully and in jerks. “This is +very good camel, Baas. He runs so fast that I have no inside left, I suppose +because he smells his wife over that river, to say nothing of death behind him. +But, Baas, I am not sure; that devil Jana is still faster than the camel, and +he wants to settle for his lost eye, which makes him lively. Also I see stones +ahead, which are bad for camels. Then there is the river, and I don’t +know if camels can swim, but Jana can as Marût learned. Do you think, Baas, +that you could manage to sting him up with a bullet in his knee or that great +trunk of his, just to give him something to think about besides +ourselves?” +</p> + +<p> +Thus he prattled on, I believe to occupy my mind and his own, till at length, +growing impatient, I replied: +</p> + +<p> +“Be silent, donkey. Can I shoot an elephant backwards over my shoulder +with a rifle meant for springbuck? Hit the camel! Hit it hard!” +</p> + +<p> +Alas! Hans was right! There <i>were</i> stones at the verge of the river, which +doubtless it had washed out in periods of past flood, and presently we were +among them. Now a camel, so good on sand that is its native heath, is a +worthless brute among stones, over which it slips and flounders. But to Jana +these appeared to offer little or no obstacle. At any rate he came over them +almost if not quite as fast as before. By the time that we reached the brink of +the water he was not more than ten yards behind. I could even see the blood +running down from the socket of his ruined eye. +</p> + +<p> +Moreover, at the sight of the foaming but shallow torrent, the camel, a +creature unaccustomed to water, pulled up in a mulish kind of way and for a +moment refused to stir. Luckily at this instant Jana let off one of his +archangel kind of trumpetings which started our beast again, since it was more +afraid of elephants than it was of water. +</p> + +<p> +In we went and were presently floundering among the loose stones at the bottom +of the river, which was nowhere over four feet deep, with Jana splashing after +us not more than five yards behind. I twisted myself round and fired at him +with the rifle. Whether I hit him or no I could not say, but he stopped for a +few seconds, perhaps because he remembered the effect of a similar explosion +upon his eye, which gave us a trifling start. Then he came on again in his +steam-engine fashion. +</p> + +<p> +When we were about in the middle of the river the inevitable happened. The +camel fell, pitching us over its head into the stream. Still clinging to the +rifle I picked myself up and began half to swim half to wade towards the +farther shore, catching hold of Hans with my free hand. In a moment Jana was on +to that camel. He gored it with his tusks, he trampled it with his feet, he got +it round the neck with his trunk, dragging nearly the whole bulk of it out of +the water. Then he set to work to pound it down into the mud and stones at the +bottom of the river with such a persistent thoroughness, that he gave us time +to reach the other bank and climb up a stout tree which grew there, a sloping, +flat-topped kind of tree that was fortunately easy to ascend, at least for a +man. Here we sat gasping, perhaps about thirty feet above the ground level, and +waited. +</p> + +<p> +Presently Jana, having finished with the camel, followed us, and without any +difficulty located us in that tree. He walked all round it considering the +situation. Then he wound his huge trunk about the bole of the tree and, putting +out his strength, tried to pull it over. It was an anxious moment, but this +particular child of the forest had not grown there for some hundreds of years, +withstanding all the shocks of wind, weather and water, in order to be laid low +by an elephant, however enormous. It shook a little—no more. Abandoning +this attempt as futile, Jana next began to try to dig it up by driving his tusk +under its roots. Here, too, he failed because they grew among stones which +evidently jarred him. +</p> + +<p> +Ceasing from these agricultural efforts with a deep rumble of rage, he adopted +yet a third expedient. Rearing his huge bulk into the air he brought down his +forefeet with all the tremendous weight of his great body behind them on to the +sloping trunk of the tree just below where the branches sprang, perhaps twelve +or thirteen feet above the ground. The shock was so heavy that for a moment I +thought the tree would be uprooted or snapped in two. Thank Heaven! it held, +but the vibration was such that Hans and I were nearly shaken out of the upper +branches, like autumn apples from a bough. Indeed, I think I should have gone +had not the monkey-like Hans, who had toes to cling with as well as fingers, +gripped me by the collar. +</p> + +<p> +Thrice did Jana repeat this manoeuvre, and at the third onslaught I saw to my +horror that the roots were loosening. I heard some of them snap, and a crack +appeared in the ground not far from the bole. Fortunately Jana never noted +these symptoms, for abandoning a plan which he considered unavailing, he stood +for a while swaying his trunk and lost in gentle thought. +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I whispered, “load the rifle quick! I can get him in +the spine or the other eye.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wet powder won’t go off, Baas,” groaned Hans. “The +water got to it in the river.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I answered, “and it is all your fault for making me +shoot at him when I could take no aim.” +</p> + +<p> +“It would have been just the same, Baas, for the rifle went under water +also when we fell from the camel, and the cap would have been damp, and perhaps +the powder too. Also the shot made Jana stop for a moment.” +</p> + +<p> +This was true, but it was maddening to be obliged to sit there with an empty +gun, when if I had but one charge, or even my pistol, I was sure that I could +have blinded or crippled this satanic pachyderm. +</p> + +<p> +A few minutes later Jana played his last card. Coming quite close to the trunk +of the tree he reared himself up as before, but this time stretched out his +forelegs so that these and his body were supported on the broad bole. Then he +elongated his trunk and with it began to break off boughs which grew between us +and him. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think he can reach us,” I said doubtfully to Hans, +“that is, unless he brings a stone to stand on.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! Baas, pray be silent,” answered Hans, “or he will +understand and fetch one.” +</p> + +<p> +Although the idea seemed absurd, on the whole I thought it well to take the +hint, for who knew how much this experienced beast did or did not understand? +Then, as we could go no higher, we wriggled as far as we dared along our boughs +and waited. +</p> + +<p> +Presently Jana, having finished his clearing operations, began to lengthen his +trunk to its full measure. Literally, it seemed to expand like a telescope or +an indiarubber ring. Out it came, foot after foot, till its snapping tip was +waving within a few inches of us, just short of my foot and Hans’s head, +or rather felt hat. One final stretch and he reached the hat, which he removed +with a flourish and thrust into the red cavern of his mouth. As it appeared no +more I suppose he ate it. This loss of his hat moved Hans to fury. Hurling +horrible curses at Jana he drew his butcher’s knife and made ready. +</p> + +<p> +Once more the sinuous brown trunk elongated itself. Evidently Jana had got a +better hold with his hind legs this time, or perhaps had actually wriggled +himself a few inches up the tree. At any rate I saw to my dismay that there was +every prospect of my making a second acquaintance with that snapping tip. The +end of the trunk was lying along my bough like a huge brown snake and creeping +up, up, up. +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll get us,” I muttered. +</p> + +<p> +Hans said nothing but leaned forward a little, holding on with his left hand. +Next instant in the light of the rising sun I saw a knife flash, saw also that +the point of it had been driven through the lower lip of Jana’s trunk, +pinning it to the bough like a butterfly to a board. +</p> + +<p> +My word! what a commotion ensued! Up the trunk came a scream which nearly blew +me away. Then Jana, with a wriggling motion, tried to unnail himself as gently +as possible, for it was clear that the knife point hurt him, but could not do +so because Hans still held the handle and had driven the blade deep into the +wood. Lastly he dragged himself downwards with such energy that something had +to go, that something being the skin and muscle of the lower lip, which was cut +clean through, leaving the knife erect in the bough. +</p> + +<p> +Over he went backwards, a most imperial cropper. Then he picked himself up, +thrust the tip of his trunk into his mouth, sucked it as one does a cut finger, +and finally, roaring in defeated rage, fled into the river, which he waded, and +back upon his tracks towards his own home. Yes, off he went, Hans screaming +curses and demands that he should restore his hat to him, and very seldom in +all my life have I seen a sight that I thought more beautiful than that of his +whisking tail. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, Baas,” chuckled Hans, “the old devil has got a sore +nose as well as a sore eye by which to remember us. And, Baas, I think we had +better be going before he has time to think and comes back with a long stick to +knock us out of this tree.” +</p> + +<p> +So we went, in double-quick time I can assure you, or at any rate as fast as my +stiff limbs and general condition would allow. Fortunately we had now no doubt +as to our direction, since standing up through the mists of dawn with the +sunbeams resting on its forest-clad crest, we could clearly see the strange, +tumulus-shaped hill which the White Kendah called the Holy Mount, the Home of +the Child. It appeared to be about twenty miles away, but in reality was a good +deal farther, for when we had walked for several hours it seemed almost as +distant as ever. +</p> + +<p> +In truth that was a dreadful trudge. Not only was I exhausted with all the +terrors I had passed and our long midnight flight, but the wound where Jana had +pinched out a portion of my frame, inflamed by the riding, had now grown stiff +and intolerably sore, so that every step gave me pain which sometimes +culminated in agony. Moreover, it was no use giving in, foodless as we were, +for Marût had carried the provisions, and with the chance of Jana returning to +look us up. So I stuck to it and said nothing. +</p> + +<p> +For the first ten miles the country seemed uninhabited; doubtless it was too +near the borders of the Black Kendah to be popular as a place of residence. +After this we saw herds of cattle and a few camels, apparently untended; +perhaps their guards were hidden away in the long grass. Then we came to some +fields of mealies that were, I noticed, quite untouched by the hailstorm, +which, it would seem, had confined its attentions to the land of the Black +Kendah. Of these we ate thankfully enough. A little farther on we perceived +huts perched on an inaccessible place in a kloof. Also their inhabitants +perceived us, for they ran away as though in a great fright. +</p> + +<p> +Still we did not try to approach the huts, not knowing how we should be +received. After my sojourn in Simba Town I had become possessed of a love of +life in the open. +</p> + +<p> +For another two hours I limped forward with pain and grief—by now I was +leaning on Hans’ shoulder—up an endless, uncultivated rise clothed +with euphorbias and fern-like cycads. At length we reached its top and found +ourselves within a rifle shot of a fenced native village. I suppose that its +inhabitants had been warned of our coming by runners from the huts I have +mentioned. At any rate the moment we appeared the men, to the number of thirty +or more, poured out of the south gate armed with spears and other weapons and +proceeded to ring us round and behave in a very threatening manner. I noticed +at once that, although most of them were comparatively light in colour, some of +these men partook of the negro characteristics of the Black Kendah from whom we +had escaped, to such an extent indeed that this blood was clearly predominant +in them. Still, it was also clear that they were deadly foes of this people, +for when I shouted out to them that we were the friends of Harût and those who +worshipped the Child, they yelled back that we were liars. No friends of the +Child, they said, came from the country of the Black Kendah, who worshipped the +devil Jana. I tried to explain that least of all men in the world did we +worship Jana, who had been hunting us for hours, but they would not listen. +</p> + +<p> +“You are spies of Simba’s, the smell of Jana is upon you” +(this may have been true enough), they yelled, adding: “We will kill you, +white-faced goat. We will kill you, little yellow monkey, for none who are not +enemies come here from the land of the Black Kendah.” +</p> + +<p> +“Kill us then,” I answered, “and bring the curse of the Child +upon you. Bring famine, bring hail, bring war!” +</p> + +<p> +These words were, I think, well chosen; at any rate they induced a pause in +their murderous intentions. For a while they hesitated, all talking together at +once. At last the advocates of violence appeared to get the upper hand, and +once more a number of the men began to dance about us, waving their spears and +crying out that we must die who came from the Black Kendah. +</p> + +<p> +I sat down upon the ground, for I was so exhausted that at the time I did not +greatly care whether I died or lived, while Hans drew his knife and stood over +me, cursing them as he had cursed at Jana. By slow degrees they drew nearer and +nearer. I watched them with a kind of idle curiosity, believing that the moment +when they came within actual spear-thrust would be our last, but, as I have +said, not greatly caring because of my mental and physical exhaustion. +</p> + +<p> +I had already closed my eyes that I might not see the flash of the falling +steel, when an exclamation from Hans caused me to open them again. Following +the line of the knife with which he pointed, I perceived a troop of men on +camels emerging from the gates of the village at full speed. In front of these, +his white garments fluttering on the wind, rode a bearded and dignified person +in whom I recognized Harût, Harût himself, waving a spear and shouting as he +came. Our assailants heard and saw him also, then flung down their weapons as +though in dismay either at his appearance or his words, which I could not +catch. Harût guided his rushing camel straight at the man who I presume was +their leader, and struck at him with his spear, as though in fury, wounding him +in the shoulder and causing him to fall to the ground. As he struck he called +out: +</p> + +<p> +“Dog! Would you harm the guests of the Child?” +</p> + +<p> +Then I heard no more because I fainted away. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br /> +THE DWELLER IN THE CAVE</h2> + +<p> +After this it seemed to me that I dreamed a long and very troubled dream +concerning all sorts of curious things which I cannot remember. At last I +opened my eyes and observed that I lay on a low bed raised about three inches +above the floor, in an Eastern-looking room, large and cool. It had +window-places in it but no windows, only grass mats hung upon a rod which, I +noted inconsequently, worked on a rough, wooden hinge, or rather pin, that +enabled the curtain to be turned back against the wall. +</p> + +<p> +Through one of these window-places I saw at a little distance the slope of the +forest-covered hill, which reminded me of something to do with a +child—for the life of me I could not remember what. As I lay wondering +over the matter I heard a shuffling step which I recognized, and, turning, saw +Hans twiddling a new hat made of straw in his fingers. +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said, “where did you get that new hat?” +</p> + +<p> +“They gave it me here, Baas,” he answered. “The Baas will +remember that the devil Jana ate the other.” +</p> + +<p> +Then I did remember more or less, while Hans continued to twiddle the hat. I +begged him to put it on his head because it fidgeted me, and then inquired +where we were. +</p> + +<p> +“In the Town of the Child, Baas, where they carried you after you had +seemed to die down yonder. A very nice town, where there is plenty to eat, +though, having been asleep for three days, you have had nothing except a little +milk and soup, which was poured down your throat with a spoon whenever you +seemed to half wake up for a while.” +</p> + +<p> +“I was tired and wanted a long rest, Hans, and now I feel hungry. Tell +me, are the lord and Bena here also, or were they killed after all?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas, they are safe enough, and so are all our goods. They were +both with Harût when he saved us down by the village yonder, but you went to +sleep and did not see them. They have been nursing you ever since, Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +Just then Savage himself entered, carrying some soup upon a wooden tray and +looking almost as smart as he used to do at Ragnall Castle. +</p> + +<p> +“Good day, sir,” he said in his best professional manner. +“Very glad to see you back with us, sir, and getting well, I trust, +especially after we had given you and Mr. Hans up as dead.” +</p> + +<p> +I thanked him and drank the soup, asking him to cook me something more +substantial as I was starving, which he departed to do. Then I sent Hans to +find Lord Ragnall, who it appeared was out walking in the town. No sooner had +they gone than Harût entered looking more dignified than ever and, bowing +gravely, seated himself upon the mat in the Eastern fashion. +</p> + +<p> +“Some strong spirit must go with you, Lord Macumazana,” he said, +“that you should live today, after we were sure that you had been +slain.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s where you made a mistake. Your magic was not of much +service to you there, friend Harût.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yet my magic, as you call it, though I have none, was of some service +after all, Macumazana. As it chanced I had no opportunity of breathing in the +wisdom of the Child for two days from the hour of our arrival here, because I +was hurt on the knee in the fight and so weary that I could not travel up the +mountain and seek light from the eyes of the Child. On the third day, however, +I went and the Oracle told me all. Then I descended swiftly, gathered men and +reached those fools in time to keep you from harm. They have paid for what they +did, Lord.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am sorry, Harût, for they knew no better; and, Harût, although I saved +myself, or rather Hans saved me, we have left your brother behind, and with him +the others.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know. Jana was too strong for them; you and your servant alone could +prevail against him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not so, Harût. He prevailed against us; all we could do was to injure +his eye and the tip of his trunk and escape from him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Which is more than any others have done for many generations, Lord. But +doubtless as the beginning was, so shall the end be. Jana, I think, is near his +death and through you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” I repeated. “Who and what is +Jana?” +</p> + +<p> +“Have I not told you that he is an evil spirit who inhabits the body of a +huge elephant?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, and so did Marût; but I think that he is just a huge elephant with +a very bad temper of his own. Still, whatever he is, he will take some killing, +and I don’t want to meet him again by that horrible lake.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you will meet him elsewhere, Lord. For if you do not go to look for +Jana, Jana will come to look for you who have hurt him so sorely. Remember that +henceforth, wherever you go in all this land, it may happen that you will meet +Jana.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean to say that the brute comes into the territory of the White +Kendah?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Macumazana, at times he comes, or a spirit wearing his shape comes; +I know not which. What I do know is that twice in my life I myself have seen +him upon the Holy Mount, though how he came or how he went none can +tell.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why was he wandering there, Harût?” +</p> + +<p> +“Who can say, Lord? Tell me why evil wanders through the world and I will +answer your question. Only I repeat—let those who have harmed Jana beware +of Jana.” +</p> + +<p> +“And let Jana beware of me if I can meet him with a decent gun in my +hand, for I have a score to settle with the beast. Now, Harût, there is another +matter. Just before he was killed Marût, your brother, began to tell me +something about the wife of the Lord Ragnall. I had no time to listen to the +end of his words, though I thought he said that she was upon yonder Holy Mount. +Did I hear aright?” +</p> + +<p> +Instantly Harût’s face became like that of a stone idol, impenetrable, +impassive. +</p> + +<p> +“Either you misunderstood, Lord,” he answered, “or my brother +raved in his fear. Wherever she may be, that beautiful lady is not upon the +Holy Mount, unless there is another Holy Mount in the Land of Death. Moreover, +Lord, as we are speaking of this matter, let me tell you the forest upon that +Mount must be trodden by none save the priest of the Child. If others set foot +there they die, for it is watched by a guardian more terrible even than Jana, +nor is he the only one. Ask me nothing of that guardian, for I will not answer, +and, above all, if you or your comrades value life, let them not seek to look +upon him.” +</p> + +<p> +Understanding that it was quite useless to pursue this subject farther at the +moment, I turned to another, remarking that the hailstorm which had smitten the +country of the Black Kendah was the worst that I had ever experienced. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” answered Harût, “so I have learned. That was the first +of the curses which the Child, through my mouth, promised to Simba and his +people if they molested us upon our road. The second, you will remember, was +famine, which for them is near at hand, seeing that they have little corn in +store and none left to gather, and that most of their cattle are dead of the +hail.” +</p> + +<p> +“If they have no corn while, as I noted, you have plenty which the storm +spared, will not they, who are many in number but near to starving, attack you +and take your corn, Harût?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly they will do so, Lord, and then will fall the third curse, the +curse of war. All this was foreseen long ago, Macumazana, and you are here to +help us in that war. Among your goods you have many guns and much powder and +lead. You shall teach our people how to use those guns, that with them we may +destroy the Black Kendah.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think not,” I replied quietly. “I came here to kill a +certain elephant, and to receive payment for my service in ivory, not to fight +the Black Kendah, of whom I have already seen enough. Moreover, the guns are +not my property but that of the Lord Ragnall, who perhaps will ask his own +price for the use of them.” +</p> + +<p> +“And the Lord Ragnall, who came here against our will, is, as it chances, +our property and we may ask your own price for his life. Now, farewell for a +while, since you, who are still sick and weak, have talked enough. Only before +I go, as your friend and that of those with you, I will add one word. If you +would continue to look upon the sun, let none of you try to set foot in the +forest upon the Holy Mount. Wander where you will upon its southern slopes, but +strive not to pass the wall of rock which rings the forest round.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he rose, bowed gravely and departed, leaving me full of reflections. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly afterwards Savage and Hans returned, bringing me some meat which the +former had cooked in an admirable fashion. I ate of it heartily, and just as +they were carrying off the remains of the meal Ragnall himself arrived. Our +greeting was very warm, as might be expected in the case of two comrades who +never thought to speak to each other again on this side of the grave. As I had +supposed, he was certain that Hans and I had been cut off and killed by the +Black Kendah, as, after we were missed, some of the camelmen asserted that they +had actually seen us fall. So he went on, or rather was carried on by the rush +of the camels, grieving, since, it being impossible to attempt to recover our +bodies or even to return, that was the only thing to do, and in due course +reached the Town of the Child without further accident. Here they rested and +mourned for us, till some days later Harût suddenly announced that we still +lived, though how he knew this they could not ascertain. Then they sallied out +and found us, as has been told, in great danger from the ignorant villagers +who, until we appeared, had not even heard of our existence. +</p> + +<p> +I asked what they had done and what information they had obtained since their +arrival at this place. His answer was: Nothing and none worth mentioning. The +town appeared to be a small one of not much over two thousand inhabitants, all +of whom were engaged in agricultural pursuits and in camel-breeding. The herds +of camels, however, they gathered, for the most part were kept at outlying +settlements on the farther side of the cone-shaped mountain. As they were +unable to talk the language the only person from whom they could gain knowledge +was Harût, who spoke to them in his broken English and told them much what he +had told me, namely that the upper mountain was a sacred place that might only +be visited by the priests, since any uninitiated person who set foot there came +to a bad end. They had not seen any of these priests in the town, where no form +of worship appeared to be practised, but they had observed men driving small +numbers of sheep or goats up the flanks of the mountain towards the forest. +</p> + +<p> +Of what went on upon this mountain and who lived there they remained in +complete ignorance. It was a case of stalemate. Harût would not tell them +anything nor could they learn anything for themselves. He added in a depressed +way that the whole business seemed very hopeless, and that he had begun to +doubt whether there was any tidings of his lost wife to be gained among the +Kendah, White or Black. +</p> + +<p> +Now I repeated to him Marût’s dying words, of which most unhappily I had +never heard the end. These seemed to give him new life since they showed that +tidings there was of some sort, if only it could be extracted. But how might +this be done? How? How? +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +For a whole week things went on thus. During this time I recovered my strength +completely, except in one particular which reduced me to helplessness. The +place on my thigh where Jana had pinched out a bit of the skin healed up well +enough, but the inflammation struck inwards to the nerve of my left leg, where +once I had been injured by a lion, with the result that whenever I tried to +move I was tortured by pains of a sciatic nature. So I was obliged to lie still +and to content myself with being carried on the bed into a little garden which +surrounded the mud-built and white-washed house that had been allotted to us as +a dwelling-place. +</p> + +<p> +There I lay hour after hour, staring at the Holy Mount which began to spring +from the plain within a few hundred yards of the scattered township. For a mile +or so its slopes were bare except for grass on which sheep and goats were +grazed, and a few scattered trees. Studying the place through glasses I +observed that these slopes were crowned by a vertical precipice of what looked +like lava rock, which seemed to surround the whole mountain and must have been +quite a hundred feet high. Beyond this precipice, which to all appearance was +of an unclimbable nature, began a dense forest of large trees, cedars I +thought, clothing it to the very top, that is so far as I could see. +</p> + +<p> +One day when I was considering the place, Harût entered the garden suddenly and +caught me in the act. +</p> + +<p> +“The House of the god is beautiful,” he said, “is it +not?” +</p> + +<p> +“Very,” I answered, “and of a strange formation. But how do +those who dwell on it climb that precipice?” +</p> + +<p> +“It cannot be climbed,” he answered, “but there is a road +which I am about to travel who go to worship the Child. Yet I have told you, +Macumazana, that any strangers who seek to walk that road find death. If they +do not believe me, let them try,” he added meaningly. +</p> + +<p> +Then, after many inquiries about my health, he informed me that news had +reached him to the effect that the Black Kendah were mad at the loss of their +crops which the hail had destroyed and because of the near prospect of +starvation. +</p> + +<p> +“Then soon they will be wishing to reap yours with spears,” I said. +</p> + +<p> +“That is so. Therefore, my Lord Macumazana, get well quickly that you may +be able to scare away these crows with guns, for in fourteen days the harvest +should begin upon our uplands. Farewell and have no fears, for during my +absence my people will feed and watch you and on the third night I shall return +again.” +</p> + +<p> +After Harût’s departure a deep depression fell upon all of us. Even Hans +was depressed, while Savage became like a man under sentence of execution at a +near but uncertain date. I tried to cheer him up and asked him what was the +matter. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know, Mr. Quatermain,” he answered, “but the +fact is this is a ‘ateful and un’oly ‘ole” (in his +agitation he quite lost grip of his h’s, which was always weak), +“and I am sure that it is the last I shall ever see, except one.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Savage,” I said jokingly, “at any rate there +don’t seem to be any snakes here.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Mr. Quatermain. That is, I haven’t met any, but they crawl +about me all night, and whenever I see that prophet man he talks of them to me. +Yes, he talks of them and nothing else with a sort of cold look in his eyes +that makes my back creep. I wish it was over, I do, who shall never see old +England again,” and he went away, I think to hide his very painful and +evident emotion. +</p> + +<p> +That evening Hans returned from an expedition on which I had sent him with +instructions to try to get round the mountain and report what was on its other +side. It had been a complete failure, as after he had gone a few miles men +appeared who ordered him back. They were so threatening in their demeanour that +had it not been for the little rifle, Intombi, which he carried under pretence +of shooting buck, a weapon that they regarded with great awe, they would, he +thought, have killed him. He added that he had been quite unsuccessful in his +efforts to collect any news of value from man, woman or child, all of whom, +although very polite, appeared to have orders to tell him nothing, concluding +with the remark that he considered the White Kendah bigger devils than the +Black Kendah, inasmuch as they were more clever. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Shortly after this abortive attempt we debated our position with earnestness +and came to a certain conclusion, of which I will speak in its place. +</p> + +<p> +If I remember right it was on this same night of our debate, after +Harût’s return from the mountain, that the first incident of interest +happened. There were two rooms in our house divided by a partition which ran +almost up to the roof. In the left-hand room slept Ragnall and Savage, and in +that to the right Hans and I. Just at the breaking of dawn I was awakened by +hearing some agitated conversation between Savage and his master. A minute +later they both entered my sleeping place, and I saw in the faint light that +Ragnall looked very disturbed and Savage very frightened. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s the matter?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“We have seen my wife,” answered Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +I stared at him and he went on: +</p> + +<p> +“Savage woke me by saying that there was someone in the room. I sat up +and looked and, as I live, Quatermain, standing gazing at me in such a position +that the light of dawn from the window-place fell upon her, was my wife.” +</p> + +<p> +“How was she dressed?” I asked at once. +</p> + +<p> +“In a kind of white robe cut rather low, with her hair loose hanging to +her waist, but carefully combed and held outspread by what appeared to be a +bent piece of ivory about a foot and a half long, to which it was fastened by a +thread of gold.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is that all?” +</p> + +<p> +“No. Upon her breast was that necklace of red stones with the little +image hanging from its centre which those rascals gave her and she always +wore.” +</p> + +<p> +“Anything more?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. In her arms she carried what looked like a veiled child. It was so +still that I think it must have been dead.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well. What happened?” +</p> + +<p> +“I was so overcome I could not speak, and she stood gazing at me with +wide-opened eyes, looking more beautiful than I can tell you. She never +stirred, and her lips never moved—that I will swear. And yet both of us +heard her say, very low but quite clearly: ‘The mountain, George! +Don’t desert me. Seek me on the mountain, my dear, my +husband.’” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, what next?” +</p> + +<p> +“I sprang up and she was gone. That’s all.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now tell me what <i>you</i> saw and heard, Savage.” +</p> + +<p> +“What his lordship saw and heard, Mr. Quatermain, neither more nor less. +Except that I was awake, having had one of my bad dreams about snakes, and saw +her come through the door.” +</p> + +<p> +“Through the door! Was it open then?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, sir, it was shut and bolted. She just came through it as if it +wasn’t there. Then I called to his lordship after she had been looking at +him for half a minute or so, for I couldn’t speak at first. There’s +one more thing, or rather two. On her head was a little cap that looked as +though it had been made from the skin of a bird, with a gold snake rising up in +front, which snake was the first thing I caught sight of, as of course it would +be, sir. Also the dress she wore was so thin that through it I could see her +shape and the sandals on her feet, which were fastened at the instep with studs +of gold.” +</p> + +<p> +“I saw no feather cap or snake,” said Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +“Then that’s the oddest part of the whole business,” I +remarked. “Go back to your room, both of you, and if you see anything +more, call me. I want to think things over.” +</p> + +<p> +They went, in a bewildered sort of fashion, and I called Hans and spoke with +him in a whisper, repeating to him the little that he had not understood of our +talk, for as I have said, although he never spoke it, Hans knew a great deal of +English. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, Hans,” I said to him, “what is the use of you? You are +no better than a fraud. You pretend to be the best watchdog in Africa, and yet +a woman comes into this house under your nose and in the grey of the morning, +and you do not see her. Where is your reputation, Hans?” +</p> + +<p> +The old fellow grew almost speechless with indignation, then he spluttered his +answer: +</p> + +<p> +“It was not a woman, Baas, but a spook. Who am I that I should be +expected to catch spooks as though they were thieves or rats? As it happens I +was wide awake half an hour before the dawn and lay with my eyes fixed upon +that door, which I bolted myself last night. It never opened, Baas; moreover, +since this talk began I have been to look at it. During the night a spider has +made its web from door-post to door-post, and that web is unbroken. If you do +not believe me, come and see for yourself. Yet they say the woman came through +the doorway and therefore through the spider’s web. Oh! Baas, what is the +use of wasting thought upon the ways of spooks which, like the wind, come and +go as they will, especially in this haunted land from which, as we have all +agreed, we should do well to get away.” +</p> + +<p> +I went and examined the door for myself, for by now my sciatica, or whatever it +may have been, was so much better that I could walk a little. What Hans said +was true. There was the spider’s web with the spider sitting in the +middle. Also some of the threads of the web were fixed from post to post, so +that it was impossible that the door could have been opened or, if opened, that +anyone could have passed through the doorway without breaking them. Therefore, +unless the woman came through one of the little window-places, which was almost +incredible as they were high above the ground, or dropped from the smoke-hole +in the roof, or had been shut into the place when the door was closed on the +previous night, I could not see how she had arrived there. And if any one of +these incredible suppositions was correct, then how did she get out again with +two men watching her? +</p> + +<p> +There were only two solutions to the problem—namely, that the whole +occurrence was hallucination, or that, in fact, Ragnall and Savage had seen +something unnatural and uncanny. If the latter were correct I only wished that +I had shared the experience, as I have always longed to see a ghost. A real, +indisputable ghost would be a great support to our doubting minds, that is if +we <i>knew</i> its owner to be dead. +</p> + +<p> +But—this was another thought—if by any chance Lady Ragnall were +still alive and a prisoner upon that mountain, what they had seen was no ghost, +but a shadow or <i>simulacrum</i> of a living person projected consciously or +unconsciously by that person for some unknown purpose. What could the purpose +be? As it chanced the answer was not difficult, and to it the words she was +reported to have uttered gave a cue. Only a few hours ago, just before we +turned in indeed, as I have said, we had been discussing matters. What I have +not said is that in the end we arrived at the conclusion that our quest here +was wild and useless and that we should do well to try to escape from the place +before we became involved in a war of extermination between two branches of an +obscure tribe, one of which was quite and the other semi-savage. +</p> + +<p> +Indeed, although Ragnall still hung back a little, it had been arranged that I +should try to purchase camels in exchange for guns, unless I could get them for +nothing which might be less suspicious, and that we should attempt such an +escape under cover of an expedition to kill the elephant Jana. +</p> + +<p> +Supposing such a vision to be possible, then might it not have come, or been +sent to deter us from this plan? It would seem so. +</p> + +<p> +Thus reflecting I went to sleep worn out with useless wonderment, and did not +wake again till breakfast time. That morning, when we were alone together, +Ragnall said to me: +</p> + +<p> +“I have been thinking over what happened, or seemed to happen last night. +I am not at all a superstitious man, or one given to vain imaginings, but I am +sure that Savage and I really did see and hear the spirit or the shadow of my +wife. Her body it could not have been as you will admit, though how she could +utter, or seem to utter, audible speech without one is more than I can tell. +Also I am sure that she is captive upon yonder mountain and came to call me to +rescue her. Under these circumstances I feel that it is my duty, as well as my +desire, to give up any idea of leaving the country and try to find out the +truth.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how will you do that,” I asked, “seeing that no one will +tell us anything?” +</p> + +<p> +“By going to see for myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is impossible, Ragnall. I am too lame at present to walk half a mile, +much less to climb precipices.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know, and that is one of the reasons why I did not suggest that you +should accompany me. The other is that there is no object in all of us risking +our lives. I wished to face the thing alone, but that good fellow Savage says +that he will go where I go, leaving you and Hans here to make further attempts +if we do not return. Our plan is to slip out of the town during the night, +wearing white dresses like the Kendah, of which I have bought some for tobacco, +and make the best of our way up the slope by starlight that is very bright now. +When dawn comes we will try to find the road through that precipice, or over +it, and for the rest trust to Providence.” +</p> + +<p> +Dismayed at this intelligence, I did all I could to dissuade him from such a +mad venture, but quite without avail, for never did I know a more determined or +more fearless man than Lord Ragnall. He had made up his mind and there was an +end of the matter. Afterwards I talked with Savage, pointing out to him all the +perils involved in the attempt, but likewise without avail. He was more +depressed than usual, apparently on the ground that “having seen the +ghost of her ladyship” he was sure he had not long to live. Still, he +declared that where his master went he would go, as he preferred to die with +him rather than alone. +</p> + +<p> +So I was obliged to give in and with a melancholy heart to do what I could to +help in the simple preparations for this crazy undertaking, realizing all the +while that the only real help must come from above, since in such a case man +was powerless. I should add that after consultation, Ragnall gave up the idea +of adopting a Kendah disguise which was certain to be discovered, also of +starting at night when the town was guarded. +</p> + +<p> +That very afternoon they went, going out of the town quite openly on the +pretext of shooting partridges and small buck on the lower slopes of the +mountain, where both were numerous, as Harût had informed us we were quite at +liberty to do. The farewell was somewhat sad, especially with Savage, who gave +me a letter he had written for his old mother in England, requesting me to post +it if ever again I came to a civilized land. +</p> + +<p> +I did my best to put a better spirit in him but without avail. He only wrung my +hand warmly, said that it was a pleasure to have known such a “real +gentleman” as myself, and expressed a hope that I might get out of this +hell and live to a green old age amongst Christians. Then he wiped away a tear +with the cuff of his coat, touched his hat in the orthodox fashion and +departed. Their outfit, I should add, was very simple: some food in bags, a +flask of spirits, two double-barrelled guns that would shoot either shot or +ball, a bull’s-eye lantern, matches and their pistols. +</p> + +<p> +Hans walked with them a little way and, leaving them outside the town, +returned. +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you look so gloomy, Hans?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Because, Baas,” he answered, twiddling his hat, “I had grown +to be fond of the white man, Bena, who was always very kind to me and did not +treat me like dirt as low-born whites are apt to do. Also he cooked well, and +now I shall have to do that work which I do not like.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you mean, Hans? The man isn’t dead, is he?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Baas, but soon he will be, for the shadow of death is in his +eyes.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then how about Lord Ragnall?” +</p> + +<p> +“I saw no shadow in his eyes; I think that he will live, Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +I tried to get some explanation of these dark sayings out of the Hottentot, but +he would add nothing to his words. +</p> + +<p> +All the following night I lay awake filled with heavy fears which deepened as +the hours went on. Just before dawn we heard a knocking on our door and +Ragnall’s voice whispering to us to open. Hans did so while I lit a +candle, of which we had a good supply. As it burned up Ragnall entered, and +from his face I saw at once that something terrible had happened. He went to +the jar where we kept our water and drank three pannikin-fuls, one after the +other. Then without waiting to be asked, he said: +</p> + +<p> +“Savage is dead,” and paused a while as though some awful +recollection overcame him. “Listen,” he went on presently. +“We worked up the hill-side without firing, although we saw plenty of +partridges and one buck, till just as twilight was closing in, we came to the +cliff face. Here we perceived a track that ran to the mouth of a narrow cave or +tunnel in the lava rock of the precipice, which looked quite unclimbable. While +we were wondering what to do, eight or ten white-robed men appeared out of the +shadows and seized us before we could make any resistance. After talking +together for a little they took away our guns and pistols, with which some of +them disappeared. Then their leader, with many bows, indicated that we were at +liberty to proceed by pointing first to the mouth of the cave, and next to the +top of the precipice, saying something about ‘<i>ingane</i>,’ which +I believe means a little child, does it not?” +</p> + +<p> +I nodded, and he went on: +</p> + +<p> +“After this they all departed down the hill, smiling in a fashion that +disturbed me. We stood for a while irresolute, until it became quite dark. I +asked Savage what he thought we had better do, expecting that he would say +‘Return to the town.’ To my surprise, he answered: +</p> + +<p> +“‘Go on, of course, my lord. Don’t let those brutes say that +we white men daren’t walk a step without our guns. Indeed, in any case I +mean to go on, even if your lordship won’t.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Whilst he spoke he took a bull’s-eye lantern from his foodbag, +which had not been interfered with by the Kendah, and lit it. I stared at him +amazed, for the man seemed to be animated by some tremendous purpose. Or rather +it was as though a force from without had got hold of his will and were pushing +him on to an unknown end. Indeed his next words showed that this was so, for he +exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +“‘There is something drawing me into that cave, my lord. It may be +death; I think it is death, but whatever it be, go I must. Perhaps you would do +well to stop outside till I have seen.’ +</p> + +<p> +“I stepped forward to catch hold of the man, who I thought had gone mad, +as perhaps was the case. Before I could lay my hands on him he had run rapidly +to the mouth of the cave. Of course I followed, but when I reached its entrance +the star of light thrown forward by the bull’s-eye lantern showed me that +he was already about eight yards down the tunnel. Then I heard a terrible +hissing noise and Savage exclaiming: ‘Oh! my God!’ twice over. As +he spoke the lantern fell from his hand, but did not go out, because, as you +know, it is made to burn in any position. I leapt forward and picked it from +the ground, and while I was doing so became aware that Savage was running still +farther into the depths of the cave. I lifted the lantern above my head and +looked. +</p> + +<p> +“This was what I saw: About ten paces from me was Savage with his arms +outstretched and dancing—yes, dancing—first to the right and then +to the left, with a kind of horrible grace and to the tune of a hideous hissing +music. I held the lantern higher and perceived that beyond him, lifted eight or +nine feet into the air, nearly to the roof of the tunnel in fact, was the head +of the hugest snake of which I have ever heard. It was as broad as the bottom +of a wheelbarrow—were it cut off I think it would fill a large +wheelbarrow—while the neck upon which it was supported was quite as thick +as my middle, and the undulating body behind it, which stretched far away into +the darkness, was the size of an eighteen-gallon cask and glittered green and +grey, lined and splashed with silver and with gold. +</p> + +<p> +“It hissed and swayed its great head to the right, holding Savage with +cold eyes that yet seemed to be on fire, whereon he danced to the right. It +hissed again and swayed its head to the left, whereon he danced to the left. +Then suddenly it reared its head right to the top of the cave and so remained +for a few seconds, whereon Savage stood still, bending a little forward, as +though he were bowing to the reptile. Next instant, like a flash it struck, for +I saw its white fangs bury themselves in the back of Savage, who with a kind of +sigh fell forward on to his face. Then there was a convulsion of those shining +folds, followed by a sound as of bones being ground up in a steam-driven +mortar. +</p> + +<p> +“I staggered against the wall of the cave and shut my eyes for a moment, +for I felt faint. When I opened them again it was to see something flat, +misshapen, elongated like a reflection in a spoon, something that had been +Savage lying on the floor, and stretched out over it the huge serpent studying +me with its steely eyes. Then I ran; I am not ashamed to say I ran out of that +horrible hole and far into the night.” +</p> + +<p> +“Small blame to you,” I said, adding: “Hans, give me some +square-face neat.” For I felt as queer as though I also had been in that +cave with its guardian. +</p> + +<p> +“There is very little more to tell,” went on Ragnall after I had +drunk the hollands. “I lost my way on the mountain-side and wandered for +many hours, till at last I blundered up against one of the outermost houses of +the town, after which things were easy. Perhaps I should add that wherever I +went on my way down the mountain it seemed to me that I heard people laughing +at me in an unnatural kind of voice. That’s all.” +</p> + +<p> +After this we sat silent for a long while, till at length Hans said in his +unmoved tone: +</p> + +<p> +“The light has come, Baas. Shall I blow out the candle, which it is a +pity to waste? Also, does the Baas wish me to cook the breakfast, now that the +snake devil is making his off Bena, as I hope to make mine off him before all +is done. Snakes are very good to eat, Baas, if you know how to dress them in +the Hottentot way.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br /> +HANS STEALS THE KEYS</h2> + +<p> +A few hours later some of the White Kendah arrived at the house and very +politely delivered to us Ragnall’s and poor Savage’s guns and +pistols, which they said they had found lying in the grass on the +mountain-side, and with them the bull’s-eye lantern that Ragnall had +thrown away in his flight; all of which articles I accepted without comment. +That evening also Harût called and, after salutations, asked where Bena was as +he did not see him. Then my indignation broke out: +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! white-bearded father of liars,” I said, “you know well +that he is in the belly of the serpent which lives in the cave of the +mountain.” +</p> + +<p> +“What, Lord!” exclaimed Harût addressing Ragnall in his peculiar +English, “have you been for walk up to hole in hill? Suppose Bena want +see big snake. He always very fond of snake, you know, and they very fond of +him. You ‘member how they come out of his pocket in your house in +England? Well, he know all about snake now.” +</p> + +<p> +“You villain!” exclaimed Ragnall, “you murderer! I have a +mind to kill you where you are.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why you choke me, Lord, because snake choke your man? Poor snake, he +only want dinner. If you go where lion live, lion kill you. If you go where +snake live, snake kill you. I tell you not to. You take no notice. Now I tell +you all—go if you wish, no one stop you. Perhaps you kill snake, who +knows? Only you no take gun there, please. That not allowed. When you tired of +this town, go see snake. Only, ‘member that not right way to House of +Child. There another way which you never find.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look here,” said Ragnall, “what is the use of all this +foolery? You know very well why we are in your devilish country. It is because +I believe you have stolen my wife to make her the priestess of your evil +religion whatever it may be, and I want her back.” +</p> + +<p> +“All this great mistake,” replied Harût blandly. “We no steal +beautiful lady you marry because we find she not right priestess. Also +Macumazana here not to look for lady but to kill elephant Jana and get pay in +ivory like good business man. You, Lord, come with him as friend though we no +ask you, that all. Then you try find temple of our god and snake which watch +door kill your servant. Why we not kill <i>you</i>, eh?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because you are afraid to,” answered Ragnall boldly. “Kill +me if you can and take the consequences. I am ready.” +</p> + +<p> +Harût studied him not without admiration. +</p> + +<p> +“You very brave man,” he said, “and we no wish kill you and +p’raps after all everything come right in end. Only Child know about +that. Also you help us fight Black Kendah by and by. So, Lord, you quite safe +unless you big fool and go call on snake in cave. He very hungry snake and soon +want more dinner. You hear, Light-in-Darkness, Lord-of-the-Fire,” he +added suddenly turning on Hans who was squatted near by twiddling his hat with +a face that for absolute impassiveness resembled a deal board. “You hear, +he very hungry snake, and you make nice tea for him.” +</p> + +<p> +Hans rolled his little yellow eyes without even turning his head until they +rested on the stately countenance of Harût, and answered in Bantu: +</p> + +<p> +“I hear, Liar-with-the-White-Beard, but what have I to do with this +matter? Jana is my enemy who would have killed Macumazana, my master, not your +dirty snake. What is the good of this snake of yours? If it were any good, why +does it not kill Jana whom you hate? And if it is no good, why do you not take +a stick and knock it on the head? If you are afraid I will do so for you if you +pay me. That for your snake,” and very energetically he spat upon the +floor. +</p> + +<p> +“All right,” said Harût, still speaking in English, “you go +kill snake. Go when you like, no one say no. Then we give you new name. Then we +call you Lord-of-the-Snake.” +</p> + +<p> +As Hans, who now was engaged in lighting his corn-cob pipe, did not deign to +answer these remarks, Harût turned to me and said: +</p> + +<p> +“Lord Macumazana, your leg still bad, eh? Well, I bring you some ointment +what make it quite well; it holy ointment come from the Child. We want you get +well quick.” +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly he broke into Bantu. “My Lord, war draws near. The Black +Kendah are gathering all their strength to attack us and we must have your aid. +I go down to the River Tava to see to certain matters, as to the reaping of the +outlying crops and other things. Within a week I will be back; then we must +talk again, for by that time, if you will use the ointment that I have given +you, you will be as well as ever you were in your life. Rub it on your leg, and +mix a piece as large as a mealie grain in water and swallow it at night. It is +not poison, see,” and taking the cover off a little earthenware pot which +he produced he scooped from it with his finger some of the contents, which +looked like lard, put it on his tongue and swallowed it. +</p> + +<p> +Then he rose and departed with his usual bows. +</p> + +<p> +Here I may state that I used Harût’s prescription with the most excellent +results. That night I took a dose in water, very nasty it was, and rubbed my +leg with the stuff, to find that next morning all pain had left me and that, +except for some local weakness, I was practically quite well. I kept the rest +of the salve for years, and it proved a perfect specific in cases of sciatica +and rheumatism. Now, alas! it is all used and no recipe is available from which +it can be made up again. +</p> + +<p> +The next few days passed uneventfully. As soon as I could walk I began to go +about the town, which was nothing but a scattered village much resembling those +to be seen on the eastern coasts of Africa. Nearly all the men seemed to be +away, making preparations for the harvest, I suppose, and as the women shut +themselves up in their houses after the Oriental fashion, though the few that I +saw about were unveiled and rather good-looking, I did not gather any +intelligence worth noting. +</p> + +<p> +To tell the truth I cannot remember being in a more uninteresting place than +this little town with its extremely uncommunicative population which, it seemed +to me, lived under a shadow of fear that prevented all gaiety. Even the +children, of whom there were not many, crept about in a depressed fashion and +talked in a low voice. I never saw any of them playing games or heard them +shouting and laughing, as young people do in most parts of the world. For the +rest we were very well looked after. Plenty of food was provided for us and +every thought taken for our comfort. Thus a strong and quiet pony was brought +for me to ride because of my lameness. I had only to go out of the house and +call and it arrived from somewhere, all ready saddled and bridled, in charge of +a lad who appeared to be dumb. At any rate when I spoke to him he would not +answer. +</p> + +<p> +Mounted on this pony I took one or two rides along the southern slopes of the +mountain on the old pretext of shooting for the pot. Hans accompanied me on +these occasions, but was, I noted, very silent and thoughtful, as though he +were hunting something up and down his tortuous intelligence. Once we got quite +near to the mouth of the cave or tunnel where poor Savage had met his horrid +end. As we stood studying it a white-robed man whose head was shaved, which +made me think he must be a priest, came up and asked me mockingly why we did +not go through the tunnel and see what lay beyond, adding, almost in the words +of Harût himself, that none would attempt to interfere with us as the road was +open to any who could travel it. By way of answer I only smiled and put him a +few questions about a very beautiful breed of goats with long silky hair, some +of which he seemed to be engaged in herding. He replied that these goats were +sacred, being the food of “one who dwelt in the Mountain who only ate +when the moon changed.” +</p> + +<p> +When I inquired who this person was he said with his unpleasant smile that I +had better go through the tunnel and see for myself, an invitation which I did +not accept. +</p> + +<p> +That evening Harût appeared unexpectedly, looking very grave and troubled. He +was in a great hurry and only stayed long enough to congratulate me upon the +excellent effects of his ointment, since “no man could fight Jana on one +leg.” +</p> + +<p> +I asked him when the fight with Jana was to come off. He replied: +</p> + +<p> +“Lord, I go up to the Mountain to attend the Feast of the First-fruits, +which is held at sunrise on the day of the new moon. After the offering the +Oracle will speak and we shall learn when there will be war with Jana, and +perchance other things.” +</p> + +<p> +“May we not attend this feast, Harût, who are weary of doing nothing +here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly,” he answered with his grave bow. “That is, if you +come unarmed; for to appear before the Child with arms is death. You know the +road; it runs through yonder cave and the forest beyond the cave. Take it when +you will, Lord.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then if we can pass the cave we shall be welcome at the feast?” +</p> + +<p> +“You will be very welcome. None shall hurt you there, going or returning. +I swear it by the Child. Oh! Macumazana,” he added, smiling a little, +“why do you talk folly, who know well that one lives in yonder cave whom +none may look upon and love, as Bena learned not long ago? You are thinking +that perhaps you might kill this Dweller in the cave with your weapons. Put +away that dream, seeing that henceforth those who watch you have orders to see +that none of you leave this house carrying so much as a knife. Indeed, unless +you promise me that this shall be so you will not be suffered to set foot +outside its garden until I return again. Now do you promise?” +</p> + +<p> +I thought a while and, drawing the two others aside out of hearing, asked them +their opinion. +</p> + +<p> +Ragnall was at first unwilling to give any such promise, but Hans said: +</p> + +<p> +“Baas, it is better to go free and unhurt without guns and knives than to +become a prisoner once, as you were among the Black Kendah. Often there is but +a short step between the prison and the grave.” +</p> + +<p> +Both Ragnall and I acknowledged the force of this argument and in the end we +gave the promise, speaking one by one. +</p> + +<p> +“It is enough,” said Harût; “moreover, know, Lord, that among +us White Kendah he who breaks an oath is put across the River Tava unarmed to +make report thereof to Jana, Father of Lies. Now farewell. If we do not meet at +the Feast of the First-fruits on the day of the new moon, whither once more I +invite you, we can talk together here after I have heard the voice of the +Oracle.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he mounted a camel which awaited him outside the gate and departed with an +escort of twelve men, also riding camels. +</p> + +<p> +“There is some other road up that mountain, Quatermain,” said +Ragnall. “A camel could sooner pass through the eye of a needle than +through that dreadful cave, even if it were empty.” +</p> + +<p> +“Probably,” I answered, “but as we don’t know where it +is and I dare say it lies miles from here, we need not trouble our heads on the +matter. The cave is <i>our</i> only road, which means that there is <i>no</i> +road.” +</p> + +<p> +That evening at supper we discovered that Hans was missing; also that he had +got possession of my keys and broken into a box containing liquor, for there it +stood open in the cooking-hut with the keys in the lock. +</p> + +<p> +“He has gone on the drink,” I said to Ragnall, “and upon my +soul I don’t wonder at it; for sixpence I would follow his +example.” +</p> + +<p> +Then we went to bed. Next morning we breakfasted rather late, since when one +has nothing to do there is no object in getting up early. As I was preparing to +go to the cook-house to boil some eggs, to our astonishment Hans appeared with +a kettle of coffee. +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said, “you are a thief.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas,” answered Hans. +</p> + +<p> +“You have been at the gin box and taking that poison.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Baas, I have been taking poison. Also I took a walk and all is +right now. The Baas must not be angry, for it is very dull doing nothing here. +Will the Baases eat porridge as well as eggs?” +</p> + +<p> +As it was no use scolding him I said that we would. Moreover, there was +something about his manner which made me suspicious, for really he did not look +like a person who has just been very drunk. +</p> + +<p> +After we had finished breakfast he came and squatted down before me. Having lit +his pipe he asked suddenly: +</p> + +<p> +“Would the Baases like to walk through that cave to-night? If so, there +will be no trouble.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you mean?” I asked, suspecting that he was still drunk. +</p> + +<p> +“I mean, Baas, that the Dweller-in-the-cave is fast asleep.” +</p> + +<p> +“How do you know that, Hans?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because I am the nurse who put him to sleep, Baas, though he kicked and +cried a great deal. He is asleep; he will wake no more. Baas, I have killed the +Father of Serpents.” +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” I said, “now I am sure that you are still drunk, +although you do not show it outside.” +</p> + +<p> +“Hans,” added Ragnall, to whom I had translated as much of this as +he did not understand, “it is too early in the day to tell good stories. +How could you possibly have killed that serpent without a gun—for you +took none with you—or with it either for that matter?” +</p> + +<p> +“Will the Baases come and take a walk through the cave?” asked Hans +with a snigger. +</p> + +<p> +“Not till I am quite sure that you are sober,” I replied; then, +remembering certain other events in this worthy’s career, added; +“Hans, if you do not tell us the story at once I will beat you.” +</p> + +<p> +“There isn’t much story, Baas,” replied Hans between long +sucks at his pipe, which had nearly gone out, “because the thing was so +easy. The Baas is very clever and so is the Lord Baas, why then can they never +see the stones that lie under their noses? It is because their eyes are always +fixed upon the mountains between this world and the next. But the poor +Hottentot, who looks at the ground to be sure that he does not stumble, ah! he +sees the stones. Now, Baas, did you not hear that man in a night shirt with his +head shaved say that those goats were food for One who dwelt in the +mountain?” +</p> + +<p> +“I did. What of it, Hans?” +</p> + +<p> +“Who would be the One who dwelt in the mountain except the Father of +Snakes in the cave, Baas? Ah, now for the first time you see the stone that lay +at your feet all the while. And, Baas, did not the bald man add that this One +in the mountain was only fed at new and full moon, and is not to-morrow the day +of new moon, and therefore would he not be very hungry on the day before new +moon, that is, last night?” +</p> + +<p> +“No doubt, Hans; but how can you kill a snake by feeding it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! Baas, you may eat things that make you ill, and so can a snake. Now +you will guess the rest, so I had better go to wash the dishes.” +</p> + +<p> +“Whether I guess or do not guess,” I replied sagely, the latter +being the right hypothesis, “the dishes can wait, Hans, since the Lord +there has not guessed; so continue.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, Baas. In one of those boxes are some pounds of stuff which, +when mixed with water, is used for preserving skins and skulls.” +</p> + +<p> +“You mean the arsenic crystals,” I said with a flash of +inspiration. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know what you call them, Baas. At first I thought they +were hard sugar and stole some once, when the real sugar was left behind, to +put into the coffee—without telling the Baas, because it was my fault +that the sugar was left behind.” +</p> + +<p> +“Great Heavens!” I ejaculated, “then why aren’t we all +dead?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because at the last moment, Baas, I thought I would make sure, so I put +some of the hard sugar into hot milk and, when it had melted, I gave it to that +yellow dog which once bit me in the leg, the one that came from Beza-Town, +Baas, that I told you had run away. He was a very greedy dog, Baas, and drank +up the milk at once. Then he gave a howl, twisted about, foamed at the mouth +and died and I buried him at once. After that I threw some more of the large +sugar mixed with mealies to the fowls that we brought with us for cooking. Two +cocks and a hen swallowed them by mistake for the corn. Presently they fell on +their backs, kicked a little and died. Some of the Mazitu, who were great +thieves, stole those dead fowls, Baas. After this, Baas, I thought it best not +to use that sugar in the coffee, and later on Bena told me that it was deadly +poison. Well, Baas, it came into my mind that if I could make that great snake +swallow enough of this poison, he, too, might die. +</p> + +<p> +“So I stole your keys, as I often do, Baas, when I want anything, because +you leave them lying about everywhere, and to deceive you first opened one of +the boxes that are full of square-face and brandy and left it open, for I +wished you to think that I had just gone to get drunk like anybody else. Then I +opened another box and got out two one-pound tins of the sugar which kills dogs +and fowls. Half a pound of it I melted in boiling water with some real sugar to +make the stuff sweet, and put it into a bottle. The rest I tied with string in +twelve little packets in the soft paper which is in one of the boxes, and put +them in my pocket. Then I went up the hill, Baas, to the place where I saw +those goats are kraaled at night behind a reed fence. As I had hoped, no one +was watching them because there are no tigers so near this town, and man does +not steal the goats that are sacred. I went into the kraal and found a fat +young ewe which had a kid. I dragged it out and, taking it behind some stones, +I made its leg fast with a bit of cord and poured this stuff out of the bottle +all over its skin, rubbing it in well. Then I tied the twelve packets of hard +poison-sugar everywhere about its body, making them very fast deep in the long +hair so that they could not tumble or rub off. +</p> + +<p> +“After this I untied the goat, led it near to the mouth of the cave and +held it there for a time while it kept on bleating for its kid. Next I took it +almost up to the cave, wondering how I should drive it in, for I did not wish +to enter there myself, Baas. As it happened I need not have troubled about +that. When the goat was within five yards of the cave, it stopped bleating, +stood still and shivered. Then it began to go forward with little jumps, as +though it did not want to go, yet must do so. Also, Baas, I felt as though +<i>I</i> wished to go with it. So I lay down and put my heels against a rock, +leaving go of the goat. +</p> + +<p> +“For now, Baas, I did not care where that goat went so long as I could +keep out of the hole where dwelt the Father of Serpents that had eaten Bena. +But it was all right, Baas; the goat knew what it had to do and did it, jumping +straight into the cave. As it entered it turned its head and looked at me. I +could see its eyes in the starlight, and, Baas, they were dreadful. I think it +knew what was coming and did not like it at all. And yet it had to walk on +because it could not help it. Just like a man going to the devil, Baas! +</p> + +<p> +“Holding on to the stone I peered after it, for I had heard something +stirring in the cave making a soft noise like a white lady’s dress upon +the floor. There in the blackness I saw two little sparks of fire, which were +the eyes of the serpent, Baas. Then I heard a sound of hissing like four big +kettles boiling all at once, and a little bleat from the goat. After this there +was a noise as of men wrestling, followed by another noise as of bones +breaking, and lastly, yet another sucking noise as of a pump that won’t +draw up the water. Then everything grew nice and quiet and I went some way off, +sat down a little to one side of the cave, and waited to see if anything +happened. +</p> + +<p> +“It must have been nearly an hour later that something did begin to +happen, Baas. It was as though sacks filled with chaff were being beaten +against stone walls there in the cave. Ah! thought I to myself, your stomach is +beginning to ache, Eater-up-of-Bena, and, as that goat had little horns on its +head—to which I tied two of the bags of the poison, Baas—and, like +all snakes, no doubt you have spikes in your throat pointing downwards, you +won’t be able to get it up again. Then—I expect this was after the +poison-sugar had begun to melt nicely in the serpent’s stomach, +Baas—there was a noise as though a whole company of girls were dancing a +war-dance in the cave to a music of hisses. +</p> + +<p> +“And then—oh! then, Baas, of a sudden that Father of Serpents came +out. I tell you, Baas, that when I saw him in the bright starlight my hair +stood up upon my head, for never has there been such another snake in the whole +world. Those that live in trees and eat bucks in Zululand, of whose skins men +make waistcoats and slippers, are but babies compared to this one. He came out, +yard after yard of him. He wriggled about, he stood upon his tail with his head +where the top of a tree might be, he made himself into a ring, he bit at stones +and at his own stomach, while I hid behind my rock praying to your reverend +father that he might not see me. Then at last he rushed away down the hill, +faster than any horse could gallop. +</p> + +<p> +“Now I hoped that he had gone for good and thought of going myself. Still +I feared to do so lest I should meet him somewhere, so I made up my mind to +wait till daylight. It was as well, Baas, for about half an hour later he came +back again. Only now he could not jump, he could only crawl. Never in my life +did I see a snake look so sick, Baas. Into the cave he went and lay there +hissing. By degrees the hissing grew very faint, till at length they died away +altogether. I waited another half-hour, Baas, and then I grew so curious that I +thought that I would go to look in the cave. +</p> + +<p> +“I lit the little lantern I had with me and, holding it in one hand and +my stick in the other, I crept into the hole. Before I had crawled ten paces I +saw something white stretched along the ground. It was the belly of the great +snake, Baas, which lay upon its back quite dead. +</p> + +<p> +“I know that it was dead, for I lit three wax matches, setting them to +burn upon its tail and it never stirred, as any live snake will do when it +feels fire. Then I came home, Baas, feeling very proud because I had outwitted +that great-grandfather of all snakes who killed Bena my friend, and had made +the way clear for us to walk through the cave. +</p> + +<p> +“That is all the story, Baas. Now I must go to wash those dishes,” +and without waiting for any comment off he went, leaving us marvelling at his +wit, resource and courage. +</p> + +<p> +“What next?” I asked presently. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing till to-night,” answered Ragnall with determination, +“when I am going to look at the snake which the noble Hans has killed and +whatever lies beyond the cave, as you will remember Harût invited us to do +unmolested, if we could.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think Harût will keep his word, Ragnall?” +</p> + +<p> +“On the whole, yes, and if he doesn’t I don’t care. Anything +is better than sitting here in this suspense.” +</p> + +<p> +“I agree as to Harût, because we are too valuable to be killed just now, +if for no other reason; also as to the suspense, which is unendurable. +Therefore I will walk with you to look at that snake, Ragnall, and so no doubt +will Hans. The exercise will do my leg good.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think it wise?” he asked doubtfully; “in your case, I +mean.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think it most unwise that we should separate any more. We had better +stand or fall altogether; further, we do not seem to have any luck +apart.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br /> +THE SANCTUARY AND THE OATH</h2> + +<p> +That evening shortly after sundown the three of us started boldly from our +house wearing over our clothes the Kendah dresses which Ragnall had bought, and +carrying nothing save sticks in our hands, some food and the lantern in our +pockets. On the outskirts of the town we were met by certain Kendah, one of +whom I knew, for I had often ridden by his side on our march across the desert. +</p> + +<p> +“Have any of you arms upon you, Lord Macumazana?” he asked, looking +curiously at us and our white robes. +</p> + +<p> +“None,” I answered. “Search us if you will.” +</p> + +<p> +“Your word is sufficient,” he replied with the grave courtesy of +his people. “If you are unarmed we have orders to let you go where you +wish however you may be dressed. Yet, Lord,” he whispered to me, “I +pray you do not enter the cave, since One lives there who strikes and does not +miss, One whose kiss is death. I pray it for your own sakes, also for ours who +need you.” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall not wake him who sleeps in the cave,” I answered +enigmatically, as we departed rejoicing, for now we had learned that the Kendah +did not yet know of the death of the serpent. +</p> + +<p> +An hour’s walk up the hill, guided by Hans, brought us to the mouth of +the tunnel. To tell the truth I could have wished it had been longer, for as we +drew near all sorts of doubts assailed me. What if Hans really had been +drinking and invented this story to account for his absence? What if the snake +had recovered from a merely temporary indisposition? What if it had a wife and +family living in that cave, every one of them thirsting for vengeance? +</p> + +<p> +Well, it was too late to hesitate now, but secretly I hoped that one of the +others would prefer to lead the way. We reached the place and listened. It was +silent as a tomb. Then that brave fellow Hans lit the lantern and said: +</p> + +<p> +“Do you stop here, Baases, while I go to look. If you hear anything +happen to me, you will have time to run away,” words that made me feel +somewhat ashamed of myself. +</p> + +<p> +However, knowing that he was quick as a weasel and silent as a cat, we let him +go. A minute or two later suddenly he reappeared out of the darkness, for he +had turned the metal shield over the bull’s-eye of the lantern, and even +in that light I could see that he was grinning. +</p> + +<p> +“It is all right, Baas,” he said. “The Father of Serpents has +really gone to that land whither he sent Bena, where no doubt he is now +roasting in the fires of hell, and I don’t see any others. Come and look +at him.” +</p> + +<p> +So in we went and there, true enough, upon the floor of the cave lay the huge +reptile stone dead and already much swollen. I don’t know how long it +was, for part of its body was twisted into coils, so I will only say that it +was by far the most enormous snake that I have ever seen. It is true that I +have heard of such reptiles in different parts of Africa, but hitherto I had +always put them down as fabulous creatures transformed into and worshipped as +local gods. Also this particular specimen was, I presume, of a new variety, +since, according to Ragnall, it both struck like the cobra or the adder, and +crushed like the boa-constrictor. It is possible, however, that he was mistaken +on this point; I do not know, since I had no time, or indeed inclination, to +examine its head for the poison fangs, and when next I passed that way it was +gone. +</p> + +<p> +I shall never forget the stench of that cave. It was horrible, which is not to +be wondered at seeing that probably this creature had dwelt there for +centuries, since these large snakes are said to be as long lived as tortoises, +and, being sacred, of course it had never lacked for food. Everywhere lay piles +of cast bones, amongst one of which I noticed fragments of a human skull, +perhaps that of poor Savage. Also the projecting rocks in the place were +covered with great pieces of snake skin, doubtless rubbed off by the reptile +when once a year it changed its coat. +</p> + +<p> +For a while we gazed at the loathsome and still glittering creature, then +pushed on fearful lest we should stumble upon more of its kind. I suppose that +it must have been solitary, a kind of serpent rogue, as Jana was an elephant +rogue, for we met none and, if the information which I obtained afterwards may +be believed, there was no species at all resembling it in the country. What its +origin may have been I never learned. All the Kendah could or would say about +it was that it had lived in this hole from the beginning and that Black Kendah +prisoners, or malefactors, were sometimes given to it to kill, as White Kendah +prisoners were given to Jana. +</p> + +<p> +The cave itself proved to be not very long, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet, +no more. It was not an artificial but a natural hollow in the lava rock, which +I suppose had once been blown through it by an outburst of steam. Towards the +farther end it narrowed so much that I began to fear there might be no exit. In +this I was mistaken, however, for at its termination we found a hole just large +enough for a man to walk in upright and so difficult to climb through that it +became clear to us that certainly this was not the path by which the White +Kendah approached their sanctuary. +</p> + +<p> +Scrambling out of this aperture with thankfulness, we found ourselves upon the +slope of a kind of huge ditch of lava which ran first downwards for about +eighty paces, then up again to the base of the great cone of the inner mountain +which was covered with dense forest. +</p> + +<p> +I presume that the whole formation of this peculiar hill was the result of a +violent volcanic action in the early ages of the earth. But as I do not +understand such matters I will not dilate upon them further than to say that, +although comparatively small, it bore a certain resemblance to other extinct +volcanoes which I had met with in different parts of Africa. +</p> + +<p> +We climbed down to the bottom of the ditch that from its general appearance +might have been dug out by some giant race as a protection to their stronghold, +and up its farther side to where the forest began on deep and fertile soil. Why +there should have been rich earth here and none in the ditch is more than we +could guess, but perhaps the presence of springs of water in this part of the +mount may have been a cause. At any rate it was so. +</p> + +<p> +The trees in this forest were huge and of a variety of cedar, but did not grow +closely together; also there was practically no undergrowth, perhaps for the +reason that their dense, spreading tops shut out the light. As I saw afterwards +both trunks and boughs were clothed with long grey moss, which even at midday +gave the place a very ghostly appearance. The darkness beneath those trees was +intense, literally we could not see an inch before our faces. Yet rather than +stand still we struggled on, Hans leading the way, for his instincts were +quicker than ours. The steep rise of the ground beneath our feet told us that +we were going uphill, as we wished to do, and from time to time I consulted a +pocket compass I carried by the light of a match, knowing from previous +observations that the top of the Holy Mount lay due north. +</p> + +<p> +Thus for hour after hour we crept up and on, occasionally butting into the +trunk of a tree or stumbling over a fallen bough, but meeting with no other +adventures or obstacles of a physical kind. Of moral, or rather mental, +obstacles there were many, since to all of us the atmosphere of this forest was +as that of a haunted house. It may have been the embracing darkness, or the +sough of the night wind amongst the boughs and mosses, or the sense of the +imminent dangers that we had passed and that still awaited us. Or it may have +been unknown horrors connected with this place of which some spiritual essence +still survived, for without doubt localities preserve such influences, which +can be felt by the sensitive among living things, especially in favouring +conditions of fear and gloom. At any rate I never experienced more subtle and +yet more penetrating terrors than I did upon that night, and afterwards Ragnall +confessed to me that my case was his own. Black as it was I thought that I saw +apparitions, among them glaring eyes and that of the elephant Jana standing in +front of me with his trunk raised against the bole of a cedar. I could have +sworn that I saw him, nor was I reassured when Hans whispered to me below his +breath, for here we did not seem to dare to raise our voices: +</p> + +<p> +“Look, Baas. Is it Jana glowing like hot iron who stands yonder?” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t be a fool,” I answered. “How can Jana be here +and, if he were here, how could we see him in the night?” But as I said +the words I remembered Harût had told us that Jana had been met with on the +Holy Mount “in the spirit or in the flesh.” However this may be, +next instant he was gone and we beheld him or his shadow no more. Also we +thought that from time to time we heard voices speaking all around us, now +here, now there and now in the tree tops above our heads, though what they said +we could not catch or understand. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the long night wore away. Our progress was very slow, but guided by +occasional glimpses at the compass we never stopped but twice, once when we +found ourselves apparently surrounded by tree boles and fallen boughs, and once +when we got into swampy ground. Then we took the risk of lighting the lantern, +and by its aid picked our way through these difficult places. By degrees the +trees grew fewer so that we could see the stars between their tops. This was a +help to us as I knew that one of them, which I had carefully noted, shone at +this season of the year directly over the cone of the mountain, and we were +enabled to steer thereby. +</p> + +<p> +It must have been not more than half an hour before the dawn that Hans, who was +leading—we were pushing our way through thick bushes at the +time—halted hurriedly, saying: +</p> + +<p> +“Stop, Baas, we are on the edge of a cliff. When I thrust my stick +forward it stands on nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +Needless to say we pulled up dead and so remained without stirring an inch, for +who could say what might be beyond us? Ragnall wished to examine the ground +with the lantern. I was about to consent, though doubtfully, when suddenly I +heard voices murmuring and through the screen of bushes saw lights moving at a +little distance, forty feet or more below us. Then we gave up all idea of +making further use of the lantern and crouched still as mice in our bushes, +waiting for the dawn. +</p> + +<p> +It came at last. In the east appeared a faint pearly flush that by degrees +spread itself over the whole arch of the sky and was welcomed by the barking of +monkeys and the call of birds in the depths of the dew-steeped forest. Next a +ray from the unrisen sun, a single spear of light shot suddenly across the sky, +and as it appeared, from the darkness below us arose a sound of chanting, very +low and sweet to hear. It died away and for a little while there was silence +broken only by a rustling sound like to that of people taking their seats in a +dark theatre. Then a woman began to sing in a beautiful, contralto voice, but +in what language I do not know, for I could not catch the words, if these were +words and not only musical notes. +</p> + +<p> +I felt Ragnall trembling beside me and in a whisper asked him what was the +matter. He answered, also in a whisper: +</p> + +<p> +“I believe that is my wife’s voice.” +</p> + +<p> +“If so, I beg you to control yourself,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +Now the skies began to flame and the light to pour itself into a misty hollow +beneath us like streams of many-coloured gems into a bowl, driving away the +shadows. By degrees these vanished; by degrees we saw everything. Beneath us +was an amphitheatre, on the southern wall of which we were seated, though it +was not a wall but a lava cliff between forty and fifty feet high which served +as a wall. The amphitheatre itself, however, almost exactly resembled those of +the ancients which I had seen in pictures and Ragnall had visited in Italy, +Greece, and Southern France. It was oval in shape and not very large, perhaps +the flat space at the bottom may have covered something over an acre, but all +round this oval ran tiers of seats cut in the lava of the crater. For without +doubt this was the crater of an extinct volcano. +</p> + +<p> +Moreover, in what I will call the arena, stood a temple that in its main +outlines, although small, exactly resembled those still to be seen in Egypt. +There was the gateway or pylon; there the open outer court with columns round +it supporting roofed cloisters, which, as we ascertained afterwards, were used +as dwelling-places by the priests. There beyond and connected with the first by +a short passage was a second rather smaller court, also open to the sky, and +beyond this again, built like all the rest of the temple of lava blocks, a +roofed erection measuring about twelve feet square, which I guessed at once +must be the sanctuary. +</p> + +<p> +This temple was, as I have said, small, but extremely well proportioned, every +detail of it being in the most excellent taste though unornamented by sculpture +or painting. I have to add that in front of the sanctuary door stood a large +block of lava, which I concluded was an altar, and in front of this a stone +seat and a basin, also of stone, supported upon a very low tripod. Further, +behind the sanctuary was a square house with window-places. +</p> + +<p> +At the moment of our first sight of this place the courts were empty, but on +the benches of the amphitheatre were seated about three hundred persons, male +and female, the men to the north and the women to the south. They were all clad +in pure white robes, the heads of the men being shaved and those of the women +veiled, but leaving the face exposed. Lastly, there were two roadways into the +amphitheatre, one running east and one west through tunnels hollowed in the +encircling rock of the crater, both of which roads were closed at the mouths of +the tunnels by massive wooden double doors, seventeen or eighteen feet in +height. From these roadways and their doors we learned two things. First, that +the cave where had lived the Father of Serpents was, as I had suspected, not +the real approach to the shrine of the Child, but only a blind; and, secondly, +that the ceremony we were about to witness was secret and might only be +attended by the priestly class or families of this strange tribe. +</p> + +<p> +Scarcely was it full daylight when from the cells of the cloisters round the +outer court issued twelve priests headed by Harût himself, who looked very +dignified in his white garment, each of whom carried on a wooden platter ears +of different kinds of corn. Then from the cells of the southern cloister issued +twelve women, or rather girls, for all were young and very comely, who ranged +themselves alongside of the men. These also carried wooden platters, and on +them blooming flowers. +</p> + +<p> +At a sign they struck up a religious chant and began to walk forward through +the passage that led from the first court to the second. Arriving in front of +the altar they halted and one by one, first a priest and then a priestess, set +down the platters of offerings, piling them above each other into a cone. Next +the priests and the priestesses ranged themselves in lines on either side of +the altar, and Harût took a platter of corn and a platter of flowers in his +hands. These he held first towards that quarter of the sky in which swam the +invisible new moon, secondly towards the rising sun, and thirdly towards the +doors of the sanctuary, making genuflexions and uttering some chanted prayer, +the words of which we could not hear. +</p> + +<p> +A pause followed, that was succeeded by a sudden outburst of song wherein all +the audience took part. It was a very sonorous and beautiful song or hymn in +some language which I did not understand, divided into four verses, the end of +each verse being marked by the bowing of every one of those many singers +towards the east, towards the west, and finally towards the altar. +</p> + +<p> +Another pause till suddenly the doors of the sanctuary were thrown wide and +from between them issued—the goddess Isis of the Egyptians as I have seen +her in pictures! She was wrapped in closely clinging draperies of material so +thin that the whiteness of her body could be seen beneath. Her hair was +outspread before her, and she wore a head-dress or bonnet of glittering +feathers from the front of which rose a little golden snake. In her arms she +bore what at that distance seemed to be a naked child. With her came two women, +walking a little behind her and supporting her arms, who also wore feather +bonnets but without the golden snake, and were clad in tight-fitting, +transparent garments. +</p> + +<p> +“My God!” whispered Ragnall, “it is my wife!” +</p> + +<p> +“Then be silent and thank Him that she is alive and well,” I +answered. +</p> + +<p> +The goddess Isis, or the English lady—in that excitement I did not reck +which—stood still while the priests and priestesses and all the audience, +who, gathered on the upper benches of the amphitheatre, could see her above the +wall of the inner court, raised a thrice-repeated and triumphant cry of +welcome. Then Harût and the first priestess lifted respectively an ear of corn +and a flower from the two topmost platters and held these first to the lips of +the child in her arms and secondly to her lips. +</p> + +<p> +This ceremony concluded, the two attendant women led her round the altar to the +stone chair, upon which she seated herself. Next fire was kindled in the bowl +on the tripod in front of the chair, how I could not see; but perhaps it was +already smouldering there. At any rate it burnt up in a thin blue flame, on to +which Harût and the head priestess threw something that caused the flame to +turn to smoke. Then Isis, for I prefer to call her so while describing this +ceremony, was caused to bend her head forward, so that it was enveloped in the +smoke exactly as she and I had done some years before in the drawing-room at +Ragnall Castle. Presently the smoke died away and the two attendants with the +feathered head-dresses straightened her in the chair where she sat still +holding the babe against her breast as she might have done to nurse it, but +with her head bent forward like that of a person in a swoon. +</p> + +<p> +Now Harût stepped forward and appeared to speak to the goddess at some length, +then fell back again and waited, till in the midst of an intense silence she +rose from her seat and, fixing her wide eyes on the heavens, spoke in her turn, +for although we heard nothing of what she said, in that clear, morning light we +could see her lips moving. For some minutes she spoke, then sat down again upon +the chair and remained motionless, staring straight in front of her. Harût +advanced again, this time to the front of the altar, and, taking his stand upon +a kind of stone step, addressed the priests and priestesses and all the +encircling audience in a voice so loud and clear that I could distinguish and +understand every word he said. +</p> + +<p> +“The Guardian of the heavenly Child, the Nurse decreed, the appointed +Nurturer, She who is the shadow of her that bore the Child, She who in her day +bears the symbol of the Child and is consecrated to its service from of old, +She whose heart is filled with the wisdom of the Child and who utters the +decrees of Heaven, has spoken. Hearken now to the voice of the Oracle uttered +in answer to the questions of me, Harût, the head priest of the Eternal Child +during my life-days. Thus says the Oracle, the Guardian, the Nurturer, marked +like all who went before her with the holy mark of the new moon. She on whom +the spirit, flitting from generation to generation, has alighted for a while. +‘O people of the White Kendah, worshippers of the Child in this land and +descendants of those who for thousands of years worshipped the Child in a more +ancient land until the barbarians drove it thence with the remnant that +remained. War is upon you, O people of the White Kendah. Jana the evil one; he +whose other name is Set, he whose other name is Satan, he who for this while +lives in the shape of an elephant, he who is worshipped by the thousands whom +once you conquered, and whom still you bridle by my might, comes up against +you. The Darkness wars against the Daylight, the Evil wars against the Good. My +curse has fallen upon the people of Jana, my hail has smitten them, their corn +and their cattle; they have no food to eat. But they are still strong for war +and there is food in your land. They come to take your corn; Jana comes to +trample your god. The Evil comes to destroy the Good, the Night to Devour the +Day. It is the last of many battles. How shall you conquer, O People of the +Child? Not by your own strength, for you are few in number and Jana is very +strong. Not by the strength of the Child, for the Child grows weak and old, the +days of its dominion are almost done, and its worship is almost outworn. Here +alone that worship lingers, but new gods, who are still the old gods, press on +to take its place and to lead it to its rest.’ +</p> + +<p> +“How then shall you conquer that, when the Child has departed to its own +place, a remnant of you may still remain? In one way only—so says the +Guardian, the Nurturer of the Child speaking with the voice of the Child; by +the help of those whom you have summoned to your aid from far. There were four +of them, but one you have suffered to be slain in the maw of the Watcher in the +cave. It was an evil deed, O sons and daughters of the Child, for as the +Watcher is now dead, so ere long many of you who planned this deed must die +who, had it not been for that man’s blood, would have lived on a while. +Why did you do this thing? That you might keep a secret, the secret of the +theft of a woman, that you might continue to act a lie which falls upon your +head like a stone from heaven. +</p> + +<p> +“Thus saith the Child: ‘Lift no hand against the three who remain, +and what they shall ask, that give, for thus alone shall some of you be saved +from Jana and those who serve him, even though the Guardian and the Child be +taken away and the Child itself returned to its own place.’ These are the +words of the Oracle uttered at the Feast of the First-fruits, the words that +cannot be changed and mayhap its last.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Harût ceased, and there was silence while this portentous message sank into the +minds of his audience. At length they seemed to understand its ominous nature +and from them all there arose a universal, simultaneous groan. As it died away +the two attendants dressed as goddesses assisted the personification of the +Lady Isis to rise from her seat and, opening the robes upon her breast, pointed +to something beneath her throat, doubtless that birthmark shaped like the new +moon which made her so sacred in their eyes since she who bore it and she alone +could fill her holy office. +</p> + +<p> +All the audience and with them the priests and priestesses bowed before her. +She lifted the symbol of the Child, holding it high above her head, whereon +once more they bowed with the deepest veneration. Then still holding the effigy +aloft, she turned and with her two attendants passed into the sanctuary and +doubtless thence by a covered way into the house beyond. At any rate we saw her +no more. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +As soon as she was gone the congregation, if I may call it so, leaving their +seats, swarmed down into the outer court of the temple through its eastern +gate, which was now opened. Here the priests proceeded to distribute among them +the offerings taken from the altar, giving a grain of corn to each of the men +to eat and a flower to each of the women, which flower she kissed and hid in +the bosom of her robe. Evidently it was a kind of sacrament. +</p> + +<p> +Ragnall lifted himself a little upon his hands and knees, and I saw that his +eyes glowed and his face was very pale. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you going to do?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Demand that those people give me back my wife, whom they have stolen. +Don’t try to stop me, Quatermain, I mean what I say.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, but,” I stammered, “they never will and we are but +three unarmed men.” +</p> + +<p> +Hans lifted up his little yellow face between us. +</p> + +<p> +“Baas,” he hissed, “I have a thought. The Lord Baas wishes to +get the lady dressed like a bird as to her head and like one for burial as to +her body, who is, he says, his wife. But for us to take her from among so many +is impossible. Now what did that old witch-doctor Harût declare just now? He +declared, speaking for his fetish, that by our help alone the White Kendah can +resist the hosts of the Black Kendah and that no harm must be done to us if the +White Kendah would continue to live. So it seems, Baas, that we have something +to sell which the White Kendah must buy, namely our help against the Black +Kendah, for if we will not fight for them, they believe that they cannot +conquer their enemies and kill the devil Jana. Well now, supposing that the +Baas says that our price is the white woman dressed like a bird, to be +delivered over to us when we have defeated the Black Kendah and killed +Jana—after which they will have no more use for her. And supposing that +the Baas says that if they refuse to pay that price we will burn all our powder +and cartridges so that the rifles are no use? Is there not a path to walk on +here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps,” I answered. “Something of the sort was working in +my mind but I had no time to think it out.” +</p> + +<p> +Turning, I explained the idea to Ragnall, adding: +</p> + +<p> +“I pray you not to be rash. If you are, not only may we be killed, which +does not so much matter, but it is very probable that even if they spare us +they will put an end to your wife rather than suffer one whom they look upon as +holy and who is necessary to their faith in its last struggle to be separated +from her charge of the Child.” +</p> + +<p> +This was a fortunate argument of mine and one which went home. +</p> + +<p> +“To lose her now would be more than I could bear,” he muttered. +</p> + +<p> +“Then will you promise to let me try to manage this affair and not to +interfere with me and show violence?” +</p> + +<p> +He hesitated a moment and answered: +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I promise, for you two are cleverer than I am and—I cannot +trust my judgment.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good,” I said, assuming an air of confidence which I did not feel. +“Now we will go down to call upon Harût and his friends. I want to have a +closer look at that temple.” +</p> + +<p> +So behind our screen of bushes we wriggled back a little distance till we knew +that the slope of the ground would hide us when we stood up. Then as quickly as +we could we made our way eastwards for something over a quarter of a mile and +after this turned to the north. As I expected, beyond the ring of the crater we +found ourselves on the rising, tree-clad bosom of the mountain and, threading +our path through the cedars, came presently to that track or roadway which led +to the eastern gate of the amphitheatre. This road we followed unseen until +presently the gateway appeared before us. We walked through it without +attracting any attention, perhaps because all the people were either talking +together, or praying, or perhaps because like themselves we were wrapped in +white robes. At the mouth of the tunnel we stopped and I called out in a loud +voice: +</p> + +<p> +“The white lords and their servant have come to visit Harût, as he +invited them to do. Bring us, we pray you, into the presence of Harût.” +</p> + +<p> +Everyone wheeled round and stared at us standing there in the shadow of the +gateway tunnel, for the sun behind us was still low. My word, how they did +stare! A voice cried: +</p> + +<p> +“Kill them! Kill these strangers who desecrate our temple.” +</p> + +<p> +“What!” I answered. “Would you kill those to whom your +high-priest has given safe-conduct; those moreover by whose help alone, as your +Oracle has just declared, you can hope to slay Jana and destroy his +hosts?” +</p> + +<p> +“How do they know that?” shouted another voice. “They are +magicians!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I remarked, “all magic does not dwell in the hearts of +the White Kendah. If you doubt it, go to look at the Watcher in the Cave whom +your Oracle told you is dead. You will find that it did not lie.” +</p> + +<p> +As I spoke a man rushed through the gates, his white robe streaming on the +wind, shouting as he emerged from the tunnel: +</p> + +<p> +“O Priests and Priestesses of the Child, the ancient serpent is dead. I +whose office it is to feed the serpent on the day of the new moon have found +him dead in his house.” +</p> + +<p> +“You hear,” I interpolated calmly. “The Father of Snakes is +dead. If you want to know how, I will tell you. We looked on it and it +died.” +</p> + +<p> +They might have answered that poor Savage also looked on it with the result +that <i>he</i> died, but luckily it did not occur to them to do so. On the +contrary, they just stood still and stared at us like a flock of startled +sheep. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the sheep parted and the shepherd in the shape of Harût appeared +looking, I reflected, the very picture of Abraham softened by a touch of the +melancholia of Job, that is, as I have always imagined those patriarchs. He +bowed to us with his usual Oriental courtesy, and we bowed back to him. +Hans’ bow, I may explain, was of the most peculiar nature, more like a +<i>skulpat</i>, as the Boers call a land-tortoise, drawing its wrinkled head +into its shell and putting it out again than anything else. Then Harût remarked +in his peculiar English, which I suppose the White Kendah took for some tongue +known only to magicians: +</p> + +<p> +“So you get here, eh? Why you get here, how the devil you get here, +eh?” +</p> + +<p> +“We got here because you asked us to do so if we could,” I +answered, “and we thought it rude not to accept your invitation. For the +rest, we came through a cave where you kept a tame snake, an ugly-looking +reptile but very harmless to those who know how to deal with snakes and are not +afraid of them as poor Bena was. If you can spare the skin I should like to +have it to make myself a robe.” +</p> + +<p> +Harût looked at me with evident respect, muttering: +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Macumazana, you what you English call cool, quite cool! Is that +all?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I answered. “Although you did not happen to notice us, +we have been present at your church service, and heard and seen everything. For +instance, we saw the wife of the lord here whom you stole away in Egypt, her +that, being a liar, Harût, you swore you never stole. Also we heard her words +after you had made her drunk with your tobacco smoke.” +</p> + +<p> +Now for once in his life Harût was, in sporting parlance, knocked out. He +looked at us, then turning quite pale, lifted his eyes to heaven and rocked +upon his feet as though he were about to fall. +</p> + +<p> +“How you do it? How you do it, eh?” he queried in a weak voice. +</p> + +<p> +“Never you mind how we did it, my friend,” I answered loftily. +“What we want to know is when you are going to hand over that lady to her +husband.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not possible,” he answered, recovering some of his tone. +“First we kill you, first we kill her, she Nurse of the Child. While +Child there, she stop there till she die.” +</p> + +<p> +“See here,” broke in Ragnall. “Either you give me my wife or +someone else will die. You will die, Harût. I am a stronger man than you are +and unless you promise to give me my wife I will kill you now with this stick +and my hands. Do not move or call out if you want to live.” +</p> + +<p> +“Lord,” answered the old man with some dignity, “I know you +can kill me, and if you kill me, I think I say thank you who no wish to live in +so much trouble. But what good that, since in one minute then you die too, all +of you, and lady she stop here till Black Kendah king take her to wife or she +too die?” +</p> + +<p> +“Let us talk,” I broke in, treading warningly upon Ragnall’s +foot. “We have heard your Oracle and we know that you believe its words. +It is said that we alone can help you to conquer the Black Kendah. If you will +not promise what we ask, we will not help you. We will burn our powder and melt +our lead, so that the guns we have cannot speak with Jana and with Simba, and +after that we will do other things that I need not tell you. But if you promise +what we ask, then we will fight for you against Jana and Simba and teach your +men to use the fifty rifles which we have here with us, and by our help you +shall conquer. Do you understand?” +</p> + +<p> +He nodded and stroking his long beard, asked: +</p> + +<p> +“What you want us promise, eh?” +</p> + +<p> +“We want you to promise that after Jana is dead and the Black Kendah are +driven away, you will give up to us unharmed that lady whom you have stolen. +Also that you will bring her and us safely out of your country by the roads you +know, and meanwhile that you will let this lord see his wife.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not last, no,” replied Harût, “that not possible. That bring +us all to grave. Also no good, ‘cause her mind empty. For rest, you come +to other place, sit down and eat while I talk with priests. Be afraid nothing; +you quite safe.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why should we be afraid? It is you who should be afraid, you who stole +the lady and brought Bena to his death. Do you not remember the words of your +own Oracle, Harût?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I know words, but how <i>you</i> know them <i>that</i> I not +know,” he replied. +</p> + +<p> +Then he issued some orders, as a result of which a guard formed itself about us +and conducted us through the crowd and along the passage to the second court of +the temple, which was now empty. Here the guard left us but remained at the +mouth of the passage, keeping watch. Presently women brought us food and drink, +of which Hans and I partook heartily though Ragnall, who was so near to his +lost wife and yet so far away, could eat but little. Mingled joy because after +these months of arduous search he found her yet alive, and fear lest she should +again be taken from him for ever, deprived him of all appetite. +</p> + +<p> +While we ate, priests to the number of about a dozen, who I suppose had been +summoned by Harût, were admitted by the guard and, gathering out of earshot of +us between the altar and the sanctuary, entered on an earnest discussion with +him. Watching their faces I could see that there was a strong difference of +opinion between them, about half taking one view on the matter of which they +disputed, and half another. At length Harût made some proposition to which they +all agreed. Then the door of the sanctuary was opened with a strange sort of +key which one of the priests produced, showing a dark interior in which gleamed +a white object, I suppose the statue of the Child. Harût and two others +entered, the door being closed behind them. About five minutes later they +appeared again and others, who listened earnestly and after renewed +consultation signified assent by holding up the right hand. Now one of the +priests walked to where we were and, bowing, begged us to advance to the altar. +This we did, and were stood in a line in front of it, Hans being set in the +middle place, while the priests ranged themselves on either side. Next Harût, +having once more opened the door of the sanctuary, took his stand a little to +the right of it and addressed us, not in English but in his own language, +pausing at the end of each sentence that I might translate to Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +“Lords Macumazana and Igeza, and yellow man who is named +Light-in-Darkness,” he said, “we, the head priests of the Child, +speaking on behalf of the White Kendah people with full authority so to do, +have taken counsel together and of the wisdom of the Child as to the demands +which you make of us. Those demands are: First, that after you have killed Jana +and defeated the Black Kendah we should give over to you the white lady who was +born in a far land to fill the office of Guardian of the Child, as is shown by +the mark of the new moon upon her breast, but who, because for the second time +we could not take her, became the wife of you, the Lord Igeza. Secondly, that +we should conduct you and her safely out of our land to some place whence you +can return to your own country. Both of these things we will do, because we +know from of old that if once Jana is dead we shall have no cause to fear the +Black Kendah any more, since we believe that then they will leave their home +and go elsewhere, and therefore that we shall no longer need an Oracle to +declare to us in what way Heaven will protect us from Jana and from them. Or if +another Oracle should become necessary to us, doubtless in due season she will +be found. Also we admit that we stole away this lady because we must, although +she was the wife of one of you. But if we swear this, you on your part must +also swear that you will stay with us till the end of the war, making our cause +your cause and, if need be, giving your lives for us in battle. You must swear +further that none of you will attempt to see or to take hence that lady who is +named Guardian of the Child until we hand her over to you unharmed. If you will +not swear these things, then since no blood may be shed in this holy place, +here we will ring you round until you die of hunger and of thirst, or if you +escape from this temple, then we will fall upon you and put you to death and +fight our own battle with Jana as best we may.” +</p> + +<p> +“And if we make these promises how are we to know that you will keep +yours?” I interrupted. +</p> + +<p> +“Because the oath that we shall give you will be the oath of the Child +that may not be broken.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then give it,” I said, for although I did not altogether like the +security, obviously it was the best to be had. +</p> + +<p> +So very solemnly they laid their right hands upon the altar and “in the +presence of the Child and the name of the Child and of all the White Kendah +people,” repeated after Harût a most solemn oath of which I have already +given the substance. It called down on their heads a very dreadful doom in this +world and the next, should it be broken either in the spirit or the letter; the +said oath, however, to be only binding if we, on our part, swore to observe +their terms and kept our engagement also in the spirit and the letter. +</p> + +<p> +Then they asked us to fulfil our share of the pact and very considerately drew +out of hearing while we discussed the matter; Harût, the only one of them who +understood a word of English, retiring behind the sanctuary. At first I had +difficulties with Ragnall, who was most unwilling to bind himself in any way. +In the end, on my pointing out that nothing less than our lives were involved +and probably that of his wife as well, also that no other course was open to +us, he gave way, to my great relief. +</p> + +<p> +Hans announced himself ready to swear anything, adding blandly that words +mattered nothing, as afterwards we could do whatever seemed best in our own +interests, whereon I read him a short moral lecture on the heinousness of +perjury, which did not seem to impress him very much. +</p> + +<p> +This matter settled, we called back the priests and informed them of our +decision. Harût demanded that we should affirm it “by the Child,” +which we declined to do, saying that it was our custom to swear only in the +name of our own God. Being a liberal-minded man who had travelled, Harût gave +way on the point. So I swore first to the effect that I would fight for the +White Kendah to the finish in consideration of the promises that they had made +to us. I added that I would not attempt either to see or to interfere with the +lady here known as the Guardian of the Child until the war was over or even to +bring our existence to her knowledge, ending up, “so help me God,” +as I had done several times when giving evidence in a court of law. +</p> + +<p> +Next Ragnall with a great effort repeated my oath in English, Harût listening +carefully to every word and once or twice asking me to explain the exact +meaning of some of them. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly Hans, who seemed very bored with the whole affair, swore, also repeating +the words after me and finishing on his own account with “so help me the +reverend Predikant, the Baas’s father,” a form that he utterly +declined to vary although it involved more explanations. When pressed, indeed, +he showed considerable ingenuity by pointing out to the priests that to his +mind my poor father stood in exactly the same relation to the Power above us as +their Oracle did to the Child. He offered generously, however, to throw in the +spirits of his grandfather and grandmother and some extraordinary divinity they +worshipped, I think it was a hare, as an additional guarantee of good faith. +This proposal the priests accepted gravely, whereon Hans whispered into my ear +in Dutch: +</p> + +<p> +“Those fools do not remember that when pressed by dogs the hare often +doubles on its own spoor, and that your reverend father will be very pleased if +I can play them the same trick with the white lady that they played with the +Lord Igeza.” +</p> + +<p> +I only looked at him in reply, since the morality of Hans was past argument. It +might perhaps be summed up in one sentence: To get the better of his neighbour +in his master’s service, honestly if possible; if not, by any means that +came to his hand down to that of murder. At the bottom of his dark and +mysterious heart Hans worshipped only one god, named Love, not of woman or +child, but of my humble self. His principles were those of a rather sly but +very high-class and exclusive dog, neither better nor worse. Still, when all is +said and done, there are lower creatures in the world than high-class dogs. At +least so the masters whom they adore are apt to think, especially if their +watchfulness and courage have often saved them from death or disaster. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> +THE EMBASSY</h2> + +<p> +The ceremonies were over and the priests, with the exception of Harût and two +who remained to attend upon him, vanished, probably to inform the male and +female hierophants of their result, and through these the whole people of the +White Kendah. Old Harût stared at us for a little while, then said in English, +which he always liked to talk when Ragnall was present, perhaps for the sake of +practice: +</p> + +<p> +“What you like do now, eh? P’r’aps wish fly back to Town of +Child, for suppose this how you come. If so, please take me with you, because +that save long ride.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! no,” I answered. “We walked here through that hole where +lived the Father of Snakes who died of fear when he saw us, and just mixed with +the rest of you in the court of the temple.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good lie,” said Harût admiringly, “very first-class lie! +Wonder how you kill great snake, which we all think never die, for he live +there hundred, hundred years; our people find him there when first they come to +this country, and make him kind of god. Well, he nasty beast and best dead. I +say, you like see Child? If so, come, for you our brothers now, only please +take off hat and not speak.” +</p> + +<p> +I intimated that we should “like see Child,” and led by Harût we +entered the little sanctuary which was barely large enough to hold all of us. +In a niche of the end wall stood the sacred effigy which Ragnall and I examined +with a kind of reverent interest. It proved to be the statue of an infant about +two feet high, cut, I imagine, from the base of a single but very large +elephant’s tusk, so ancient that the yellowish ivory had become rotten +and was covered with a multitude of tiny fissures. Indeed, for its appearance I +made up my mind that several thousands of years must have passed since the +beast died from which this ivory was taken, especially as it had, I presume, +always been carefully preserved under cover. +</p> + +<p> +The workmanship of the object was excellent, that of a fine artist who, I +should think, had taken some living infant for his model, perhaps a child of +the Pharaoh of the day. Here I may say at once that there could be no doubt of +its Egyptian origin, since on one side of the head was a single lock of hair, +while the fourth finger of the right hand was held before the lips as though to +enjoin silence. Both of these peculiarities, it will be remembered, are +characteristic of the infant Horus, the child of Osiris and Isis, as portrayed +in bronzes and temple carvings. So at least Ragnall, who recently had studied +many such effigies in Egypt, informed me later. There was nothing else in the +place except an ancient, string-seated chair of ebony, adorned with inlaid +ivory patterns; an effigy of a snake in porcelain, showing that serpent worship +was in some way mixed up with their religion; and two rolls of papyrus, at +least that is what they looked like, which were laid in the niche with the +statue. These rolls, to my disappointment, Harût refused to allow us to examine +or even to touch. +</p> + +<p> +After we had left the sanctuary I asked Harût when this figure was brought to +their land. He replied that it came when they came, at what date he could not +tell us as it was so long ago, and that with it came the worship and the +ceremonies of their religion. +</p> + +<p> +In answer to further questions he added that this figure, which seemed to be of +ivory, contained the spirits which ruled the sun and the moon, and through them +the world. This, said Ragnall, was just a piece of Egyptian theology, preserved +down to our own times in a remote corner of Africa, doubtless by descendants of +dwellers on the Nile who had been driven thence in some national catastrophe, +and brought away with them their faith and one of the effigies of their gods. +Perhaps they fled at the time of the Persian invasion by Cambyses. +</p> + +<p> +After we had emerged from this deeply interesting shrine, which was locked +behind us, Harût led us, not through the passage connecting it with the stone +house that we knew was occupied by Ragnall’s wife in her capacity as +Guardian of the Child, or a latter-day personification of Isis, Lady of the +Moon, at which house he cast many longing glances, but back through the two +courts and the pylon to the gateway of the temple. Here on the road by which we +had entered the place, a fact which we did not mention to him, he paused and +addressed us. +</p> + +<p> +“Lords,” he said, “now you and the People of the White Kendah +are one; your ends are their ends, your fate is their fate, their secrets are +your secrets. You, Lord Igeza, work for a reward, namely the person of that +lady whom we took from you on the Nile.” +</p> + +<p> +“How did you do that?” interrupted Ragnall when I had interpreted. +</p> + +<p> +“Lord, we watched you. We knew when you came to Egypt; we followed you in +Egypt, whither we had journeyed on our road to England once more to seek our +Oracles, till the day of our opportunity dawned. Then at night we called her +and she obeyed the call, as she must do whose mind we have taken away—ask +me not how—and brought her to dwell with us, she who is marked from her +birth with the holy sign and wears upon her breast certain charmed stones and a +symbol that for thousands of years have adorned the body of the Child and those +of its Oracles. Do you remember a company of Arabs whom you saw riding on the +banks of the Great River on the day before the night when she was lost to you? +We were with that company and on our camels we bore her thence, happy and +unharmed to this our land, as I trust, when all is done, we shall bear her back +again and you with her.” +</p> + +<p> +“I trust so also, for you have wrought me a great wrong,” said +Ragnall briefly, “perhaps a greater wrong than I know at present, for how +came it that my boy was killed by an elephant?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ask that question of Jana and not of me,” Harût answered darkly. +Then he went on: “You also, Lord Macumazana, work for a reward, the +countless store of ivory which your eyes have beheld lying in the burial place +of elephants beyond the Tava River. When you have slain Jana who watches the +store, and defeated the Black Kendah who serve him, it is yours and we will +give you camels to bear it, or some of it, for all cannot be carried, to the +sea where it can be taken away in ships. As for the yellow man, I think that he +seeks no reward who soon will inherit all things.” +</p> + +<p> +“The old witch-doctor means that I am going to die,” remarked Hans +expectorating reflectively. “Well, Baas, I am quite ready, if only Jana +and certain others die first. Indeed I grow too old to fight and travel as I +used to do, and therefore shall be glad to pass to some land where I become +young again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stuff and rubbish!” I exclaimed, then turned and listened to Harût +who, not understanding our Dutch conversation, was speaking once more. +</p> + +<p> +“Lords,” he said, “these paths which run east and west are +the real approach to the mountain top and the temple, not that which, as I +suppose, led you through the cave of the old serpent. The road to the west, +which wanders round the base of the hill to a pass in those distant mountains +and thence across the deserts to the north, is so easy to stop that by it we +need fear no attack. With this eastern road the case is, however, different, as +I shall now show you, if you will ride with me.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he gave some orders to two attendant priests who departed at a run and +presently reappeared at the head of a small train of camels which had been +hidden, I know not where. We mounted and, following the road across a flat +piece of ground, found that not more than half a mile away was another +precipitous ridge of rock which had presumably once formed the lip of an outer +crater. This ridge, however, was broken away for a width of two or three +hundred yards, perhaps by some outrush of lava, the road running through the +centre of the gap on which schanzes had been built here and there for purposes +of defence. Looking at these I saw that they were very old and inefficient and +asked when they had been erected. Harût replied about a century before when the +last war took place with the Black Kendah, who had been finally driven off at +this spot, for then the White Kendah were more numerous than at present. +</p> + +<p> +“So Simba knows this road?” I said. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Lord, and Jana knows it also, for he fought in that war and still +at times visits us here and kills any whom he may meet. Only to the temple he +has never dared to come.” +</p> + +<p> +Now I wondered whether we had really seen Jana in the forest on the previous +night, but coming to the conclusion that it was useless to investigate the +matter, made no inquiries, especially as these would have revealed to Harût the +route by which we approached the temple. Only I pointed out to him that proper +defences should be put up here without delay, that is if they meant to make a +stronghold of the mountain. +</p> + +<p> +“We do, Lord,” he answered, “since we are not strong enough +to attack the Black Kendah in their own country or to meet them in pitched +battle on the plain. Here and in no other place must be fought the last fight +between Jana and the Child. Therefore it will be your task to build walls +cunningly, so that when they come we may defeat Jana and the hosts of the Black +Kendah.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean that this elephant will accompany Simba and his soldiers, +Harût?” +</p> + +<p> +“Without doubt, Lord, since he has always done so from the beginning. +Jana is tame to the king and certain priests of the Black Kendah, whose +forefathers have fed him for generations, and will obey their orders. Also he +can think for himself, being an evil spirit and invulnerable.” +</p> + +<p> +“His left eye and the tip of his trunk are not invulnerable,” I +remarked, “though from what I saw of him I should say there is no doubt +about his being able to think for himself. Well, I am glad the brute is coming +as I have an account to settle with him.” +</p> + +<p> +“As he, Lord, who does not forget, has an account to settle with you and +your servant, Light-in-Darkness,” commented Harût in an unpleasant and +suggestive tone. +</p> + +<p> +Then after we had taken a few measurements and Ragnall, who understands such +matters, had drawn a rough sketch of the place in his pocket-book to serve as +data for our proposed scheme of fortifications, we pursued our journey back to +the town, where we had left all our stores and there were many things to be +arranged. It proved to be quite a long ride, down the eastern slope of the +mountain which was easy to negotiate, although like the rest of this strange +hill it was covered with dense cedar forests that also seemed to me to have +defensive possibilities. Reaching its foot at length we were obliged to make a +detour by certain winding paths to avoid ground that was too rough for the +camels, so that in the end we did not come to our own house in the Town of the +Child till about midday. +</p> + +<p> +Glad enough were we to reach it, since all three of us were tired out with our +terrible night journey and the anxious emotions that we had undergone. Indeed, +after we had eaten we lay down and I rejoiced to see that, notwithstanding the +state of mental excitement into which the discovery of his wife had plunged +him, Ragnall was the first of us to fall asleep. +</p> + +<p> +About five o’clock we were awakened by a messenger from Harût, who +requested our attendance on important business at a kind of meeting-house which +stood at a little distance on an open place where the White Kendah bartered +produce. Here we found Harût and about twenty of the headmen seated in the +shade of a thatched roof, while behind them, at a respectful distance, stood +quite a hundred of the White Kendah. Most of these, however, were women and +children, for as I have said the greater part of the male population was absent +from the town because of the commencement of the harvest. +</p> + +<p> +We were conducted to chairs, or rather stools of honour, and when we two had +seated ourselves, Hans taking his stand behind us, Harût rose and informed us +that an embassy had arrived from the Black Kendah which was about to be +admitted. +</p> + +<p> +Presently they came, five of them, great, truculent-looking fellows of a +surprising blackness, unarmed, for they had not been allowed to bring their +weapons into the town, but adorned with the usual silver chains across their +breasts to show their rank, and other savage finery. In the man who was their +leader I recognized one of those messengers who had accosted us when first we +entered their territory on our way from the south, before that fight in which I +was taken prisoner. Stepping forward and addressing himself to Harût, he said: +</p> + +<p> +“A while ago, O Prophet of the Child, I, the messenger of the god Jana, +speaking through the mouth of Simba the King, gave to you and your brother +Marût a certain warning to which you did not listen. Now Jana has Marût, and +again I come to warn you, Harût.” +</p> + +<p> +“If I remember right,” interrupted Harût blandly, “I think +that on that occasion two of you delivered the message and that the Child +marked one of you upon the brow. If Jana has my brother, say, where is +yours?” +</p> + +<p> +“We warned you,” went on the messenger, “and you cursed us in +the name of the Child.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” interrupted Harût again, “we cursed you with three +curses. The first was the curse of Heaven by storm or drought, which has fallen +upon you. The second was the curse of famine, which is falling upon you; and +the third was the curse of war, which is yet to fall on you.” +</p> + +<p> +“It is of war that we come to speak,” replied the messenger, +diplomatically avoiding the other two topics which perhaps he found it awkward +to discuss. +</p> + +<p> +“That is foolish of you,” replied the bland Harût, “seeing +that the other day you matched yourselves against us with but small success. +Many of you were killed but only a very few of us, and the white lord whom you +took captive escaped out of your hands and from the tusks of Jana who, I think, +now lacks an eye. If he is a god, how comes it that he lacks an eye and could +not kill an unarmed white man?” +</p> + +<p> +“Let Jana answer for himself, as he will do ere long, O Harût. Meanwhile, +these are the words of Jana spoken through the mouth of Simba the King: The +Child has destroyed my harvest and therefore I demand this of the people of the +Child—that they give me three-fourths of their harvest, reaping the same +and delivering it on the south bank of the River Tava. That they give me the +two white lords to be sacrificed to me. That they give the white lady who is +Guardian of the Child to be a wife of Simba the King, and with her a hundred +virgins of your people. That the image of the Child be brought to the god Jana +in the presence of his priests and Simba the King. These are the demands of +Jana spoken through the mouth of Simba the King.” +</p> + +<p> +Watching, I saw a thrill of horror shake the forms of Harût and of all those +with him as the full meaning of these, to them, most impious requests sank into +their minds. But he only asked very quietly: +</p> + +<p> +“And if we refuse the demands, what then?” +</p> + +<p> +“Then,” shouted the messenger insolently, “then Jana declares +war upon you, the last war of all, war till every one of your men be dead and +the Child you worship is burnt to grey ashes with fire. War till your women are +taken as slaves and the corn which you refuse is stored in our grain pits and +your land is a waste and your name forgotten. Already the hosts of Jana are +gathered and the trumpet of Jana calls them to the fight. To-morrow or the next +day they advance upon you, and ere the moon is full not one of you will be left +to look upon her.” +</p> + +<p> +Harût rose, and walking from under the shed, turned his back upon the envoys +and stared at the distant line of great mountains which stood out far away +against the sky. Out of curiosity I followed him and observed that these +mountains were no longer visible. Where they had been was nothing but a line of +black and heavy cloud. After looking for a while he returned and addressing the +envoys, said quite casually: +</p> + +<p> +“If you will be advised by me, friends, you will ride hard for the river. +There is such rain upon the mountains as I have never seen before, and you will +be fortunate if you cross it before the flood comes down, the greatest flood +that has happened in our day.” +</p> + +<p> +This intelligence seemed to disturb the messengers, for they too stepped out of +the shed and stared at the mountains, muttering to each other something that I +could not understand. Then they returned and with a fine appearance of +indifference demanded an immediate answer to their challenge. +</p> + +<p> +“Can you not guess it?” answered Harût. Then changing his tone he +drew himself to his full height and thundered out at them: “Get you back +to your evil spirit of a god that hides in the shape of a beast of the forest +and to his slave who calls himself a king, and say to them: ‘Thus speaks +the Child to his rebellious servants, the Black Kendah dogs: Swim my river when +you can, which will not be yet, and come up against me when you will; for +whenever you come I shall be ready for you. You are already dead, O Jana. You +are already dead, O Simba the slave. You are scattered and lost, O dogs of the +Black Kendah, and the home of such of you as remain shall be far away in a +barren land, where you must dig deep for water and live upon the wild game +because there little corn will grow.’ Now begone, and swiftly, lest you +stop here for ever.” +</p> + +<p> +So they turned and went, leaving me full of admiration for the histrionic +powers of Harût. +</p> + +<p> +I must add, however, that being without doubt a keen observer of the weather +conditions of the neighbourhood, he was quite right about the rain upon the +mountains, which by the way never extended to the territory of the People of +the Child. As we heard afterwards, the flood came down just as the envoys +reached the river; indeed, one of them was drowned in attempting its crossing, +and for fourteen days after this it remained impassable to an army. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +That very evening we began our preparations to meet an attack which was now +inevitable. Putting aside the supposed rival powers of the tribal divinities +worshipped under the names of the Child and Jana, which, while they added a +kind of Homeric interest to the contest, could, we felt, scarcely affect an +issue that must be decided with cold steel and other mortal weapons, the +position of the White Kendah was serious indeed. As I think I have said, in all +they did not number more than about two thousand men between the ages of twenty +and fifty-five, or, including lads between fourteen and twenty and old men +still able-bodied between fifty-five and seventy, say two thousand seven +hundred capable of some sort of martial service. To these might be added +something under two thousand women, since among this dwindling folk, oddly +enough, from causes that I never ascertained, the males out-numbered the +females, which accounted for their marriage customs that were, by comparison +with those of most African peoples, monogamous. At any rate only the rich among +them had more than one wife, while the poor or otherwise ineligible often had +none at all, since inter-marriage with other races and above all with the Black +Kendah dwelling beyond the river was so strictly taboo that it was punishable +with death or expulsion. +</p> + +<p> +Against this little band the Black Kendah could bring up twenty thousand men, +besides boys and aged persons who with the women would probably be left to +defend their own country, that is, not less than ten to one. Moreover, all of +these enemies would be fighting with the courage of despair, since quite +three-fourths of their crops with many of their cattle and sheep had been +destroyed by the terrific hail-burst that I have described. Therefore, since no +other corn was available in the surrounding land, where they dwelt alone +encircled by deserts, either they must capture that of the White Kendah, or +suffer terribly from starvation until a year later when another harvest +ripened. +</p> + +<p> +The only points I could see in favour of the People of the Child were that they +would fight on the vantage ground of their mountain stronghold, a formidable +position if properly defended. Also they would have the benefit of the skill +and knowledge of Ragnall and myself. Lastly, the enemy must face our rifles. +Neither the White nor the Black Kendah, I should say, possessed any guns, +except a few antiquated flintlock weapons that the former had captured from +some nomadic tribe and kept as curiosities. Why this was the case I do not +know, since undoubtedly at times the White Kendah traded in camels and corn +with Arabs who wandered as far as the Sudan, or Egypt, nomadic tribes to whom +even then firearms were known, although perhaps rarely used by them. But so it +was, possibly because of some old law or prejudice which forbade their +introduction into the country, or mayhap of the difficulty of procuring powder +and lead, or for the reason that they had none to teach them the use of such +new-fangled weapons. +</p> + +<p> +Now it will be remembered that, on the chance of their proving useful, Ragnall, +in addition to our own sporting rifles, had brought with him to Africa fifty +Snider rifles with an ample supply of ammunition, the same that I had trouble +in passing through the Customs at Durban, all of which had arrived safely at +the Town of the Child. Clearly our first duty was to make the best possible use +of this invaluable store. To that end I asked Harût to select seventy-five of +the boldest and most intelligent young men among his people, and to hand them +over to me and Hans for instruction in musketry. We had only fifty rifles but I +drilled seventy-five men, or fifty per cent. more, that some might be ready to +replace any who fell. +</p> + +<p> +From dawn to dark each day Hans and I worked at trying to convert these Kendah +into sharpshooters. It was no easy task with men, however willing, who till +then had never held a gun, especially as I must be very sparing of the +ammunition necessary to practice, of which of course our supply was limited. +Still we taught them how to take cover, how to fire and to cease from firing at +a word of command, also to hold the rifles low and waste no shot. To make +marksmen of them was more than I could hope to do under the circumstances. +</p> + +<p> +With the exception of these men nearly the entire male population were working +day and night to get in the harvest. This proved a very difficult business, +both because some of the crops were scarcely fit and because all the grain had +to be carried on camels to be stored in and at the back of the second court of +the temple, the only place where it was likely to be safe. Indeed in the end a +great deal was left unreaped. Then the herds of cattle and breeding camels +which grazed on the farther sides of the Holy Mount must be brought into places +of safety, glens in the forest on its slope, and forage stacked to feed them. +Also it was necessary to provide scouts to keep watch along the river. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly, the fortifications in the mountain pass required unceasing labour and +attention. This was the task of Ragnall, who fortunately in his youth, before +he succeeded unexpectedly to the title, was for some years an officer in the +Royal Engineers and therefore thoroughly understood that business. Indeed he +understood it rather too well, since the result of his somewhat complicated and +scientific scheme of defence was a little confusing to the simple native mind. +However, with the assistance of all the priests and of all the women and +children who were not engaged in provisioning the Mount, he built wall after +wall and redoubt after redoubt, if that is the right word, to say nothing of +the shelter trenches he dug and many pitfalls, furnished at the bottom with +sharp stakes, which he hollowed out wherever the soil could be easily moved, to +discomfit a charging enemy. +</p> + +<p> +Indeed, when I saw the amount of work he had concluded in ten days, which was +not until I joined him on the mountain, I was quite astonished. +</p> + +<p> +About this time a dispute arose as to whether we should attempt to prevent the +Black Kendah from crossing the river which was now running down, a plan that +some of the elders favoured. At last the controversy was referred to me as head +general and I decided against anything of the sort. It seemed to me that our +force was too small, and that if I took the rifle-men a great deal of +ammunition might be expended with poor result. Also in the event of any reverse +or when we were finally driven back, which must happen, there might be +difficulty about remounting the camels, our only means of escape from the +horsemen who would possibly gallop us down. Moreover the Tava had several +fords, any one of which might be selected by the enemy. So it was arranged that +we should make our first and last stand upon the Holy Mount. +</p> + +<p> +On the fourteenth night from new moon our swift camel-scouts who were posted in +relays between the Tava and the Mount reported that the Black Kendah were +gathered in thousands upon the farther side of the river, where they were +engaged in celebrating magical ceremonies. On the fifteenth night the scouts +reported that they were crossing the river, about five thousand horsemen and +fifteen thousand foot soldiers, and that at the head of them marched the huge +god-elephant Jana, on which rode Simba the King and a lame priest (evidently my +friend whose foot had been injured by the pistol), who acted as a mahout. This +part of the story I confess I did not believe, since it seemed to me impossible +that anyone could ride upon that mad rogue, Jana. Yet, as subsequent events +showed, it was in fact true. I suppose that in certain hands the beast became +tame. Or perhaps it was drugged. +</p> + +<p> +Two nights later, for the Black Kendah advanced but slowly, spreading +themselves over the country in order to collect such crops as had not been +gathered through lack of time or because they were still unripe, we saw flames +and smoke arising from the Town of the Child beneath us, which they had fired. +Now we knew that the time of trial had come and until near midnight men, women +and children worked feverishly finishing or trying to finish the fortifications +and making every preparation in our power. +</p> + +<p> +Our position was that we held a very strong post, that is, strong against an +enemy unprovided with big guns or even firearms, which, as all other possible +approaches had been blocked, was only assailable by direct frontal attack from +the east. In the pass we had three main lines of defence, one arranged behind +the other and separated by distances of a few hundred yards. Our last refuge +was furnished by the walls of the temple itself, in the rear of which were +camped the whole White Kendah tribe, save a few hundred who were employed in +watching the herds of camels and stock in almost inaccessible positions on the +northern slopes of the Mount. +</p> + +<p> +There were perhaps five thousand people of both sexes and every age gathered in +this camp, which was so well provided with food and water that it could have +stood a siege of several months. If, however, our defences should be carried +there was no possibility of escape, since we learned from our scouts that the +Black Kendah, who by tradition and through spies were well acquainted with +every feature of the country, had detached a party of several thousand men to +watch the western road and the slopes of the mountain, in case we should try to +break out by that route. The only one remaining, that which ran through the +cave of the serpent, we had taken the precaution of blocking up with great +stones, lest through it our flank should be turned. +</p> + +<p> +In short, we were rats in a trap and where we were there we must either conquer +or die—unless indeed we chose to surrender, which for most of us would +mean a fate worse than death. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br /> +ALLAN QUATERMAIN MISSES</h2> + +<p> +I had made my last round of the little corps that I facetiously named +“The Sharpshooters,” though to tell the truth at shooting they were +anything but sharp, and seen that each man was in his place behind a wall with +a reserve man squatted at the rear of every pair of them, waiting to take his +rifle if either of these should fall. Also I had made sure that all of them had +twenty rounds of ammunition in their skin pouches. More I would not serve out, +fearing lest in excitement or in panic they might fire away to the last +cartridge uselessly, as before now even disciplined white troops have been +known to do. Therefore I had arranged that certain old men of standing who +could be trusted should wait in a place of comparative safety behind the line, +carrying all our reserve ammunition, which amounted, allowing for what had been +expended in practice, to nearly sixty rounds per rifle. This they were +instructed to deliver from their wallets to the firing line in small lots when +they saw that it was necessary and not before. +</p> + +<p> +It was, I admit, an arrangement apt to miscarry in the heat of desperate +battle, but I could think of none better, since it was absolutely necessary +that no shot should be wasted. +</p> + +<p> +After a few words of exhortation and caution to the natives who acted as +sergeants to the corps, I returned to a bough shelter that had been built for +us behind a rock to get a few hours’ sleep, if that were possible, before +the fight began. +</p> + +<p> +Here I found Ragnall, who had just come in from his inspection. This was of a +much more extensive nature than my own, since it involved going round some +furlongs of the rough walls and trenches that he had prepared with so much +thought and care, and seeing that the various companies of the White Kendah +were ready to play their part in the defence of them. +</p> + +<p> +He was tired and rather excited, too much so to sleep at once. So we talked a +little while, first about the prospects of the morrow’s battle, as to +which we were, to say the least of it, dubious, and afterwards of other things. +I asked him if during his stay in this place, while I was below at the town or +later, he had heard or seen anything of his wife. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing,” he answered. “These priests never speak of her, +and if they did Harût is the only one of them that I can really understand. +Moreover, I have kept my word strictly and, even when I had occasion to see to +the blocking of the western road, made a circuit on the mountain-top in order +to avoid the neighbourhood of that house where I suppose she lives. Oh! +Quatermain, my friend, my case is a hard one, as you would think if the woman +you loved with your whole heart were shut up within a few hundred yards of you +and no communication with her possible after all this time of separation and +agony. What makes it worse is, as I gathered from what Harût said the other +day, that she is still out of her mind.” +</p> + +<p> +“That has some consolations,” I replied, “since the mindless +do not suffer. But if such is the case, how do you account for what you and +poor Savage saw that night in the Town of the Child? It was not altogether a +phantasy, for the dress you described was the same we saw her wearing at the +Feast of the First-fruits.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know what to make of it, Quatermain, except that many +strange things happen in the world which we mock at as insults to our limited +intelligence because we cannot understand them.” (Very soon I was to have +another proof of this remark.) “But what are you driving at? You are +keeping something back.” +</p> + +<p> +“Only this, Ragnall. If your wife were utterly mad I cannot conceive how +it came about that she searched you out and spoke to you even in a +vision—for the thing was not an individual dream since both you and +Savage saw her. Nor did she actually visit you in the flesh, as the door never +opened and the spider’s web across it was not broken. So it comes to +this: either some part of her is not mad but can still exercise sufficient will +to project itself upon your senses, or she is dead and her disembodied spirit +did this thing. Now we know that she is not dead, for we have seen her and +Harût has confessed as much. Therefore I maintain that, whatever may be her +temporary state, she must still be fundamentally of a reasonable mind, as she +is of a natural body. For instance, she may only be hypnotized, in which case +the spell will break one day.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you for that thought, old fellow. It never occurred to me and it +gives me new hope. Now listen! If I should come to grief in this business, +which is very likely, and you should survive, you will do your best to get her +home; will you not? Here is a codicil to my will which I drew up after that +night of dream, duly witnessed by Savage and Hans. It leaves to you whatever +sums may be necessary in this connexion and something over for yourself. Take +it, it is best in your keeping, especially as if you should be killed it has no +value.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I will do my best,” I answered as I put away the paper +in my pocket. “And now don’t let us take any more thought of being +killed, which may prevent us from getting the sleep we want. I don’t mean +to be killed if I can help it. I mean to give those beggars, the Black Kendah, +such a doing as they never had before, and then start for the coast with you +and Lady Ragnall, as, God willing, we shall do. Good night.” +</p> + +<p> +After this I slept like a top for some hours, as I believe Ragnall did also. +When I awoke, which happened suddenly and completely, the first thing that I +saw was Hans seated at the entrance to my little shelter smoking his corn-cob +pipe, and nursing the single-barrelled rifle, Intombi, on his knee. I asked him +what the time was, to which he replied that it lacked two hours to dawn. Then I +asked him why he had not been sleeping. He replied that he had been asleep and +dreamed a dream. Idly enough I inquired what dream, to which he replied: +</p> + +<p> +“Rather a strange one, Baas, for a man who is about to go into battle. I +dreamed that I was in a large place that was full of quiet. It was light there, +but I could not see any sun or moon, and the air was very soft and tasted like +food and drink, so much so, Baas, that if anyone had offered me a cup quite +full of the best ‘Cape smoke’ I should have told him to take it +away. Then, Baas, suddenly I saw your reverend father, the Predikant, standing +beside me and looking just as he used to look, only younger and stronger and +very happy, and so of course knew at once that I was dead and in hell. Only I +wondered where the fire that does not go out might be, for I could not see it. +Presently your reverend father said to me: ‘Good day, Hans. So you have +come here at last. Now tell me, how has it gone with my son, the Baas Allan? +Have you looked after him as I told you to do?’ +</p> + +<p> +“I answered: ‘I have looked after him as well as I could, O +reverend sir. Little enough have I done; still, not once or twice or three +times only have I offered up my life for him as was my duty, and yet we both +have lived.’ And that I might be sure he heard the best of me, as was but +natural, I told him the times, Baas, making a big story out of small things, +although all the while I could see that he knew exactly just where I began to +lie and just where I stopped from lying. Still he did not scold me, Baas; +indeed, when I had finished, he said: +</p> + +<p> +“‘Well done, O good and faithful servant,’ words that I think +I have heard him use before when he was alive, Baas, and used to preach to us +for such a long time on Sunday afternoons. Then he asked: ‘And how goes +it with Baas Allan, my son, now, Hans?’ to which I replied: +</p> + +<p> +“‘The Baas Allan is going to fight a very great battle in which he +may well fall, and if I could feel sorry here, which I can’t, I should +weep, O reverend sir, because I have died before that battle began and +therefore cannot stand at his side in the battle and be killed for him as a +servant should for his master!’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘You will stand at his side in the battle,’ said your +reverend father, ‘and those things which you desire you will do, as it is +fitting that you should. And afterwards, Hans, you will make report to me of +how the battle went and of what honour my son has won therein. Moreover, know +this, Hans, that though while you live in the world you seem to see many other +things, they are but dreams, since in all the world there is but one real +thing, and its name is Love, which if it be but strong enough, the stars +themselves must obey, for it is the king of every one of them, and all who +dwell in them worship it day and night under many names for ever and for ever, +Amen.’ +</p> + +<p> +“What he meant by that I am sure I don’t know, Baas, seeing that I +have never thought much of women, at least not for many years since my last old +vrouw went and drank herself to death after lying in her sleep on the baby +which I loved much better than I did her, Baas. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, before I could ask him, or about hell either, he was gone like a +whiff of smoke from a rifle mouth in a strong wind.” +</p> + +<p> +Hans paused, puffed at his pipe, spat upon the ground in his usual reflective +way and asked: +</p> + +<p> +“Is the Baas tired of the dream or would he like to hear the rest?” +</p> + +<p> +“I should like to hear the rest,” I said in a low voice, for I was +strangely moved. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Baas, while I was standing in that place which was so full of +quiet, turning my hat in my hands and wondering what work they would set me to +there among the devils, I looked up. There I saw coming towards me two very +beautiful women, Baas, who had their arms round each other’s necks. They +were dressed in white, with the little hard things that are found in shells +hanging about them, and bright stones in their hair. And as they came, Baas, +wherever they set a foot flowers sprang up, very pretty flowers, so that all +their path across the quiet place was marked with flowers. Birds too sang as +they passed, at least I think they were birds though I could not see +them.” +</p> + +<p> +“What were they like, Hans?” I whispered. +</p> + +<p> +“One of them, Baas, the taller I did not know. But the other I knew well +enough; it was she whose name is holy, not to be mentioned. Yet I must mention +that name; it was the Missie Marie herself as last we saw her alive many, many +years ago, only grown a hundred times more +beautiful.”<a href="#fn-2" name="fnref-2" id="fnref-2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-2" id="fn-2"></a> <a href="#fnref-2">[2]</a> +See the book called <i>Marie</i> by H. Rider Haggard. +</p> + +<p> +Now I groaned, and Hans went on: +</p> + +<p> +“The two White Ones came up to me, and stood looking at me with eyes that +were more soft than those of bucks. Then the Missie Marie said to the other: +‘This is Hans of whom I have so often told you, O Star.’” +</p> + +<p> +Here I groaned again, for how did this Hottentot know that name, or rather its +sweet rendering? +</p> + +<p> +“Then she who was called Star asked, ‘How goes it with one who is +the heart of all three of us, O Hans?’ Yes, Baas, those Shining Ones +joined <i>me</i>, the dirty little Hottentot in my old clothes and smelling of +tobacco, with themselves when they spoke of you, for I knew they were speaking +of you, Baas, which made me think I must be drunk, even there in the quiet +place. So I told them all that I had told your reverend father, and a very +great deal more, for they seemed never to be tired of listening. And once, when +I mentioned that sometimes, while pretending to be asleep, I had heard you +praying aloud at night for the Missie Marie who died for you, and for another +who had been your wife whose name I did not remember but who had also died, +they both cried a little, Baas. Their tears shone like crystals and smelt like +that stuff in a little glass tube which Harût said that he brought from some +far land when he put a drop or two on your handkerchief, after you were faint +from the pain in your leg at the house yonder. Or perhaps it was the flowers +that smelt, for where the tears fell there sprang up white lilies shaped like +two babes’ hands held together in prayer.” +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, I hid my face in my hands lest Hans should see human tears +unscented with attar of roses, and bade him continue. +</p> + +<p> +“Baas, the White One who was called Star, asked me of your son, the young +Baas Harry, and I told her that when last I had seen him he was strong and well +and would make a bigger man than you were, whereat she sighed and shook her +head. Then the Missie Marie said: ‘Tell the Baas, Hans, that I also have +a child which he will see one day, but it is not a son.’ +</p> + +<p> +“After this they, too, said something about Love, but what it was I +cannot remember, since even as I repeat this dream to you it is beginning to +slip away from me fast as a swallow skimming the water. Their last words, +however, I do remember. They were: ‘Say to the Baas that we who never met +in life, but who here are as twin sisters, wait and count the years and count +the months and count the days and count the hours and count the minutes and +count the seconds until once more he shall hear our voices calling to him +across the night.’ That’s what they said, Baas. Then they were gone +and only the flowers remained to show that they had been standing there. +</p> + +<p> +“Now I set off to bring you the message and travelled a very long way at +a great rate; if Jana himself had been after me I could not have gone more +fast. At last I got out of that quiet place and among mountains where there +were dark kloofs, and there in the kloofs I heard Zulu impis singing their +war-song; yes, they sang the <i>ingoma</i> or something very like it. Now +suddenly in the pass of the mountains along which I sped, there appeared before +me a very beautiful woman whose skin shone like the best copper coffee kettle +after I have polished it, Baas. She was dressed in a leopard-like moocha and +wore on her shoulders a fur kaross, and about her neck a circlet of blue beads, +and from her hair there rose one crane’s feather tall as a walking-stick, +and in her hand she held a little spear. No flowers sprang beneath her feet +when she walked towards me and no birds sang, only the air was filled with the +sound of a royal salute which rolled among the mountains like the roar of +thunder, and her eyes flashed like summer lightning.” +</p> + +<p> +Now I let my hands fall and stared at him, for well I knew what was coming. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Stand, yellow man!’ she said, ‘and give me the royal +salute.’ +</p> + +<p> +“So I gave her the <i>Bayéte</i>, though who she might be I did not know, +since I did not think it wise to stay to ask her if it were hers of right, +although I should have liked to do so. Then she said: ‘The Old Man on the +plain yonder and those two pale White Ones have talked to you of their love for +your master, the Lord Macumazana. I tell you, little Yellow Dog, that they do +not know what love can be. There is more love for him in my eyes alone than +they have in all that makes them fair. Say it to the Lord Macumazana that, as I +know well, he goes down to battle and that the Lady Mameena will be with him in +the battle as, though he saw her not, she has been with him in other battles, +and will be with him till the River of Time has run over the edge of the world +and is lost beyond the sun. Let him remember this when Jana rushes on and death +is very near to him to-day, and let him look—for then perchance he shall +see me. Begone now, Yellow Dog, to the heels of your master, and play your part +well in the battle, for of what you do or leave undone you shall give account +to me. Say that Mameena sends her greetings to the Lord Macumazana and that she +adds this, that when the Old Man and the White ones told you that Love is the +secret blood of the worlds which makes them to be they did not lie. Love reigns +and I, Mameena, am its priestess, and the heart of Macumazana is my holy +house.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Then, Baas, I tumbled off a precipice and woke up here; and, Baas, as we +may not light a fire I have kept some coffee hot for you buried in warm +ashes,” and without another word he went to fetch that coffee, leaving me +shaken and amazed. +</p> + +<p> +For what kind of a dream was it which revealed to an old Hottentot all these +mysteries and hidden things about persons whom he had never seen and of whom I +had never spoken to him? My father and my wife Marie might be explained, for +with these he had been mixed up, but how about Stella and above all Mameena, +although of course it was possible that he had heard of the latter, who made +some stir in her time? But to hit her off as he had done in all her pride, +splendour, and dominion of desire! +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Well, that was his story which, perhaps fortunately, I lacked time to analyse +or brood upon, since there was much in it calculated to unnerve a man just +entering the crisis of a desperate fray. Indeed a minute or so later, as I was +swallowing the last of the coffee, messengers arrived about some business, I +forget what, sent by Ragnall I think, who had risen before I woke. I turned to +give the pannikin to Hans, but he had vanished in his snake-like fashion, so I +threw it down upon the ground and devoted my mind to the question raised in +Ragnall’s message. +</p> + +<p> +Next minute scouts came in who had been watching the camp of the Black Kendah +all night. +</p> + +<p> +These were sleeping not more than half a mile away, in an open place on the +slope of the hill with pickets thrown out round them, intending to advance upon +us, it was said, as soon as the sun rose, since because of their number they +feared lest to march at night should throw them into confusion and, in case of +their falling into an ambush, bring about a disaster. Such at least was the +story of two spies whom our people had captured. +</p> + +<p> +There had been some question as to whether we should not attempt a night attack +upon their camp, of which I was rather in favour. After full debate, however, +the idea had been abandoned, owing to the fewness of our numbers, the dislike +which the White Kendah shared with the Black of attempting to operate in the +dark, and the well chosen position of our enemy, whom it would be impossible to +rush before we were discovered by their outposts. What I hoped in my heart was +that they might try to rush us, notwithstanding the story of the two captured +spies, and in the gloom, after the moon had sunk low and before the dawn came, +become entangled in our pitfalls and outlying entrenchments, where we should be +able to destroy a great number of them. Only on the previous afternoon that +cunning old fellow, Hans, had pointed out to me how advantageous such an event +would be to our cause and, while agreeing with him, I suggested that probably +the Black Kendah knew this as well as we did, as the prisoners had told us. +</p> + +<p> +Yet that very thing happened, and through Hans himself. Thus: Old Harût had +come to me just one hour before the dawn to inform me that all our people were +awake and at their stations, and to make some last arrangements as to the +course of the defence, also about our final concentration behind the last line +of walls and in the first court of the temple, if we should be driven from the +outer entrenchments. He was telling me that the Oracle of the Child had uttered +words at the ceremony that night which he and all the priests considered were +of the most favourable import, news to which I listened with some impatience, +feeling as I did that this business had passed out of the range of the Child +and its Oracle. As he spoke, suddenly through the silence that precedes the +dawn, there floated to our ears the unmistakable sound of a rifle. Yes, a rifle +shot, half a mile or so away, followed by the roaring murmur of a great camp +unexpectedly alarmed at night. +</p> + +<p> +“Who can have fired that?” I asked. “The Black Kendah have no +guns.” +</p> + +<p> +He replied that he did not know, unless some of my fifty men had left their +posts. +</p> + +<p> +While we were investigating the matter, scouts rushed in with the intelligence +that the Black Kendah, thinking apparently that they were being attacked, had +broken camp and were advancing towards us. We passed a warning all down the +lines and stood to arms. Five minutes later, as I stood listening to that +approaching roar, filled with every kind of fear and melancholy foreboding such +as the hour and the occasion might well have evoked, through the gloom, which +was dense, the moon being hidden behind the hill, I thought I caught sight of +something running towards me like a crouching man. I lifted my rifle to fire +but, reflecting that it might be no more than a hyena and fearing to provoke a +fusilade from my half-trained company, did not do so. +</p> + +<p> +Next instant I was glad indeed, for immediately on the other side of the wall +behind which I was standing I heard a well-known voice gasp out: +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t shoot, Baas, it is I.” +</p> + +<p> +“What have you been doing, Hans?” I said as he scrambled over the +wall to my side, limping a little as I fancied. +</p> + +<p> +“Baas,” he puffed, “I have been paying the Black Kendah a +visit. I crept down between their stupid outposts, who are as blind in the dark +as a bat in daytime, hoping to find Jana and put a bullet into his leg or +trunk. I didn’t find him, Baas, although I heard him. But one of their +captains stood up in front of a watchfire, giving a good shot. My bullet found +<i>him</i>, Baas, for he tumbled back into the fire making the sparks fly this +way and that. Then I ran and, as you see, got here quite safely.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why did you play that fool’s trick?” I asked, “seeing +that it ought to have cost you your life?” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall die just when I have to die, not before, Baas,” he replied +in the intervals of reloading the little rifle. “Also it was the trick of +a wise man, not of a fool, seeing that it has made the Black Kendah think that +we were attacking them and caused them to hurry on to attack <i>us</i> in the +dark over ground that they do not know. Listen to them coming!” +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke a roar of sound told us that the great charge had swept round a +turn there was in the pass and was heading towards us up the straight. Ivory +horns brayed, captains shouted orders, the very mountains shook beneath the +beating of thousands of feet of men and horses, while in one great yell that +echoed from the cliffs and forests went up the battle-cry of “<i>Jana! +Jana!</i>”—a mixed tumult of noise which contrasted very strangely +with the utter silence in our ranks. +</p> + +<p> +“They will be among the pitfalls presently,” sniggered Hans, +shifting his weight nervously from one leg on to the other. “Hark! they +are going into them.” +</p> + +<p> +It was true. Screams of fear and pain told me that the front ranks had begun to +fall, horse and foot together, into the cunningly devised snares of which with +so much labour we had dug many, concealing them with earth spread over thin +wickerwork, or rather interlaced boughs. Into them went the forerunners, to be +pierced by the sharp, fire-hardened stakes set at the bottom of each pit. +Vainly did those who were near enough to understand their danger call to the +ranks behind to stop. They could not or would not comprehend, and had no room +to extend their front. Forward surged the human torrent, thrusting all in front +of it to death by wounds or suffocation in those deadly holes, till one by one +they were filled level with the ground by struggling men and horses, over whom +the army still rushed on. +</p> + +<p> +How many perished there I do not know, but after the battle was over we found +scarcely a pit that was not crowded to the brim with dead. Truly this device of +Ragnall’s, for if I had conceived the idea, which was unfamiliar to the +Kendah, it was he who had carried it out in so masterly a fashion, had served +us well. +</p> + +<p> +Still the enemy surged on, since the pits were only large enough to hold a +tithe of them, till at length, horsemen and footmen mixed up together in +inextricable confusion, their mighty mass became faintly visible quite close to +us, a blacker blot upon the gloom. +</p> + +<p> +Then my turn came. When they were not more than fifty yards away from the first +wall, I shouted an order to my riflemen to fire, aiming low, and set the +example by loosing both barrels of an elephant gun at the thickest of the mob. +At that distance even the most inexperienced shots could not miss such a mark, +especially as those bullets that went high struck among the oncoming troops +behind, or caught the horsemen lifted above their fellows. Indeed, of the first +few rounds I do not think that one was wasted, while often single balls killed +or injured several men. +</p> + +<p> +The result was instantaneous. The Black Kendah who, be it remembered, were +totally unaccustomed to the effects of rifle fire and imagined that we only +possessed two or three guns in all, stopped their advance as though paralyzed. +For a few seconds there was silence, except for the intermittent crackle of the +rifles as my men loaded and fired. Next came the cries of the smitten men and +horses that were falling everywhere, and then—the unmistakable sound of a +stampede. +</p> + +<p> +“They have gone. That was too warm for them, Baas,” chuckled Hans +exultingly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I answered, when I had at length succeeded in stopping the +firing, “but I expect they will come back with the light. Still, that +trick of yours has cost them dear, Hans.” +</p> + +<p> +By degrees the dawn began to break. It was, I remember, a particularly +beautiful dawn, resembling a gigantic and vivid rose opening in the east, or a +cup of brightness from which many coloured wines were poured all athwart the +firmament. Very peaceful also, for not a breath of wind was stirring. But what +a scene the first rays of the sun revealed upon that narrow stretch of pass in +front of us. Everywhere the pitfalls and trenches were filled with still +surging heaps of men and horses, while all about lay dead and wounded men, the +red harvest of our rifle fire. It was dreadful to contrast the heavenly peace +above and the hellish horror beneath. +</p> + +<p> +We took count and found that up to this moment we had not lost a single man, +one only having been slightly wounded by a thrown spear. As is common among +semi-savages, this fact filled the White Kendah with an undue exultation. +Thinking that as the beginning was so the end must be, they cheered and +shouted, shaking each other’s hands, then fell to eating the food which +the women brought them with appetite, chattering incessantly, although as a +general rule they were a very silent people. Even the grave Harût, who arrived +full of congratulations, seemed as high-spirited as a boy, till I reminded him +that the real battle had not yet commenced. +</p> + +<p> +The Black Kendah had fallen into a trap and lost some of their number, that was +all, which was fortunate for us but could scarcely affect the issue of the +struggle, since they had many thousands left. Ragnall, who had come up from his +lines, agreed with me. As he said, these people were fighting for life as well +as honour, seeing that most of the corn which they needed for their sustenance +was stored in great heaps either in or to the rear of the temple behind us. +Therefore they must come on until they won or were destroyed. How with our +small force could we hope to destroy this multitude? That was the problem which +weighed upon our hearts. +</p> + +<p> +About a quarter of an hour later two spies that we had set upon the top of the +precipitous cliffs, whence they had a good view of the pass beyond the bend, +came scrambling down the rocks like monkeys by a route that was known to them. +These boys, for they were no more, reported that the Black Kendah were +reforming their army beyond the bend of the pass, and that the cavalry were +dismounting and sending their horses to the rear, evidently because they found +them useless in such a place. A little later solitary men appeared from behind +the bend, carrying bundles of long sticks to each of which was attached a piece +of white cloth, a proceeding that excited my curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +Soon its object became apparent. Swiftly these men, of whom in the end there +may have been thirty or forty, ran to and fro, testing the ground with spears +in search for pitfalls. I think they only found a very few that had not been +broken into, but in front of these and also of those that were already full of +men and horses they set up the flags as a warning that they should be avoided +in the advance. Also they removed a number of their wounded. +</p> + +<p> +We had great difficulty in restraining the White Kendah from rushing out to +attack them, which of course would only have led us into a trap in our turn, +since they would have fled and conducted their pursuers into the arms of the +enemy. Nor would I allow my riflemen to fire, as the result must have been many +misses and a great waste of ammunition which ere long would be badly wanted. I, +however, did shoot two or three, then gave it up as the remainder took no +notice whatever. +</p> + +<p> +When they had thoroughly explored the ground they retired until, a little +later, the Black Kendah army began to appear, marching in serried regiments and +excellent order round the bend, till perhaps eight or ten thousand of them were +visible, a very fierce and awe-inspiring <i>impi</i>. Their front ranks halted +between three and four hundred yards away, which I thought farther off than it +was advisable to open fire on them with Snider rifles held by unskilled troops. +Then came a pause, which at length was broken by the blowing of horns and a +sound of exultant shouting beyond the turn of the pass. +</p> + +<p> +Now from round this turn appeared the strangest sight that I think my eyes had +ever seen. Yes, there came the huge elephant, Jana, at a slow, shambling trot. +On his back and head were two men in whom, with my glasses, I recognized the +lame priest whom I already knew too well and Simba, the king of the Black +Kendah, himself, gorgeously apparelled and waving a long spear, seated in a +kind of wooden chair. Round the brute’s neck were a number of bright +metal chains, twelve in all, and each of these chains was held by a spearman +who ran alongside, six on one side and six on the other. Lastly, ingeniously +fastened to the end of his trunk were three other chains to which were attached +spiked knobs of metal. +</p> + +<p> +On he came as docilely as any Indian elephant used for carrying teak logs, +passing through the centre of the host up a wide lane which had been left, I +suppose for his convenience, and intelligently avoiding the pitfalls filled +with dead. I thought that he would stop among the first ranks. But not so. +Slackening his pace to a walk he marched forwards towards our fortifications. +Now, of course, I saw my chance and made sure that my double-barrelled elephant +rifle was ready and that Hans held a second rifle, also double-barrelled and of +similar calibre, full-cocked in such a position that I could snatch it from him +in a moment. +</p> + +<p> +“I am going to kill that elephant,” I said. “Let no one else +fire. Stand still and you shall see the god Jana die.” +</p> + +<p> +Still the enormous beast floundered forward; up to that moment I had never +realized how truly huge it was, not even when it stood over me in the moonlight +about to crush me with its foot. Of this I am sure, that none to equal it ever +lived in Africa, at least in any times of which I have knowledge. +</p> + +<p> +“Fire, Baas,” whispered Hans, “it is near enough.” +</p> + +<p> +But like the Frenchman and the cock pheasant, I determined to wait until it +stopped, wishing to finish it with a single ball, if only for the prestige of +the thing. +</p> + +<p> +At length it did stop and, opening its cavern of a mouth, lifted its great +trunk and trumpeted, while Simba, standing up in his chair, began to shout out +some command to us to surrender to the god Jana, “the Invincible, the +Invulnerable.” +</p> + +<p> +“I will show you if you are invulnerable, my boy,” said I to +myself, glancing round to make sure that Hans had the second rifle ready and +catching sight of Ragnall and Harût and all the White Kendah standing up in +their trenches, breathlessly awaiting the end, as were the Black Kendah a few +hundred yards away. Never could there have been a fairer shot and one more +certain to result in a fatal wound. The brute’s head was up and its mouth +was open. All I had to do was to send a hard-tipped bullet crashing through the +palate to the brain behind. It was so easy that I would have made a bet that I +could have finished him with one hand tied behind me. +</p> + +<p> +I lifted the heavy rifle. I got the sights dead on to a certain spot at the +back of that red cave. I pressed the trigger; the charge boomed—and +nothing happened! I heard no bullet strike and Jana did not even take the +trouble to close his mouth. +</p> + +<p> +An exclamation of “O-oh!” went up from the watchers. Before it had +died away the second bullet followed the first, with the same result or rather +lack of result, and another louder “O-oh!” arose. Then Jana +tranquilly shut his mouth, having finished trumpeting, and as though to give me +a still better target, turned broadside on and stood quite still. +</p> + +<p> +With an inward curse I snatched the second rifle and aiming behind the ear at a +spot which long experience told me covered the heart let drive again, first one +barrel and then the other. +</p> + +<p> +Jana never stirred. No bullet thudded. No mark of blood appeared upon his hide. +The horrible thought overcame me that I, Allan Quatermain, I the famous shot, +the renowned elephant-hunter, had four times missed this haystack of a brute +from a distance of forty yards. So great was my shame that I think I almost +fainted. Through a kind of mist I heard various ejaculations: +</p> + +<p> +“Great Heavens!” said Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Allemagte!</i>” remarked Hans. +</p> + +<p> +“The Child help us!” muttered Harût. +</p> + +<p> +All the rest of them stared at me as though I were a freak or a lunatic. Then +somebody laughed nervously, and immediately everybody began to laugh. Even the +distant army of the Black Kendah became convulsed with roars of unholy +merriment and I, Allan Quatermain, was the centre of all this mockery, till I +felt as though I were going mad. Suddenly the laughter ceased and once more +Simba the King began to roar out something about “Jana the Invincible and +Invulnerable,” to which the White Kendah replied with cries of +“Magic” and “Bewitched! Bewitched!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” yelled Simba, “no bullet can touch Jana the god, not +even those of the white lord who was brought from far to kill him.” +</p> + +<p> +Hans leaped on to the top of the wall, where he danced up and down like an +intoxicated monkey, and screamed: +</p> + +<p> +“Then where is Jana’s left eye? Did not my bullet put it out like a +lamp? If Jana is invulnerable, why did my bullet put out his left eye?” +</p> + +<p> +Hans ceased from dancing on the wall and steadying himself, lifted the little +rifle Intombi, shouting: +</p> + +<p> +“Let us see whether after all this beast is a god or an elephant.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he touched the trigger, and simultaneously with the report, I heard the +bullet clap and saw blood appear on Jana’s hide just by the very spot +over the heart at which I had aimed without result. Of course, the soft ball +driven from a small-bore rifle with a light charge of powder was far too weak +to penetrate to the vitals. Probably it did not do much more than pierce +through the skin and an inch or two of flesh behind it. +</p> + +<p> +Still, its effects upon this “invulnerable” god were of a marked +order. He whipped round; he lifted his trunk and screamed with rage and pain. +Then off he lumbered back towards his own people, at such a pace that the +attendants who held the chains on either side of him were thrown over and +forced to leave go of him, while the king and the priest upon his back could +only retain their seats by clinging to the chair and the rope about his neck. +</p> + +<p> +The result was satisfactory so far as the dispelling of magical illusions went, +but it left me in a worse position than before, since it now became evident +that what had protected Jana from my bullets was nothing more supernatural than +my own lack of skill. Oh! never in my life did I drink of such a cup of +humiliation as it was my lot to drain to the dregs in this most unhappy hour. +Almost did I hope that I might be killed at once. +</p> + +<p> +And yet, and yet, how was it possible that with all my skill I should have +missed this towering mountain of flesh four times in succession. The question +is one to which I have never discovered any answer, especially as Hans hit it +easily enough, which at the time I wished heartily he had not done, since his +success only served to emphasize my miserable failure. Fortunately, just then a +diversion occurred which freed my unhappy self from further public attention. +With a shout and a roar the great army of the Black Kendah woke into life. +</p> + +<p> +The advance had begun. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap20"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br /> +ALLAN WEEPS</h2> + +<p> +On they came, slowly and steadily, preceded by a cloud of skirmishers—a +thousand or more of these—who kept as open an order as the narrow ground +would allow and carried, each of them, a bundle of throwing spears arranged in +loops or sockets at the back of the shield. When these men were about a hundred +yards away we opened fire and killed a great number of them, also some of the +marshalled troops behind. But this did not stop them in the least, for what +could fifty rifles do against a horde of brave barbarians who, it seemed, had +no fear of death? Presently their spears were falling among us and a few +casualties began to occur, not many, because of the protecting wall, but still +some. Again and again we loaded and fired, sweeping away those in front of us, +but always others came to take their places. Finally at some word of command +these light skirmishers vanished, except whose who were dead or wounded, taking +shelter behind the advancing regiments which now were within fifty yards of us. +</p> + +<p> +Then, after a momentary pause another command was shouted out and the first +regiment charged in three solid ranks. We fired a volley point blank into them +and, as it was hopeless for fifty men to withstand such an onslaught, bolted +during the temporary confusion that ensued, taking refuge, as it had been +arranged that we should do, at a point of vantage farther down the line of +fortifications, whence we maintained our galling fire. +</p> + +<p> +Now it was that the main body of the White Kendah came into action under the +leadership of Ragnall and Harût. The enemy scrambled over the first wall, which +we had just vacated, to find themselves in a network of other walls held by our +spearmen in a narrow place where numbers gave no great advantage. +</p> + +<p> +Here the fighting was terrible and the loss of the attackers great, for always +as they carried one entrenchment they found another a few yards in front of +them, out of which the defenders could only be driven at much cost of life. +</p> + +<p> +Two hours or more the battle went on thus. In spite of the desperate resistance +which we offered, the multitude of the Black Kendah, who I must say fought +magnificently, stormed wall after wall, leaving hundreds of dead and wounded to +mark their difficult progress. Meanwhile I and my riflemen rained bullets on +them from certain positions which we had selected beforehand, until at length +our ammunition began to run low. +</p> + +<p> +At half-past eight in the morning we were driven back over the open ground to +our last entrenchment, a very strong one just outside of the eastern gate of +the temple which, it will be remembered, was set in a tunnel pierced through +the natural lava rock. Thrice did the Black Kendah come on and thrice we beat +them off, till the ditch in front of the wall was almost full of fallen. As +fast as they climbed to the top of it the White Kendah thrust them through with +their long spears, or we shot them with our rifles, the nature of the ground +being such that only a direct frontal attack was possible. +</p> + +<p> +In the end they drew back sullenly, having, as we hoped, given up the assault. +As it turned out, this was not so. They were only resting and waiting for the +arrival of their reserve. It came up shouting and singing a war-song, two +thousand strong or more, and presently once more they charged like a flood of +water. We beat them back. They reformed and charged a second time and we beat +them back. +</p> + +<p> +Then they took another counsel. Standing among the dead and dying at the base +of the wall, which was built of loose stones and earth, where we could not +easily get at them because of the showers of spears which were rained at anyone +who showed himself, they began to undermine it, levering out the bottom stones +with stakes and battering them with poles. +</p> + +<p> +In five minutes a breach appeared, through which they poured tumultuously. It +was hopeless to withstand that onslaught of so vast a number. Fighting +desperately, we were driven down the tunnel and through the doors that were +opened to us, into the first court of the temple. By furious efforts we managed +to close these doors and block them with stones and earth. But this did not +avail us long, for, bringing brushwood and dry grass, they built a fire against +them that soon caught the thick cedar wood of which they were made. +</p> + +<p> +While they burned we consulted together. Further retreat seemed impossible, +since the second court of the temple, save for a narrow passage, was filled +with corn which allowed no room for fighting, while behind it were gathered all +the women and children, more than two thousand of them. Here, or nowhere, we +must make our stand and conquer or die. Up to this time, compared with what +which we had inflicted upon the Black Kendah, of whom a couple of thousand or +more had fallen, our loss was comparatively slight, say two hundred killed and +as many more wounded. Most of such of the latter as could not walk we had +managed to carry into the first court of the temple, laying them close against +the cloister walls, whence they watched us in a grisly ring. +</p> + +<p> +This left us about sixteen hundred able-bodied men or many more than we could +employ with effect in that narrow place. Therefore we determined to act upon a +plan which we had already designed in case such an emergency as ours should +arise. About three hundred and fifty of the best men were to remain to defend +the temple till all were slain. The rest, to the number of over a thousand, +were to withdraw through the second court and the gates beyond to the camp of +the women and children. These they were to conduct by secret paths that were +known to them to where the camels were kraaled, and mounting as many as +possible of them on the camels to fly whither they could. Our hope was that the +victorious Black Kendah would be too exhausted to follow them across the plain +to the distant mountains. It was a dreadful determination, but we had no +choice. +</p> + +<p> +“What of my wife?” Ragnall asked hoarsely. +</p> + +<p> +“While the temple stands she must remain in the temple,” replied +Harût. “But when all is lost, if I have fallen, do you, White Lord, go to +the sanctuary with those who remain and take her and the Ivory Child and flee +after the others. Only I lay this charge on you under pain of the curse of +Heaven, that you do not suffer the Ivory Child to fall into the hands of the +Black Kendah. First must you burn it with fire or grind it to dust with stones. +Moreover, I give this command to all in case the priests in charge of it should +fail me, that they set flame to the brushwood that is built up with the stacks +of corn, so that, after all, those of our enemies who escape may die of +famine.” +</p> + +<p> +Instantly and without murmuring, for never did I see more perfect discipline +than that which prevailed among these poor people, the orders given by Harût, +who in addition to his office as head priest was a kind of president of what +was in fact a republic, were put in the way of execution. Company by company +the men appointed to escort the women and children departed through the gateway +of the second court, each company turning in the gateway to salute us who +remained, by raising their spears, till all were gone. Then we, the three +hundred and fifty who were left, marshalled ourselves as the Greeks may have +done in the Pass of Thermopylæ. +</p> + +<p> +First stood I and my riflemen, to whom all the remaining ammunition was served +out; it amounted to eight rounds per man. Then, ranged across the court in four +lines, came the spearmen armed with lances and swords under the immediate +command of Harût. Behind these, near the gate of the second court so that at +the last they might attempt the rescue of the priestess, were fifty picked men, +captained by Ragnall, who, I forgot to say, was wounded in two places, though +not badly, having received a spear thrust in the left shoulder and a sword cut +to the left thigh during his desperate defence of the entrenchment. +</p> + +<p> +By the time that all was ready and every man had been given to drink from the +great jars of water which stood along the walls, the massive wooden doors began +to burn through, though this did not happen for quite half an hour after the +enemy had begun to attempt to fire them. They fell at length beneath the +battering of poles, leaving only the mound of earth and stones which we had +piled up in the gateway after the closing of the doors. This the Black Kendah, +who had raked out the burning embers, set themselves to dig away with hands and +sticks and spears, a task that was made very difficult to them by about a score +of our people who stabbed at them with their long lances or dashed them down +with stones, killing and disabling many. But always the dead and wounded were +dragged off while others took their places, so that at last the gateway was +practically cleared. Then I called back the spearmen who passed into the ranks +behind us, and made ready to play my part. +</p> + +<p> +I had not long to wait. With a rush and a roar a great company of the Black +Kendah charged the gateway. Just as they began to emerge into the court I gave +the word to fire, sending fifty Snider bullets tearing into them from a +distance of a few yards. They fell in a heap; they fell like corn before the +scythe, not a man won through. Quickly we reloaded and waited for the next +rush. In due course it came and the dreadful scene repeated itself. Now the +gateway and the tunnel beyond were so choked with fallen men that the enemy +must drag these out before they could charge any more. It was done under the +fire of myself, Hans and a few picked shots—somehow it was done. +</p> + +<p> +Once more they charged, and once more were mown down. So it went on till our +last cartridge was spent, for never did I see more magnificent courage than was +shown by those Black Kendah in the face of terrific loss. Then my people threw +aside their useless rifles and arming themselves with spears and swords fell +back to rest, leaving Harût and his company to take their place. For half an +hour or more raged that awful struggle, since the spot being so narrow, charge +as they would, the Black Kendah could not win through the spears of despairing +warriors defending their lives and the sanctuary of their god. Nor, the +encircling cliffs being so sheer, could they get round any other way. +</p> + +<p> +At length the enemy drew back as though defeated, giving us time to drag aside +our dead and wounded and drink more water, for the heat in the place was now +overwhelming. We hoped against hope that they had given up the attack. But this +was far from the case; they were but making a new plan. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly in the gateway there appeared the huge bulk of the elephant Jana, +rushing forward at speed and being urged on by men who pricked it with spears +behind. It swept through the defenders as though they were but dry grass, +battering those in front of it with its great trunk from which swung the iron +balls that crushed all on whom they fell, and paying no more heed to the lance +thrusts than it might have done to the bites of gnats. On it came, trumpeting +and trampling, and after it in a flood flowed the Black Kendah, upon whom our +spearmen flung themselves from either side. +</p> + +<p> +At the time I, followed by Hans, was just returning from speaking with Ragnall +at the gate of the second court. A little before I had retired exhausted from +the fierce and fearful fighting, whereon he took my place and repelled several +of the Black Kendah charges, including the last. In this fray he received a +further injury, a knock on the head from a stick or stone which stunned him for +a few minutes, whereon some of our people had carried him off and set him on +the ground with his back against one of the pillars of the second gate. Being +told that he was hurt I ran to see what was the matter. Finding to my joy that +it was nothing very serious, I was hurrying to the front again when I looked up +and saw that devil Jana charging straight towards me, the throng of armed men +parting on each side of him, as rough water does before the leaping prow of a +storm-driven ship. +</p> + +<p> +To tell the truth, although I was never fond of unnecessary risks, I rejoiced +at the sight. Not even all the excitement of that hideous and prolonged battle +had obliterated from my mind the burning sense of shame at the exhibition which +I had made of myself by missing this beast with four barrels at forty yards. +</p> + +<p> +Now, thought I to myself with a kind of exultant thrill, now, Jana, I will wipe +out both my disgrace and you. This time there shall be no mistake, or if there +is, let it be my last. +</p> + +<p> +On thundered Jana, whirling the iron balls among the soldiers, who fled to +right and left leaving a clear path between me and him. To make quite sure of +things, for I was trembling a little with fatigue and somewhat sick from the +continuous sight of bloodshed, I knelt down upon my right knee, using the other +as a prop for my left elbow, and since I could not make certain of a head shot +because of the continual whirling of the huge trunk, got the sight of my +big-game rifle dead on to the beast where the throat joins the chest. I hoped +that the heavy conical bullet would either pierce through to the spine or cut +one of the large arteries in the neck, or at least that the tremendous shock of +its impact would bring him down. +</p> + +<p> +At about twenty paces I fired and hit—not Jana but the lame priest who +was fulfilling the office of mahout, perched upon his shoulders many feet above +the point at which I had aimed. Yes! I hit him in the head, which was shattered +like an eggshell, so that he fell lifeless to the ground. +</p> + +<p> +In perfect desperation again I aimed, and fired when Jana was not more than +thirty feet away. This time the bullet must have gone wide to the left, for I +saw a chip fly from the end of the animal’s broken and deformed tusk, +which stuck out in that direction several feet clear of its side. +</p> + +<p> +Then I gave up all hope. There was no time to gain my feet and escape; indeed I +did not wish to do so, who felt that there are some failures which can only be +absolved by death. I just knelt there, waiting for the end. +</p> + +<p> +In an instant the giant creature was almost over me. I remember looking up at +it and thinking in a queer sort of a way—perhaps it was some ancestral +memory—that I was a little ape-like child about to be slain by a +primordial elephant, thrice as big as any that now inhabit the earth. Then +something appeared to happen which I only repeat to show how at such moments +absurd and impossible things seem real to us. +</p> + +<p> +The reader may remember the strange dream which Hans had related to me that +morning. +</p> + +<p> +One incident of this phantasy was that he had met the spirit of the Zulu lady +Mameena, whom I knew in bygone years, and that she bade him tell me she would +be with me in the battle and that I was to look for her when death drew near to +me and “Jana thundered on,” for then perchance I should see her. +</p> + +<p> +Well, no doubt in some lightning flash of thought the memory of these words +occurred to me at this juncture, with the ridiculous result that my subjective +intelligence, if that is the right term, actually created the scene which they +described. As clearly, or perhaps more clearly than ever I saw anything else in +my life, I appeared to behold the beautiful Mameena in her fur cloak and her +blue beads, standing between Jana and myself with her arms folded upon her +breast and looking exactly as she did in the tremendous moment of her death +before King Panda. I even noted how the faint breeze stirred a loose end of her +outspread hair and how the sunlight caught a particular point of a copper +bangle on her upper arm. +</p> + +<p> +So she stood, or rather seemed to stand, quite still; and as it happened, at +that moment the giant Jana, either because something had frightened him, or +perhaps owing to the shock of my bullet striking on his tusk having jarred the +brain, suddenly pulled up, sliding along a little with all his four feet +together, till I thought he was going to sit down like a performing elephant. +Then it appeared to me as though Mameena turned round very slowly, bent towards +me, whispering something which I could not hear although her lips moved, looked +at me sweetly with those wonderful eyes of hers and vanished away. +</p> + +<p> +A fraction of a second later all this vision had gone and something that was no +vision took its place. Jana had recovered himself and was at me again with open +mouth and lifted trunk. I heard a Dutch curse and saw a little yellow form; saw +Hans, for it was he, thrust the barrels of my second elephant rifle almost into +that red cave of a mouth, which however they could not reach, and fire, first +one barrel, then the other. +</p> + +<p> +Another moment, and the mighty trunk had wrapped itself about Hans and hurled +him through the air to fall on to his head and arms thirty or forty feet away. +</p> + +<p> +Jana staggered as though he too were about to fall; recovered himself, swerved +to the right, perhaps to follow Hans, stumbled on a few paces, missing me +altogether, then again came to a standstill. I wriggled myself round and, +seated on the pavement of the court, watched what followed, and glad am I that +I was able to do so, for never shall I behold such another scene. +</p> + +<p> +First I saw Ragnall run up with a rifle and fire two barrels at the +brute’s head, of which he took no notice whatsoever. Then I saw his wife, +who in this land was known as the Guardian of the Child, issuing from the +portals of the second court, dressed in her goddess robes, wearing the cap of +bird’s feathers, attended by the two priestesses also dressed as +goddesses, as we had seen her on the morning of sacrifice, and holding in front +of her the statue of the Ivory Child. +</p> + +<p> +On she came quite quietly, her wide, empty eyes fixed upon Jana. As she +advanced the monster seemed to grow uneasy. Turning his head, he lifted his +trunk and thrust it along his back until it gripped the ankle of the King +Simba, who all this while was seated there in his chair making no movement. +</p> + +<p> +With a slow, steady pull he dragged Simba from the chair so that he fell upon +the ground near his left foreleg. Next very composedly he wound his trunk about +the body of the helpless man, whose horrified eyes I can see to this day, and +began to whirl him round and round in the air, gently at first but with a +motion that grew ever more rapid, until the bright chains on the victim’s +breast flashed in the sunlight like a silver wheel. Then he hurled him to the +ground, where the poor king lay a mere shattered pulp that had been human. +</p> + +<p> +Now the priestess was standing in front of the beast-god, apparently quite +without fear, though her two attendants had fallen back. Ragnall sprang forward +as though to drag her away, but a dozen men leapt on to him and held him fast, +either to save his life or for some secret reason of their own which I never +learned. +</p> + +<p> +Jana looked down at her and she looked up at Jana. Then he screamed furiously +and, shooting out his trunk, snatched the Ivory Child from her hands, whirled +it round as he had whirled Simba, and at last dashed it to the stone pavement +as he had dashed Simba, so that its substance, grown brittle in the passage of +the ages, shattered into ten thousand fragments. +</p> + +<p> +At this sight a great groan went up from the men of the White Kendah, the women +dressed as goddesses shrieked and tore their robes, and Harût, who stood near, +fell down in a fit or faint. +</p> + +<p> +Once more Jana screamed. Then slowly he knelt down, beat his trunk and the +clattering metal balls upon the ground thrice, as though he were making +obeisance to the beautiful priestess who stood before him, shivered throughout +his mighty bulk, and rolled over—dead! +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +The fighting ceased. The Black Kendah, who all this while had been pressing +into the court of the temple, saw and stood stupefied. It was as though in the +presence of events to them so pregnant and terrible men could no longer lift +their swords in war. +</p> + +<p> +A voice called: “The god is dead! The king is dead! Jana has slain Simba +and has himself been slain! Shattered is the Child; spilt is the blood of Jana! +Fly, People of the Black Kendah; fly, for the gods are dead and your land is a +land of ghosts!” +</p> + +<p> +From every side was this wail echoed: “Fly, People of the Black Kendah, +for the gods are dead!” +</p> + +<p> +They turned; they sped away like shadows, carrying their wounded with them, nor +did any attempt to stay them. Thirty minutes later, save for some desperately +hurt or dying men, not one of them was left in the temple or the pass beyond. +They had all gone, leaving none but the dead behind them. +</p> + +<p> +The fight was finished! The fight that had seemed lost was won! +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +I dragged myself from the ground. As I gained my tottering feet, for now that +all was over I felt as if I were made of running water, I saw the men who held +Ragnall loose their grip of him. He sprang to where his wife was and stood +before her as though confused, much as Jana had stood, Jana against whose head +he rested, his left hand holding to the brute’s gigantic tusk, for I +think that he also was weak with toil, terror, loss of blood and emotion. +</p> + +<p> +“Luna,” he gasped, “Luna!” +</p> + +<p> +Leaning on the shoulder of a Kendah man, I drew nearer to see what passed +between them, for my curiosity overcame my faintness. For quite a long while +she stared at him, till suddenly her eyes began to change. It was as though a +soul were arising in their emptiness as the moon arises in the quiet evening +sky, giving them light and life. At length she spoke in a slow, hesitating +voice, the tones of which I remembered well enough, saying: +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! George, that dreadful brute,” and she pointed to the dead +elephant, “has killed our baby. Look at it! Look at it! We must be +everything to each other now, dear, as we were before it came—unless God +sends us another.” +</p> + +<p> +Then she burst into a flood of weeping and fell into his arms, after which I +turned away. So, to their honour be it said, did the Kendah, leaving the pair +alone behind the bulk of dead Jana. +</p> + +<p> +Here I may state two things: first, that Lady Ragnall, whose bodily health had +remained perfect throughout, entirely recovered her reason from that moment. It +was as though on the shattering of the Ivory Child some spell had been lifted +off her. What this spell may have been I am quite unable to explain, but I +presume that in a dim and unknown way she connected this effigy with her own +lost infant and that while she held and tended it her intellect remained in +abeyance. If so, she must also have connected its destruction with the death of +her own child which, strangely enough, it will be remembered, was likewise +killed by an elephant. The first death that occurred in her presence took away +her reason, the second seeming death, which also occurred in her presence, +brought it back again! +</p> + +<p> +Secondly, from the moment of the destruction of her boy in the streets of the +English country town to that of the shattering of the Ivory Child in Central +Africa her memory was an utter blank, with one exception. This exception was a +dream which a few days later she narrated to Ragnall in my presence. That dream +was that she had seen him and Savage sleeping together in a native house one +night. In view of a certain incident recorded in this history I leave the +reader to draw his own conclusions as to this curious incident. I have none to +offer, or if I have I prefer to keep them to myself. +</p> + +<p> +Leaving Ragnall and his wife, I staggered off to look for Hans and found him +lying senseless near the north wall of the temple. Evidently he was beyond +human help, for Jana seemed to have crushed most of his ribs in his iron trunk. +We carried him to one of the priest’s cells and there I watched him till +the end, which came at sundown. +</p> + +<p> +Before he died he became quite conscious and talked with me a good deal. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t grieve about missing Jana, Baas,” he said, “for +it wasn’t you who missed him but some devil that turned your bullets. You +see, Baas, he was bewitched against you white men. When you look at him closely +you will find that the Lord Igeza missed him also” (strange as it may +seem, this proved to be the case), “and when you managed to hit the tip +of his tusk with the last ball the magic was wearing off him, that’s all. +But, Baas, those Black Kendah wizards forgot to bewitch him against the little +yellow man, of whom they took no account. So I hit him sure enough every time I +fired at him, and I hope he liked the taste of my bullets in that great mouth +of his. He knew who had sent them there very well. That’s why he left you +alone and made for me, as I had hoped he would. Oh! Baas, I die happy, quite +happy since I have killed Jana and he caught me and not you, me who was nearly +finished anyhow. For, Baas, though I didn’t say anything about it, a +thrown spear struck my groin when I went down among the Black Kendah this +morning. It was only a small cut, which bled little, but as the fighting went +on something gave way and my inside began to come through it, though I tied it +up with a bit of cloth, which of course means death in a day or two.” +(Subsequent examination showed me that Hans’s story of this wound was +perfectly true. He could not have lived for very long.) +</p> + +<p> +“Baas,” he went on after a pause, “no doubt I shall meet that +Zulu lady Mameena to-night. Tell me, is she really entitled to the royal +salute? Because if not, when I am as much a spook as she is I will not give it +to her again. She never gave me my titles, which are good ones in their way, so +why should I give her the <i>Bayéte</i>, unless it is hers by right of blood, +although I am only a little ‘yellow dog’ as she chose to call +me?” +</p> + +<p> +As this ridiculous point seemed to weigh upon his mind I told him that Mameena +was not even of royal blood and in nowise entitled to the salute of kings. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!” he said with a feeble grin, “then now I shall know how +to deal with her, especially as she cannot pretend that I did not play my part +in the battle, as she bade me do. Did you see anything of her when Jana +charged, Baas, because I thought I did?” +</p> + +<p> +“I seemed to see something, but no doubt it was only a fancy.” +</p> + +<p> +“A fancy? Explain to me, Baas, where truths end and fancies begin and +whether what we think are fancies are not sometimes the real truths. Once or +twice I have thought so of late, Baas.” +</p> + +<p> +I could not answer this riddle, so instead I gave him some water which he asked +for, and he continued: +</p> + +<p> +“Baas, have you any messages for the two Shining ones, for her whose name +is holy and her sister, and for the child of her whose name is holy, the Missie +Marie, and for your reverend father, the Predikant? If so, tell it quickly +before my head grows too empty to hold the words.” +</p> + +<p> +I will confess, however foolish it may seem, that I gave him certain messages, +but what they were I shall not write down. Let them remain secret between me +and him. Yes, between me and him and perhaps those to whom they were to be +delivered. For after all, in his own words, who can know exactly where fancies +end and truths begin, and whether at times fancies are not the veritable truths +in this universal mystery of which the individual life of each of us is so +small a part? +</p> + +<p> +Hans repeated what I had spoken to him word for word, as a native does, +repeated it twice over, after which he said he knew it by heart and remained +silent for a long while. Then he asked me to lift him up in the doorway of the +cell so that he might look at the sun setting for the last time, “for, +Baas,” he added, “I think I am going far beyond the sun.” +</p> + +<p> +He stared at it for a while, remarking that from the look of the sky there +should be fine weather coming, “which will be good for your journey +towards the Black Water, Baas, with all that ivory to carry.” +</p> + +<p> +I answered that perhaps I should never get the ivory from the graveyard of the +elephants, as the Black Kendah might prevent this. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, Baas,” he replied, “now that Jana is dead the Black +Kendah will go away. I know it, I know it!” +</p> + +<p> +Then he wandered for a space, speaking of sundry adventures we had shared +together, till quite before the last indeed, when his mind returned to him. +</p> + +<p> +“Baas,” he said, “did not the captain Mavovo name me +Light-in-Darkness, and is not that my name? When you too enter the Darkness, +look for that Light; it will be shining very close to you.” +</p> + +<p> +He only spoke once more. His words were: +</p> + +<p> +“Baas, I understand now what your reverend father, the Predikant, meant +when he spoke to me about Love last night. It had nothing to do with women, +Baas, at least not much. It was something a great deal bigger, Baas, something +as big as what I feel for you!” +</p> + +<p> +Then Hans died with a smile on his wrinkled face. +</p> + +<p> +I wept! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap21"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br /> +HOMEWARDS</h2> + +<p> +There is not much more to write of this expedition, or if that statement be not +strictly true, not much more that I wish to write, though I have no doubt that +Ragnall, if he had a mind that way, could make a good and valuable book +concerning many matters on which, confining myself to the history of our +adventure, I have scarcely touched. All the affinities between this Central +African Worship of the Heavenly Child and its Guardian and that of Horus and +Isis in Egypt from which it was undoubtedly descended, for instance. Also the +part which the great serpent played therein, as it may be seen playing a part +in every tomb upon the Nile, and indeed plays a part in our own and other +religions. Further, our journey across the desert to the Red Sea was very +interesting, but I am tired of describing journeys—and of making them. +</p> + +<p> +The truth is that after the death of Hans, like to Queen Sheba when she had +surveyed the wonders of Solomon’s court, there was no more spirit in me. +For quite a long while I did not seem to care at all what happened to me or to +anybody else. We buried him in a place of honour, exactly where he shot Jana +before the gateway of the second court, and when the earth was thrown over his +little yellow face I felt as though half my past had departed with him into +that hole. Poor drunken old Hans, where in the world shall I find such another +man as you were? Where in the world shall I find so much love as filled the cup +of that strange heart of yours? +</p> + +<p> +I dare say it is a form of selfishness, but what every man desires is something +that cares for him <i>alone</i>, which is just why we are so fond of dogs. Now +Hans was a dog with a human brain and he cared for me alone. Often our vanity +makes us think that this has happened to some of us in the instance of one or +more women. But honest and quiet reflection may well cause us to doubt the +truth of such supposings. The woman who as we believed adored us solely has +probably in the course of her career adored others, or at any rate other +things. +</p> + +<p> +To take but one instance, that of Mameena, the Zulu lady whom Hans thought he +saw in the Shades. She, I believe, did me the honour to be very fond of me, but +I am convinced that she was fonder still of her ambition. Now Hans never cared +for any living creature, or for any human hope or object, as he cared for me. +There was no man or woman whom he would not have cheated, or even murdered for +my sake. There was no earthly advantage, down to that of life itself, that he +would not, and in the end did not forgo for my sake; witness the case of his +little fortune which he invested in my rotten gold mine and thought nothing of +losing—for my sake. +</p> + +<p> +That is love <i>in excelsis</i>, and the man who has succeeded in inspiring it +in any creature, even in a low, bibulous, old Hottentot, may feel proud indeed. +At least I am proud and as the years go by the pride increases, as the hope +grows that somewhere in the quiet of that great plain which he saw in his +dream, I may find the light of Hans’s love burning like a beacon in the +darkness, as he promised I should do, and that it may guide and warm my +shivering, new-born soul before I dare the adventure of the Infinite. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, since the sublime and the ridiculous are so very near akin, I often +wonder how he and Mameena settled that question of her right to the royal +salute. Perhaps I shall learn one day—indeed already I have had a hint of +it. If so, even in the blaze of a new and universal Truth, I am certain that +their stories will differ wildly. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Hans was quite right about the Black Kendah. They cleared out, probably in +search of food, where I do not know and I do not care, though whether this were +a temporary or permanent move on their part remains, and so far as I am +concerned is likely to remain, veiled in obscurity. They were great +blackguards, though extraordinarily fine soldiers, and what became of them is a +matter of complete indifference to me. One thing is certain, however, a very +large percentage of them never migrated at all, for something over three +thousand of their bodies did our people have to bury in the pass and about the +temple, a purpose for which all the pits and trenches we had dug came in very +useful. Our loss, by the way, was five hundred and three, including those who +died of wounds. It was a great fight and, except for those who perished in the +pitfalls during the first rush, all practically hand to hand. +</p> + +<p> +Jana we interred where he fell because we could not move him, within a few feet +of the body of his slayer Hans. I have always regretted that I did not take the +exact measurements of this brute, as I believe the record elephant of the +world, but I had no time to do so and no rule or tape at hand. I only saw him +for a minute on the following morning, just as he was being tumbled into a huge +hole, together with the remains of his master, Simba the King. I found, +however, that the sole wounds upon him, save some cuts and scratches from +spears, were those inflicted by Hans—namely, the loss of one eye, the +puncture through the skin over the heart made when he shot at him for the +second time with the little rifle Intombi, and two neat holes at the back of +the mouth through which the bullets from the elephant gun had driven upwards to +the base of the brain, causing his death from hæmorrhage on that organ. +</p> + +<p> +I asked the White Kendah to give me his two enormous tusks, unequalled, I +suppose, in size and weight in Africa, although one was deformed and broken. +But they refused. These, I presume, they wished to keep, together with the +chains off his breast and trunk, as mementoes of their victory over the god of +their foes. At any rate they hewed the former out with axes and removed the +latter before tumbling the carcass into the grave. From the worn-down state of +the teeth I concluded that this beast must have been extraordinarily old, how +old it is impossible to say. +</p> + +<p> +That is all I have to tell of Jana. May he rest in peace, which certainly he +will not do if Hans dwells anywhere in his neighbourhood, in the region which +the old boy used to call that of the “fires that do not go out.” +Because of my horrible failure in connection with this beast, the very memory +of which humiliates me, I do not like to think of it more than I can help. +</p> + +<p> +For the rest the White Kendah kept faith with us in every particular. In a +curious and semi-religious ceremony, at which I was not present, Lady Ragnall +was absolved from her high office of Guardian or Nurse to a god whereof the +symbol no longer existed, though I believe that the priests collected the tiny +fragments of ivory, or as many of them as could be found, and preserved them in +a jar in the sanctuary. After this had been done women stripped the Nurse of +her hallowed robes, of the ancient origin of which, by the way, I believe that +none of them, except perhaps Harût, had any idea, any more than they knew that +the Child represented the Egyptian Horus and his lady Guardian the moon-goddess +Isis. Then, dressed in some native garments, she was handed over to Ragnall and +thenceforth treated as a stranger-guest, like ourselves, being allowed, +however, to live with her husband in the same house that she had occupied +during all the period of her strange captivity. Here they abode together, lost +in the mutual bliss of this wonderful reunion to which they had attained +through so much bodily and spiritual darkness and misery, until a month or so +later we started upon our journey across the mountains and the great desert +that lay beyond them. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Only once did I find any real opportunity of private conversation with Lady +Ragnall. +</p> + +<p> +This happened after her husband had recovered from the hurts he received in the +battle, on an occasion when he was obliged to separate from her for a day in +order to attend to some matter in the Town of the Child. I think it had to do +with the rifles used in the battle, which he had presented to the White Kendah. +So, leaving me to look after her, he went, unwillingly enough, who seemed to +hate losing sight of his wife even for an hour. +</p> + +<p> +I took her for a walk in the wood, to that very point indeed on the lip of the +crater whence we had watched her play her part as priestess at the Feast of the +First-fruits. After we had stood there a while we went down among the great +cedars, trying to retrace the last part of our march through the darkness of +that anxious night, whereof now for the first time I told her all the story. +</p> + +<p> +Growing tired of scrambling among the fallen boughs, at length Lady Ragnall sat +down and said: +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know, Mr. Quatermain, these are the first words we have really +had since that party at Ragnall before I was married, when, as you may have +forgotten, you took me in to dinner.” +</p> + +<p> +I replied that there was nothing I recollected much more clearly, which was +both true and the right thing to say, or so I supposed. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” she said slowly, “you see that after all there was +something in those fancies of mine which at the time you thought would best be +dealt with by a doctor—about Africa and the rest, I mean.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Lady Ragnall, though of course we should always remember that +coincidence accounts for many things. In any case they are done with +now.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not quite, Mr. Quatermain, even as you mean, since we have still a long +way to go. Also in another sense I believe that they are but begun.” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not understand, Lady Ragnall.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nor do I, but listen. You know that of anything which happened during +those months I have no memory at all, except of that one dream when I seemed to +see George and Savage in the hut. I remember my baby being killed by that +horrible circus elephant, just as the Ivory Child was killed or rather +destroyed by Jana, which I suppose is another of your coincidences, Mr. +Quatermain. After that I remember nothing until I woke up and saw George +standing in front of me covered with blood, and you, and Jana dead, and the +rest.” +</p> + +<p> +“Because during that time your mind was gone, Lady Ragnall.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, but where had it gone? I tell you, Mr. Quatermain, that although I +remember nothing of what was passing about me then, I do remember a great deal +of what seemed to be passing either long ago or in some time to come, though I +have said nothing of it to George, as I hope you will not either. It might +upset him.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you remember?” I asked. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s the trouble; I can’t tell you. What was once very +clear to me has for the most part become vague and formless. When my mind tries +to grasp it, it slips away. It was another life to this, quite a different +life; and there was a great story in it of which I think what we have been +going through is either a sequel or a prologue. I see, or saw, cities and +temples with people moving about them, George and you among them, also that old +priest, Harût. You will laugh, but my recollection is that you stood in some +relationship to me, either that of father or brother.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or perhaps a cousin,” I suggested. +</p> + +<p> +“Or perhaps a cousin,” she repeated, smiling, “or a great +friend; at any rate something very intimate. As for George, I don’t know +what he was, or Harût either. But the odd thing is that little yellow man, +Hans, whom I only saw once living for a few minutes that I can remember, comes +more clearly back to my mind than any of you. He was a dwarf, much stouter than +when I saw him the other day, but very like. I recall him curiously dressed +with feathers and holding an ivory rod, seated upon a stool at the feet of a +great personage—a king, I think. The king asked him questions, and +everyone listened to his answers. That is all, except that the scenes seemed to +be flooded with sunlight.” +</p> + +<p> +“Which is more than this place is. I think we had better be moving, Lady +Ragnall, or you will catch a chill under these damp cedars.” +</p> + +<p> +I said this because I did not wish to pursue the conversation. I considered it +too exciting under all her circumstances, especially as I perceived that +mystical look gathering on her face and in her beautiful eyes, which I +remembered noting before she was married. +</p> + +<p> +She read my thoughts and answered with a laugh: +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is damp; but you know I am very strong and damp will not hurt +me. For the rest you need not be afraid, Mr. Quatermain. I did not lose my +mind. It was taken from me by some power and sent to live elsewhere. Now it has +been given back and I do not think it will be taken again in that way.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course it won’t,” I exclaimed confidently. “Whoever +dreamed of such a thing?” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>You</i> did,” she answered, looking me in the eyes. “Now +before we go I want to say one more thing. Harût and the head priestess have +made me a present. They have given me a box full of that herb they called +tobacco, but of which I have discovered the real name is Taduki. It is the same +that they burned in the bowl when you and I saw visions at Ragnall Castle, +which visions, Mr. Quatermain, by another of your coincidences, have since been +translated into facts.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know. We saw you breathe that smoke again as priestess when you +uttered the prophecy as Oracle of the Child at the Feast of the First-fruits. +But what are you going to do with this stuff, Lady Ragnall? I think you have +had enough of visions just at present.” +</p> + +<p> +“So do I, though to tell you the truth I like them. I am going to keep it +and do nothing—as yet. Still, I want you always to remember one +thing—don’t laugh at me”—here again she looked me in +the eyes—“that there is a time coming, some way off I think, when I +and you—no one else, Mr. Quatermain—will breathe that smoke again +together and see strange things.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no!” I replied, “I have given up tobacco of the Kendah +variety; it is too strong for me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes!” she said, “for something that is stronger than +the Kendah tobacco will make you do it—when I wish.” +</p> + +<p> +“Did Harût tell you that, Lady Ragnall?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” she answered confusedly. “I think the +Ivory Child told me; it used to talk to me often. You know that Child +isn’t really destroyed. Like my reason that seemed to be lost, it has +only gone backwards or forwards where you and I shall see it again. You and I +and no others—unless it be the little yellow man. I repeat that I do not +know when that will be. Perhaps it is written in those rolls of papyrus, which +they have given me also, because they said they belonged to me who am +‘the first priestess and the last.’ They told me, however, or +perhaps,” she added, passing her hand across her forehead, “it was +the Child who told me, that I was not to attempt to read them or have them +read, until after a great change in my life. What the change will be I do not +know.” +</p> + +<p> +“And had better not inquire, Lady Ragnall, since in this world most +changes are for the worse.” +</p> + +<p> +“I agree, and shall not inquire. Now I have spoken to you like this +because I felt that I must do so. Also I want to thank you for all you have +done for me and George. Probably we shall not talk in such a way again; as I am +situated the opportunity will be lacking, even if the wish is present. So once +more I thank you from my heart. Until we meet again—I mean really +meet—good-bye,” and she held her right hand to me in such a fashion +that I knew she meant me to kiss it. +</p> + +<p> +This I did very reverently and we walked back to the temple almost in silence. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +That month of rest, or rather the last three weeks of it, since for the first +few days after the battle I was quite prostrate, I occupied in various ways, +amongst others in a journey with Harût to Simba Town. This we made after our +spies had assured us that the Black Kendah were really gone somewhere to the +south-west, in which direction fertile and unoccupied lands were said to exist +about three hundred miles away. It was with very strange feelings that I +retraced our road and looked once more upon that wind-bent tree still scored +with the marks of Jana’s huge tusk, in the boughs of which Hans and I had +taken refuge from the monster’s fury. Crossing the river, quite low now, +I travelled up the slope down which we raced for our lives and came to the +melancholy lake and the cemetery of dead elephants. +</p> + +<p> +Here all was unchanged. There was the little mount worn by his feet, on which +Jana was wont to stand. There were the rocks behind which I had tried to hide, +and near to them some crushed human bones which I knew to be those of the +unfortunate Marût. These we buried with due reverence on the spot where he had +fallen, I meanwhile thanking God that my own bones were not being interred at +their side, as but for Hans would have been the case—if they were ever +interred at all. All about lay the skeletons of dead elephants, and from among +these we collected as much of the best ivory as we could carry, namely about +fifty camel loads. Of course there was much more, but a great deal of the stuff +had been exposed for so long to sun and weather that it was almost worthless. +</p> + +<p> +Having sent this ivory back to the Town of the Child, which was being rebuilt +after a fashion, we went on to Simba Town through the forest, dispatching +pickets ahead of us to search and make sure that it was empty. Empty it was +indeed; never did I see such a place of desolation. +</p> + +<p> +The Black Kendah had left it just as it stood, except for a pile of corpses +which lay around and over the altar in the market-place, where the three poor +camelmen were sacrificed to Jana, doubtless those of wounded men who had died +during or after the retreat. The doors of the houses stood open, many domestic +articles, such as great jars resembling that which had been set over the head +of the dead man whom we were commanded to restore life, and other furniture lay +about because they could not be carried away. So did a great quantity of spears +and various weapons of war, whose owners being killed would never want them +again. Except a few starved dogs and jackals no living creature remained in the +town. It was in its own way as waste and even more impressive than the +graveyard of elephants by the lonely lake. +</p> + +<p> +“The curse of the Child worked well,” said Harût to me grimly. +“First, the storm; the hunger; then the battle; and now the misery of +flight and ruin.” +</p> + +<p> +“It seems so,” I answered. “Yet that curse, like others, came +back to roost, for if Jana is dead and his people fled, where are the Child and +many of its people? What will you do without your god, Harût?” +</p> + +<p> +“Repent us of our sins and wait till the Heavens send us another, as +doubtless they will in their own season,” he replied very sadly. +</p> + +<p> +I wonder whether they ever did and, if so, what form that new divinity put on. +</p> + +<p> +I slept, or rather did not sleep, that night in the same guest-house in which +Marût and I had been imprisoned during our dreadful days of fear, +reconstructing in my mind every event connected with them. Once more I saw the +fires of sacrifice flaring upon the altar and heard the roar of the dancing +hail that proclaimed the ruin of the Black Kendah as loudly as the trumpet of a +destroying angel. Very glad was I when the morning came at length and, having +looked my last upon Simba Town, I crossed the moats and set out homewards +through the forest whereof the stripped boughs also spoke of death, though in +the spring these would grow green again. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +Ten days later we started from the Holy Mount, a caravan of about a hundred +camels, of which fifty were laden with the ivory and the rest ridden by our +escort under the command of Harût and our three selves. But there was an evil +fate upon this ivory, as on everything else that had to do with Jana. Some +weeks later in the desert a great sandstorm overtook us in which we barely +escaped with our lives. At the height of the storm the ivory-laden camels broke +loose, flying before it. Probably they fell and were buried beneath the sand; +at any rate of the fifty we only recovered ten. +</p> + +<p> +Ragnall wished to pay me the value of the remaining loads, which ran into +thousands of pounds, but I would not take the money, saying it was outside our +bargain. Sometimes since then I have thought that I was foolish, especially +when on glancing at that codicil to his will in after days, the same which he +had given me before the battle, I found that he had set me down for a legacy of +£10,000. But in such matters every man must follow his own instinct. +</p> + +<p> +The White Kendah, an unemotional people especially now when they were mourning +for their lost god and their dead, watched us go without any demonstration of +affection, or even of farewell. Only those priestesses who had attended upon +the person of Lady Ragnall while she played a divine part among them wept when +they parted from her, and uttered prayers that they might meet her again +“in the presence of the Child.” +</p> + +<p> +The pass through the great mountains proved hard to climb, as the foothold for +the camels was bad. But we managed it at last, most of the way on foot, pausing +a little while on their crest to look our last for ever at the land which we +had left, where the Mount of the Child was still dimly visible. Then we +descended their farther slope and entered the northern desert. +</p> + +<p> +Day after day and week after week we travelled across that endless desert by a +way known to Harût on which water could be found, the only living things in all +its vastness, meeting with no accidents save that of the sandstorm in which the +ivory was lost. I was much alone during that time, since Harût spoke little and +Ragnall and his wife were wrapped up in each other. +</p> + +<p> +At length, months later, we struck a little port on the Red Sea, of which I +forget the Arab name, a place as hot as the infernal regions. Shortly +afterwards, by great good luck, two trading vessels put in for water, one bound +for Aden, in which I embarked en route for Natal, and the other for the port of +Suez, whence Ragnall and his wife could travel overland to Alexandria. +</p> + +<p> +Our parting was so hurried at the last, as is often the way after long +fellowship, that beyond mutual thanks and good wishes we said little to one +another. I can see them now standing with their arms about each other watching +me disappear. Concerning their future there is so much to tell that of it I +shall say nothing; at any rate here and now, except that Lady Ragnall was +right. We did not part for the last time. +</p> + +<p> +As I shook old Harût’s hand in farewell he told me that he was going on +to Egypt, and I asked him why. +</p> + +<p> +“Perchance to look for another god, Lord Macumazana,” he answered +gravely, “whom now there is no Jana to destroy. We may speak of that +matter if we should meet again.” +</p> + +<p> +Such are some of the things that I remember about this journey, but to tell +truth I paid little attention to them and many others. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +For oh! my heart was sore because of Hans. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IVORY CHILD ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 2841-h.htm or 2841-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/4/2841/</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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