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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Allan and the Holy Flower, by H. Rider Haggard
+(#36 in our series by H. Rider Haggard)
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+Title: Allan and the Holy Flower
+
+Author: H. Rider Haggard
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5174]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 29, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALLAN AND THE HOLY FLOWER ***
+
+
+
+
+ALLAN AND THE HOLY FLOWER
+BY H. Rider Haggard
+
+First Published 1915.
+
+Etext prepared by John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz
+              and Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com
+
+
+
+                      ALLAN AND THE HOLY FLOWER
+
+                                  BY
+
+                           H. RIDER HAGGARD
+
+
+
+
+
+                      ALLAN AND THE HOLY FLOWER
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I
+
+                             BROTHER JOHN
+
+I do not suppose that anyone who knows the name of Allan Quatermain
+would be likely to associate it with flowers, and especially with
+orchids. Yet as it happens it was once my lot to take part in an
+orchid hunt of so remarkable a character that I think its details
+should not be lost. At least I will set them down, and if in the after
+days anyone cares to publish them, well--he is at liberty to do so.
+
+It was in the year--oh! never mind the year, it was a long while ago
+when I was much younger, that I went on a hunting expedition to the
+north of the Limpopo River which borders the Transvaal. My companion
+was a gentleman of the name of Scroope, Charles Scroope. He had come
+out to Durban from England in search of sport. At least, that was one
+of his reasons. The other was a lady whom I will call Miss Margaret
+Manners, though that was not her name.
+
+It seems that these two were engaged to be married, and really
+attached to each other. Unfortunately, however, they quarrelled
+violently about another gentlemen with whom Miss Manners danced four
+consecutive dances, including two that were promised to her fiancé at
+a Hunt ball in Essex, where they all lived. Explanations, or rather
+argument, followed. Mr. Scroope said that he would not tolerate such
+conduct. Miss Manners replied that she would not be dictated to; she
+was her own mistress and meant to remain so. Mr. Scroope exclaimed
+that she might so far as he was concerned. She answered that she never
+wished to see his face again. He declared with emphasis that she never
+should and that he was going to Africa to shoot elephants.
+
+What is more, he went, starting from his Essex home the next day
+without leaving any address. As it transpired afterwards, long
+afterwards, had he waited till the post came in he would have received
+a letter that might have changed his plans. But they were high-
+spirited young people, both of them, and played the fool after the
+fashion of those in love.
+
+Well, Charles Scroope turned up in Durban, which was but a poor place
+then, and there we met in the bar of the Royal Hotel.
+
+"If you want to kill big game," I heard some one say, who it was I
+really forget, "there's the man to show you how to do it--Hunter
+Quatermain; the best shot in Africa and one of the finest fellows,
+too."
+
+I sat still, smoking my pipe and pretending to hear nothing. It is
+awkward to listen to oneself being praised, and I was always a shy
+man.
+
+Then after a whispered colloquy Mr. Scroope was brought forward and
+introduced to me. I bowed as nicely as I could and ran my eye over
+him. He was a tall young man with dark eyes and a rather romantic
+aspect (that was due to his love affair), but I came to the conclusion
+that I liked the cut of his jib. When he spoke, that conclusion was
+affirmed. I always think there is a great deal in a voice; personally,
+I judge by it almost as much as by the face. This voice was
+particularly pleasant and sympathetic, though there was nothing very
+original or striking in the words by which it was, so to speak,
+introduced to me. These were:
+
+"How do you do, sir. Will you have a split?"
+
+I answered that I never drank spirits in the daytime, or at least not
+often, but that I should be pleased to take a small bottle of beer.
+
+When the beer was consumed we walked up together to my little house on
+which is now called the Berea, the same in which, amongst others, I
+received my friends, Curtis and Good, in after days, and there we
+dined. Indeed, Charlie Scroope never left that house until we started
+on our shooting expedition.
+
+Now I must cut all this story short, since it is only incidentally
+that it has to do with the tale I am going to tell. Mr. Scroope was a
+rich man and as he offered to pay all the expenses of the expedition
+while I was to take all the profit in the shape of ivory or anything
+else that might accrue, of course I did not decline his proposal.
+
+Everything went well with us on that trip until its unfortunate end.
+We only killed two elephants, but of other game we found plenty. It
+was when we were near Delagoa Bay on our return that the accident
+happened.
+
+We were out one evening trying to shoot something for our dinner, when
+between the trees I caught sight of a small buck. It vanished round a
+little promontory of rock which projected from the side of the kloof,
+walking quietly, not running in alarm. We followed after it. I was the
+first, and had just wriggled round these rocks and perceived the buck
+standing about ten paces away (it was a bush-bok), when I heard a
+rustle among the bushes on the top of the rock not a dozen feet above
+my head, and Charlie Scroope's voice calling:
+
+"Look out, Quatermain! He's coming."
+
+"Who's coming?" I answered in an irritated tone, for the noise had
+made the buck run away.
+
+Then it occurred to me, all in an instant of course, that a man would
+not begin to shout like that for nothing; at any rate when his supper
+was concerned. So I glanced up above and behind me. To this moment I
+can remember exactly what I saw. There was the granite water-worn
+boulder, or rather several boulders, with ferns growing in their
+cracks of the maiden-hair tribe, most of them, but some had a silver
+sheen on the under side of their leaves. On one of these leaves,
+bending it down, sat a large beetle with red wings and a black body
+engaged in rubbing its antennę with its front paws. And above, just
+appearing over the top of the rock, was the head of an extremely fine
+leopard. As I write to seem to perceive its square jowl outlined
+against the arc of the quiet evening sky with the saliva dropping from
+its lips.
+
+This was the last thing which I did perceive for a little while, since
+at that moment the leopard--we call them tigers in South Africa--
+dropped upon my back and knocked me flat as a pancake. I presume that
+it also had been stalking the buck and was angry at my appearance on
+the scene. Down I went, luckily for me, into a patch of mossy soil.
+
+"All up!" I said to myself, for I felt the brute's weight upon my back
+pressing me down among the moss, and what was worse, its hot breath
+upon my neck as it dropped its jaws to bite me in the head. Then I
+heard the report of Scroope's rifle, followed by furious snarling from
+the leopard, which evidently had been hit. Also it seemed to think
+that I had caused its injuries, for it seized me by the shoulder. I
+felt its teeth slip along my skin, but happily they only fastened in
+the shooting coat of tough corduroy that I was wearing. It began to
+shake me, then let go to get a better grip. Now, remembering that
+Scroope only carried a light, single-barrelled rifle, and therefore
+could not fire again, I knew, or thought I knew, that my time had
+come. I was not exactly afraid, but the sense of some great, impending
+chance became very vivid. I remembered--not my whole life, but one or
+two odd little things connected with my infancy. For instance, I
+seemed to see myself seated on my mother's knee, playing with a little
+jointed gold-fish which she wore upon her watch-chain.
+
+After this I muttered a word or two of supplication, and, I think,
+lost consciousness. If so, it can only have been for a few seconds.
+Then my mind returned to me and I saw a strange sight. The leopard and
+Scroope were fighting each other. The leopard, standing on one hind
+leg, for the other was broken, seemed to be boxing Scroope, whilst
+Scroope was driving his big hunting knife into the brute's carcase.
+They went down, Scroope undermost, the leopard tearing at him. I gave
+a wriggle and came out of that mossy bed--I recall the sucking sound
+my body made as it left the ooze.
+
+Close by was my rifle, uninjured and at full cock as it had fallen
+from my hand. I seized it, and in another second had shot the leopard
+through the head just as it was about to seize Scroope's throat.
+
+It fell stone dead on the top of him. One quiver, one contraction of
+the claws (in poor Scroope's leg) and all was over. There it lay as
+though it were asleep, and underneath was Scroope.
+
+The difficulty was to get it off him, for the beast was very heavy,
+but I managed this at last with the help of a thorn bough I found
+which some elephant had torn from a tree. This I used as a lever.
+There beneath lay Scroope, literally covered with blood, though
+whether his own or the leopard's I could not tell. At first I thought
+that he was dead, but after I had poured some water over him from the
+little stream that trickled down the rock, he sat up and asked
+inconsequently:
+
+"What am I now?"
+
+"A hero," I answered. (I have always been proud of that repartee.)
+
+Then, discouraging further conversation, I set to work to get him back
+to the camp, which fortunately was close at hand.
+
+When we had proceeded a couple of hundred yards, he still making
+inconsequent remarks, his right arm round my neck and my left arm
+round his middle, suddenly he collapsed in a dead faint, and as his
+weight was more than I could carry, I had to leave him and fetch help.
+
+In the end I got him to the tents by aid of the Kaffirs and a blanket,
+and there made an examination. He was scratched all over, but the only
+serious wounds were a bite through the muscles of the left upper arm
+and three deep cuts in the right thigh just where it joins the body,
+caused by a stroke of the leopard's claws. I gave him a dose of
+laudanum to send him to sleep and dressed these hurts as best I could.
+For three days he went on quite well. Indeed, the wounds had begun to
+heal healthily when suddenly some kind of fever took him, caused, I
+suppose, by the poison of the leopard's fangs or claws.
+
+Oh! what a terrible week was that which followed! He became delirious,
+raving continually of all sorts of things, and especially of Miss
+Margaret Manners. I kept up his strength as well as was possible with
+soup made from the flesh of game, mixed with a little brandy which I
+had. But he grew weaker and weaker. Also the wounds in the thigh began
+to suppurate.
+
+The Kaffirs whom we had with us were of little use in such a case, so
+that all the nursing fell on me. Luckily, beyond a shaking, the
+leopard had done me no hurt, and I was very strong in those days.
+Still the lack of rest told on me, since I dared not sleep for more
+than half an hour or so at a time. At length came a morning when I was
+quite worn out. There lay poor Scroope turning and muttering in the
+little tent, and there I sat by his side, wondering whether he would
+live to see another dawn, or if he did, for how long I should be able
+to tend him. I called to a Kaffir to bring me my coffee, and just was
+I was lifting the pannikin to my lips with a shaking hand, help came.
+
+It arrived in a very strange shape. In front of our camp were two
+thorn trees, and from between these trees, the rays from the rising
+sun falling full on him, I saw a curious figure walking towards me in
+a slow, purposeful fashion. It was that of a man of uncertain age, for
+though the beard and long hair were white, the face was comparatively
+youthful, save for the wrinkles round the mouth, and the dark eyes
+were full of life and vigour. Tattered garments, surmounted by a torn
+kaross or skin rug, hung awkwardly upon his tall, thin frame. On his
+feet were veld-schoen of untanned hide, on his back a battered tin
+case was strapped, and in his bony, nervous hand he clasped a long
+staff made of the black and white wood the natives call /unzimbiti/,
+on the top of which was fixed a butterfly net. Behind him were some
+Kaffirs who carried cases on their heads.
+
+I knew him at once, since we had met before, especially on a certain
+occasion in Zululand, when he calmly appeared out of the ranks of a
+hostile native /impi/. He was one of the strangest characters in all
+South Africa. Evidently a gentleman in the true sense of the word,
+none knew his history (although I know it now, and a strange story it
+is), except that he was an American by birth, for in this matter at
+times his speech betrayed him. Also he was a doctor by profession, and
+to judge from his extraordinary skill, one who must have seen much
+practice both in medicine and in surgery. For the rest he had means,
+though where they came from was a mystery, and for many years past had
+wandered about South and Eastern Africa, collecting butterflies and
+flowers.
+
+By the natives, and I might add by white people also, he was
+universally supposed to be mad. This reputation, coupled with his
+medical skill, enabled him to travel wherever he would without the
+slightest fear of molestation, since the Kaffirs look upon the mad as
+inspired by God. Their name for him was "Dogeetah," a ludicrous
+corruption of the English word "doctor," whereas white folk called him
+indifferently "Brother John," "Uncle Jonathan," or "Saint John." The
+second appellation he got from his extraordinary likeness (when
+cleaned up and nicely dressed) to the figure by which the great
+American nation is typified in comic papers, as England is typified by
+John Bull. The first and third arose in the well-known goodness of his
+character and a taste he was supposed to possess for living on locusts
+and wild honey, or their local equivalents. Personally, however, he
+preferred to be addressed as "Brother John."
+
+Oh! who can tell the relief with which I saw him; an angel from heaven
+could scarcely have been more welcome. As he came I poured out a
+second jorum of coffee, and remembering that he liked it sweet, put in
+plenty of sugar.
+
+"How do you do, Brother John?" I said, proffering him the coffee.
+
+"Greeting, Brother Allan," he answered--in those days he affected a
+kind of old Roman way of speaking, as I imagine it. Then he took the
+coffee, put his long finger into it to test the temperature and stir
+up the sugar, drank it off as though it were a dose of medicine, and
+handed back the tin to be refilled.
+
+"Bug-hunting?" I queried.
+
+He nodded. "That and flowers and observing human nature and the
+wonderful works of God. Wandering around generally."
+
+"Where from last?" I asked.
+
+"Those hills nearly twenty miles away. Left them at eight in the
+evening; walked all night."
+
+"Why?" I said, looking at him.
+
+"Because it seemed as though someone were calling me. To be plain,
+you, Allan."
+
+"Oh! you heard about my being here and the trouble?"
+
+"No, heard nothing. Meant to strike out for the coast this morning.
+Just as I was turning in, at 8.5 exactly, got your message and
+started. That's all."
+
+"My message----" I began, then stopped, and asking to see his watch,
+compared it with mine. Oddly enough, they showed the same time to
+within two minutes.
+
+"It is a strange thing," I said slowly, "but at 8.5 last night I did
+try to send a message for some help because I thought my mate was
+dying," and I jerked my thumb towards the tent. "Only it wasn't to you
+or any other man, Brother John. Understand?"
+
+"Quite. Message was expressed on, that's all. Expressed and I guess
+registered as well."
+
+I looked at Brother John and Brother John looked at me, but at the
+time we made no further remark. The thing was too curious, that is,
+unless he lied. But nobody had ever known him to lie. He was a
+truthful person, painfully truthful at times. And yet there are people
+who do not believe in prayer.
+
+"What is it?" he asked.
+
+"Mauled by leopard. Wounds won't heal, and fever. I don't think he can
+last long."
+
+"What do you know about it? Let me see him."
+
+Well, he saw him and did wonderful things. That tin box of his was
+full of medicines and surgical instruments, which latter he boiled
+before he used them. Also he washed his hands till I thought the skin
+would come off them, using up more soap than I could spare. First he
+gave poor Charlie a dose of something that seemed to kill him; he said
+he had that drug from the Kaffirs. Then he opened up those wounds upon
+his thigh and cleaned them out and bandaged them with boiled herbs.
+Afterwards, when Scroope came to again, he gave him a drink that threw
+him into a sweat and took away the fever. The end of it was that in
+two days' time his patient sat up and asked for a square meal, and in
+a week we were able to begin to carry him to the coast.
+
+"Guess that message of yours saved Brother Scroope's life," said old
+John, as he watched him start.
+
+I made no answer. Here I may state, however, that through my own men I
+inquired a little as to Brother John's movements at the time of what
+he called the message. It seemed that he /had/ arranged to march
+towards the coast on the next morning, but that about two hours after
+sunset suddenly he ordered them to pack up everything and follow him.
+This they did and to their intense disgust those Kaffirs were forced
+to trudge all night at the heels of Dogeetah, as they called him.
+Indeed, so weary did they become, that had they not been afraid of
+being left alone in an unknown country in the darkness, they said they
+would have thrown down their loads and refused to go any further.
+
+That is as far as I was able to take the matter, which may be
+explained by telepathy, inspiration, instinct, or coincidence. It is
+one as to which the reader must form his own opinion.
+
+During our week together in camp and our subsequent journey to Delagoa
+Bay and thence by ship to Durban, Brother John and I grew very
+intimate, with limitations. Of his past, as I have said, he never
+talked, or of the real object of his wanderings which I learned
+afterwards, but of his natural history and ethnological (I believe
+that is the word) studies he spoke a good deal. As, in my humble way,
+I also am an observer of such matters and know something about African
+natives and their habits from practical experience, these subjects
+interested me.
+
+Amongst other things, he showed me many of the specimens that he had
+collected during his recent journey; insects and beautiful butterflies
+neatly pinned into boxes, also a quantity of dried flowers pressed
+between sheets of blotting paper, amongst them some which he told me
+were orchids. Observing that these attracted me, he asked me if I
+would like to see the most wonderful orchid in the whole world. Of
+course I said yes, whereon he produced out of one of his cases a flat
+package about two feet six square. He undid the grass mats in which it
+was wrapped, striped, delicately woven mats such as they make in the
+neighbourhood of Zanzibar. Within these was the lid of a packing-case.
+Then came more mats and some copies of /The Cape Journal/ spread out
+flat. Then sheets of blotting paper, and last of all between two
+pieces of cardboard, a flower and one leaf of the plant on which it
+grew.
+
+Even in its dried state it was a wondrous thing, measuring twenty-four
+inches from the tip of one wing or petal to the tip of the other, by
+twenty inches from the top of the back sheath to the bottom of the
+pouch. The measurement of the back sheath itself I forget, but it must
+have been quite a foot across. In colour it was, or had been, bright
+golden, but the back sheath was white, barred with lines of black, and
+in the exact centre of the pouch was a single black spot shaped like
+the head of a great ape. There were the overhanging brows, the deep
+recessed eyes, the surly mouth, the massive jaws--everything.
+
+Although at that time I had never seen a gorilla in the flesh, I had
+seen a coloured picture of the brute, and if that picture had been
+photographed on the flower the likeness could not have been more
+perfect.
+
+"What is it?" I asked, amazed.
+
+"Sir," said Brother John, sometimes he used this formal term when
+excited, "it is the most marvellous Cypripedium in the whole earth,
+and, sir, I have discovered it. A healthy root of that plant will be
+worth £20,000."
+
+"That's better than gold mining," I said. "Well, have you got the
+root?"
+
+Brother John shook his head sadly as he answered:
+
+"No such luck."
+
+"How's that as you have the flower?"
+
+"I'll tell you, Allan. For a year past and more I have been collecting
+in the district back of Kilwa and found some wonderful things, yes,
+wonderful. At last, about three hundred miles inland, I came to a
+tribe, or rather, a people, that no white man had ever visited. They
+are called the Mazitu, a numerous and warlike people of bastard Zulu
+blood."
+
+"I have heard of them," I interrupted. "They broke north before the
+days of Senzangakona, two hundred years or more ago."
+
+"Well, I could make myself understood among them because they still
+talk a corrupt Zulu, as do all the tribes in those parts. At first
+they wanted to kill me, but let me go because they thought that I was
+mad. Everyone thinks that I am mad, Allan; it is a kind of public
+delusion, whereas I think that I am sane and that most other people
+are mad."
+
+"A private delusion," I suggested hurriedly, as I did not wish to
+discuss Brother John's sanity. "Well, go on about the Mazitu."
+
+"Later they discovered that I had skill in medicine, and their king,
+Bausi, came to me to be treated for a great external tumour. I risked
+an operation and cured him. It was anxious work, for if he had died I
+should have died too, though that would not have troubled me very
+much," and he sighed. "Of course, from that moment I was supposed to
+be a great magician. Also Bausi made a blood brotherhood with me,
+transfusing some of his blood into my veins and some of mine into his.
+I only hope he has not inoculated me with his tumours, which are
+congenital. So I became Bausi and Bausi became me. In other words, I
+was as much chief of the Mazitu as he was, and shall remain so all my
+life."
+
+"That might be useful," I said, reflectively, "but go on."
+
+"I learned that on the western boundary of the Mazitu territory were
+great swamps; that beyond these swamps was a lake called Kirua, and
+beyond that a large and fertile land supposed to be an island, with a
+mountain in its centre. This land is known as Pongo, and so are the
+people who live there."
+
+"That is a native name for the gorilla, isn't it?" I asked. "At least
+so a fellow who had been on the West Coast told me."
+
+"Indeed, then that's strange, as you will see. Now these Pongo are
+supposed to be great magicians, and the god they worship is said to be
+a gorilla, which, if you are right, accounts for their name. Or
+rather," he went on, "they have two gods. The other is that flower you
+see there. Whether the flower with the monkey's head on it was the
+first god and suggested the worship of the beast itself, or /vice
+versa/, I don't know. Indeed I know very little, just what I was told
+by the Mazitu and a man who called himself a Pongo chief, no more."
+
+"What did they say?"
+
+"The Mazitu said that the Pongo people are devils who came by the
+secret channels through the reeds in canoes and stole their children
+and women, whom they sacrificed to their gods. Sometimes, too, they
+made raids upon them at night, 'howling like hyenas.' The men they
+killed and the women and children they took away. The Mazitu want to
+attack them but cannot do so, because they are not water people and
+have no canoes, and therefore are unable to reach the island, if it is
+an island. Also they told me about the wonderful flower which grows in
+the place where the ape-god lives, and is worshipped like the god.
+They had the story of it from some of their people who had been
+enslaved and escaped."
+
+"Did you try to get to the island?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, Allan. That is, I went to the edge of the reeds which lie at the
+end of a long slope of plain, where the lake begins. Here I stopped
+for some time catching butterflies and collecting plants. One night
+when I was camped there by myself, for none of my men would remain so
+near the Pongo country after sunset, I woke up with a sense that I was
+no longer alone. I crept out of my tent and by the light of the moon,
+which was setting, for dawn drew near, I saw a man who leant upon the
+handle of a very wide-bladed spear which was taller than himself, a
+big man over six feet two high, I should say, and broad in proportion.
+He wore a long, white cloak reaching from his shoulders almost to the
+ground. On his head was a tight-fitting cap with lappets, also white.
+In his ears were rings of copper or gold, and on his wrists bracelets
+of the same metal. His skin was intensely black, but the features were
+not at all negroid. They were prominent and finely-cut, the nose being
+sharp and the lips quite thin; indeed of an Arab type. His left hand
+was bandaged, and on his face was an expression of great anxiety.
+Lastly, he appeared to be about fifty years of age. So still did he
+stand that I began to wonder whether he were one of those ghosts which
+the Mazitu swore the Pongo wizards send out to haunt their country.
+
+"For a long while we stared at each other, for I was determined that I
+would not speak first or show any concern. At last he spoke in a low,
+deep voice and in Mazitu, or a language so similar that I found it
+easy to understand.
+
+"'Is not your name Dogeetah, O White Lord, and are you not a master of
+medicine?'
+
+"'Yes,' I answered, 'but who are you who dare to wake me from my
+sleep?'
+
+"'Lord, I am the Kalubi, the Chief of the Pongo, a great man in my own
+land yonder.'
+
+"'Then why do you come here alone at night, Kalubi, Chief of the
+Pongo?'
+
+"'Why do /you/ come here alone, White Lord?' he answered evasively.
+
+"'What do you want, anyway?' I asked.
+
+"'O! Dogeetah, I have been hurt, I want you to cure me,' and he looked
+at his bandaged hand.
+
+"'Lay down that spear and open your robe that I may see you have no
+knife.'
+
+"He obeyed, throwing the spear to some distance.
+
+"'Now unwrap the hand.'
+
+"He did so. I lit a match, the sight of which seemed to frighten him
+greatly, although he asked no questions about it, and by its light
+examined the hand. The first joint of the second finger was gone. From
+the appearance of the stump which had been cauterized and was tied
+tightly with a piece of flexible grass, I judged that it had been
+bitten off.
+
+"'What did this?' I asked.
+
+"'Monkey,' he answered, 'poisonous monkey. Cut off the finger, O
+Dogeetah, or tomorrow I die.'
+
+"'Why do you not tell your own doctors to cut off the finger, you who
+are Kalubi, Chief of the Pongo?'
+
+"'No, no,' he replied, shaking his head. 'They cannot do it. It is not
+lawful. And I, I cannot do it, for if the flesh is black the hand must
+come off too, and if the flesh is black at the wrist, then the arm
+must be cut off.'
+
+"I sat down on my camp stool and reflected. Really I was waiting for
+the sun to rise, since it was useless to attempt an operation in that
+light. The man, Kalubi, thought that I had refused his petition and
+became terribly agitated.
+
+"'Be merciful, White Lord,' he prayed, 'do not let me die. I am afraid
+to die. Life is bad, but death is worse. O! If you refuse me, I will
+kill myself here before you and then my ghost will haunt you till you
+die also of fear and come to join me. What fee do you ask? Gold or
+ivory or slaves? Say and I will give it.'
+
+"'Be silent,' I said, for I saw that if he went on thus he would throw
+himself into a fever, which might cause the operation to prove fatal.
+For the same reason I did not question him about many things I should
+have liked to learn. I lit my fire and boiled the instruments--he
+thought I was making magic. By the time that everything was ready the
+sun was up.
+
+"'Now,' I said, 'let me see how brave you are.'
+
+"Well, Allan, I performed that operation, removing the finger at the
+base where it joins the hand, as I thought there might be something in
+his story of the poison. Indeed, as I found afterwards on dissection,
+and can show you, for I have the thing in spirits, there was, for the
+blackness of which he spoke, a kind of mortification, I presume, had
+crept almost to the joint, though the flesh beyond was healthy enough.
+Certainly that Kalubi was a plucky fellow. He sat like a rock and
+never even winced. Indeed, when he saw that the flesh was sound he
+uttered a great sigh of relief. After it was all over he turned a
+little faint, so I gave him some spirits of wine mixed with water
+which revived him.
+
+"'O Lord Dogeetah,' he said, as I was bandaging his hand, 'while I
+live I am your slave. Yet, do me one more service. In my land there is
+a terrible wild beast, that which bit off my finger. It is a devil; it
+kills us and we fear it. I have heard that you white men have magic
+weapons which slay with a noise. Come to my land and kill me that wild
+beast with your magic weapon. I say, Come, Come, for I am terribly
+afraid,' and indeed he looked it.
+
+"'No,' I answered, 'I shed no blood; I kill nothing except
+butterflies, and of these only a few. But if you fear this brute why
+do you not poison it? You black people have many drugs.'
+
+"'No use, no use,' he replied in a kind of wail. 'The beast knows
+poisons, some it swallows and they do not harm it. Others it will not
+touch. Moreover, no black man can do it hurt. It is white, and it has
+been known from of old that if it dies at all, it must be by the hand
+of one who is white.'
+
+"'A very strange animal,' I began, suspiciously, for I felt sure that
+he was lying to me. But just at that moment I heard the sound of my
+men's voices. They were advancing towards me through the giant grass,
+singing as they came, but as yet a long way off. The Kalubi heard it
+also and sprang up.
+
+"'I must be gone,' he said. 'None must see me here. What fee, O Lord
+of medicine, what fee?'
+
+"'I take no payment for my medicine,' I said. 'Yet--stay. A wonderful
+flower grows in your country, does it not? A flower with wings and a
+cup beneath. I would have that flower.'
+
+"'Who told you of the Flower?' he asked. 'The Flower is holy. Still, O
+White Lord, still for you it shall be risked. Oh, return and bring
+with you one who can kill the beast and I will make you rich. Return
+and call to the reeds for the Kalubi, and the Kalubi will hear and
+come to you.'
+
+"Then he ran to his spear, snatched it from the ground and vanished
+among the reeds. That was the last I saw, or am ever likely to see, of
+him."
+
+"But, Brother John, you got the flower somehow."
+
+"Yes, Allan. About a week later when I came out of my tent one
+morning, there it was standing in a narrow-mouthed, earthenware pot
+filled with water. Of course I meant that he was to send me the plant,
+roots and all, but I suppose he understood that I wanted a bloom. Or
+perhaps he dared not send the plant. Anyhow, it is better than
+nothing."
+
+"Why did you not go into the country and get it for yourself?"
+
+"For several reasons, Allan, of which the best is that it was
+impossible. The Mazitu swear that if anyone sees that flower he is put
+to death. Indeed, when they found that I had a bloom of it, they
+forced me to move to the other side of the country seventy miles away.
+So I thought that I would wait till I met with some companions who
+would accompany me. Indeed, to be frank, Allan, it occurred to me that
+you were the sort of man who would like to interview this wonderful
+beast that bites off people's fingers and frightens them to death,"
+and Brother John stroked his long, white beard and smiled, adding,
+"Odd that we should have met so soon afterwards, isn't it?"
+
+"Did you?" I replied, "now did you indeed? Brother John, people say
+all sorts of things about you, but I have come to the conclusion that
+there's nothing the matter with your wits."
+
+Again he smiled and stroked his long, white beard.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+                           THE AUCTION ROOM
+
+I do not think that this conversion about the Pongo savages who were
+said to worship a Gorilla and a Golden Flower was renewed until we
+reached my house at Durban. Thither of course I took Mr. Charles
+Scroope, and thither also came Brother John who, as bedroom
+accommodation was lacking, pitched his tent in the garden.
+
+One night we sat on the step smoking; Brother John's only concession
+to human weakness was that he smoked. He drank no wine or spirits; he
+never ate meat unless he was obliged, but I rejoice to say that he
+smoked cigars, like most Americans, when he could get them.
+
+"John," said I, "I have been thinking over that yarn of yours and have
+come to one or two conclusions."
+
+"What may they be, Allan?"
+
+"The first is that you were a great donkey not to get more out of the
+Kalubi when you had the chance."
+
+"Agreed, Allan, but, amongst other things, I am a doctor and the
+operation was uppermost in my mind."
+
+"The second is that I believe this Kalubi had charge of the gorilla-
+god, as no doubt you've guessed; also that it was the gorilla which
+bit off his finger."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because I have heard of great monkeys called /sokos/ that live in
+Central East Africa which are said to bite off men's toes and fingers.
+I have heard too that they are very like gorillas."
+
+"Now you mention it, so have I, Allan. Indeed, once I saw a /soko/,
+though some way off, a huge, brown ape which stood on its hind legs
+and drummed upon its chest with its fists. I didn't see it for long
+because I ran away."
+
+"The third is that this yellow orchid would be worth a great deal of
+money if one could dig it up and take it to England."
+
+"I think I told you, Allan, that I valued it at £20,000, so that
+conclusion of yours is not original."
+
+"The fourth is that I should like to dig up that orchid and get a
+share of the £20,000."
+
+Brother John became intensely interested.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "now we are getting to the point. I have been wondering
+how long it would take you to see it, Allan, but if you are slow, you
+are sure."
+
+"The fifth is," I went on, "that such an expedition to succeed would
+need a great deal of money, more than you or I could find. Partners
+would be wanted, active or sleeping, but partners with cash."
+
+Brother John looked towards the window of the room in which Charlie
+Scroope was in bed, for being still weak he went to rest early.
+
+"No," I said, "he's had enough of Africa, and you told me yourself
+that it will be two years before he is really strong again. Also
+there's a lady in this case. Now listen. I have taken it on myself to
+write to that lady, whose address I found out while he didn't know
+what he was saying. I have said that he was dying, but that I hoped he
+might live. Meanwhile, I added, I thought she would like to know that
+he did nothing but rave of her; also that he was a hero, with a big H
+twice underlined. My word! I did lay it on about the hero business
+with a spoon, a real hotel gravy spoon. If Charlie Scroope knows
+himself again when he sees my description of him, well, I'm a
+Dutchman, that's all. The letter caught the last mail and will, I
+hope, reach the lady in due course. Now listen again. Scroope wants me
+to go to England with him to look after him on the voyage--that's what
+he says. What he means is that he hopes I might put in a word for him
+with the lady, if I should chance to be introduced to her. He offers
+to pay all my expenses and to give me something for my loss of time.
+So, as I haven't seen England since I was three years old, I think
+I'll take the chance."
+
+Brother John's face fell. "Then how about the expedition, Allan?" he
+asked.
+
+"This is the first of November," I answered, "and the wet season in
+those parts begins about now and lasts till April. So it would be no
+use trying to visit your Pongo friends till then, which gives me
+plenty of time to go to England and come out again. If you'll trust
+that flower to me I'll take it with me. Perhaps I might be able to
+find someone who would be willing to put down money on the chance of
+getting the plant on which it grew. Meanwhile, you are welcome to this
+house if you care to stay here."
+
+"Thank you, Allan, but I can't sit still for so many months. I'll go
+somewhere and come back." He paused and a dreamy look came into his
+dark eyes, then went on, "You see, Brother, it is laid on me to wander
+and wander through all this great land until--I know."
+
+"Until you know what?" I asked, sharply.
+
+He pulled himself together with a jerk, as it were, and answered with
+a kind of forced carelessness.
+
+"Until I know every inch of it, of course. There are lots of tribes I
+have not yet visited."
+
+"Including the Pongo," I said. "By the way, if I can get the money
+together for a trip up there, I suppose you mean to come too, don't
+you? If not, the thing's off so far as I am concerned. You see, I am
+reckoning on you to get us through the Mazitu and into Pongo-land by
+the help of your friends."
+
+"Certainly I mean to come. In fact, if you don't go, I shall start
+alone. I intend to explore Pongo-land even if I never come out of it
+again."
+
+Once more I looked at him as I answered:
+
+"You are ready to risk a great deal for a flower, John. Or are you
+looking for more than a flower? If so, I hope you will tell me the
+truth."
+
+This I said as I was aware that Brother John had a foolish objection
+to uttering, or even acting lies.
+
+"Well, Allan, as you put it like that, the truth is that I heard
+something more about the Pongo than I told you up country. It was
+after I had operated on that Kalubi, or I would have tried to get in
+alone. But this I could not do then as I have said."
+
+"And what did you hear?"
+
+"I heard that they had a white goddess as well as a white god."
+
+"Well, what of it? A female gorilla, I suppose."
+
+"Nothing, except that goddesses have always interested me. Good
+night."
+
+"You are an odd old fish," I remarked after him, "and what is more you
+have got something up your sleeve. Well, I'll have it down one day.
+Meanwhile, I wonder whether the whole thing is a lie, no; not a lie,
+an hallucination. It can't be--because of that orchid. No one can
+explain away the orchid. A queer people, these Pongo, with their white
+god and goddess and their Holy Flower. But after all Africa is a land
+of queer people, and of queer gods too."
+
+
+
+And now the story shifts away to England. (Don't be afraid, my
+adventurous reader, if ever I have one, it is coming back to Africa
+again in a very few pages.)
+
+Mr. Charles Scroope and I left Durban a day or two after my last
+conversation with Brother John. At Cape Town we caught the mail, a
+wretched little boat you would think it now, which after a long and
+wearisome journey at length landed us safe at Plymouth. Our companions
+on that voyage were very dull. I have forgotten most of them, but one
+lady I do remember. I imagine that she must have commenced life as a
+barmaid, for she had the orthodox tow hair and blowsy appearance. At
+any rate, she was the wife of a wine-merchant who had made a fortune
+at the Cape. Unhappily, however, she had contracted too great a liking
+for her husband's wares, and after dinner was apt to become talkative.
+For some reason or other she took a particular aversion to me. Oh! I
+can see her now, seated in that saloon with the oil lamp swinging over
+her head (she always chose the position under the oil lamp because it
+showed off her diamonds). And I can hear her too. "Don't bring any of
+your elephant-hunting manners here, Mr. Allan" (with an emphasis on
+the Allan) "Quatermain, they are not fit for polite society. You
+should go and brush your hair, Mr. Quatermain." (I may explain that my
+hair sticks up naturally.)
+
+Then would come her little husband's horrified "Hush! hush! you are
+quite insulting, my dear."
+
+Oh! why do I remember it all after so many years when I have even
+forgotten the people's names? One of those little things that stick in
+the mind, I suppose. The Island of Ascension, where we called, sticks
+also with its long swinging rollers breaking in white foam, its bare
+mountain peak capped with green, and the turtles in the ponds. Those
+poor turtles. We brought two of them home, and I used to look at them
+lying on their backs in the forecastle flapping their fins feebly. One
+of them died, and I got the butcher to save me the shell. Afterwards I
+gave it as a wedding present to Mr. and Mrs. Scroope, nicely polished
+and lined. I meant it for a work-basket, and was overwhelmed with
+confusion when some silly lady said at the marriage, and in the
+hearing of the bride and bridegroom, that it was the most beautiful
+cradle she had ever seen. Of course, like a fool, I tried to explain,
+whereon everybody tittered.
+
+But why do I write of such trifles that have nothing to do with my
+story?
+
+I mentioned that I had ventured to send a letter to Miss Margaret
+Manners about Mr. Charles Scroope, in which I said incidentally that
+if the hero should happen to live I should probably bring him home by
+the next mail. Well, we got into Plymouth about eight o'clock in the
+morning, on a mild, November day, and shortly afterwards a tug arrived
+to take off the passengers and mails; also some cargo. I, being an
+early riser, watched it come and saw upon the deck a stout lady
+wrapped in furs, and by her side a very pretty, fair-haired young
+woman clad in a neat serge dress and a pork-pie hat. Presently a
+steward told me that someone wished to speak to me in the saloon. I
+went and found these two standing side by side.
+
+"I believe you are Mr. Allan Quatermain," said the stout lady. "Where
+is Mr. Scroope whom I understand you have brought home? Tell me at
+once."
+
+Something about her appearance and fierce manner of address alarmed me
+so much that I could only answer feebly:
+
+"Below, madam, below."
+
+"There, my dear," said the stout lady to her companion, "I warned you
+to be prepared for the worst. Bear up; do not make a scene before all
+these people. The ways of Providence are just and inscrutable. It is
+your own temper that was to blame. You should never have sent the poor
+man off to these heathen countries."
+
+Then, turning to me, she added sharply: "I suppose he is embalmed; we
+should like to bury him in Essex."
+
+"Embalmed!" I gasped. "Embalmed! Why, the man is in his bath, or was a
+few minutes ago."
+
+In another second that pretty young lady who had been addressed was
+weeping with her head upon my shoulder.
+
+"Margaret!" exclaimed her companion (she was a kind of heavy aunt), "I
+told you not to make a scene in public. Mr. Quatermain, as Mr. Scroope
+is alive, would you ask him to be so good as to come here."
+
+Well, I fetched him, half-shaved, and the rest of the business may be
+imagined. It is a very fine thing to be a hero with a big H.
+Henceforth (thanks to me) that was Charlie Scroope's lot in life. He
+has grandchildren now, and they all think him a hero. What is more, he
+does not contradict them. I went down to the lady's place in Essex, a
+fine property with a beautiful old house. On the night I arrived there
+was a dinner-party of twenty-four people. I had to make a speech about
+Charlie Scroope and the leopard. I think it was a good speech. At any
+rate everybody cheered, including the servants, who had gathered at
+the back of the big hall.
+
+I remember that to complete the story I introduced several other
+leopards, a mother and two three-part-grown cubs, also a wounded
+buffalo, and told how Mr. Scroope finished them off one after the
+other with a hunting knife. The thing was to watch his face as the
+history proceeded. Luckily he was sitting next to me and I could kick
+him under the table. It was all very amusing, and very happy also, for
+these two really loved each other. Thank God that I, or rather Brother
+John, was able to bring them together again.
+
+It was during that stay of mine in Essex, by the way, that I first met
+Lord Ragnall and the beautiful Miss Holmes with whom I was destined to
+experience some very strange adventures in the after years.
+
+
+
+After this interlude I got to work. Someone told me that there was a
+firm in the City that made a business of selling orchids by auction,
+flowers which at this time were beginning to be very fashionable among
+rich horticulturists. This, thought I, would be the place for me to
+show my treasure. Doubtless Messrs. May and Primrose--that was their
+world-famed style--would be able to put me in touch with opulent
+orchidists who would not mind venturing a couple of thousands on the
+chance of receiving a share in a flower that, according to Brother
+John, should be worth untold gold. At any rate, I would try.
+
+So on a certain Friday, about half-past twelve, I sought out the place
+of business of Messrs. May and Primrose, bearing with me the golden
+Cypripedium, which was now enclosed in a flat tin case.
+
+As it happened I chose an unlucky day and hour, for on arriving at the
+office and asking for Mr. May, I was informed that he was away in the
+country valuing.
+
+"Then I would like to see Mr. Primrose," I said.
+
+"Mr. Primrose is round at the Rooms selling," replied the clerk, who
+appeared to be very busy.
+
+"Where are the Rooms?" I asked.
+
+"Out of the door, turn to the left, turn to the left again and under
+the clock," said the clerk, and closed the shutter.
+
+So disgusted was I with his rudeness that I nearly gave up the
+enterprise. Thinking better of it, however, I followed the directions
+given, and in a minute or two found myself in a narrow passage that
+led to a large room. To one who had never seen anything of the sort
+before, this room offered a curious sight. The first thing I observed
+was a notice on the wall to the effect that customers were not allowed
+to smoke pipes. I thought to myself that orchids must be curious
+flowers if they could distinguish between the smoke of a cigar and a
+pipe, and stepped into the room. To my left was a long table covered
+with pots of the most beautiful flowers that I had ever seen; all of
+them orchids. Along the wall and opposite were other tables closely
+packed with withered roots which I concluded were also those of
+orchids. To my inexperienced eye the whole lot did not look worth five
+shillings, for they seemed to be dead.
+
+At the head of the room stood the rostrum, where sat a gentleman with
+an extremely charming face. He was engaged in selling by auction so
+rapidly that the clerk at his side must have had difficulty in keeping
+a record of the lots and their purchasers. In front of him was a
+horseshoe table, round which sat buyers. The end of this table was
+left unoccupied so that the porters might exhibit each lot before it
+was put up for sale. Standing under the rostrum was yet another table,
+a small one, upon which were about twenty pots of flowers, even more
+wonderful than those on the large table. A notice stated that these
+would be sold at one-thirty precisely. All about the room stood knots
+of men (such ladies as were present sat at the table), many of whom
+had lovely orchids in their buttonholes. These, I found out
+afterwards, were dealers and amateurs. They were a kindly-faced set of
+people, and I took a liking to them.
+
+The whole place was quaint and pleasant, especially by contrast with
+the horrible London fog outside. Squeezing my small person into a
+corner where I was in nobody's way, I watched the proceedings for a
+while. Suddenly an agreeable voice at my side asked me if I would like
+a look at the catalogue. I glanced at the speaker, and in a sense fell
+in love with him at once--as I have explained before, I am one of
+those to whom a first impression means a great deal. He was not very
+tall, though strong-looking and well-made enough. He was not very
+handsome, though none so ill-favoured. He was just an ordinary fair
+young Englishman, four or five-and-twenty years of age, with merry
+blue eyes and one of the pleasantest expressions that I ever saw. At
+once I felt that he was a sympathetic soul and full of the milk of
+human kindness. He was dressed in a rough tweed suit rather worn, with
+the orchid that seemed to be the badge of all this tribe in his
+buttonhole. Somehow the costume suited his rather pink and white
+complexion and rumpled fair hair, which I could see as he was sitting
+on his cloth hat.
+
+"Thank you, no," I answered, "I did not come here to buy. I know
+nothing about orchids," I added by way of explanation, "except a few I
+have seen growing in Africa, and this one," and I tapped the tin case
+which I held under my arm.
+
+"Indeed," he said. "I should like to hear about the African orchids.
+What is it you have in the case, a plant or flowers?"
+
+"One flower only. It is not mine. A friend in Africa asked me to--
+well, that is a long story which might not interest you."
+
+"I'm not sure. I suppose it must be a Cymbidium scape from the size."
+
+I shook my head. "That's not the name my friend mentioned. He called
+it a Cypripedium."
+
+The young man began to grow curious. "One Cypripedium in all that
+large case? It must be a big flower."
+
+"Yes, my friend said it is the biggest ever found. It measures twenty-
+four inches across the wings, petals I think he called them, and about
+a foot across the back part."
+
+"Twenty-four inches across the petals and a foot across the dorsal
+sepal!" said the young man in a kind of gasp, "and a Cypripedium! Sir,
+surely you are joking?"
+
+"Sir," I answered indignantly, "I am doing nothing of the sort. Your
+remark is tantamount to telling me that I am speaking a falsehood.
+But, of course, for all I know, the thing may be some other kind of
+flower."
+
+"Let me see it. In the name of the goddess Flora let me see it!"
+
+I began to undo the case. Indeed it was already half-open when two
+other gentlemen, who had either overheard some of our conversation or
+noted my companion's excited look, edged up to us. I observed that
+they also wore orchids in their buttonholes.
+
+"Hullo! Somers," said one of them in a tone of false geniality, "what
+have you got there?"
+
+"What has your friend got there?" asked the other.
+
+"Nothing," replied the young man who had been addressed as Somers,
+"nothing at all; that is--only a case of tropical butterflies."
+
+"Oh! butterflies," said No. 1 and sauntered away. But No. 2, a keen-
+looking person with the eye of a hawk, was not so easily satisfied.
+
+"Let us see these butterflies," he said to me.
+
+"You can't," ejaculated the young man. "My friend is afraid lest the
+damp should injure their colours. Ain't you, Brown?"
+
+"Yes, I am, Somers," I replied, taking his cue and shutting the tin
+case with a snap.
+
+Then the hawk-eyed person departed, also grumbling, for that story
+about the damp stuck in his throat.
+
+"Orchidist!" whispered the young man. "Dreadful people, orchidists, so
+jealous. Very rich, too, both of them. Mr. Brown--I hope that is your
+name, though I admit the chances are against it."
+
+"They are," I replied, "my name is Allan Quatermain."
+
+"Ah! much better than Brown. Well, Mr. Allan Quatermain, there's a
+private room in this place to which I have admittance. Would you mind
+coming with that----" here the hawk-eyed gentleman strolled past
+again, "that case of butterflies?"
+
+"With pleasure," I answered, and followed him out of the auction
+chamber down some steps through the door to the left, and ultimately
+into a little cupboard-like room lined with shelves full of books and
+ledgers.
+
+He closed the door and locked it.
+
+"Now," he said in a tone of the villain in a novel who at last has
+come face to face with the virtuous heroine, "now we are alone. Mr.
+Quatermain, let me see--those butterflies."
+
+I placed the case on a deal table which stood under a skylight in the
+room. I opened it; I removed the cover of wadding, and there, pressed
+between two sheets of glass and quite uninjured after all its
+journeyings, appeared the golden flower, glorious even in death, and
+by its side the broad green leaf.
+
+The young gentleman called Somers looked at it till I thought his eyes
+would really start out of his head. He turned away muttering something
+and looked again.
+
+"Oh! Heavens," he said at last, "oh! Heavens, is it possible that such
+a thing can exist in this imperfect world? You haven't faked it, Mr.
+Half--I mean Quatermain, have you?"
+
+"Sir," I said, "for the second time you are making insinuations. Good
+morning," and I began to shut up the case.
+
+"Don't be offhanded," he exclaimed. "Pity the weaknesses of a poor
+sinner. You don't understand. If only you understood, you would
+understand."
+
+"No," I said, "I am bothered if I do."
+
+"Well, you will when you begin to collect orchids. I'm not mad,
+really, except perhaps on this point, Mr. Quatermain,"--this in a low
+and thrilling voice--"that marvellous Cypripedium--your friend is
+right, it is a Cypripedium--is worth a gold mine."
+
+"From my experience of gold mines I can well believe that," I said
+tartly, and, I may add, prophetically.
+
+"Oh! I mean a gold mine in the figurative and colloquial sense, not as
+the investor knows it," he answered. "That is, the plant on which it
+grew is priceless. Where is the plant, Mr. Quatermain?"
+
+"In a rather indefinite locality in Africa east by south," I replied.
+"I can't place it to within three hundred miles."
+
+"That's vague, Mr. Quatermain. I have no right to ask it, seeing that
+you know nothing of me, but I assure you I am respectable, and in
+short, would you mind telling me the story of this flower?"
+
+"I don't think I should," I replied, a little doubtfully. Then, after
+another good look at him, suppressing all names and exact localities,
+I gave him the outline of the tale, explaining that I wanted to find
+someone who would finance an expedition to the remote and romantic
+spot where this particular Cypripedium was believed to grow.
+
+Just as I finished my narrative, and before he had time to comment on
+it, there came a violent knocking at the door.
+
+"Mr. Stephen," said a voice, "are you there, Mr. Stephen?"
+
+"By Jove! that's Briggs," exclaimed the young man. "Briggs is my
+father's manager. Shut up the case, Mr. Quatermain. Come in, Briggs,"
+he went on, unlocking the door slowly. "What is it?"
+
+"It is a good deal," replied a thin and agitated person who thrust
+himself through the opening door. "Your father, I mean Sir Alexander,
+has come to the office unexpectedly and is in a nice taking because he
+didn't find you there, sir. When he discovered that you had gone to
+the orchid sale he grew furious, sir, furious, and sent me to fetch
+you."
+
+"Did he?" replied Mr. Somers in an easy and unruffled tone. "Well,
+tell Sir Alexander I am coming at once. Now please go, Briggs, and
+tell him I am coming at once."
+
+Briggs departed not too willingly.
+
+"I must leave you, Mr. Quatermain," said Mr. Somers as he shut the
+door behind him. "But will you promise me not to show that flower to
+anyone until I return? I'll be back within half an hour."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Somers. I'll wait half an hour for you in the sale room, and
+I promise that no one shall see that flower till you return."
+
+"Thank you. You are a good fellow, and I promise you shall lose
+nothing by your kindness if I can help it."
+
+We went together into the sale room, where some thought suddenly
+struck Mr. Somers.
+
+"By Jove!" he said, "I nearly forgot about that Odontoglossum. Where's
+Woodden? Oh! come here, Woodden, I want to speak to you."
+
+The person called Woodden obeyed. He was a man of about fifty,
+indefinite in colouring, for his eyes were very light-blue or grey and
+his hair was sandy, tough-looking and strongly made, with big hands
+that showed signs of work, for the palms were horny and the nails worn
+down. He was clad in a suit of shiny black, such as folk of the
+labouring class wear at a funeral. I made up my mind at once that he
+was a gardener.
+
+"Woodden," said Mr. Somers, "this gentleman here has got the most
+wonderful orchid in the whole world. Keep your eye on him and see that
+he isn't robbed. There are people in this room, Mr. Quatermain, who
+would murder you and throw your body into the Thames for that flower,"
+he added, darkly.
+
+On receipt of this information Woodden rocked a little on his feet as
+though he felt the premonitory movements of an earthquake. It was a
+habit of his whenever anything astonished him. Then, fixing his pale
+eye upon me in a way which showed that my appearance surprised him, he
+pulled a lock of his sandy hair with his thumb and finger and said:
+
+"'Servant, sir, and where might this horchid be?"
+
+I pointed to the tin case.
+
+"Yes, it's there," went on Mr. Somers, "and that's what you've got to
+watch. Mr. Quatermain, if anyone attempts to rob you, call for Woodden
+and he will knock them down. He's my gardener, you know, and entirely
+to be trusted, especially if it is a matter of knocking anyone down."
+
+"Aye, I'll knock him down surely," said Woodden, doubling his great
+fist and looking round him with a suspicious eye.
+
+"Now listen, Woodden. Have you looked at that Odontoglossum Pavo, and
+if so, what do you think of it?" and he nodded towards a plant which
+stood in the centre of the little group that was placed on the small
+table beneath the auctioneer's desk. It bore a spray of the most
+lovely white flowers. On the top petal (if it is a petal), and also on
+the lip of each of these rounded flowers was a blotch or spot of which
+the general effect was similar to the iridescent eye on the tail
+feathers of a peacock, whence, I suppose, the flower was named "Pavo,"
+or Peacock.
+
+"Yes, master, and I think it the beautifullest thing that ever I saw.
+There isn't a 'glossum in England like that there 'glossum Paving," he
+added with conviction, and rocked again as he said the word. "But
+there's plenty after it. I say they're a-smelling round that blossom
+like, like--dawgs round a rat hole. And" (this triumphantly) "they
+don't do that for nothing."
+
+"Quite so, Woodden, you have got a logical mind. But, look here, we
+must have that 'Pavo' whatever it costs. Now the Governor has sent for
+me. I'll be back presently, but I might be detained. If so, you've got
+to bid on my behalf, for I daren't trust any of these agents. Here's
+your authority," and he scribbled on a card, "Woodden, my gardener,
+has directions to bid for me.--S.S." "Now, Woodden," he went on, when
+he had given the card to an attendant who passed it up to the
+auctioneer, "don't you make a fool of yourself and let that 'Pavo'
+slip through your fingers."
+
+In another instant he was gone.
+
+"What did the master say, sir?" asked Woodden of me. "That I was to
+get that there 'Paving' whatever it cost?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "that's what he said. I suppose it will fetch a good
+deal--several pounds."
+
+"Maybe, sir, can't tell. All I know is that I've got to buy it as you
+can bear me witness. Master, he ain't one to be crossed for money.
+What he wants, he'll have, that is if it be in the orchid line."
+
+"I suppose you are fond of orchids, too, Mr. Woodden?"
+
+"Fond of them, sir? Why, I loves 'em!" (Here he rocked.) "Don't feel
+for nothing else in the same way; not even for my old woman" (then
+with a burst of enthusiasm) "no, not even for the master himself, and
+I'm fond enough of him, God knows! But, begging your pardon, sir"
+(with a pull at his forelock), "would you mind holding that tin of
+yours a little tighter? I've got to keep an eye on that as well as on
+'O. Paving,' and I just see'd that chap with the tall hat alooking at
+it suspicious."
+
+After this we separated. I retired into my corner, while Woodden took
+his stand by the table, with one eye fixed on what he called the "O.
+Paving" and the other on me and my tin case.
+
+An odd fish truly, I thought to myself. Positive, the old woman;
+Comparative, his master; Superlative, the orchid tribe. Those were his
+degrees of affection. Honest and brave and a good fellow though, I
+bet.
+
+The sale languished. There were so many lots of one particular sort of
+dried orchid that buyers could not be found for them at a reasonable
+price, and many had to be bought in. At length the genial Mr. Primrose
+in the rostrum addressed the audience.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I quite understand that you didn't come here
+to-day to buy a rather poor lot of Cattleya Mossię. You came to buy,
+or to bid for, or to see sold the most wonderful Odontoglossum that
+has ever been flowered in this country, the property of a famous firm
+of importers whom I congratulate upon their good fortune in having
+obtained such a gem. Gentlemen, this miraculous flower ought to adorn
+a royal greenhouse. But there it is, to be taken away by whoever will
+pay the most for it, for I am directed to see that it will be sold
+without reserve. Now, I think," he added, running his eye over the
+company, "that most of our great collectors are represented in this
+room to-day. It is true that I do not see that spirited and liberal
+young orchidist, Mr. Somers, but he has left his worthy head-gardener,
+Mr. Woodden, than whom there is no finer judge of an orchid in
+England" (here Woodden rocked violently) "to bid for him, as I hope,
+for the glorious flower of which I have been speaking. Now, as it is
+exactly half-past one, we will proceed to business. Smith, hand the
+'Odontoglossum Pavo' round, that everyone may inspect its beauties,
+and be careful you don't let it fall. Gentlemen, I must ask you not to
+touch it or to defile its purity with tobacco smoke. Eight perfect
+flowers in bloom, gentlemen, and four--no, five more to open. A strong
+plant in perfect health, six pseudo-bulbs with leaves, and three
+without. Two black leads which I am advised can be separated off at
+the proper time. Now, what bids for the 'Odontoglossum Pavo.' Ah! I
+wonder who will have the honour of becoming the owner of this perfect,
+this unmatched production of Nature. Thank you, sir--three hundred.
+Four. Five. Six. Seven in three places. Eight. Nine. Ten. Oh!
+gentlemen, let us get on a little faster. Thank you, sir--fifteen.
+Sixteen. It is against you, Mr Woodden. Ah! thank you, seventeen."
+
+There came a pause in the fierce race for "O. Pavo," which I occupied
+in reducing seventeen hundred shillings to pounds sterling.
+
+My word! I thought to myself, £85 is a goodish price to pay for one
+plant, however rare. Woodden is acting up to his instructions with a
+vengeance.
+
+The pleading voice of Mr. Primrose broke in upon my meditations.
+
+"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" he said, "surely you are not going to allow
+the most wondrous production of the floral world, on which I repeat
+there is no reserve, to be knocked down at this miserable figure.
+Come, come. Well, if I must, I must, though after such a disgrace I
+shall get no sleep to-night. One," and his hammer fell for the first
+time. "Think, gentlemen, upon my position, think what the eminent
+owners, who with their usual delicacy have stayed away, will say to me
+when I am obliged to tell them the disgraceful truth. Two," and his
+hammer fell a second time. "Smith, hold up that flower. Let the
+company see it. Let them know what they are losing."
+
+Smith held up the flower at which everybody glared. The little ivory
+hammer circled round Mr. Primrose's head. It was about to fall, when a
+quiet man with a long beard who hitherto had not joined in the
+bidding, lifted his head and said softly:
+
+"Eighteen hundred."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Mr. Primrose, "I thought so. I thought that the owner
+of the greatest collection in England would not see this treasure slip
+from his grasp without a struggle. Against you, Mr. Woodden."
+
+"Nineteen, sir," said Woodden in a stony voice.
+
+"Two thousand," echoed the gentleman with the long beard.
+
+"Twenty-one hundred," said Woodden.
+
+"That's right, Mr. Woodden," cried Mr. Primrose, "you are indeed
+representing your principal worthily. I feel sure that you do not mean
+to stop for a few miserable pounds."
+
+"Not if I knows it," ejaculated Woodden. "I has my orders and I acts
+up to them."
+
+"Twenty-two hundred," said Long-beard.
+
+"Twenty-three," echoed Woodden.
+
+"Oh, damn!" shouted Long-beard and rushed from the room.
+
+"'Odontoglossum Pavo' is going for twenty-three hundred, only twenty-
+tree hundred," cried the auctioneer. "Any advance on twenty-three
+hundred? What? None? Then I must do my duty. One. Two. For the last
+time--no advance? Three. Gone to Mr. Woodden, bidding for his
+principal, Mr. Somers."
+
+The hammer fell with a sharp tap, and at this moment my young friend
+sauntered into the room.
+
+"Well, Woodden," he said, "have they put the 'Pavo' up yet?"
+
+"It's up and it's down, sir. I've bought him right enough."
+
+"The deuce you have! What did it fetch?"
+
+Woodden scratched his head.
+
+"I don't rightly know, sir, never was good at figures, not having much
+book learning, but it's twenty-three something."
+
+"£23? No, it would have brought more than that. By Jingo! it must be
+£230. That's pretty stiff, but still, it may be worth it."
+
+At this moment Mr. Primrose, who, leaning over his desk, was engaged
+in animated conversation with an excited knot of orchid fanciers,
+looked up:
+
+"Oh! there you are, Mr. Somers," he said. "In the name of all this
+company let me congratulate you on having become the owner of the
+matchless 'Odontoglossum Pavo' for what, under all the circumstances,
+I consider the quite moderate price of £2,300."
+
+Really that young man took it very well. He shivered slightly and
+turned a little pale, that is all. Woodden rocked to and fro like a
+tree about to fall. I and my tin box collapsed together in the corner.
+Yes, I was so surprised that my legs seemed to give way under me.
+People began to talk, but above the hum of the conversation I heard
+young Somers say in a low voice:
+
+"Woodden, you're a born fool." Also the answer: "That's what my mother
+always told me, master, and she ought to know if anyone did. But
+what's wrong now? I obeyed orders and bought 'O. Paving.'"
+
+"Yes. Don't bother, my good fellow, it's my fault, not yours. I'm the
+born fool. But heavens above! how am I to face this?" Then, recovering
+himself, he strolled up to the rostrum and said a few words to the
+auctioneer. Mr. Primrose nodded, and I heard him answer:
+
+"Oh, that will be all right, sir, don't bother. We can't expect an
+account like this to be settled in a minute. A month hence will do."
+
+Then he went on with the sale.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III
+
+                      SIR ALEXANDER AND STEPHEN
+
+It was just at this moment that I saw standing by me a fine-looking,
+stout man with a square, grey beard and a handsome, but not very good-
+tempered face. He was looking about him as one does who finds himself
+in a place to which he is not accustomed.
+
+"Perhaps you could tell me, sir," he said to me, "whether a gentleman
+called Mr. Somers is in this room. I am rather short-sighted and there
+are a great many people."
+
+"Yes," I answered, "he has just bought the wonderful orchid called
+'Odontoglossum Pavo.' That is what they are all talking about."
+
+"Oh, has he? Has he indeed? And pray what did he pay for the article?"
+
+"A huge sum," I answered. "I thought it was two thousand three hundred
+shillings, but it appears it was £2,300."
+
+The handsome, elderly gentleman grew very red in the face, so red that
+I thought he was going to have a fit. For a few moments he breathed
+heavily.
+
+"A rival collector," I thought to myself, and went on with the story
+which, it occurred to me, might interest him.
+
+"You see, the young gentleman was called away to an interview with his
+father. I heard him instruct his gardener, a man named Woodden, to buy
+the plant at any price."
+
+"At any price! Indeed. Very interesting; continue, sir."
+
+"Well, the gardener bought it, that's all, after tremendous
+competition. Look, there he is packing it up. Whether his master meant
+him to go as far as he did I rather doubt. But here he comes. If you
+know him----"
+
+The youthful Mr. Somers, looking a little pale and /distrait/,
+strolled up apparently to speak to me; his hands were in his pockets
+and an unlighted cigar was in his mouth. His eyes fell upon the
+elderly gentleman, a sight that caused him to shape his lips as though
+to whistle and drop the cigar.
+
+"Hullo, father," he said in his pleasant voice. "I got your message
+and have been looking for you, but never thought that I should find
+you here. Orchids aren't much in your line, are they?"
+
+"Didn't you, indeed!" replied his parent in a choked voice. "No, I
+haven't much use for--this stinking rubbish," and he waved his
+umbrella at the beautiful flowers. "But it seems that you have,
+Stephen. This little gentlemen here tells me you have just bought a
+very fine specimen."
+
+"I must apologize," I broke in, addressing Mr. Somers. "I had not the
+slightest idea that this--big gentleman," here the son smiled faintly,
+"was your intimate relation."
+
+"Oh! pray don't, Mr. Quatermain. Why should you not speak of what will
+be in all the papers. Yes, father, I have bought a very fine specimen,
+the finest known, or at least Woodden has on my behalf, while I was
+hunting for you, which comes to the same thing."
+
+"Indeed, Stephen, and what did you pay for this flower? I have heard a
+figure, but think that there must be some mistake."
+
+"I don't know what you heard, father, but it seems to have been
+knocked down to me at £2,300. It's a lot more than I can find, indeed,
+and I was going to ask you to lend me the money for the sake of the
+family credit, if not for my own. But we can talk about that
+afterwards."
+
+"Yes, Stephen, we can talk of that afterwards. In fact, as there is no
+time like the present, we will talk of it now. Come to my office. And,
+sir" (this was to me) "as you seem to know something of the
+circumstances, I will ask you to come also; and you too, Blockhead"
+(this was to Woodden, who just then approached with the plant).
+
+Now, of course, I might have refused an invitation conveyed in such a
+manner. But, as a matter of fact, I didn't. I wanted to see the thing
+out; also to put in a word for young Somers, if I got the chance. So
+we all departed from that room, followed by a titter of amusement from
+those of the company who had overheard the conversation. In the street
+stood a splendid carriage and pair; a powdered footman opened its
+door. With a ferocious bow Sir Alexander motioned to me to enter,
+which I did, taking one of the back seats as it gave more room for my
+tin case. Then came Mr. Stephen, then Woodden bundled in holding the
+precious plant in front of him like a wand of office, and last of all,
+Sir Alexander, having seen us safe, entered also.
+
+"Where to, sir?" asked the footman.
+
+"Office," he snapped, and we started.
+
+Four disappointed relatives in a funeral coach could not have been
+more silent. Our feelings seemed to be too deep for words. Sir
+Alexander, however, did make one remark and to me. It was:
+
+"If you will remove the corner of that infernal tin box of yours from
+my ribs I shall be obliged to you, sir."
+
+"Your pardon," I exclaimed, and in my efforts to be accommodating,
+dropped it on his toe. I will not repeat the remark he made, but I may
+explain that he was gouty. His son suddenly became afflicted with a
+sense of the absurdity of the situation. He kicked me on the shin, he
+even dared to wink, and then began to swell visibly with suppressed
+laughter. I was in agony, for if he had exploded I do not know what
+would have happened. Fortunately, at this moment the carriage stopped
+at the door of a fine office. Without waiting for the footman Mr.
+Stephen bundled out and vanished into the building--I suppose to laugh
+in safety. Then I descended with the tin case; then, by command,
+followed Woodden with the flower, and lastly came Sir Alexander.
+
+"Stop here," he said to the coachman; "I shan't be long. Be so good as
+to follow me, Mr. What's-your-name, and you, too, Gardener."
+
+We followed, and found ourselves in a big room luxuriously furnished
+in a heavy kind of way. Sir Alexander Somers, I should explain, was an
+enormously opulent bullion-broker, whatever a bullion-broker may be.
+In this room Mr. Stephen was already established; indeed, he was
+seated on the window-sill swinging his leg.
+
+"Now we are alone and comfortable," growled Sir Alexander with
+sarcastic ferocity.
+
+"As the boa-constrictor said to the rabbit in the cage," I remarked.
+
+I did not mean to say it, but I had grown nervous, and the thought
+leapt from my lips in words. Again Mr. Stephen began to swell. He
+turned his face to the window as though to contemplate the wall
+beyond, but I could see his shoulders shaking. A dim light of
+intelligence shone in Woodden's pale eyes. About three minutes later
+the joke got home. He gurgled something about boa-constrictors and
+rabbits and gave a short, loud laugh. As for Sir Alexander, he merely
+said:
+
+"I did not catch your remark, sir, would you be so good as to repeat
+it?"
+
+As I appeared unwilling to accept the invitation, he went on:
+
+"Perhaps, then, you would repeat what you told me in that sale-room?"
+
+"Why should I?" I asked. "I spoke quite clearly and you seemed to
+understand."
+
+"You are right," replied Sir Alexander; "to waste time is useless." He
+wheeled round on Woodden, who was standing near the door still holding
+the paper-wrapped plant in front of him. "Now, Blockhead," he shouted,
+"tell me why you brought that thing."
+
+Woodden made no answer, only rocked a little. Sir Alexander reiterated
+his command. This time Woodden set the plant upon a table and replied:
+
+"If you're aspeaking to me, sir, that baint my name, and what's more,
+if you calls me so again, I'll punch your head, whoever you be," and
+very deliberately he rolled up the sleeves on his brawny arms, a sight
+at which I too began to swell with inward merriment.
+
+"Look here, father," said Mr. Stephen, stepping forward. "What's the
+use of all this? The thing's perfectly plain. I did tell Woodden to
+buy the plant at any price. What is more I gave him a written
+authority which was passed up to the auctioneer. There's no getting
+out of it. It is true it never occurred to me that it would go for
+anything like £2,300--the odd £300 was more my idea, but Woodden only
+obeyed his orders, and ought not to be abused for doing so."
+
+"There's what I call a master worth serving," remarked Woodden.
+
+"Very well, young man," said Sir Alexander, "you have purchased this
+article. Will you be so good as to tell me how you propose it should
+be paid for."
+
+"I propose, father, that you should pay for it," replied Mr. Stephen
+sweetly. "Two thousand three hundred pounds, or ten times that amount,
+would not make you appreciably poorer. But if, as is probable, you
+take a different view, then I propose to pay for it myself. As you
+know a certain sum of money came to me under my mother's will in which
+you have only a life interest. I shall raise the amount upon that
+security--or otherwise."
+
+If Sir Alexander had been angry before, now he became like a mad bull
+in a china shop. He pranced round the room; he used language that
+should not pass the lips of any respectable merchant of bullion; in
+short, he did everything that a person in his position ought not to
+do. When he was tired he rushed to a desk, tore a cheque from a book
+and filled it in for a sum of £2,300 to bearer, which cheque he
+blotted, crumpled up and literally threw at the head of his son.
+
+"You worthless, idle young scoundrel," he bellowed. "I put you in this
+office here that you may learn respectable and orderly habits and in
+due course succeed to a very comfortable business. What happens? You
+don't take a ha'porth of interest in bullion-broking, a subject of
+which I believe you to remain profoundly ignorant. You don't even
+spend your money, or rather my money, upon any gentleman-like vice,
+such as horse-racing, or cards, or even--well, never mind. No, you
+take to flowers, miserable, beastly flowers, things that a cow eats
+and clerks grow in back gardens."
+
+"An ancient and Arcadian taste. Adam is supposed to have lived in a
+garden," I ventured to interpolate.
+
+"Perhaps you would ask your friend with the stubbly hair to remain
+quiet," snorted Sir Alexander. "I was about to add, although for the
+sake of my name I meet your debts, that I have had enough of this kind
+of thing. I disinherit you, or will do if I live till 4 p.m. when the
+lawyer's office shuts, for thank God! there are no entailed estates,
+and I dismiss you from the firm. You can go and earn your living in
+any way you please, by orchid-hunting if you like." He paused, gasping
+for breath.
+
+"Is that all, father?" asked Mr. Stephen, producing a cigar from his
+pocket.
+
+"No, it isn't, you cold-blooded young beggar. That house you occupy at
+Twickenham is mine. You will be good enough to clear out of it; I wish
+to take possession."
+
+"I suppose, father, I am entitled to a week's notice like any other
+tenant," said Mr. Stephen, lighting the cigar. "In fact," he added,
+"if you answer no, I think I shall ask you to apply for an ejection
+order. You will understand that I have arrangements to make before
+taking a fresh start in life."
+
+"Oh! curse your cheek, you--you--cucumber!" raged the infuriated
+merchant prince. Then an inspiration came to him. "You think more of
+an ugly flower than of your father, do you? Well, at least I'll put an
+end to that," and he made a dash at the plant on the table with the
+evident intention of destroying the same.
+
+But the watching Woodden saw. With a kind of lurch he interposed his
+big frame between Sir Alexander and the object of his wrath.
+
+"Touch 'O. Paving' and I knocks yer down," he drawled out.
+
+Sir Alexander looked at "O. Paving," then he looked at Woodden's leg-
+of-mutton fist, and--changed his mind.
+
+"Curse 'O. Paving,'" he said, "and everyone who has to do with it,"
+and swung out of the room, banging the door behind him.
+
+"Well, that's over," said Mr. Stephen gently, as he fanned himself
+with a pocket-handkerchief. "Quite exciting while it lasted, wasn't
+it, Mr. Quatermain--but I have been there before, so to speak. And now
+what do you say to some luncheon? Pym's is close by, and they have
+very good oysters. Only I think we'll drive round by the bank and hand
+in this cheque. When he's angry my parent is capable of anything. He
+might even stop it. Woodden, get off down to Twickenham with 'O.
+Pavo.' Keep it warm, for it feels rather like frost. Put it in the
+stove for to-night and give it a little, just a little tepid water,
+but be careful not to touch the flower. Take a four-wheeled cab, it's
+slow but safe, and mind you keep the windows up and don't smoke. I
+shall be home for dinner."
+
+Woodden pulled his forelock, seized the pot in his left hand, and
+departed with his right fist raised--I suppose in case Sir Alexander
+should be waiting for him round the corner.
+
+Then we departed also and, after stopping for a minute at the bank to
+pay in the cheque, which I noted, notwithstanding its amount, was
+accepted without comment, ate oysters in a place too crowded to allow
+of conversation.
+
+"Mr. Quatermain," said my host, "it is obvious that we cannot talk
+here, and much less look at that orchid of yours, which I want to
+study at leisure. Now, for a week or so at any rate I have a roof over
+my head, and in short, will you be my guest for a night or two? I know
+nothing about you, and of me you only know that I am the disinherited
+son of a father, to whom I have failed to give satisfaction. Still it
+is possible that we might pass a few pleasant hours together talking
+of flowers and other things; that is, if you have no previous
+engagement."
+
+"I have none," I answered. "I am only a stranger from South Africa
+lodging at an hotel. If you will give me time to call for my bag, I
+will pass the night at your house with pleasure."
+
+By the aid of Mr. Somers' smart dog-cart, which was waiting at a city
+mews, we reached Twickenham while there was still half an hour of
+daylight. The house, which was called Verbena Lodge, was small, a
+square, red-brick building of the early Georgian period, but the
+gardens covered quite an acre of ground and were very beautiful, or
+must have been so in summer. Into the greenhouse we did not enter,
+because it was too late to see the flowers. Also, just when we came to
+them, Woodden arrived in his four-wheeled cab and departed with his
+master to see to the housing of "O. Pavo."
+
+Then came dinner, a very pleasant meal. My host had that day been
+turned out upon the world, but he did not allow this circumstance to
+interfere with his spirits in the least. Also he was evidently
+determined to enjoy its good things while they lasted, for his
+champagne and port were excellent.
+
+"You see, Mr. Quatermain," he said, "it's just as well we had the row
+which has been boiling up for a long while. My respected father has
+made so much money that he thinks I should go and do likewise. Now I
+don't see it. I like flowers, especially orchids, and I hate bullion-
+broking. To me the only decent places in London are that sale-room
+where we met and the Horticultural Gardens."
+
+"Yes," I answered rather doubtfully, "but the matter seems a little
+serious. Your parent was very emphatic as to his intentions, and after
+this kind of thing," and I pointed to the beautiful silver and the
+port, "how will you like roughing it in a hard world?"
+
+"Don't think I shall mind a bit; it would be rather a pleasant change.
+Also, even if my father doesn't alter his mind, as he may, for he
+likes me at bottom because I resemble my dear mother, things ain't so
+very bad. I have got some money that she left me, £6,000 or £7,000,
+and I'll sell that 'Odontoglossum Pavo' for what it will fetch to Sir
+Joshua Tredgold--he was the man with the long beard who you tell me
+ran up Woodden to over £2,000--or failing him to someone else. I'll
+write about it to-night. I don't think I have any debts to speak of,
+for the Governor has been allowing me £3,000 a year, at least that is
+my share of the profits paid to me in return for my bullion-broking
+labours, and except flowers, I have no expensive tastes. So the devil
+take the past, here's to the future and whatever it may bring," and he
+polished off the glass of port he held and laughed in his jolly
+fashion.
+
+Really he was a most attractive young man, a little reckless, it is
+true, but then recklessness and youth mix well, like brandy and soda.
+
+I echoed the toast and drank off my port, for I like a good glass of
+wine when I can get it, as would anyone who has had to live for months
+on rotten water, although I admit that agrees with me better than the
+port.
+
+"Now, Mr. Quatermain," he went on, "if you have done, light your pipe
+and let's go into the other room and study that Cypripedium of yours.
+I shan't sleep to-night unless I see it again first. Stop a bit,
+though, we'll get hold of that old ass, Woodden, before he turns in."
+
+"Woodden," said his master, when the gardener had arrived, "this
+gentleman, Mr. Quatermain, is going to show you an orchid that is ten
+times finer than 'O. Pavo!'"
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," answered Woodden, "but if Mr. Quatermain says that,
+he lies. It ain't in Nature; it don't bloom nowhere."
+
+I opened the case and revealed the golden Cypripedium. Woodden stared
+at it and rocked. Then he stared again and felt his head as though to
+make sure it was on his shoulders. Then he gasped.
+
+"Well, if that there flower baint made up, it's a MASTER ONE! If I
+could see that there flower ablowing on the plant I'd die happy."
+
+"Woodden, stop talking, and sit down," exclaimed his master. "Yes,
+there, where you can look at the flower. Now, Mr. Quatermain, will you
+tell us the story of that orchid from beginning to end. Of course
+omitting its habitat if you like, for it isn't fair to ask that
+secret. Woodden can be trusted to hold his tongue, and so can I."
+
+I remarked that I was sure they could, and for the next half-hour
+talked almost without interruption, keeping nothing back and
+explaining that I was anxious to find someone who would finance an
+expedition to search for this particular plant; as I believed, the
+only one of its sort that existed in the world.
+
+"How much will it cost?" asked Mr. Somers.
+
+"I lay it at £2,000," I answered. "You see, we must have plenty of men
+and guns and stores, also trade goods and presents."
+
+"I call that cheap. But supposing, Mr. Quatermain, that the expedition
+proves successful and the plant is secured, what then?"
+
+"Then I propose that Brother John, who found it and of whom I have
+told you, should take one-third of whatever it might sell for, that I
+as captain of the expedition should take one-third, and that whoever
+finds the necessary money should take the remaining third."
+
+"Good! That's settled."
+
+"What's settled?" I asked.
+
+"Why, that we should divide in the proportions you named, only I
+bargain to be allowed to take my whack in kind--I mean in plant, and
+to have the first option of purchasing the rest of the plant at
+whatever value may be agreed upon."
+
+"But, Mr. Somers, do you mean that you wish to find £2,000 and make
+this expedition in person?"
+
+"Of course I do. I thought you understood that. That is, if you will
+have me. Your old friend, the lunatic, you and I will together seek
+for and find this golden flower. I say that's settled."
+
+On the morrow accordingly, it was settled with the help of a document,
+signed in duplicate by both of us.
+
+Before these arrangements were finally concluded, however, I insisted
+that Mr. Somers should meet my late companion, Charlie Scroope, when I
+was not present, in order that the latter might give him a full and
+particular report concerning myself. Apparently the interview was
+satisfactory, at least so I judged from the very cordial and even
+respectful manner in which young Somers met me after it was over. Also
+I thought it my duty to explain to him with much clearness in the
+presence of Scroope as a witness, the great dangers of such an
+enterprise as that on which he proposed to embark. I told him straight
+out that he must be prepared to find his death in it from starvation,
+fever, wild beasts or at the hands of savages, while success was quite
+problematical and very likely would not be attained.
+
+"/You/ are taking these risks," he said.
+
+"Yes," I answered, "but they are incident to the rough trade I follow,
+which is that of a hunter and explorer. Moreover, my youth is past,
+and I have gone through experiences and bereavements of which you know
+nothing, that cause me to set a very slight value on life. I care
+little whether I die or continue in the world for some few added
+years. Lastly, the excitement of adventure has become a kind of
+necessity for me. I do not think that I could live in England for very
+long. Also I'm a fatalist. I believe that when my time comes I must
+go, that this hour is foreordained and that nothing I can do will
+either hasten or postpone it by one moment. Your circumstances are
+different. You are quite young. If you stay here and approach your
+father in a proper spirit, I have no doubt but that he will forget all
+the rough words he said to you the other day, for which indeed you
+know you gave him some provocation. Is it worth while throwing up such
+prospects and undertaking such dangers for the chance of finding a
+rare flower? I say this to my own disadvantage, since I might find it
+hard to discover anyone else who would risk £2,000 upon such a
+venture, but I do urge you to weigh my words."
+
+Young Somers looked at me for a little while, then he broke into one
+of his hearty laughs and exclaimed, "Whatever else you may be, Mr.
+Allan Quatermain, you are a gentleman. No bullion-broker in the City
+could have put the matter more fairly in the teeth of his own
+interests."
+
+"Thank you," I said.
+
+"For the rest," he went on, "I too am tired of England and want to see
+the world. It isn't the golden Cypripedium that I seek, although I
+should like to win it well enough. That's only a symbol. What I seek
+are adventure and romance. Also, like you I am a fatalist. God chose
+His own time to send us here, and I presume that He will choose His
+own time to take us away again. So I leave the matter of risks to
+Him."
+
+"Yes, Mr. Somers," I replied rather solemnly. "You may find adventure
+and romance, there are plenty of both in Africa. Or you may find a
+nameless grave in some fever-haunted swamp. Well, you have chosen, and
+I like your spirit."
+
+Still I was so little satisfied about this business, that a week or so
+before we sailed, after much consideration, I took it upon myself to
+write a letter to Sir Alexander Somers, in which I set forth the whole
+matter as clearly as I could, not blinking the dangerous nature of our
+undertaking. In conclusion, I asked him whether he thought it wise to
+allow his only son to accompany such an expedition, mainly because of
+a not very serious quarrel with himself.
+
+As no answer came to this letter I went on with our preparations.
+There was money in plenty, since the re-sale of "O. Pavo" to Sir
+Joshua Tredgold, at some loss, had been satisfactorily carried out,
+which enabled me to invest in all things needful with a cheerful
+heart. Never before had I been provided with such an outfit as that
+which preceded us to the ship.
+
+At length the day of departure came. We stood on the platform at
+Paddington waiting for the Dartmouth train to start, for in those days
+the African mail sailed from that port. A minute or two before the
+train left, as we were preparing to enter our carriage I caught sight
+of a face that I seemed to recognise, the owner of which was evidently
+searching for someone in the crowd. It was that of Briggs, Sir
+Alexander's clerk, whom I had met in the sale-room.
+
+"Mr. Briggs," I said as he passed me, "are you looking for Mr. Somers?
+If so, he is in here."
+
+The clerk jumped into the compartment and handed a letter to Mr.
+Somers. Then he emerged again and waited. Somers read the letter and
+tore off a blank sheet from the end of it, on which he hastily wrote
+some words. He passed it to me to give to Briggs, and I could not help
+seeing what was written. It was: "Too late now. God bless you, my dear
+father. I hope we may meet again. If not, try to think kindly of your
+troublesome and foolish son, Stephen."
+
+In another minute the train had started.
+
+"By the way," he said, as we steamed out of the station, "I have heard
+from my father, who enclosed this for you."
+
+I opened the envelope, which was addressed in a bold, round hand that
+seemed to me typical of the writer, and read as follows:
+
+
+ "My Dear Sir,--I appreciate the motives which caused you to write
+  to me and I thank you very heartily for your letter, which shows
+  me that you are a man of discretion and strict honour. As you
+  surmise, the expedition on which my son has entered is not one
+  that commends itself to me as prudent. Of the differences between
+  him and myself you are aware, for they came to a climax in your
+  presence. Indeed, I feel that I owe you an apology for having
+  dragged you into an unpleasant family quarrel. Your letter only
+  reached me to-day having been forwarded to my place in the country
+  from my office. I should have at once come to town, but
+  unfortunately I am laid up with an attack of gout which makes it
+  impossible for me to stir. Therefore, the only thing I can do is
+  to write to my son hoping that the letter which I send by a
+  special messenger will reach him in time and avail to alter his
+  determination to undertake this journey. Here I may add that
+  although I have differed and do differ from him on various points,
+  I still have a deep affection for my son and earnestly desire his
+  welfare. The prospect of any harm coming to him is one upon which
+  I cannot bear to dwell.
+
+ "Now I am aware that any change of his plans at this eleventh hour
+  would involve you in serious loss and inconvenience. I beg to
+  inform you formally, therefore, that in this event I will make
+  good everything and will in addition write off the £2,000 which I
+  understand he has invested in your joint venture. It may be,
+  however, that my son, who has in him a vein of my own obstinacy,
+  will refuse to change his mind. In that event, under a Higher
+  Power I can only commend him to your care and beg that you will
+  look after him as though he were your own child. I can ask and you
+  can do no more. Tell him to write me as opportunity offers, as
+  perhaps you will too; also that, although I hate the sight of
+  them, I will look after the flowers which he has left at the house
+  at Twickenham.--
+
+                        "Your obliged servant, ALEXANDER SOMERS."
+
+
+This letter touched me much, and indeed made me feel very
+uncomfortable. Without a word I handed it to my companion, who read it
+through carefully.
+
+"Nice of him about the orchids," he said. "My dad has a good heart,
+although he lets his temper get the better of him, having had his own
+way all his life."
+
+"Well, what will you do?" I asked.
+
+"Go on, of course. I've put my hand to the plough and I am not going
+to turn back. I should be a cur if I did, and what's more, whatever he
+might say he'd think none the better of me. So please don't try to
+persuade me, it would be no good."
+
+For quite a while afterwards young Somers seemed to be comparatively
+depressed, a state of mind that in his case was rare indeed. At last,
+he studied the wintry landscape through the carriage window and said
+nothing. By degrees, however, he recovered, and when we reached
+Dartmouth was as cheerful as ever, a mood that I could not altogether
+share.
+
+Before we sailed I wrote to Sir Alexander telling him exactly how
+things stood, and so I think did his son, though he never showed me
+the letter.
+
+At Durban, just as we were about to start up country, I received an
+answer from him, sent by some boat that followed us very closely. In
+it he said that he quite understood the position, and whatever
+happened would attribute no blame to me, whom he should always regard
+with friendly feelings. He told me that, in the event of any
+difficulty or want of money, I was to draw on him for whatever might
+be required, and that he had advised the African Bank to that effect.
+Further, he added, that at least his son had shown grit in this
+matter, for which he respected him.
+
+And now for a long while I must bid good-bye to Sir Alexander Somers
+and all that has to do with England.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+                           MAVOVO AND HANS
+
+We arrived safely at Durban at the beginning of March and took up our
+quarters at my house on the Berea, where I expected that Brother John
+would be awaiting us. But no Brother John was to be found. The old,
+lame Griqua, Jack, who looked after the place for me and once had been
+one of my hunters, said that shortly after I went away in the ship,
+Dogeetah, as he called him, had taken his tin box and his net and
+walked off inland, he knew not where, leaving, as he declared, no
+message or letter behind him. The cases full of butterflies and dried
+plants were also gone, but these, I found he had shipped to some port
+in America, by a sailing vessel bound for the United States which
+chanced to put in at Durban for food and water. As to what had become
+of the man himself I could get no clue. He had been seen at Maritzburg
+and, according to some Kaffirs whom I knew, afterwards on the borders
+of Zululand, where, so far as I could learn, he vanished into space.
+
+This, to say the least of it, was disconcerting, and a question arose
+as to what was to be done. Brother John was to have been our guide. He
+alone knew the Mazitu people; he alone had visited the borders of the
+mysterious Pongo-land, I scarcely felt inclined to attempt to reach
+that country without his aid.
+
+When a fortnight had gone by and still there were no signs of him,
+Stephen and I held a solemn conference. I pointed out the difficulties
+and dangers of the situation to him and suggested that, under the
+circumstances, it might be wise to give up this wild orchid-chase and
+go elephant-hunting instead in a certain part of Zululand, where in
+those days these animals were still abundant.
+
+He was inclined to agree with me, since the prospect of killing
+elephants had attractions for him.
+
+"And yet," I said, after reflection, "it's curious, but I never
+remember making a successful trip after altering plans at the last
+moment, that is, unless one was driven to it."
+
+"I vote we toss up," said Somers; "it gives Providence a chance. Now
+then, heads for the Golden Cyp, and tails for the elephants."
+
+He spun a half-crown into the air. It fell and rolled under a great,
+yellow-wood chest full of curiosities that I had collected, which it
+took all our united strength to move. We dragged it aside and not
+without some excitement, for really a good deal hung upon the chance,
+I lit a match and peered into the shadow. There in the dust lay the
+coin.
+
+"What is it?" I asked of Somers, who was stretched on his stomach on
+the chest.
+
+"Orchid--I mean head," he answered. "Well, that's settled, so we
+needn't bother any more."
+
+The next fortnight was a busy time for me. As it happened there was a
+schooner in the bay of about one hundred tons burden which belonged to
+a Portuguese trader named Delgado, who dealt in goods that he carried
+to the various East African ports and Madagascar. He was a villainous-
+looking person whom I suspected of having dealings with the slave
+traders, who were very numerous and a great power in those days, if
+indeed he were not one himself. But as he was going to Kilwa whence we
+proposed to start inland, I arranged to make use of him to carry our
+party and the baggage. The bargain was not altogether easy to strike
+for two reasons. First, he did not appear to be anxious that we should
+hunt in the districts at the back of Kilwa, where he assured me there
+was no game, and secondly, he said that he wanted to sail at once.
+However, I overcame his objections with an argument he could not
+resist--namely, money, and in the end he agreed to postpone his
+departure for fourteen days.
+
+Then I set about collecting our men, of whom I had made up my mind
+there must not be less than twenty. Already I had sent messengers
+summoning to Durban from Zululand and the upper districts of Natal
+various hunters who had accompanied me on other expeditions. To the
+number of a dozen or so they arrived in due course. I have always had
+the good fortune to be on the best of terms with my Kaffirs, and where
+I went they were ready to go without asking any questions. The man
+whom I had selected to be their captain under me was a Zulu of the
+name of Mavovo. He was a short fellow, past middle age, with an
+enormous chest. His strength was proverbial; indeed, it was said that
+he could throw an ox by the horns, and myself I have seen him hold
+down the head of a wounded buffalo that had fallen, until I could come
+up and shoot it.
+
+When I first knew Mavovo he was a petty chief and witch doctor in
+Zululand. Like myself, he had fought for the Prince Umbelazi in the
+great battle of the Tugela, a crime which Cetewayo never forgave him.
+About a year afterwards he got warning that he had been smelt out as a
+wizard and was going to be killed. He fled with two of his wives and a
+child. The slayers overtook them before he could reach the Natal
+border, and stabbed the elder wife and the child of the second wife.
+They were four men, but, made mad by the sight, Mavovo turned on them
+and killed them all. Then, with the remaining wife, cut to pieces as
+he was, he crept to the river and through it to Natal. Not long after
+this wife died also; it was said from grief at the loss of her child.
+Mavovo did not marry again, perhaps because he was now a man without
+means, for Cetewayo had taken all his cattle; also he was made ugly by
+an assegai wound which had cut off his right nostril. Shortly after
+the death of his second wife he sought me out and told me he was a
+chief without a kraal and wished to become my hunter. So I took him
+on, a step which I never had any cause to regret, since although
+morose and at times given to the practice of uncanny arts, he was a
+most faithful servant and brave as a lion, or rather as a buffalo, for
+a lion is not always brave.
+
+Another man whom I did not send for, but who came, was an old
+Hottentot named Hans, with whom I had been more or less mixed up all
+my life. When I was a boy he was my father's servant in the Cape
+Colony and my companion in some of those early wars. Also he shared
+some very terrible adventures with me which I have detailed in the
+history I have written of my first wife, Marie Marais. For instance,
+he and I were the only persons who escaped from the massacre of Retief
+and his companions by the Zulu king, Dingaan. In the subsequence
+campaigns, including the Battle of the Blood River, he fought at my
+side and ultimately received a good share of captured cattle. After
+this he retired and set up a native store at a place called Pinetown,
+about fifteen miles out of Durban. Here I am afraid he got into bad
+ways and took to drink more or less; also to gambling. At any rate, he
+lost most of his property, so much of it indeed that he scarcely knew
+which way to turn. Thus it happened that one evening when I went out
+of the house where I had been making up my accounts, I saw a yellow-
+faced white-haired old fellow squatted on the verandah smoking a pipe
+made out of a corn-cob.
+
+"Good day, Baas," he said, "here am I, Hans."
+
+"So I see," I answered, rather coldly. "And what are you doing here,
+Hans? How can you spare time from your drinking and gambling at
+Pinetown to visit me here, Hans, after I have not seen you for three
+years?"
+
+"Baas, the gambling is finished, because I have nothing more to stake,
+and the drinking is done too, because but one bottle of Cape Smoke
+makes me feel quite ill next morning. So now I only take water and as
+little of that as I can, water and some tobacco to cover up its
+taste."
+
+"I am glad to hear it, Hans. If my father, the Predikant who baptised
+you, were alive now, he would have much to say about your conduct as
+indeed I have no doubt he will presently when you have gone into a
+hole (i.e., a grave). For there in the hole he will be waiting for
+you, Hans."
+
+"I know, I know, Baas. I have been thinking of that and it troubles
+me. Your reverend father, the Predikant, will be very cross indeed
+with me when I join him in the Place of Fires where he sits awaiting
+me. So I wish to make my peace with him by dying well, and in your
+service, Baas. I hear that the Baas is going on an expedition. I have
+come to accompany the Baas."
+
+"To accompany me! Why, you are old, you are not worth five shillings a
+month and your /scoff/ (food). You are a shrunken old brandy cask that
+will not even hold water."
+
+Hans grinned right across his ugly face.
+
+"Oh! Baas, I am old, but I am clever. All these years I have been
+gathering wisdom. I am as full of it as a bee's nest is with honey
+when the summer is done. And, Baas, I can stop those leaks in the
+cask."
+
+"Hans, it is no good, I don't want you. I am going into great danger.
+I must have those about me whom I can trust."
+
+"Well, Baas, and who can be better trusted than Hans? Who warned you
+of the attack of the Quabies on Maraisfontein, and so saved the life
+of----"
+
+"Hush!" I said.
+
+"I understand. I will not speak the name. It is holy not to be
+mentioned. It is the name of one who stands with the white angels
+before God; not to be mentioned by poor drunken Hans. Still, who stood
+at your side in that great fight? Ah! it makes me young again to think
+of it, when the roof burned; when the door was broken down; when we
+met the Quabies on the spears; when you held the pistol to the head of
+the Holy One whose name must not be mentioned, the Great One who knew
+how to die. Oh! Baas, our lives are twisted up together like the
+creeper and the tree, and where you go, there I must go also. Do not
+turn me away. I ask no wages, only a bit of food and a handful of
+tobacco, and the light of your face and a word now and again of the
+memories that belong to both of us. I am still very strong. I can
+shoot well--well, Baas, who was it that put it into your mind to aim
+at the tails of the vultures on the Hill of Slaughter yonder in
+Zululand, and so saved the lives of all the Boer people, and of her
+whose holy name must not be mentioned? Baas, you will not turn me
+away?"
+
+"No," I answered, "you can come. But you will swear by the spirit of
+my father, the Predikant, to touch no liquor on this journey."
+
+"I swear by his spirit and by that of the Holy One," and he flung
+himself forward on to his knees, took my hand and kissed it. Then he
+rose and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "If the Baas can give me two
+blankets, I shall thank him, also five shillings to buy some tobacco
+and a new knife. Where are the Baas's guns? I must go to oil them. I
+beg that the Baas will take with him that little rifle which is named
+/Intombi/ (Maiden), the one with which he shot the vultures on the
+Hill of Slaughter, the one that killed the geese in the Goose Kloof
+when I loaded for him and he won the great match against the Boer whom
+Dingaan called Two-faces."
+
+"Good," I said. "Here are the five shillings. You shall have the
+blankets and a new gun and all things needful. You will find the guns
+in the little back room and with them those of the Baas, my companion,
+who also is your master. Go see to them."
+
+At length all was ready, the cases of guns, ammunition, medicines,
+presents and food were on board the /Maria/. So were four donkeys that
+I had bought in the hope that they would prove useful, either to ride
+or as pack beasts. The donkey, be it remembered, and man are the only
+animals which are said to be immune from the poisonous effects of the
+bite of tsetse fly, except, of course, the wild game. It was our last
+night at Durban, a very beautiful night of full moon at the end of
+March, for the Portugee Delgado had announced his intention of sailing
+on the following afternoon. Stephen Somers and I were seated on the
+stoep smoking and talking things over.
+
+"It is a strange thing," I said, "that Brother John should never have
+turned up. I know that he was set upon making this expedition, not
+only for the sake of the orchid, but also for some other reason of
+which he would not speak. I think that the old fellow must be dead."
+
+"Very likely," answered Stephen (we had become intimate and I called
+him Stephen now), "a man alone among savages might easily come to
+grief and never be heard of again. Hark! What's that?" and he pointed
+to some gardenia bushes in the shadow of the house near by, whence
+came a sound of something that moved.
+
+"A dog, I expect, or perhaps it is Hans. He curls up in all sorts of
+places near to where I may be. Hans, are you there?"
+
+A figure arose from the gardenia bushes.
+
+"/Ja/, I am here, Baas."
+
+"What are you doing, Hans?"
+
+"I am doing what the dog does, Baas--watching my master."
+
+"Good," I answered. Then an idea struck me. "Hans, you have heard of
+the white Baas with the long beard whom the Kaffirs call Dogeetah?"
+
+"I have heard of him and once I saw him, a few moons ago passing
+through Pinetown. A Kaffir with him told me that he was going over the
+Drakensberg to hunt for things that crawl and fly, being quite mad,
+Baas."
+
+"Well, where is he now, Hans? He should have been here to travel with
+us."
+
+"Am I a spirit that I can tell the Baas whither a white man has
+wandered. Yet, stay. Mavovo may be able to tell. He is a great doctor,
+he can see through distance, and even now, this very night his Snake
+of divination has entered into him and he is looking into the future,
+yonder, behind the house. I saw him form the circle."
+
+I translated what Hans said to Stephen, for he had been talking in
+Dutch, then asked him if he would like to see some Kaffir magic.
+
+"Of course," he answered, "but it's all bosh, isn't it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, all bosh, or so most people say," I answered evasively.
+"Still, sometimes these /Inyangas/ tell one strange things."
+
+Then, led by Hans, we crept round the house to where there was a five-
+foot stone wall at the back of the stable. Beyond this wall, within
+the circle of some huts where my Kaffirs lived, was an open space with
+an ant-heap floor where they did their cooking. Here, facing us, sat
+Mavovo, while in a ring around him were all the hunters who were to
+accompany us; also Jack, the lame Griqua, and the two house-boys. In
+front of Mavovo burned a number of little wood fires. I counted them
+and found that there were fourteen, which, I reflected, was the exact
+number of our hunters, plus ourselves. One of the hunters was engaged
+in feeding these fires with little bits of stick and handfuls of dried
+grass so as to keep them burning brightly. The others sat round
+perfectly silent and watched with rapt attention. Mavovo himself
+looked like a man who is asleep. He was crouched on his haunches with
+his big head resting almost upon his knees. About his middle was a
+snake-skin, and round his neck an ornament that appeared to be made of
+human teeth. On his right side lay a pile of feathers from the wings
+of vultures, and on his left a little heap of silver money--I suppose
+the fees paid by the hunters for whom he was divining.
+
+After we had watched him for some while from our shelter behind the
+wall he appeared to wake out of his sleep. First he muttered; then he
+looked up to the moon and seemed to say a prayer of which I could not
+catch the words. Next he shuddered three times convulsively and
+exclaimed in a clear voice:
+
+"My Snake has come. It is within me. Now I can hear, now I can see."
+
+Three of the little fires, those immediately in front of him, were
+larger than the others. He took up his bundle of vultures' feathers,
+selected one with care, held it towards the sky, then passed it
+through the flame of the centre one of the three fires, uttering as he
+did so, my native name, Macumazana. Withdrawing it from the flame he
+examined the charred edges of the feather very carefully, a proceeding
+that caused a cold shiver to go down my back, for I knew well that he
+was inquiring of his "Spirit" what would be my fate upon this
+expedition. How it answered, I cannot tell, for he laid the feather
+down and took another, with which he went through the same process.
+This time, however, the name he called out was Mwamwazela, which in
+its shortened form of Wazela, was the Kaffir appellation that the
+natives had given to Stephen Somers. It means a Smile, and no doubt
+was selected for him because of his pleasant, smiling countenance.
+
+Having passed it through the right-hand fire of the three, he examined
+it and laid it down.
+
+So it went on. One after another he called out the names of the
+hunters, beginning with his own as captain; passed the feather which
+represented each of them through the particular fire of his destiny,
+examined and laid it down. After this he seemed to go to sleep again
+for a few minutes, then woke up as a man does from a natural slumber,
+yawned and stretched himself.
+
+"Speak," said his audience, with great anxiety. "Have you seen? Have
+you heard? What does your Snake tell you of me? Of me? Of me? Of me?"
+
+"I have seen, I have heard," he answered. "My Snake tells me that this
+will be a very dangerous journey. Of those who go on it six will die
+by the bullet, by the spear or by sickness, and others will be hurt."
+
+"/Ow?/" said one of them, "but which will die and which will come out
+safe? Does not your Snake tell you that, O Doctor?"
+
+"Yes, of course my Snake tells me that. But my Snake tells me also to
+hold my tongue on the matter, lest some of us should be turned to
+cowards. It tells me further that the first who should ask me more,
+will be one of those who must die. Now do you ask? Or you? Or you? Or
+you? Ask if you will."
+
+Strange to say no one accepted the invitation. Never have I seen a
+body of men so indifferent to the future, at least to every
+appearance. One and all they seemed to come to the conclusion that so
+far as they were concerned it might be left to look after itself.
+
+"My Snake told me something else," went on Mavovo. "It is that if
+among this company there is any jackal of a man who, thinking that he
+might be one of the six to die, dreams to avoid his fate by deserting,
+it will be of no use. For then my Snake will point him out and show me
+how to deal with him."
+
+Now with one voice each man present there declared that desertion from
+the lord Macumazana was the last thing that could possibly occur to
+him. Indeed, I believe that those brave fellows spoke truth. No doubt
+they put faith in Mavovo's magic after the fashion of their race.
+Still the death he promised was some way off, and each hoped he would
+be one of the six to escape. Moreover, the Zulu of those days was too
+accustomed to death to fear its terrors over much.
+
+One of them did, however, venture to advance the argument, which
+Mavovo treated with proper contempt, that the shillings paid for this
+divination should be returned by him to the next heirs of such of them
+as happened to decease. Why, he asked, should these pay a shilling in
+order to be told that they must die? It seemed unreasonable.
+
+Certainly the Zulu Kaffirs have a queer way of looking at things.
+
+"Hans," I whispered, "is your fire among those that burn yonder?"
+
+"Not so, Baas," he wheezed back into my ear. "Does the Baas think me a
+fool? If I must die, I must die; if I am to live, I shall live. Why
+then should I pay a shilling to learn what time will declare?
+Moreover, yonder Mavovo takes the shillings and frightens everybody,
+but tells nobody anything. /I/ call it cheating. But, Baas, do you and
+the Baas Wazela have no fear. You did not pay shillings, and therefore
+Mavovo, though without doubt he is a great /Inyanga/, cannot really
+prophesy concerning you, since his Snake will not work without a fee."
+
+The argument seems remarkably absurd. Yet it must be common, for now
+that I come to think of it, no gipsy will tell a "true fortune" unless
+her hand is crossed with silver.
+
+"I say, Quatermain," said Stephen idly, "since our friend Mavovo seems
+to know so much, ask him what has become of Brother John, as Hans
+suggested. Tell me what he says afterwards, for I want to see
+something."
+
+So I went through the little gate in the wall in a natural kind of
+way, as though I had seen nothing, and appeared to be struck by the
+sight of the little fires.
+
+"Well, Mavovo," I said, "are you doing doctor's work? I thought that
+it had brought you into enough trouble in Zululand."
+
+"That is so, /Baba/," replied Mavovo, who had a habit of calling me
+"father," though he was older than I. "It cost me my chieftainship and
+my cattle and my two wives and my son. It made of me a wanderer who is
+glad to accompany a certain Macumazana to strange lands where many
+things may befall me, yes," he added with meaning, "even the last of
+all things. And yet a gift is a gift and must be used. You, /Baba/,
+have a gift of shooting and do you cease to shoot? You have a gift of
+wandering and can you cease to wander?"
+
+He picked up one of the burnt feathers from the little pile by his
+side and looked at it attentively. "Perhaps, /Baba/, you have been
+told--my ears are very sharp, and I thought I heard some such words
+floating through the air just now--that we poor Kaffir /Inyangas/ can
+prophesy nothing true unless we are paid, and perhaps that is a fact
+so far as something of the moment is concerned. And yet the Snake in
+the /Inyanga/, jumping over the little rock which hides the present
+from it, may see the path that winds far and far away through the
+valleys, across the streams, up the mountains, till it is lost in the
+'heaven above.' Thus on this feather, burnt in my magic fire, I seem
+to see something of your future, O my father Macumazana. Far and far
+your road runs," and he drew his finger along the feather. "Here is a
+journey," and he flicked away a carbonised flake, "here is another,
+and another, and another," and he flicked off flake after flake. "Here
+is one that is very successful, it leaves you rich; and here is yet
+one more, a wonderful journey this in which you see strange things and
+meet strange people. Then"--and he blew on the feather in such a
+fashion that all the charred filaments (Brother John says that
+/laminae/ is the right word for them) fell away from it--"then, there
+is nothing left save such a pole as some of my people stick upright on
+a grave, the Shaft of Memory they call it. O, my father, you will die
+in a distant land, but you will leave a great memory behind you that
+will live for hundreds of years, for see how strong is this quill over
+which the fire has had no power. With some of these others it is quite
+different," he added.
+
+"I daresay," I broke in, "but, Mavovo, be so good as to leave me out
+of your magic, for I don't at all want to know what is going to happen
+to me. To-day is enough for me without studying next month and next
+year. There is a saying in our holy book which runs: 'Sufficient to
+the day is its evil.'"
+
+"Quite so, O Macumazana. Also that is a very good saying as some of
+those hunters of yours are thinking now. Yet an hour ago they were
+forcing their shillings on me that I might tell them of the future.
+And /you/, too, want to know something. You did not come through that
+gate to quote to me the wisdom of your holy book. What is it, /Baba/?
+Be quick, for my Snake is getting very tired. He wishes to go back to
+his hole in the world beneath."
+
+"Well, then," I answered in rather a shamefaced fashion, for Mavovo
+had an uncanny way of seeing into one's secret motives, "I should like
+to know, if you can tell me, which you can't, what has become of the
+white man with the long beard whom you black people call Dogeetah? He
+should have been here to go on this journey with us; indeed, he was to
+be our guide and we cannot find him. Where is he and why is he not
+here?"
+
+"Have you anything about you that belonged to Dogeetah, Macumazana?"
+
+"No," I answered; "that is, yes," and from my pocket I produced the
+stump of pencil that Brother John had given me, which, being
+economical, I had saved up ever since. Mavovo took it, and after
+considering it carefully as he had done in the case of the feathers,
+swept up a pile of ashes with his horny hand from the edge of the
+largest of the little fires, that indeed which had represented myself.
+These ashes he patted flat. Then he drew on them with the point of the
+pencil, tracing what seemed to me to be the rough image of a man, such
+as children scratch upon whitewashed walls. When he had finished he
+sat up and contemplated his handiwork with all the satisfaction of an
+artist. A breeze had risen from the sea and was blowing in little
+gusts, so that the fine ashes were disturbed, some of the lines of the
+picture being filled in and others altered or enlarged.
+
+For a while Mavovo sat with his eyes shut. Then he opened them,
+studied the ashes and what remained of the picture, and taking a
+blanket that lay near by, threw it over his own head and over the
+ashes. Withdrawing it again presently he cast it aside and pointed to
+the picture which was now quite changed. Indeed, in the moonlight, it
+looked more like a landscape than anything else.
+
+"All is clear, my father," he said in a matter-of-fact voice. "The
+white wanderer, Dogeetah, is not dead. He lives, but he is sick.
+Something is the matter with one of his legs so that he cannot walk.
+Perhaps a bone is broken or some beast has bitten him. He lies in a
+hut such as Kaffirs make, only this hut has a verandah round it like
+your stoep, and there are drawings on the wall. The hut is a long way
+off, I don't know where."
+
+"Is that all?" I asked, for he paused.
+
+"No, not all. Dogeetah is recovering. He will join us in that country
+whither we journey, at a time of trouble. That is all, and the fee is
+half-a-crown."
+
+"You mean one shilling," I suggested.
+
+"No, my father Macumazana. One shilling for simple magic such as
+foretelling the fate of common black people. Half-a-crown for very
+difficult magic that has to do with white people, magic of which only
+great doctors, like me, Mavovo, are the masters."
+
+I gave him the half-crown and said:
+
+"Look here, friend Mavovo, I believe in you as a fighter and a hunter,
+but as a magician I think you are a humbug. Indeed, I am so sure of it
+that if ever Dogeetah turns up at a time of trouble in that land
+whither we are journeying, I will make you a present of that double-
+barrelled rifle of mine which you admired so much."
+
+One of his rare smiles appeared upon Mavovo's ugly face.
+
+"Then give it to me now, /Baba/," he said, "for it is already earned.
+My Snake cannot lie--especially when the fee is half-a-crown."
+
+I shook my head and declined, politely but with firmness.
+
+"Ah!" said Mavovo, "you white men are very clever and think that you
+know everything. But it is not so, for in learning so much that is
+new, you have forgotten more that is old. When the Snake that is in
+you, Macumazana, dwelt in a black savage like me a thousand thousand
+years ago, you could have done and did what I do. But now you can only
+mock and say, 'Mavovo the brave in battle, the great hunter, the loyal
+man, becomes a liar when he blows the burnt feather, or reads what the
+wind writes upon the charmed ashes.'"
+
+"I do not say that you are a liar, Mavovo, I say that you are deceived
+by your own imaginings. It is not possible that man can know what is
+hidden from man."
+
+"Is it indeed so, O Macumazana, Watcher by Night? Am I, Mavovo, the
+pupil of Zikali, the Opener of Roads, the greatest of wizards, indeed
+deceived by my own imaginings? And has man no other eyes but those in
+his head, that he cannot see what is hidden from man? Well, you say so
+and all we black people know that you are very clever, and why should
+I, a poor Zulu, be able to see what you cannot see? Yet when to-morrow
+one sends you a message from the ship in which we are to sail, begging
+you to come fast because there is trouble on the ship, then bethink
+you of your words and my words, and whether or no man can see what is
+hidden from man in the blackness of the future. Oh! that rifle of
+yours is mine already, though you will not give it to me now, you who
+think that I am a cheat. Well, my father Macumazana, because you think
+I am a cheat, never again will I blow the feather or read what the
+wind writes upon the ashes for you or any who eat your food."
+
+Then he rose, saluted me with uplifted right hand, collected his
+little pile of money and bag of medicines and marched off to the
+sleeping hut.
+
+On our way round the house we met my old lame caretaker, Jack.
+
+"/Inkoosi/," he said, "the white chief Wazela bade me say that he and
+the cook, Sam, have gone to sleep on board the ship to look after the
+goods. Sam came up just now and fetched him away; he says he will show
+you why to-morrow."
+
+I nodded and passed on, wondering to myself why Stephen had suddenly
+determined to stay the night on the /Maria/.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V
+
+                                HASSAN
+
+I suppose it must have been two hours after dawn on the following
+morning that I was awakened by knocks upon the door and the voice of
+Jack saying that Sam, the cook, wanted to speak to me.
+
+Wondering what he could be doing there, as I understood he was
+sleeping on the ship, I called out that he was to come in. Now this
+Sam, I should say, hailed from the Cape, and was a person of mixed
+blood. The original stock, I imagine, was Malay which had been crossed
+with Indian coolie. Also, somewhere or other, there was a dash of
+white and possibly, but of this I am not sure, a little Hottentot. The
+result was a person of few vices and many virtues. Sammy, I may say at
+once, was perhaps the biggest coward I ever met. He could not help it,
+it was congenital, though, curiously enough, this cowardice of his
+never prevented him from rushing into fresh danger. Thus he knew that
+the expedition upon which I was engaged would be most hazardous;
+remembering his weakness I explained this to him very clearly. Yet
+that knowledge did not deter him from imploring that he might be
+allowed to accompany me. Perhaps this was because there was some
+mutual attachment between us, as in the case of Hans. Once, a good
+many years before, I had rescued Sammy from a somewhat serious scrape
+by declining to give evidence against him. I need not enter into the
+details, but a certain sum of money over which he had control had
+disappeared. I will merely say, therefore, that at the time he was
+engaged to a coloured lady of very expensive tastes, whom in the end
+he never married.
+
+After this, as it chanced, he nursed me through an illness. Hence the
+attachment of which I have spoken.
+
+Sammy was the son of a native Christian preacher, and brought up upon
+what he called "The Word." He had received an excellent education for
+a person of his class, and in addition to many native dialects with
+which a varied career had made him acquainted, spoke English
+perfectly, though in the most bombastic style. Never would he use a
+short word if a long one came to his hand, or rather to his tongue.
+For several years of his life he was, I believe, a teacher in a school
+at Capetown where coloured persons received their education; his
+"department," as he called it, being "English Language and
+Literature."
+
+Wearying of or being dismissed from his employment for some reason
+that he never specified, he had drifted up the coast to Zanzibar,
+where he turned his linguistic abilities to the study of Arabic and
+became the manager or head cook of an hotel. After a few years he lost
+this billet, I know not how or why, and appeared at Durban in what he
+called a "reversed position." Here it was that we met again, just
+before my expedition to Pongo-land.
+
+In manners he was most polite, in disposition most religious; I
+believe he was a Baptist by faith, and in appearance a small, brown
+dandy of a man of uncertain age, who wore his hair parted in the
+middle and, whatever the circumstances, was always tidy in his
+garments.
+
+I took him on because he was in great distress, an excellent cook, the
+best of nurses, and above all for the reason that, as I have said, we
+were in a way attached to each other. Also, he always amused me
+intensely, which goes for something on a long journey of the sort that
+I contemplated.
+
+Such in brief was Sammy.
+
+As he entered the room I saw that his clothes were very wet and asked
+him at once if it were raining, or whether he had got drunk and been
+sleeping in the damp grass.
+
+"No, Mr. Quatermain," he answered, "the morning is extremely fine, and
+like the poor Hottentot, Hans, I have abjured the use of intoxicants.
+Though we differ on much else, in this matter we agree."
+
+"Then what the deuce is up?" I interrupted, to cut short his flow of
+fine language.
+
+"Sir, there is trouble on the ship" (remembering Mavovo I started at
+these words) "where I passed the night in the company of Mr. Somers at
+his special request." (It was the other way about really.) "This
+morning before the dawn, when he thought that everybody was asleep,
+the Portuguese captain and some of his Arabs began to weigh the anchor
+quite quietly; also to hoist the sails. But Mr. Somers and I, being
+very much awake, came out of the cabin and he sat upon the capstan
+with a revolver in his hand, saying--well, sir, I will not repeat what
+he said."
+
+"No, don't. What happened then?"
+
+"Then, sir, there followed much noise and confusion. The Portugee and
+the Arabs threatened Mr. Somers, but he, sir, continued to sit upon
+the capstan with the stern courage of a rock in a rushing stream, and
+remarked that he would see them all somewhere before they touched it.
+After this, sir, I do not know what occurred, since while I watched
+from the bulwarks someone knocked me head over heels into the sea and
+being fortunately, a good swimmer, I gained the shore and hurried here
+to advise you."
+
+"And did you advise anyone else, you idiot?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, sir. As I sped along I communicated to an officer of the port
+that there was the devil of a mess upon the /Maria/ which he would do
+well to investigate."
+
+By this time I was in my shirt and trousers and shouting to Mavovo and
+the others. Soon they arrived, for as the costume of Mavovo and his
+company consisted only of a moocha and a blanket, it did not take them
+long to dress.
+
+"Mavovo," I began, "there is trouble on the ship----"
+
+"O /Baba/," he interrupted with something resembling a grin, "it is
+very strange, but last night I dreamed that I told you----"
+
+"Curse your dreams," I said. "Gather the men and go down--no, that
+won't work, there would be murder done. Either it is all over now or
+it is all right. Get the hunters ready; I come with them. The luggage
+can be fetched afterwards."
+
+Within less than an hour we were at that wharf off which the /Maria/
+lay in what one day will be the splendid port of Durban, though in
+those times its shipping arrangements were exceedingly primitive. A
+strange-looking band we must have been. I, who was completely dressed,
+and I trust tidy, marched ahead. Next came Hans in the filthy wide-
+awake hat which he usually wore and greasy corduroys and after him the
+oleaginous Sammy arrayed in European reach-me-downs, a billy-cock and
+a bright blue tie striped with red, garments that would have looked
+very smart had it not been for his recent immersion. After him
+followed the fierce-looking Mavovo and his squad of hunters, all of
+whom wore the "ring" or /isicoco/, as the Zulus call it; that is, a
+circle of polished black wax sewn into their short hair. They were a
+grim set of fellows, but as, according to a recent law it was not
+allowable for them to appear armed in the town, their guns had already
+been shipped, while their broad stabbing spears were rolled up in
+their sleeping mats, the blades wrapped round with dried grass.
+
+Each of them, however, bore in his hand a large knobkerry of red-wood,
+and they marched four by four in martial fashion. It is true that when
+we embarked on the big boat to go to the ship much of their warlike
+ardour evaporated, since these men, who feared nothing on the land,
+were terribly afraid of that unfamiliar element, the water.
+
+We reached the /Maria/, an unimposing kind of tub, and climbed aboard.
+On looking aft the first thing that I saw was Stephen seated on the
+capstan with a pistol in his hand, as Sammy had said. Near by, leaning
+on the bulwark was the villainous-looking Portugee, Delgado,
+apparently in the worst of tempers and surrounded by a number of
+equally villainous-looking Arab sailors clad in dirty white. In front
+was the Captain of the port, a well-known and esteemed gentleman of
+the name of Cato, like myself a small man who had gone through many
+adventures. Accompanied by some attendants, he was seated on the
+after-skylight, smoking, with his eyes fixed upon Stephen and the
+Portugee.
+
+"Glad to see you, Quatermain," he said. "There's some row on here, but
+I have only just arrived and don't understand Portuguese, and the
+gentleman on the capstan won't leave it to explain."
+
+"What's up, Stephen?" I asked, after shaking Mr. Cato by the hand.
+
+"What's up?" replied Somers. "This man," and he pointed to Delgado,
+"wanted to sneak out to sea with all our goods, that's all, to say
+nothing of me and Sammy, whom, no doubt, he'd have chucked overboard,
+as soon as he was out of sight of land. However, Sammy, who knows
+Portuguese, overheard his little plans and, as you see, I objected."
+
+Well, Delgado was asked for his version of the affair, and, as I
+expected, explained that he only intended to get a little nearer to
+the bar and there wait till we arrived. Of course he lied and knew
+that we were aware of the fact and that his intention had been to slip
+out to sea with all our valuable property, which he would sell after
+having murdered or marooned Stephen and the poor cook. But as nothing
+could be proved, and we were now in strong enough force to look after
+ourselves and our belongings, I did not see the use of pursuing the
+argument. So I accepted the explanation with a smile, and asked
+everybody to join in a morning nip.
+
+Afterwards Stephen told me that while I was engaged with Mavovo on the
+previous night, a message had reached him from Sammy who was on board
+the ship in charge of our belongings, saying that he would be glad of
+some company. Knowing the cook's nervous nature, fortunately enough he
+made up his mind at once to go and sleep upon the /Maria/. In the
+morning trouble arose as Sammy had told me. What he did not tell me
+was that he was not knocked overboard, as he said, but took to the
+water of his own accord, when complications with Delgado appeared
+imminent.
+
+"I understand the position," I said, "and all's well that ends well.
+But it's lucky you thought of coming on board to sleep."
+
+After this everything went right. I sent some of the men back in the
+charge of Stephen for our remaining effects, which they brought safely
+aboard, and in the evening we sailed. Our voyage up to Kilwa was
+beautiful, a gentle breeze driving us forward over a sea so calm that
+not even Hans, who I think was one of the worst sailors in the world,
+or the Zulu hunters were really sick, though as Sammy put it, they
+"declined their food."
+
+I think it was on the fifth night of our voyage, or it may have been
+the seventh, that we anchored one afternoon off the island of Kilwa,
+not very far from the old Portuguese fort. Delgado, with whom we had
+little to do during the passage, hoisted some queer sort of signal.
+In response a boat came off containing what he called the Port
+officials, a band of cut-throat, desperate-looking, black fellows in
+charge of a pock-marked, elderly half-breed who was introduced to us
+as the Bey Hassan-ben-Mohammed. That Mr. Hassan-ben-Mohammed entirely
+disapproved of our presence on the ship, and especially of our
+proposed landing at Kilwa, was evident to me from the moment that I
+set eyes upon his ill-favoured countenance. After a hurried conference
+with Delgado, he came forward and addressed me in Arabic, of which I
+could not understand a word. Luckily, however, Sam the cook, who, as I
+think I said, was a great linguist, had a fair acquaintance with this
+tongue, acquired, it appears, while at the Zanzibar hotel; so, not
+trusting Delgado, I called on him to interpret.
+
+"What is he saying, Sammy?" I asked.
+
+He began to talk to Hassan and replied presently:
+
+"Sir, he makes you many compliments. He says that he has heard what a
+great man who are from his friend, Delgado, also that you and Mr.
+Somers are English, a nation which he adores."
+
+"Does he?" I exclaimed. "I should never have thought it from his
+looks. Thank him for his kind remarks and tell him that we are going
+to land here and march up country to shoot."
+
+Sammy obeyed, and the conversation went on somewhat as follows:
+
+"With all humility I (i.e. Hassan) request you not to land. This
+country is not a fit place for such noble gentlemen. There is nothing
+to eat and no head of game has been seen for years. The people in the
+interior are savages of the worst sort, whom hunger has driven to take
+to cannibalism. I would not have your blood upon my head. I beg of
+you, therefore, to go on in this ship to Delagoa Bay, where you will
+find a good hotel, or to any other place you may select."
+
+A.Q.: "Might I ask you, noble sir, what is your position at Kilwa,
+that you consider yourself responsible for our safety?"
+
+H.: "Honoured English lord, I am a trader here of Portuguese
+nationality, but born of an Arab mother of high birth and brought up
+among that people. I have gardens on the mainland, tended by my native
+servants who are as children to me, where I grow palms and cassava and
+ground nuts and plantains and many other kinds of produce. All the
+tribes in this district look upon me as their chief and venerated
+father."
+
+A.Q.: "Then, noble Hassan, you will be able to pass us through them,
+seeing that we are peaceful hunters who wish to harm no one."
+
+(A long consultation between Hassan and Delgado, during which I
+ordered Mavovo to bring his Zulus on deck with their guns.)
+
+H.: "Honoured English lord, I cannot allow you to land."
+
+A.Q.: "Noble son of the Prophet, I intend to land with my friend, my
+followers, my donkeys and my goods early to-morrow morning. If I can
+do so with your leave I shall be glad. If not----" and I glanced at
+the fierce group of hunters behind me.
+
+H.: "Honoured English lord, I shall be grieved to use force, but let
+me tell you that in my peaceful village ashore I have at least a
+hundred men armed with rifles, whereas here I see under twenty."
+
+A.Q., after reflection and a few words with Stephen Somers: "Can you
+tell me, noble sir, if from your peaceful village you have yet sighted
+the English man-of-war, /Crocodile/; I mean the steamer that is
+engaged in watching for the dhows of wicked slavers? A letter from her
+captain informed me that he would be in these waters by yesterday.
+Perhaps, however, he has been delayed for a day or two."
+
+If I had exploded a bomb at the feet of the excellent Hassan its
+effect could scarcely have been more remarkable than that of this
+question. He turned--not pale, but a horrible yellow, and exclaimed:
+
+"English man-of-war! /Crocodile/! I thought she had gone to Aden to
+refit and would not be back at Zanzibar for four months."
+
+A.Q.: "You have been misinformed, noble Hassan. She will not refit
+till October. Shall I read you the letter?" and I produced a piece of
+paper from my pocket. "It may be interesting since my friend, the
+captain, whom you remember is named Flowers, mentions you in it. He
+says----"
+
+Hassan waved his hand. "It is enough. I see, honoured lord, that you
+are a man of mettle not easily to be turned from your purpose. In the
+name of God the Compassionate, land and go wheresoever you like."
+
+A.Q.: "I think that I had almost rather wait until the /Crocodile/
+comes in."
+
+H.: "Land! Land! Captain Delgado, get up the cargo and man your boat.
+Mine too is at the service of these lords. You, Captain, will like to
+get away by this night's tide. There is still light, Lord Quatermain,
+and such hospitality as I can offer is at your service."
+
+A.Q.: "Ah! I knew Bey Hassan, that you were only joking with me when
+you said that you wished us to go elsewhere. An excellent jest, truly,
+from one whose hospitality is so famous. Well, to fall in with your
+wishes, we will come ashore this evening, and if the Captain Delgado
+chances to sight the Queen's ship /Crocodile/ before he sails, perhaps
+he will be so good as to signal to us with a rocket."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," interrupted Delgado, who up to this time had
+pretended that he understood no English, the tongue in which I was
+speaking to the interpreter, Sammy.
+
+Then he turned and gave orders to his Arab crew to bring up our
+belongings from the hold and to lower the /Maria's/ boat.
+
+Never did I see goods transferred in quicker time. Within half an hour
+every one of our packages was off that ship, for Stephen Somers kept a
+count of them. Our personal baggage went into the /Maria's/ boat, and
+the goods together with the four donkeys which were lowered on to the
+top of them, were rumbled pell-mell into the barge-like punt belonging
+to Hassan. Here also I was accommodated, with about half of our
+people, the rest taking their seats in the smaller boat under the
+charge of Stephen.
+
+At length all was ready and we cast off.
+
+"Farewell, Captain," I cried to Delgado. "If you should sight the
+/Crocodile/----"
+
+At this point Delgado broke into such a torrent of bad language in
+Portuguese, Arabic and English that I fear the rest of my remarks
+never reached him.
+
+As we rowed shorewards I observed that Hans, who was seated near to me
+under the stomach of a jackass, was engaged in sniffing at the sides
+and bottom of the barge, as a dog might do, and asked him what he was
+about.
+
+"Very odd smell in this boat," he whispered back in Dutch. "It stinks
+of Kaffir man, just like the hold of the /Maria/. I think this boat is
+used to carry slaves."
+
+"Be quiet," I whispered back, "and stop nosing at those planks." But
+to myself I thought, Hans is right, we are in a nest of slave-traders,
+and this Hassan is their leader.
+
+We rowed past the island, on which I observed the ruins of an old
+Portuguese fort and some long grass-roofed huts, where, I reflected,
+the slaves were probably kept until they could be shipped away.
+Observing my glance fixed upon these, Hassan hastened to explain,
+through Sammy, that they were storehouses in which he dried fish and
+hides, and kept goods.
+
+"How interesting!" I answered. "Further south we dry hides in the
+sun."
+
+Crossing a narrow channel we arrived at a rough jetty where we
+disembarked, whence we were led by Hassan not to the village which I
+now saw upon our left, but to a pleasant-looking, though dilapidated
+house that stood a hundred yards from the shore. Something about the
+appearance of this house impressed me with the idea that it was never
+built by slavers; the whole look of the place with its verandah and
+garden suggested taste and civilisation. Evidently educated people had
+designed it and resided here. I glanced about me and saw, amidst a
+grove of neglected orange trees that were surrounded with palms of
+some age, the ruins of a church. About this there was no doubt, for
+there, surmounted by a stone cross, was a little pent-house in which
+still hung the bell that once summoned the worshippers to prayer.
+
+"Tell the English lord," said Hassan to Sammy, "that these buildings
+were a mission station of the Christians, who abandoned them more than
+twenty years ago. When I came here I found them empty."
+
+"Indeed," I answered, "and what were the names of those who dwelt in
+them?"
+
+"I never heard," said Hassan; "they had been gone a long while when I
+came."
+
+Then we went up to the house, and for the next hour and more were
+engaged with our baggage which was piled in a heap in what had been
+the garden and in unpacking and pitching two tents for the hunters
+which I caused to be placed immediately in front of the rooms that
+were assigned to us. Those rooms were remarkable in their way. Mine
+had evidently been a sitting chamber, as I judged from some such
+broken articles of furniture, that appeared to be of American make.
+That which Stephen occupied had once served as a sleeping-place, for
+the bedstead of iron still remained there. Also there were a hanging
+bookcase, now fallen, and some tattered remnants of books. One of
+these, that oddly enough was well-preserved, perhaps because the white
+ants or other creatures did not like the taste of its morocco binding,
+was a Keble's /Christian Year/, on the title-page of which was
+written, "To my dearest Elizabeth on her birthday, from her husband."
+I took the liberty to put it in my pocket. On the wall, moreover,
+still hung the small watercolour picture of a very pretty young woman
+with fair hair and blue eyes, in the corner of which picture was
+written in the same handwriting as that in the book, "Elizabeth, aged
+twenty." This also I annexed, thinking that it might come in useful as
+a piece of evidence.
+
+"Looks as if the owners of this place had left it in a hurry,
+Quatermain," said Stephen.
+
+"That's it, my boy. Or perhaps they didn't leave; perhaps they stopped
+here."
+
+"Murdered?"
+
+I nodded and said, "I dare say friend Hassan could tell us something
+about the matter. Meanwhile as supper isn't ready yet, let us have a
+look at that church while it is light."
+
+We walked through the palm and orange grove to where the building
+stood finely placed upon a mound. It was well-constructed of a kind of
+coral rock, and a glance showed us that it had been gutted by fire;
+the discoloured walls told their own tale. The interior was now full
+of shrubs and creepers, and an ugly, yellowish snake glided from what
+had been the stone altar. Without, the graveyard was enclosed by a
+broken wall, only we could see no trace of graves. Near the gateway,
+however, was a rough mound.
+
+"If we could dig into that," I said, "I expect we should find the
+bones of the people who inhabited this place. Does that suggest
+anything to you, Stephen?"
+
+"Nothing, except that they were probably killed."
+
+"You should learn to draw inferences. It is a useful art, especially
+in Africa. It suggests to me that, if you are right, the deed was not
+done by natives, who would never take the trouble to bury the dead.
+Arabs, on the contrary, might do so, especially if there were any
+bastard Portuguese among them who called themselves Christians. But
+whatever happened must have been a long while ago," and I pointed to a
+self-sown hardwood tree growing from the mound which could scarcely
+have been less than twenty years old.
+
+We returned to the house to find that our meal was ready. Hassan had
+asked us to dine with him, but for obvious reasons I preferred that
+Sammy should cook our food and that he should dine with us. He
+appeared full of compliments, though I could see hate and suspicion in
+his eye, and we fell to on the kid that we had bought from him, for I
+did not wish to accept any gifts from this fellow. Our drink was
+square-face gin, mixed with water that I sent Hans to fetch with his
+own hands from the stream that ran by the house, lest otherwise it
+should be drugged.
+
+At first Hassan, like a good Mohammedan, refused to touch any spirits,
+but as the meal went on he politely relented upon this point, and I
+poured him out a liberal tot. The appetite comes in eating, as the
+Frenchman said, and the same thing applies to drinking. So at least it
+was in Hassan's case, who probably thought that the quantity swallowed
+made no difference to his sin. After the third dose of square-face he
+grew quite amiable and talkative. Thinking the opportunity a good one,
+I sent for Sammy, and through him told our host that we were anxious
+to hire twenty porters to carry our packages. He declared that there
+was not such a thing as a porter within a hundred miles, whereon I
+gave him some more gin. The end of it was that we struck a bargain, I
+forget for how much, he promising to find us twenty good men who were
+to stay with us for as long as we wanted them.
+
+Then I asked him about the destruction of the mission station, but
+although he was half-drunk, on this point he remained very close. All
+he would say was that he had heard that twenty years ago the people
+called the Mazitu, who were very fierce, had raided right down to the
+coast and killed those who dwelt there, except a white man and his
+wife who had fled inland and never been seen again.
+
+"How many of them were buried in that mound by the church?" I asked
+quickly.
+
+"Who told you they were buried there?" he replied, with a start, but
+seeing his mistake, went on, "I do not know what you mean. I never
+heard of anyone being buried. Sleep well, honoured lords, I must go
+and see to the loading of my goods upon the /Maria/." Then rising, he
+salaamed and walked, or rather rolled, away.
+
+"So the /Maria/ hasn't sailed after all," I said, and whistled in a
+certain fashion. Instantly Hans crept into the room out of the
+darkness, for this was my signal to him.
+
+"Hans," I said, "I hear sounds upon that island. Slip down to the
+shore and spy out what is happening. No one will see you if you are
+careful."
+
+"No, Baas," he answered with a grin, "I do not think that anyone will
+see Hans if he is careful, especially at night," and he slid away as
+quietly as he had come.
+
+Now I went out and spoke to Mavovo, telling him to keep a good watch
+and to be sure that every man had his gun ready, as I thought that
+these people were slave-traders and might attack us in the night.
+
+In that event, I said, they were to fall back upon the stoep, but not
+to fire until I gave the word.
+
+"Good, my father," he answered. "This is a lucky journey; I never
+thought there would be hope of war so soon. My Snake forgot to mention
+it the other night. Sleep safe, Macumazana. Nothing that walks shall
+reach you while we live."
+
+"Don't be so sure," I answered, and we lay down in the bedroom with
+our clothes on and our rifles by our sides.
+
+The next thing I remember was someone shaking me by the shoulder. I
+thought it was Stephen, who had agreed to keep awake for the first
+part of the night and to call me at one in the morning. Indeed, he was
+awake, for I could see the glow from the pipe he smoked.
+
+"Baas," whispered the voice of Hans, "I have found out everything.
+They are loading the /Maria/ with slaves, taking them in big boats
+from the island."
+
+"So," I answered. "But how did you get here? Are the hunters asleep
+without?"
+
+He chuckled. "No, they are not asleep; they look with all their eyes
+and listen with all their ears, yet old Hans passed through them; even
+the Baas Somers did not hear him."
+
+"That I didn't," said Stephen; "thought a rat was moving, no more."
+
+I stepped through the place where the door had been on to the stoep.
+By the light of the fire which the hunters had lit without I could see
+Mavovo sitting wide awake, his gun upon his knees, and beyond him two
+sentries. I called him and pointed to Hans.
+
+"See," I said, "what good watchmen you are when one can step over your
+heads and enter my room without your knowing it!"
+
+Mavovo looked at the Hottentot and felt his clothes and boots to see
+whether they were wet with the night dew.
+
+"/Ow!/" he exclaimed in a surly voice, "I said that nothing which
+walks could reach you, Macumazana, but this yellow snake has crawled
+between us on his belly. Look at the new mud that stains his
+waistcoat."
+
+"Yet snakes can bite and kill," answered Hans with a snigger. "Oh! you
+Zulus think that you are very brave, and shout and flourish spears and
+battleaxes. One poor Hottentot dog is worth a whole impi of you after
+all. No, don't try to strike me, Mavovo the warrior, since we both
+serve the same master in our separate ways. When it comes to fighting
+I will leave the matter to you, but when it is a case of watching or
+spying, do you leave it to Hans. Look here, Mavovo," and he opened his
+hand in which was a horn snuff-box such as Zulus sometimes carry in
+their ears. "To whom does this belong?"
+
+"It is mine," said Mavovo, "and you have stolen it."
+
+"Yes," jeered Hans, "it is yours. Also I stole it from your ear as I
+passed you in the dark. Don't you remember that you thought a gnat had
+tickled you and hit up at your face?"
+
+"It is true," growled Mavovo, "and you, snake of a Hottentot, are
+great in your own low way. Yet next time anything tickles me, I shall
+strike, not with my hand, but with a spear."
+
+Then I turned them both out, remarking to Stephen that this was a good
+example of the eternal fight between courage and cunning. After this,
+as I was sure that Hassan and his friends were too busy to interfere
+with us that night, we went to bed and slept the sleep of the just.
+
+When I got up the next morning I found that Stephen Somers had already
+risen and gone out, nor did he appear until I was half through my
+breakfast.
+
+"Where on earth have you been?" I asked, noting that his clothes were
+torn and covered with wet moss.
+
+"Up the tallest of those palm trees, Quatermain. Saw an Arab climbing
+one of them with a rope and got another Arab to teach me the trick. It
+isn't really difficult, though it looks alarming."
+
+"What in the name of goodness----" I began.
+
+"Oh!" he interrupted, "my ruling passion. Looking through the glasses
+I thought I caught sight of an orchid growing near the crown, so went
+up. It wasn't an orchid after all, only a mass of yellow pollen. But I
+learned something for my pains. Sitting in the top of that palm I saw
+the /Maria/ working out from under the lee of the island. Also, far
+away, I noted a streak of smoke, and watching it through the glasses,
+made out what looked to me uncommonly like a man-of-war steaming
+slowly along the coast. In fact, I am sure it was, and English too.
+Then the mist came up and I lost sight of them."
+
+"My word!" I said, "that will be the /Crocodile/. What I told our
+host, Hassan, was not altogether bunkum. Mr. Cato, the port officer at
+Durban, mentioned to me that the /Crocodile/ was expected to call
+there within the next fortnight to take in stores after a slave-
+hunting cruise down the coast. Now it would be odd if she chanced to
+meet the /Maria/ and asked to have a look at her cargo, wouldn't it?"
+
+"Not at all, Quatermain, for unless one or the other of them changes
+her course that is just what she must do within the next hour or so,
+and I jolly well hope she will. I haven't forgiven that beast,
+Delgado, the trick he tried to play on us by slipping away with our
+goods, to say nothing of those poor devils of slaves. Pass the coffee,
+will you?"
+
+For the next ten minutes we ate in silence, for Stephen had an
+excellent appetite and was hungry after his morning climb.
+
+Just as we finished our meal Hassan appeared, looking even more
+villainous than he had done the previous day. I saw also that he was
+in a truculent mood, induced perhaps by the headache from which he was
+evidently suffering as a result of his potations. Or perhaps the fact
+that the /Maria/ had got safe away with the slaves, as he imagined
+unobserved by us, was the cause of the change of his demeanour. A
+third alternative may have been that he intended to murder us during
+the previous night and found no safe opportunity of carrying out his
+amiable scheme.
+
+We saluted him courteously, but without salaaming in reply he asked me
+bluntly through Sammy when we intended to be gone, as such "Christian
+dogs defiled his house," which he wanted for himself.
+
+I answered, as soon as the twenty bearers whom he had promised us
+appeared, but not before.
+
+"You lie," he said. "I never promised you bearers; I have none here."
+
+"Do you mean that you shipped them all away in the /Maria/ with the
+slaves last night?" I asked, sweetly.
+
+My reader, have you ever taken note of the appearance and proceedings
+of a tom-cat of established age and morose disposition when a little
+dog suddenly disturbs it on the prowl? Have you observed how it
+contorts itself into arched but unnatural shapes, how it swells
+visibly to almost twice its normal size, how its hair stands up and
+its eyes flash, and the stream of unmentionable language that proceeds
+from its open mouth? If so, you will have a very good idea of the
+effect produced upon Hassan by this remark of mine. The fellow looked
+as though he were going to burst with rage. He rolled about, his
+bloodshot eyes seemed to protrude, he cursed us horribly, he put his
+hand upon the hilt of the great knife he wore, and finally he did what
+the tom-cat does, he spat.
+
+Now, Stephen was standing with me, looking as cool as a cucumber and
+very much amused, and being, as it chanced, a little nearer to Hassan
+than I was, received the full benefit of this rude proceeding. My
+word! didn't it wake him up. He said something strong, and the next
+second flew at the half-breed like a tiger, landing him a beauty
+straight upon the nose. Back staggered Hassan, drawing his knife as he
+did so, but Stephen's left in the eye caused him to drop it, as he
+dropped himself. I pounced upon the knife, and since it was too late
+to interfere, for the mischief had been done, let things take their
+course and held back the Zulus who had rushed up at the noise.
+
+Hassan rose and, to do him credit, came on like a man, head down. His
+great skull caught Stephen, who was the lighter of the two, in the
+chest and knocked him over, but before the Arab could follow up the
+advantage, he was on his feet again. Then ensued a really glorious
+mill. Hassan fought with head and fists and feet, Stephen with fists
+alone. Dodging his opponent's rushes, he gave it to him as he passed,
+and soon his coolness and silence began to tell. Once he was knocked
+over by a hooked one under the jaw, but in the next round he sent the
+Arab literally flying head over heels. Oh! how those Zulus cheered,
+and I, too, danced with delight. Up Hassan came again, spitting out
+several teeth and, adopting new tactics, grabbed Stephen round the
+middle. To and fro they swung, the Arab trying to kick the Englishman
+with his knees and to bite him also, till the pain reminded him of the
+absence of his front teeth. Once he nearly got him down--nearly, but
+not quite, for the collar by which he had gripped him (his object was
+to strangle) burst and, at that juncture, Hassan's turban fell over
+his face, blinding him for a moment.
+
+Then Stephen gripped him round the middle with his left arm and with
+his right pommelled him unmercifully till he sank in a sitting
+position to the ground and held up his hand in token of surrender.
+
+"The noble English lord has beaten me," he gasped.
+
+"Apologise!" yelled Stephen, picking up a handful of mud, "or I shove
+this down your dirty throat."
+
+He seemed to understand. At any rate, he bowed till his forehead
+touched the ground, and apologised very thoroughly.
+
+"Now that is over," I said cheerfully to him, "so how about those
+bearers?"
+
+"I have no bearers," he answered.
+
+"You dirty liar," I exclaimed; "one of my people has been down to your
+village there and says it is full of men."
+
+"Then go and take them for yourself," he replied, viciously, for he
+knew that the place was stockaded.
+
+Now I was in a fix. It was all very well to give a slave-dealer the
+thrashing he deserved, but if he chose to attack us with his Arabs we
+should be in a poor way. Watching me with the eye that was not bunged
+up, Hassan guessed my perplexity.
+
+"I have been beaten like a dog," he said, his rage returning to him
+with his breath, "but God is compassionate and just, He will avenge in
+due time."
+
+The words had not left his lips for one second when from somewhere out
+at sea there floated the sullen boom of a great gun. At this moment,
+too, an Arab rushed up from the shore, crying:
+
+"Where is the Bey Hassan?"
+
+"Here," I said, pointing at him.
+
+The Arab stared until I thought his eyes would drop out, for the Bey
+Hassan was indeed a sight to see. Then he gabbled in a frightened
+voice:
+
+"Captain, an English man-of-war is chasing the /Maria/."
+
+Boom went the great gun for the second time. Hassan said nothing, but
+his jaw dropped, and I saw that he had lost exactly three teeth.
+
+"That is the /Crocodile/," I remarked slowly, causing Sammy to
+translate, and as I spoke, produced from my inner pocket a Union Jack
+which I had placed there after I heard that the ship was sighted.
+"Stephen," I went on as I shook it out, "if you have got your wind,
+would you mind climbing up that palm tree again and signalling with
+this to the /Crocodile/ out at sea?"
+
+"By George! that's a good idea," said Stephen, whose jovial face,
+although swollen, was now again wreathed in smiles. "Hans, bring me a
+long stick and a bit of string."
+
+But Hassan did not think it at all a good idea.
+
+"English lord," he gasped, "you shall have the bearers. I will go to
+fetch them."
+
+"No, you won't," I said, "you will stop here as a hostage. Send that
+man."
+
+Hassan uttered some rapid orders and the messenger sped away, this
+time towards the stockaded village on the right.
+
+As he went another messenger arrived, who also stared amazedly at the
+condition of his chief.
+
+"Bey--if you are the Bey," he said, in a doubtful voice, for by now
+the amiable face of Hassan had begun to swell and colour, "with the
+telescope we have seen that the English man-of-war has sent a boat and
+boarded the /Maria/."
+
+"God is great!" muttered the discomfited Hassan, "and Delgado, who is
+a thief and a traitor from his mother's breast, will tell the truth.
+The English sons of Satan will land here. All is finished; nothing is
+left but flight. Bid the people fly into the bush and take the slaves
+--I mean their servants. I will join them."
+
+"No, you won't," I interrupted, through Sammy; "at any rate, not at
+present. You will come with us."
+
+The miserable Hassan reflected, then he asked:
+
+"Lord Quatermain" (I remember the title, because it is the nearest I
+ever got, or am likely to get, to the peerage), "if I furnish you with
+the twenty bearers and accompany you for some days on your journey
+inland, will you promise not to signal to your countrymen on the ship
+and bring them ashore?"
+
+"What do you think?" I asked of Stephen.
+
+"Oh!" he answered, "I think I'd agree. This scoundrel has had a pretty
+good dusting, and if once the /Crocodile/ people land, there'll be an
+end of our expedition. As sure as eggs are eggs they will carry us off
+to Zanzibar or somewhere to give evidence before a slave court. Also
+nothing will be gained, for by the time the sailors get here, all
+these rascals will have bolted, except our friend, Hassan. You see it
+isn't as though we were sure he would be hung. He'd probably escape
+after all. International law, subject of a foreign Power, no direct
+proof--that kind of thing, you know."
+
+"Give me a minute or two," I said, and began to reflect very deeply.
+
+Whilst I was thus engaged several things happened. I saw twenty
+natives being escorted towards us, doubtless the bearers who had been
+promised; also I saw many others, accompanied by other natives, flying
+from the village into the bush. Lastly, a third messenger arrived, who
+announced that the /Maria/ was sailing away, apparently in charge of a
+prize-crew, and that the man-of-war was putting about as though to
+accompany her. Evidently she had no intention of effecting a landing
+upon what was, nominally at any rate, Portuguese territory. Therefore,
+if anything was to be done, we must act at once.
+
+Well, the end of it was that, like a fool, I accepted Stephen's advice
+and did nothing, always the easiest course and generally that which
+leads to most trouble. Ten minutes afterwards I changed my mind, but
+then it was too late; the /Crocodile/ was out of signalling distance.
+This was subsequent to a conversation with Hans.
+
+"Baas," said that worthy, in his leery fashion, "I think you have made
+a mistake. You forget that these yellow devils in white robes who have
+run away will come back again, and that when you return from up
+country, they may be waiting for you. Now if the English man-of-war
+had destroyed their town, and their slave-sheds, they might have gone
+somewhere else. However," he added, as an afterthought, glancing at
+the disfigured Hassan, "we have their captain, and of course you mean
+to hang him, Baas. Or if you don't like to, leave it to me. I can hang
+men very well. Once, when I was young, I helped the executioner at
+Cape Town."
+
+"Get out," I said, but, nevertheless, I knew that Hans was right.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+                            THE SLAVE ROAD
+
+The twenty bearers having arrived, in charge of five or six Arabs
+armed with guns, we went to inspect them, taking Hassan with us, also
+the hunters. They were a likely lot of men, though rather thin and
+scared-looking, and evidently, as I could see from their physical
+appearance and varying methods of dressing the hair, members of
+different tribes. Having delivered them, the Arabs, or rather one of
+them, entered into excited conversation with Hassan. As Sammy was not
+at hand I do not know what was said, although I gathered that they
+were contemplating his rescue. If so, they gave up the idea and began
+to run away as their companions had done. One of them, however, a
+bolder fellow than the rest, turned and fired at me. He missed by some
+yards, as I could tell from the sing of the bullet, for these Arabs
+are execrable shots. Still his attempt at murder irritated me so much
+that I determined he should not go scot-free. I was carrying the
+little rifle called "Intombi," that with which, as Hans had reminded
+me, I shot the vultures at Dingaan's kraal many years before. Of
+course, I could have killed the man, but this I did not wish to do. Or
+I could have shot him through the leg, but then we should have had to
+nurse him or leave him to die! So I selected his right arm, which was
+outstretched as he fled, and at about fifty paces put a bullet through
+it just above the elbow.
+
+"There," I said to the Zulus as I saw it double up, "that low fellow
+will never shoot at anyone again."
+
+"Pretty, Macumazana, very pretty!" said Mavovo, "but as you can aim so
+well, why not have chosen his head? That bullet is half-wasted."
+
+Next I set to work to get into communication with the bearers, who
+thought, poor devils, that they had been but sold to a new master.
+Here I may explain that they were slaves not meant for exportation,
+but men kept to cultivate Hassan's gardens. Fortunately I found that
+two of them belonged to the Mazitu people, who it may be remembered
+are of the same blood as the Zulus, although they separated from the
+parent stock generations ago. These men talked a dialect that I could
+understand, though at first not very easily. The foundation of it was
+Zulu, but it had become much mixed with the languages of other tribes
+whose women the Mazitu had taken to wife.
+
+Also there was a man who could speak some bastard Arabic, sufficiently
+well for Sammy to converse with him.
+
+I asked the Mazitus if they knew the way back to their country. They
+answered yes, but it was far off, a full month's journey. I told them
+that if they would guide us thither, they should receive their freedom
+and good pay, adding that if the other men served us well, they also
+should be set free when we had done with them. On receiving this
+information the poor wretches smiled in a sickly fashion and looked at
+Hassan-ben-Mohammed, who glowered at them and us from the box on which
+he was seated in charge of Mavovo.
+
+How can we be free while that man lives, their look seemed to say. As
+though to confirm their doubts Hassan, who understood or guessed what
+was passing, asked by what right we were promising freedom to his
+slaves.
+
+"By right of that," I answered, pointing to the Union Jack which
+Stephen still had in his hand. "Also we will pay you for them when we
+return, according as they have served us."
+
+"Yes," he muttered, "you will pay me for them when you return, or
+perhaps before that, Englishman."
+
+It was three o'clock in the afternoon before we were able to make a
+start. There was so much to be arranged that it might have been wiser
+to wait till the morrow, had we not determined that if we could help
+it nothing would induce us to spend another night in that place.
+Blankets were served out to each of the bearers who, poor naked
+creatures, seemed quite touched at the gift of them; the loads were
+apportioned, having already been packed at Durban in cases such as one
+man could carry. The pack saddles were put upon the four donkeys which
+proved to be none the worse for their journey, and burdens to a weight
+of about 100 lbs. each fixed on them in waterproof hide bags, besides
+cooking calabashes and sleeping mats which Hans produced from
+somewhere. Probably he stole them out of the deserted village, but as
+they were necessary to us I confess I asked no questions. Lastly, six
+or eight goats which were wandering about were captured to take with
+us for food till we could find game. For these I offered to pay
+Hassan, but when I handed him the money he threw it down in a rage, so
+I picked it up and put it in my pocket again with a clear conscience.
+
+At length everything was more or less ready, and the question arose as
+to what was to be done with Hassan. The Zulus, like Hans, wished to
+kill him, as Sammy explained to him in his best Arabic. Then this
+murderous fellow showed what a coward he was at heart. He flung
+himself upon his knees, he wept, he invoked us in the name of the
+Compassionate Allah who, he explained, was after all the same God that
+we worshipped, till Mavovo, growing impatient of the noise, threatened
+him with his kerry, whereon he became silent. The easy-natured Stephen
+was for letting him go, a plan that seemed to have advantages, for
+then at least we should be rid of his abominable company. After
+reflection, however, I decided that we had better take him along with
+us, at any rate for a day or so, to hold as a hostage in case the
+Arabs should follow and attack us. At first he refused to stir, but
+the assegai of one of the Zulu hunters pressed gently against what
+remained of his robe, furnished an argument that he could not resist.
+
+At length we were off. I with the two guides went ahead. Then came the
+bearers, then half of the hunters, then the four donkeys in charge of
+Hans and Sammy, then Hassan and the rest of the hunters, except
+Mavovo, who brought up the rear with Stephen. Needless to say, all our
+rifles were loaded, and generally we were prepared for any emergency.
+The only path, that which the guides said we must follow, ran by the
+seashore for a few hundred yards and then turned inland through
+Hassan's village where he lived, for it seemed that the old mission
+house was not used by him. As we marched along a little rocky cliff--
+it was not more than ten feet high--where a deep-water channel perhaps
+fifty yards in breadth separated the mainland from the island whence
+the slaves had been loaded on to the /Maria/, some difficulty arose
+about the donkeys. One of these slipped its load and another began to
+buck and evinced an inclination to leap into the sea with its precious
+burden. The rearguard of hunters ran to get hold of it, when suddenly
+there was a splash.
+
+The brute's in! I thought to myself, till a shout told me that not the
+ass, but Hassan had departed over the cliff's edge. Watching his
+opportunity and being, it was clear, a first-rate swimmer, he had
+flung himself backwards in the midst of the confusion and falling into
+deep water, promptly dived. About twenty yards from the shore he came
+up for a moment, then dived again heading for the island. I dare say I
+could have potted him through the head with a snap shot, but somehow I
+did not like to kill a man swimming for his life as though he were a
+hippopotamus or a crocodile. Moreover, the boldness of the manœuvre
+appealed to me. So I refrained from firing and called to the others to
+do likewise.
+
+As our late host approached the shore of the island I saw Arabs
+running down the rocks to help him out of the water. Either they had
+not left the place, or had re-occupied it as soon as H.M.S.
+/Crocodile/ had vanished with her prize. As it was clear that to
+recapture Hassan would involve an attack upon the garrison of the
+island which we were in no position to carry out, I gave orders for
+the march to be resumed. These, the difficulty with the donkey having
+been overcome, were obeyed at once.
+
+It was fortunate that we did not delay, for scarcely had the caravan
+got into motion when the Arabs on the island began to fire at us.
+Luckily no one was hit, and we were soon round a point and under
+cover; also their shooting was as bad as usual. One missile, however,
+it was a pot-leg, struck a donkey-load and smashed a bottle of good
+brandy and a tin of preserved butter. This made me angry, so motioning
+to the others to proceed I took shelter behind a tree and waited till
+a torn and dirty turban, which I recognised as that of Hassan, poked
+up above a rock. Well, I put a bullet through that turban, for I saw
+the thing fly, but unfortunately, not through the head beneath it.
+Having left this P.P.C. card on our host, I bolted from the rock and
+caught up the others.
+
+Presently we passed round the village; through it I would not go for
+fear of an ambuscade. It was quite a big place, enclosed with a strong
+fence, but hidden from the sea by a rise in the intervening land. In
+the centre was a large eastern-looking house, where doubtless Hassan
+dwelt with his harem. After we had gone a little way further, to my
+astonishment I saw flames breaking out from the palm-leaf roof of this
+house. At the time I could not imagine how this happened, but when, a
+day or two later, I observed Hans wearing a pair of large and very
+handsome gold pendants in his ears and a gold bracelet on his wrist,
+and found that he and one of the hunters were extremely well set up in
+the matter of British sovereigns--well, I had my doubts. In due course
+the truth came out. He and the hunter, an adventurous spirit, slipped
+through a gate in the fence without being observed, ran across the
+deserted village to the house, stole the ornaments and money from the
+women's apartments and as they departed, fired the place "in exchange
+for the bottle of good brandy," as Hans explained.
+
+I was inclined to be angry, but after all, as we had been fired on,
+Hans's exploit became an act of war rather than a theft. So I made him
+and his companion divide the gold equally with the rest of the
+hunters, who no doubt had kept their eyes conveniently shut, not
+forgetting Sammy, and said no more. They netted £8 apiece, which
+pleased them very much. In addition to this I gave £1 each, or rather
+goods to that value, to the bearers as their share of the loot.
+
+Hassan, I remarked, was evidently a great agriculturist, for the
+gardens which he worked by slave labour were beautiful, and must have
+brought him in a large revenue.
+
+Passing through these gardens we came to sloping land covered with
+bush. Here the track was not too good, for the creepers hampered our
+progress. Indeed, I was very glad when towards sunset we reached the
+crest of a hill and emerged upon a tableland which was almost clear of
+trees and rose gradually till it met the horizon. In that bush we
+might easily have been attacked, but in this open country I was not so
+much afraid, since the loss to the Arabs would have been great before
+we were overpowered. As a matter of fact, although spies dogged us for
+days no assault was ever attempted.
+
+Finding a convenient place by a stream we camped for the night, but as
+it was so fine, did not pitch the tents. Afterwards I was sorry that
+we had not gone further from the water, since the mosquitoes bred by
+millions in the marshes bordering the stream gave us a dreadful time.
+On poor Stephen, fresh from England, they fell with peculiar ferocity,
+with the result that in the morning what between the bruises left by
+Hassan and their bites, he was a spectacle for men and angels. Another
+thing that broke our rest was the necessity of keeping a strict watch
+in case the slave-traders should elect to attack us in the hours of
+darkness; also to guard against the possibility of our bearers running
+away and perhaps stealing the goods. It is true that before they went
+to sleep I explained to them very clearly that any of them who
+attempted to give us the slip would certainly be seen and shot,
+whereas if they remained with us they would be treated with every
+kindness. They answered through the two Mazitu that they had nowhere
+to go, and did not wish to fall again into the power of Hassan, of
+whom they spoke literally with shudders, pointing the while to their
+scarred backs and the marks of the slave yokes upon their necks. Their
+protestations seemed and indeed proved to be sincere, but of this of
+course we could not then be sure.
+
+As I was engaged at sunrise in making certain that the donkeys had not
+strayed and generally that all was well, I noted through the thin mist
+a little white object, which at first I thought was a small bird
+sitting on an upright stick about fifty yards from the camp. I went
+towards it and discovered that it was not a bird but a folded piece of
+paper stuck in a cleft wand, such as natives often use for the
+carrying of letters. I opened the paper and with great difficulty, for
+the writing within was bad Portuguese, read as follows:
+
+
+ "English Devils.--Do not think that you have escaped me. I know
+  where you are going, and if you live through the journey it will
+  be but to die at my hands after all. I tell you that I have at my
+  command three hundred brave men armed with guns who worship Allah
+  and thirst for the blood of Christian dogs. With these I will
+  follow, and if you fall into my hands alive, you shall learn what
+  it is to die by fire or pinned over ant-heaps in the sun. Let us
+  see if your English man-of-war will help you then, or your false
+  God either. Misfortune go with you, white-skinned robbers of
+  honest men!"
+
+
+This pleasing epistle was unsigned, but its anonymous author was not
+hard to identify. I showed it to Stephen who was so infuriated at its
+contents that he managed to dab some ammonia with which he was
+treating his mosquito bites into his eye. When at length the pain was
+soothed by bathing, we concocted this answer:
+
+
+ "Murderer, known among men as Hassan-ben-Mohammed--Truly we sinned
+  in not hanging you when you were in our power. Oh! wolf who grows
+  fat upon the blood of the innocent, this is a fault that we shall
+  not commit again. Your death is near to you and we believe at our
+  hands. Come with all your villains whenever you will. The more
+  there are of them the better we shall be pleased, who would rather
+  rid the world of many fiends than of a few,
+
+                           "Till we meet again, Allan Quatermain,
+                                                  Stephen Somers."
+
+
+"Neat, if not Christian," I said when I had read the letter over.
+
+"Yes," replied Stephen, "but perhaps just a little bombastic in tone.
+If that gentleman did arrive with three hundred armed men--eh?"
+
+"Then, my boy," I answered, "in this way or in that we shall thrash
+him. I don't often have an inspiration, but I've got one now, and it
+is to the effect that Mr. Hassan has not very long to live and that we
+shall be intimately connected with his end. Wait till you have seen a
+slave caravan and you will understand my feelings. Also I know these
+gentry. That little prophecy of ours will get upon his nerves and give
+him a foretaste of things. Hans, go and set this letter in that cleft
+stick. The postman will call for it before long."
+
+
+
+As it happened, within a few days we did see a slave caravan, some of
+the merchandise of the estimable Hassan.
+
+We had been making good progress through a beautiful and healthy
+country, steering almost due west, or rather a little to the north of
+west. The land was undulating and rich, well-watered and only bush-
+clad in the neighbourhood of the streams, the higher ground being
+open, of a park-like character, and dotted here and there with trees.
+It was evident that once, and not very long ago, the population had
+been dense, for we came to the remains of many villages, or rather
+towns with large market-places. Now, however, these were burned with
+fire, or deserted, or occupied only by a few old bodies who got a
+living from the overgrown gardens. These poor people, who sat desolate
+and crooning in the sun, or perhaps worked feebly at the once fertile
+fields, would fly screaming at our approach, for to them men armed
+with guns must of necessity be slave-traders.
+
+Still from time to time we contrived to catch some of them, and
+through one member of our party or the other to get at their stories.
+Really it was all one story. The slaving Arabs, on this pretext or on
+that, had set tribe against tribe. Then they sided with the stronger
+and conquered the weaker by aid of their terrible guns, killing out
+the old folk and taking the young men, women and children (except the
+infants whom they butchered) to be sold as slaves. It seemed that the
+business had begun about twenty years before, when Hassan-ben-Mohammed
+and his companions arrived at Kilwa and drove away the missionary who
+had built a station there.
+
+At first this trade was extremely easy and profitable, since the raw
+material lay near at hand in plenty. By degrees, however, the
+neighbouring communities had been worked out. Countless numbers of
+them were killed, while the pick of the population passed under the
+slave yoke, and those of them who survived, vanished in ships to
+unknown lands. Thus it came about that the slavers were obliged to go
+further afield and even to conduct their raids upon the borders of the
+territory of the great Mazitu people, the inland race of Zulu origin
+of whom I have spoken. According to our informants, it was even
+rumoured that they proposed shortly to attack these Mazitus in force,
+relying on their guns to give them the victory and open to them a new
+and almost inexhaustible store of splendid human merchandise.
+Meanwhile they were cleaning out certain small tribes which hitherto
+had escaped them, owing to the fact that they had their residence in
+bush or among difficult hills.
+
+The track we followed was the recognised slave road. Of this we soon
+became aware by the numbers of skeletons which we found lying in the
+tall grass at its side, some of them with heavy slave-sticks still
+upon their wrists. These, I suppose, had died from exhaustion, but
+others, as their split skulls showed had been disposed of by their
+captors.
+
+On the eighth day of our march we struck the track of a slave caravan.
+It had been travelling towards the coast, but for some reason or other
+had turned back. This may have been because its leaders had been
+warned of the approach of our party. Or perhaps they had heard that
+another caravan, which was at work in a different district, was
+drawing near, bringing its slaves with it, and wished to wait for its
+arrival in order that they might join forces.
+
+The spoor of these people was easy to follow. First we found the body
+of a boy of about ten. Then vultures revealed to us the remains of two
+young men, one of whom had been shot and the other killed by a blow
+from an axe. Their corpses were roughly hidden beneath some grass, I
+know not why. A mile or two further on we heard a child wailing and
+found it by following its cries. It was a little girl of about four
+who had been pretty, though now she was but a living skeleton. When
+she saw us she scrambled away on all fours like a monkey. Stephen
+followed her, while I, sick at heart, went to get a tin of preserved
+milk from our stores. Presently I heard him call to me in a horrified
+voice. Rather reluctantly, for I knew that he must have found
+something dreadful, I pushed my way through the bush to where he was.
+There, bound to the trunk of a tree, sat a young woman, evidently the
+mother of the child, for it clung to her leg.
+
+Thank God she was still living, though she must have died before
+another day dawned. We cut her loose, and the Zulu hunters, who are
+kind folk enough when they are not at war, carried her to camp. In the
+end with much trouble we saved the lives of that mother and child. I
+sent for the two Mazitus, with whom I could by now talk fairly well,
+and asked them why the slavers did these things.
+
+They shrugged their shoulders and one of them answered with a rather
+dreadful laugh:
+
+"Because, Chief, these Arabs, being black-hearted, kill those who can
+walk no more, or tie them up to die. If they let them go they might
+recover and escape, and it makes the Arabs sad that those who have
+been their slaves should live to be free and happy."
+
+"Does it? Does it indeed?" exclaimed Stephen with a snort of rage that
+reminded me of his father. "Well, if ever I get a chance I'll make
+them sad with a vengeance."
+
+Stephen was a tender-hearted young man, and for all his soft and
+indolent ways, an awkward customer when roused.
+
+Within forty-eight hours he got his chance, thus: That day we camped
+early for two reasons. The first was that the woman and child we had
+rescued wee so weak they could not walk without rest, and we had no
+men to spare to carry them; the second that we came to an ideal spot
+to pass the night. It was, as usual, a deserted village through which
+ran a beautiful stream of water. Here we took possession of some
+outlying huts with a fence round them, and as Mavovo had managed to
+shoot a fat eland cow and her half-grown calf, we prepared to have a
+regular feast. Whilst Sammy was making some broth for the rescued
+woman, and Stephen and I smoked our pipes and watched him, Hans
+slipped through the broken gate of the thorn fence, or /boma/, and
+announced that Arabs were coming, two lots of them with many slaves.
+
+We ran out to look and saw that, as he had said, two caravans were
+approaching, or rather had reached the village, but at some distance
+from us, and were now camping on what had once been the market-place.
+One of these was that whose track we had followed, although during the
+last few hours of our march we had struck away from it, chiefly
+because we could not bear such sights as I have described. It seemed
+to comprise about two hundred and fifty slaves and over forty guards,
+all black men carrying guns, and most of them by their dress Arabs, or
+bastard Arabs. In the second caravan, which approached from another
+direction, were not more than one hundred slaves and about twenty or
+thirty captors.
+
+"Now," I said, "let us eat our dinner and then, if you like, we will
+go to call upon those gentlemen, just to show that we are not afraid
+of them. Hans, get the flag and tie it to the top of that tree; it
+will show them to what country we belong."
+
+Up went the Union Jack duly, and presently through our glasses we saw
+the slavers running about in a state of excitement; also we saw the
+poor slaves turn and stare at the bit of flapping bunting and then
+begin to talk to each other. It struck me as possible that someone
+among their number had seen a Union Jack in the hands of an English
+traveller, or had heard of it as flying upon ships or at points on the
+coast, and what it meant to slaves. Or they may have understood some
+of the remarks of the Arabs, which no doubt were pointed and
+explanatory. At any rate, they turned and stared till the Arabs ran
+among them with sjambocks, that is, whips of hippopotamus hide, and
+suppressed their animated conversation with many blows.
+
+At first I thought that they would break camp and march away; indeed,
+they began to make preparations to do this, then abandoned the idea,
+probably because the slaves were exhausted and there was no other
+water they could reach before nightfall. In the end they settled down
+and lit cooking fires. Also, as I observed, they took precautions
+against attack by stationing sentries and forcing the slaves to
+construct a /boma/ of thorns about their camp.
+
+"Well," said Stephen, when we had finished our dinner, "are you ready
+for that call?"
+
+"No!" I answered, "I do not think that I am. I have been considering
+things, and concluded that we had better leave well alone. By this
+time those Arabs will know all the story of our dealings with their
+worthy master, Hassan, for no doubt he has sent messengers to them.
+Therefore, if we go to their camp, they may shoot us at sight. Or, if
+they receive us well, they may offer hospitality and poison us, or cut
+our throats suddenly. Our position might be better, still it is one
+that I believe they would find difficult to take. So, in my opinion,
+we had better stop still and await developments."
+
+Stephen grumbled something about my being over-cautious, but I took no
+heed of him. One thing I did do, however. Sending for Hans, I told him
+to take one of the Mazitu--I dared not risk them both for they were
+our guides--and another of the natives whom we had borrowed from
+Hassan, a bold fellow who knew all the local languages, and creep down
+to the slavers' camp as soon as it was quite dark. There I ordered him
+to find out what he could, and if possible to mix with the slaves and
+explain that we were their friends. Hans nodded, for this was exactly
+the kind of task that appealed to him, and went off to make his
+preparations.
+
+Stephen and I also made some preparations in the way of strengthening
+our defences, building large watch-fires and setting sentries.
+
+The night fell, and Hans with his companions departed stealthily as
+snakes. The silence was intense, save for the occasional wailings of
+the slaves, which now and again broke out in bursts of melancholy
+sound, "/La-lu-La-lua!/" and then died away, to be followed by horrid
+screams as the Arabs laid their lashes upon some poor wretch. Once
+too, a shot was fired.
+
+"They have seen Hans," said Stephen.
+
+"I think not," I answered, "for if so there would have been more than
+one shot. Either it was an accident or they were murdering a slave."
+
+After this nothing more happened for a long while, till at length Hans
+seemed to rise out of the ground in front of me, and behind him I saw
+the figures of the Mazitu and the other man.
+
+"Tell your story," I said.
+
+"Baas, it is this. Between us we have learned everything. The Arabs
+know all about you and what men you have. Hassan has sent them orders
+to kill you. It is well that you did not go to visit them, for
+certainly you would have been murdered. We crept near and overheard
+their talk. They purpose to attack us at dawn to-morrow morning unless
+we leave this place before, which they will know of as we are being
+watched."
+
+"And if so, what then?" I asked.
+
+"Then, Baas, they will attack as we are making up the caravan, or
+immediately afterwards as we begin to march."
+
+"Indeed. Anything more, Hans?"
+
+"Yes, Baas. These two men crept among the slaves and spoke with them.
+They are very sad, those slaves, and many of them have died of heart-
+pain because they have been taken from their homes and do not know
+where they are going. I saw one die just now; a young woman. She was
+talking to another woman and seemed quite well, only tired, till
+suddenly she said in a loud voice, 'I am going to die, that I may come
+back as a spirit and bewitch these devils till they are spirits too.'
+Then she called upon the fetish of her tribe, put her hands to her
+breast and fell down dead. At least," added Hans, spitting
+reflectively, "she did not fall quite down because the slave-stick
+held her head off the ground. The Arabs were very angry, both because
+she had cursed them and was dead. One of them came and kicked her body
+and afterwards shot her little boy who was sick, because the mother
+had cursed them. But fortunately he did not see us, because we were in
+the dark far from the fire."
+
+"Anything more, Hans?"
+
+"One thing, Baas. These two men lent the knives you gave them to two
+of the boldest among the slaves that they might cut the cords of the
+slave-sticks and the other cords with which they were tied, and then
+pass them down the lines, that their brothers might do the same. But
+perhaps the Arabs will find it out, and then the Mazitu and the other
+must lose their knives. That is all. Has the Baas a little tobacco?"
+
+"Now, Stephen," I said when Hans had gone and I had explained
+everything, "there are two courses open to us. Either we can try to
+give these gentlemen the slip at once, in which case we must leave the
+woman and child to their fate, or we can stop where we are and wait to
+be attacked."
+
+"I won't run," said Stephen sullenly; "it would be cowardly to desert
+that poor creature. Also we should have a worse chance marching.
+Remember Hans said that they are watching us."
+
+"Then you would wait to be attacked?"
+
+"Isn't there a third alternative, Quatermain? To attack them?"
+
+"That's the idea," I said. "Let us send for Mavovo."
+
+Presently he came and sat down in front of us, while I set out the
+case to him.
+
+"It is the fashion of my people to attack rather than to be attacked,
+and yet, my father, in this case my heart is against it. Hans" (he
+called him /Inblatu/, a Zulu word which means Spotted Snake, that was
+the Hottentot's Kaffir name) "says that there are quite sixty of the
+yellow dogs, all armed with guns, whereas we have not more than
+fifteen, for we cannot trust the slave men. Also he says that they are
+within a strong fence and awake, with spies out, so that it will be
+difficult to surprise them. But here, father, we are in a strong fence
+and cannot be surprised. Also men who torture and kill women and
+children, except in war must, I think, be cowards, and will come on
+faintly against good shooting, if indeed they come at all. Therefore,
+I say, 'Wait till the buffalo shall either charge or run.' But the
+word is with you, Macumazana, wise Watcher-by-Night, not with me, your
+hunter. Speak, you who are old in war, and I will obey."
+
+"You argue well," I answered; "also another reason comes to my mind.
+Those Arab brutes may get behind the slaves, of whom we should butcher
+a lot without hurting them. Stephen, I think we had better see the
+thing through here."
+
+"All right, Quatermain. Only I hope that Mavovo is wrong in thinking
+that those blackguards may change their minds and run away."
+
+"Really, young man, you are becoming very blood-thirsty--for an orchid
+grower," I remarked, looking at him. "Now, for my part, I devoutly
+hope that Mavovo is right, for let me tell you, if he isn't it may be
+a nasty job."
+
+"I've always been peaceful enough up to the present," replied Stephen.
+"But the sight of those unhappy wretches of slaves with their heads
+cut open, and of the woman tied to a tree to starve----"
+
+"Make you wish to usurp the functions of God Almighty," I said. "Well,
+it is a natural impulse and perhaps, in the circumstances, one that
+will not displease Him. And now, as we have made up our minds what we
+are going to do, let's get to business so that these Arab gentlemen
+may find their breakfast ready when they come to call."
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII
+
+                        THE RUSH OF THE SLAVES
+
+Well, we did all that we could in the way of making ready. After we
+had strengthened the thorn fence of our /boma/ as much as possible and
+lit several large fires outside of it to give us light, I allotted his
+place to each of the hunters and saw that their rifles were in order
+and that they had plenty of ammunition. Then I made Stephen lie down
+to sleep, telling him that I would wake him to watch later on. This,
+however, I had no intention of doing as I wanted him to rise fresh and
+with a steady nerve on the occasion of his first fight.
+
+As soon as I saw that his eyes were shut I sat down on a box to think.
+To tell the truth, I was not altogether happy in my mind. To begin
+with I did not know how the twenty bearers would behave under fire.
+They might be seized with panic and rush about, in which case I
+determined to let them out of the /boma/ to take their chance, for
+panic is a catching thing.
+
+A worse matter was our rather awkward position. There were a good many
+trees round the camp among which an attacking force could take cover.
+But what I feared much more than this, or even than the reedy banks of
+the stream along which they could creep out of reach of our bullets,
+was a sloping stretch of land behind us, covered with thick grass and
+scrub and rising to a crest about two hundred yards away. Now if the
+Arabs got round to this crest they would fire straight into our /boma/
+and make it untenable. Also if the wind were in their favour, they
+might burn us out or attack under the clouds of smoke. As a matter of
+fact, by the special mercy of Providence, none of these things
+happened, for a reason which I will explain presently.
+
+In the case of a night, or rather a dawn attack, I have always found
+that hour before the sky begins to lighten very trying indeed. As a
+rule everything that can be done is done, so that one must sit idle.
+Also it is then that both the physical and the moral qualities are at
+their lowest ebb, as is the mercury in the thermometer. The night is
+dying, the day is not yet born. All nature feels the influence of that
+hour. Then bad dreams come, then infants wake and call, then memories
+of those who are lost to us arise, then the hesitating soul often
+takes its plunge into the depths of the Unknown. It is not wonderful,
+therefore, that on this occasion the wheels of Time drave heavily for
+me. I knew that the morning was at hand by many signs. The sleeping
+bearers turned and muttered in their sleep, a distant lion ceased its
+roaring and departed to its own place, an alert-minded cock crew
+somewhere, and our donkeys rose and began to pull at their tether-
+ropes. As yet, however, it was quite dark. Hans crept up to me; I saw
+his wrinkled, yellow face in the light of the watch-fire.
+
+"I smell the dawn," he said and vanished again.
+
+Mavovo appeared, his massive frame silhouetted against the blackness.
+
+"Watcher-by-Night, the night is done," he said. "If they come at all,
+the enemy should soon be here."
+
+Saluting, he too passed away into the dark, and presently I heard the
+sounds of spear-blades striking together and of rifles being cocked.
+
+I went to Stephen and woke him. He sat up yawning, muttered something
+about greenhouses; then remembering, said:
+
+"Are those Arabs coming? We are in for a fight at last. Jolly, old
+fellow, isn't it?"
+
+"You are a jolly old fool!" I answered inconsequently; and marched off
+in a rage.
+
+My mind was uneasy about this inexperienced young man. If anything
+should happen to him, what should I say to his father? Well, in that
+event, it was probable that something would happen to me too. Very
+possibly we should both be dead in an hour. Certainly I had no
+intention of allowing myself to be taken alive by those slaving
+devils. Hassan's remarks about fires and ant-heaps and the sun were
+too vividly impressed upon my memory.
+
+In another five minutes everybody was up, though it required kicks to
+rouse most of the bearers from their slumbers. They, poor men, were
+accustomed to the presence of Death and did not suffer him to disturb
+their sleep. Still I noted that they muttered together and seemed
+alarmed.
+
+"If they show signs of treachery, you must kill them," I said to
+Mavovo, who nodded in his grave, silent fashion.
+
+Only we left the rescued slave-woman and her child plunged in the
+stupor of exhaustion in a corner of the camp. What was the use of
+disturbing her?
+
+Sammy, who seemed far from comfortable, brought two pannikins of
+coffee to Stephen and myself.
+
+"This is a momentous occasion, Messrs. Quatermain and Somers," he said
+as he gave us the coffee, and I noted that his hand shook and his
+teeth chattered. "The cold is extreme," he went on in his copybook
+English by way of explaining these physical symptoms which he saw I
+had observed. "Mr. Quatermain, it is all very well for you to paw the
+ground and smell the battle from afar, as is written in the Book of
+Job. But I was not brought up to the trade and take it otherwise.
+Indeed I wish I was back at the Cape, yes, even within the whitewashed
+walls of the Place of Detention."
+
+"So do I," I muttered, keeping my right foot on the ground with
+difficulty.
+
+But Stephen laughed outright and asked:
+
+"What will you do, Sammy, when the fighting begins?"
+
+"Mr. Somers," he answered, "I have employed some wakeful hours in
+making a hole behind that tree-trunk, through which I hope bullets
+will not pass. There, being a man of peace, I shall pray for our
+success."
+
+"And if the Arabs get in, Sammy?"
+
+"Then, sir, under Heaven, I shall trust to the fleetness of my legs."
+
+I could stand it no longer, my right foot flew up and caught Sammy in
+the place at which I had aimed. He vanished, casting a reproachful
+look behind him.
+
+Just then a terrible clamour arose in the slavers' camp which hitherto
+had been very silent, and just then also the first light of dawn
+glinted on the barrels of our guns.
+
+"Look out!" I cried, as I gulped down the last of my coffee, "there's
+something going on there."
+
+The clamour grew louder and louder till it seemed to fill the skies
+with a concentrated noise of curses and shrieking. Distinct from it,
+as it were, I heard shouts of alarm and rage, and then came the sounds
+of gunshots, yells of agony and the thud of many running feet. By now
+the light was growing fast, as it does when once it comes in these
+latitudes. Three more minutes, and through the grey mist of the dawn
+we saw dozens of black figures struggling up the slope towards us.
+Some seemed to have logs of wood tied behind them, others crawled
+along on all fours, others dragged children by the hand, and all
+yelled at the top of their voices.
+
+"The slaves are attacking us," said Stephen, lifting his rifle.
+
+"Don't shoot," I cried. "I think they have broken loose and are taking
+refuge with us."
+
+I was right. These unfortunates had used the two knives which our men
+smuggled to them to good purpose. Having cut their bonds during the
+night they were running to seek the protection of the Englishmen and
+their flag. On they surged, a hideous mob, the slave-sticks still fast
+to the necks of many of them, for they had not found time or
+opportunity to loose them all, while behind came the Arabs firing. The
+position was clearly very serious, for if they burst into our camp, we
+should be overwhelmed by their rush and fall victims to the bullets of
+their captors.
+
+"Hans," I cried, "take the men who were with you last night and try to
+lead those slaves round behind us. Quick! Quick now before we are
+stamped flat."
+
+Hans darted away, and presently I saw him and the two other men
+running towards the approaching crowd, Hans waving a shirt or some
+other white object to attract their attention. At the time the
+foremost of them had halted and were screaming, "Mercy, English! Save
+us, English!" having caught sight of the muzzles of our guns.
+
+This was a fortunate occurrence indeed, for otherwise Hans and his
+companions could never have stopped them. The next thing I saw was the
+white shirt bearing away to the left on a line which led past the
+fence of our /boma/ into the scrub and high grass behind the camp.
+After it struggled and scrambled the crowd of slaves like a flock of
+sheep after the bell-wether. To them Hans's shirt was a kind of "white
+helmet of Navarre."
+
+So that danger passed by. Some of the slaves had been struck by the
+Arab bullets or trodden down in the rush or collapsed from weakness,
+and at those of them who still lived the pursuers were firing. One
+woman, who had fallen under the weight of the great slave-stick which
+was fastened about her throat, was crawling forward on her hands and
+knees. An Arab fired at her and the bullet struck the ground under her
+stomach but without hurting her, for she wriggled forward more
+quickly. I was sure that he would shoot again, and watched. Presently,
+for by now the light was good, I saw him, a tall fellow in a white
+robe, step from behind the shelter of a banana-tree about a hundred
+and fifty yards away, and take a careful aim at the woman. But I too
+took aim and--well, I am not bad at this kind of snap-shooting when I
+try. That Arab's gun never went off. Only he went up two feet or more
+into the air and fell backwards, shot through the head which was the
+part of his person that I had covered.
+
+The hunters uttered a low "/Ow!/" of approval, while Stephen, in a
+sort of ecstasy, exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! what a heavenly shot!"
+
+"Not bad, but I shouldn't have fired it," I answered, "for they
+haven't attacked us yet. It is a kind of declaration of war, and," I
+added, as Stephen's sun-helmet leapt from his head, "there's the
+answer. Down, all of you, and fire through the loopholes."
+
+Then the fight began. Except for its grand finale it wasn't really
+much of a fight when compared with one or two we had afterwards on
+this expedition. But, on the other hand, its character was extremely
+awkward for us. The Arabs made one rush at the beginning, shouting on
+Allah as they came. But though they were plucky villains they did not
+repeat that experiment. Either by good luck or good management Stephen
+knocked over two of them with his double-barrelled rifle, and I also
+emptied my large-bore breech-loader--the first I ever owned--among
+them, not without results, while the hunters made a hit or two.
+
+After this the Arabs took cover, getting behind trees and, as I had
+feared, hiding in the reeds on the banks of the stream. Thence they
+harassed us a great deal, for amongst them were some very decent
+shots. Indeed, had we not taken the precaution of lining the thorn
+fence with a thick bank of earth and sods, we should have fared badly.
+As it was, one of the hunters was killed, the bullet passing through
+the loophole and striking him in the throat as he was about to fire,
+while the unfortunate bearers who were on rather higher ground,
+suffered a good deal, two of them being dispatched outright and four
+wounded. After this I made the rest of them lie flat on the ground
+close against the fence, in such a fashion that we could fire over
+their bodies.
+
+Soon it became evident that there were more of these Arabs than we had
+thought, for quite fifty of them were firing from different places.
+Moreover, by slow degrees they were advancing with the evident object
+of outflanking us and gaining the high ground behind. Some of them, of
+course, we stopped as they rushed from cover to cover, but this kind
+of shooting was as difficult as that at bolting rabbits across a
+woodland ride, and to be honest, I must say that I alone was much good
+at the game, for here my quick eye and long practice told.
+
+Within an hour the position had grown very serious indeed, so much so
+that we found it necessary to consider what should be done. I pointed
+out that with our small number a charge against the scattered
+riflemen, who were gradually surrounding us, would be worse than
+useless, while it was almost hopeless to expect to hold the /boma/
+till nightfall. Once the Arabs got behind us, they could rake us from
+the higher ground. Indeed, for the last half-hour we had directed all
+our efforts to preventing them from passing this /boma/, which,
+fortunately, the stream on the one side and a stretch of quite open
+land on the other made it very difficult for them to do without more
+loss than they cared to face.
+
+"I fear there is only one thing for it," I said at length, during a
+pause in the attack while the Arabs were either taking counsel or
+waiting for more ammunition, "to abandon the camp and everything and
+bolt up the hill. As those fellows must be tired and we are all good
+runners, we may save our lives in that way."
+
+"How about the wounded," asked Stephen, "and the slave-woman and
+child?"
+
+"I don't know," I answered, looking down.
+
+Of course I did know very well, but here, in an acute form, arose the
+ancient question: Were we to perish for the sake of certain
+individuals in whom we had no great interest and whom we could not
+save by remaining with them? If we stayed where we were our end seemed
+fairly certain, whereas if we ran for it, we had a good chance of
+escape. But this involved the desertion of several injured bearers and
+a woman and child whom we had picked up starving, all of whom would
+certainly be massacred, save perhaps the woman and child.
+
+As these reflections flitted through my brain I remembered that a
+drunken Frenchman named Leblanc, whom I had known in my youth and who
+had been a friend of Napoleon, or so he said, told me that the great
+emperor when he was besieging Acre in the Holy Land, was forced to
+retreat. Being unable to carry off his wounded men, he left them in a
+monastery on Mount Carmel, each with a dose of poison by his side.
+Apparently they did not take the poison, for according to Leblanc, who
+said he was present there (not as a wounded man), the Turks came and
+butchered them. So Napoleon chose to save his own life and that of his
+army at the expense of his wounded. But, after all, I reflected, he
+was no shining example to Christian men and I hadn't time to find any
+poison. In a few words I explained the situation to Mavovo, leaving
+out the story of Napoleon, and asked his advice.
+
+"We must run," he answered. "Although I do not like running, life is
+more than stores, and he who lives may one day pay his debts."
+
+"But the wounded, Mavovo; we cannot carry them."
+
+"I will see to them, Macumazana; it is the fortune of war. Or if they
+prefer it, we can leave them--to be nursed by the Arabs," which of
+course was just Napoleon and his poison over again.
+
+I confess that I was about to assent, not wishing that I and Stephen,
+especially Stephen, should be potted in an obscure engagement with
+some miserable slave-traders, when something happened.
+
+It will be remembered that shortly after dawn Hans, using a shirt for
+a flag, had led the fugitive slaves past the camp up to the hill
+behind. There he and they had vanished, and from that moment to this
+we had seen nothing of him or them. Now of a sudden he reappeared
+still waving the shirt. After him rushed a great mob of naked men, two
+hundred of them perhaps, brandishing slave-sticks, stones and the
+boughs of trees. When they had almost reached the /boma/ whence we
+watched them amazed, they split into two bodies, half of them passing
+to our left, apparently under the command of the Mazitu who had
+accompanied Hans to the slave-camp, and the other half to the right
+following the old Hottentot himself. I stared at Mavovo, for I was too
+thunderstruck to speak.
+
+"Ah!" said Mavovo, "that Spotted Snake of yours" (he referred to
+Hans), "is great in his own way, for he has even been able to put
+courage into the hearts of slaves. Do you not understand, my father,
+that they are about to attack those Arabs, yes, and to pull them down,
+as wild dogs do a buffalo calf?"
+
+It was true: this was the Hottentot's superb design. Moreover, it
+succeeded. Up on the hillside he had watched the progress of the fight
+and seen how it must end. Then, through the interpreter who was with
+him, he harangued those slaves, pointing out to them that we, their
+white friends, were about to be overwhelmed, and that they must either
+strike for themselves, or return to the yoke. Among them were some who
+had been warriors in their own tribes, and through these he stirred
+the others. They seized the slave-sticks from which they had been
+freed, pieces of rock, anything that came to their hands, and at a
+given signal charged, leaving only the women and children behind them.
+
+Seeing them come the scattered Arabs began to fire at them, killing
+some, but thereby revealing their own hiding-places. At these the
+slaves rushed. They hurled themselves upon the Arabs; they tore them,
+they dashed out their brains in such fashion that within another five
+minutes quite two-thirds of them were dead; and the rest, of whom we
+took some toll with our rifles as they bolted from cover, were in full
+flight.
+
+It was a terrible vengeance. Never did I witness a more savage scene
+than that of these outraged men wreaking their wrongs upon their
+tormentors. I remember that when most of the Arabs had been killed and
+a few were escaped, the slaves found one, I think it was the captain
+of the gang, who had hidden himself in a little patch of dead reeds
+washed up by the stream. Somehow they managed to fire these; I expect
+that Hans, who had remained discreetly in the background after the
+fighting began, emerged when it was over and gave them a match. In due
+course out came the wretched Arab. Then they flung themselves on him
+as marching ants do upon a caterpillar, and despite his cries for
+mercy, tore him to fragments, literally to fragments. Being what they
+were, it was hard to blame them. If we had seen our parents shot, our
+infants pitilessly butchered, our homes destroyed and our women and
+children marched off in the slave-sticks to be sold into bondage,
+should we not have done the same? I think so, although we are not
+ignorant savages.
+
+Thus our lives were saved by those whom we had tried to save, and for
+once justice was done even in those dark parts of Africa, for in that
+time they were dark indeed. Had it not been for Hans and the courage
+which he managed to inspire into the hearts of these crushed blacks, I
+have little doubt but that before nightfall we should have been dead,
+for I do not think that any attempt at retreat would have proved
+successful. And if it had, what would have happened to us in that wild
+country surrounded by enemies and with only the few rounds of
+ammunition that we could have carried in our flight?
+
+"Ah! Baas," said the Hottentot a little while later, squinting at me
+with his bead-like eyes, "after all you did well to listen to my
+prayer and bring me with you. Old Hans is a drunkard, yes, or at least
+he used to be, and old Hans gambles, yes, and perhaps old Hans will go
+to hell. But meanwhile old Hans can think, as he thought one day
+before the attack on Maraisfontein, as he thought one day on the Hill
+of Slaughter by Dingaan's kraal, and as he thought this morning up
+there among the bushes. Oh! he knew how it must end. He saw that those
+dogs of Arabs were cutting down a tree to make a bridge across that
+deep stream and get round to the high ground at the back of you,
+whence they would have shot you all in five minutes. And now, Baas, my
+stomach feels very queer. There was no breakfast on the hillside and
+the sun was very hot. I think that just one tot of brandy--oh! I know,
+I promised not to drink, but if /you/ give it me the sin is yours, not
+mine."
+
+Well, I gave him the tot, a stiff one, which he drank quite neat,
+although it was against my principles, and locked up the bottle
+afterwards. Also I shook the old fellow's hand and thanked him, which
+seemed to please him very much, for he muttered something to the
+effect that it was nothing, since if I had died he would have died
+too, and therefore he was thinking of himself, not of me. Also two big
+tears trickled down his snub nose, but these may have been produced by
+the brandy.
+
+Well, we were the victors and elated as may be imagined, for we knew
+that the few slavers who had escaped would not attack us again. Our
+first thought was for food, for it was now past midday and we were
+starving. But dinner presupposed a cook, which reminded us of Sammy.
+Stephen, who was in such a state of jubilation that he danced rather
+than walked, the helmet with a bullet-hole through it stuck
+ludicrously upon the back of his head, started to look for him, and
+presently called to me in an alarmed voice. I went to the back of the
+camp and, staring into a hole like a small grave, that had been
+hollowed behind a solitary thorn tree, at the bottom of which lay a
+huddled heap, I found him. It was Sammy to all appearance. We got hold
+of him, and up he came, limp, senseless, but still holding in his hand
+a large, thick Bible, bound in boards. Moreover, in the exact centre
+of this Bible was a bullet-hole, or rather a bullet which had passed
+through the stout cover and buried itself in the paper behind. I
+remember that the point of it reached to the First Book of Samuel.
+
+As for Sammy himself, he seemed to be quite uninjured, and indeed
+after we had poured some water on him--he was never fond of water--he
+revived quickly enough. Then we found out what had happened.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I was seated in my place of refuge, being as I
+have told you a man of peace, enjoying the consolation of religion"--
+he was very pious in times of trouble. "At length the firing
+slackened, and I ventured to peep out, thinking that perhaps the foe
+had fled, holding the Book in front of my face in case of accidents.
+After that I remember no more."
+
+"No," said Stephen, "for the bullet hit the Bible and the Bible hit
+your head and knocked you silly."
+
+"Ah!" said Sammy, "how true is what I was taught that the Book shall
+be a shield of defence to the righteous. Now I understand why I was
+moved to bring the thick old Bible that belonged to my mother in
+heaven, and not the little thin one given to me by the Sunday school
+teacher, through which the ball of the enemy would have passed."
+
+Then he went off to cook the dinner.
+
+Certainly it was a wonderful escape, though whether this was a direct
+reward of his piety, as he thought, is another matter.
+
+As soon as we had eaten, we set to work to consider our position, of
+which the crux was what to do with the slaves. There they sat in
+groups outside the fence, many of them showing traces of the recent
+conflict, and stared at us stupidly. Then of a sudden, as though with
+one voice, they began to clamour for food.
+
+"How are we to feed several hundred people?" asked Stephen.
+
+"The slavers must have done it somehow," I answered. "Let's go and
+search their camp."
+
+So we went, followed by our hungry clients, and, in addition to many
+more things, to our delight found a great store of rice, mealies and
+other grain, some of which was ground into meal. Of this we served out
+an ample supply together with salt, and soon the cooking pots were
+full of porridge. My word! how those poor creatures did eat, nor,
+although it was necessary to be careful, could we find it in our
+hearts to stint them of the first full meal that had passed their lips
+after weeks of starvation. When at length they were satisfied we
+addressed them, thanking them for their bravery, telling them that
+they were free and asking what they meant to do.
+
+Upon this point they seemed to have but one idea. They said that they
+would come with us who were their protectors. Then followed a great
+/indaba/, or consultation, which really I have not time to set out.
+The end of it was that we agreed that so many of them as wished should
+accompany us till they reached country that they knew, when they would
+be at liberty to depart to their own homes. Meanwhile we divided up
+the blankets and other stores of the Arabs, such as trade goods and
+beads, among them, and then left them to their own devices, after
+placing a guard over the foodstuffs. For my part I hoped devoutly that
+in the morning we should find them gone.
+
+After this we returned to our /boma/ just in time to assist at a sad
+ceremony, that of the burial of my hunter who had been shot through
+the head. His companions had dug a deep hole outside the fence and
+within a few yards of where he fell. In this they placed him in a
+sitting position with his face turned towards Zululand, setting by his
+side two gourds that belonged to him, one filled with water and the
+other with grain. Also they gave him a blanket and his two assegais,
+tearing the blanket and breaking the handles of the spears, to "kill"
+them as they said. Then quietly enough they threw in the earth about
+him and filled the top of the hole with large stones to prevent the
+hyenas from digging him up. This done, one by one, they walked past
+the grave, each man stopping to bid him farewell by name. Mavovo, who
+came last, made a little speech, telling the deceased to /namba
+kachle/, that is, go comfortably to the land of ghosts, as, he added,
+no doubt he would do who had died as a man should. He requested him,
+moreover, if he returned as a spirit, to bring good and not ill-
+fortune on us, since otherwise when he, Mavovo, became a spirit in his
+turn, he would have words to say to him on the matter. In conclusion,
+he remarked that as his, Mavovo's Snake, had foretold this event at
+Durban, a fact with which the deceased would now be acquainted he, the
+said deceased, could never complain of not having received value for
+the shilling he had paid as a divining fee.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed one of the hunters with a note of anxiety in his
+voice, "but your Snake mentioned six of us to you, O doctor!"
+
+"It did," replied Mavovo, drawing a pinch of snuff up his uninjured
+nostril, "and our brother there was the first of the six. Be not
+afraid, the other five will certainly join him in due course, for my
+Snake must speak the truth. Still, if anyone is in a hurry," and he
+glared round the little circle, "let him stop and talk with me alone.
+Perhaps I could arrange that his turn----" here he stopped, for they
+were all gone.
+
+"Glad /I/ didn't pay a shilling to have my fortune told by Mavovo,"
+said Stephen, when we were back in the /boma/, "but why did they bury
+his pots and spears with him?"
+
+"To be used by the spirit on its journey," I answered. "Although they
+do not quite know it, these Zulus believe, like all the rest of the
+world, that man lives on elsewhere."
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+                           THE MAGIC MIRROR
+
+I did not sleep very well that night, for now that the danger was over
+I found that the long strain of it had told upon my nerves. Also there
+were many noises. Thus, the bearers who were shot had been handed over
+to their companions, who disposed of them in a simple fashion, namely
+by throwing them into the bush where they attracted the notice of
+hyenas. Then the four wounded men who lay near to me groaned a good
+deal, or when they were not groaning uttered loud prayers to their
+local gods. We had done the best we could for these unlucky fellows.
+Indeed, that kind-hearted little coward, Sammy, who at some time in
+his career served as a dresser in a hospital, had tended their wounds,
+none of which were mortal, very well indeed, and from time to time
+rose to minister to them.
+
+But what disturbed me most was the fearful hubbub which came from the
+camp below. Many of the tropical African tribes are really semi-
+nocturnal in their habits, I suppose because there the night is cooler
+than the day, and on any great occasion this tendency asserts itself.
+
+Thus every one of these freed slaves seemed to be howling his loudest
+to an accompaniment of clashing iron pots or stones, which, lacking
+their native drums, they beat with sticks.
+
+Moreover, they had lit large fires, about which they flitted in an
+ominous and unpleasant fashion, that reminded me of some mediaeval
+pictures of hell, which I had seen in an old book.
+
+At last I could stand it no longer, and kicking Hans who, curled up
+like a dog, slept at my feet, asked him what was going on. His answer
+caused me to regret the question.
+
+"Plenty of those slaves cannibal men, Baas. Think they eat the Arabs
+and like them very much," he said with a yawn, then went to sleep
+again.
+
+I did not continue the conversation.
+
+When at length we made a start on the following morning the sun was
+high over us. Indeed, there was a great deal to do. The guns and
+ammunition of the dead Arabs had to be collected; the ivory, of which
+they carried a good store, must be buried, for to take it with us was
+impossible, and the loads apportioned.[*] Also it was necessary to
+make litters for the wounded, and to stir up the slaves from their
+debauch, into the nature of which I made no further inquiries, was no
+easy task. On mustering them I found that a good number had vanished
+during the night, where to I do not know. Still a mob of well over two
+hundred people, a considerable portion of whom were women and
+children, remained, whose one idea seemed to be to accompany us
+wherever we might wander. So with this miscellaneous following at
+length we started.
+
+[*] To my sorrow we never saw this ivory again.--A.Q.
+
+To describe our adventures during the next month would be too long if
+not impossible, for to tell the truth, after the lapse of so many
+years, these have become somewhat entangled in my mind. Our great
+difficulty was to feed such a multitude, for the store of rice and
+grain, upon which we were quite unable to keep a strict supervision,
+they soon devoured. Fortunately the country through which we passed,
+at this time of the year (the end of the wet season) was full of game,
+of which, travelling as we did very slowly, we were able to shoot a
+great deal. But this game killing, delightful as it may be to the
+sportsman, soon palled on us as a business. To say nothing of the
+expenditure of ammunition, it meant incessant work.
+
+Against this the Zulu hunters soon began to murmur, for, as Stephen
+and I could rarely leave the camp, the burden of it fell on them.
+Ultimately I hit upon this scheme. Picking out thirty or forty of the
+likeliest men among the slaves, I served out to each of them
+ammunition and one of the Arab guns, in the use of which we drilled
+them as best we could. Then I told them that they must provide
+themselves and their companions with meat. Of course accidents
+happened. One man was accidentally shot and three others were killed
+by a cow elephant and a wounded buffalo. But in the end they learned
+to handle their rifles sufficiently well to supply the camp. Moreover,
+day by day little parties of the slaves disappeared, I presume to seek
+their own homes, so that when at last we entered the borders of the
+Mazitu country there were not more than fifty of them left, including
+seventeen of those whom we had taught to shoot.
+
+Then it was that our real adventures began.
+
+One evening, after three days' march through some difficult bush in
+which lions carried off a slave woman, killed one of the donkeys and
+mauled another so badly that it had to be shot, we found ourselves
+upon the edge of a great grassy plateau that, according to my aneroid,
+was 1,640 feet above sea level.
+
+"What place is this?" I asked of the two Mazitu guides, those same men
+whom we had borrowed from Hassan.
+
+"The land of our people, Chief," they answered, "which is bordered on
+one side by the bush and on the other by the great lake where live the
+Pongo wizards."
+
+I looked about me at the bare uplands that already were beginning to
+turn brown, on which nothing was visible save vast herds of buck such
+as were common further south. A dreary prospect it was, for a slight
+rain was falling, accompanied by mist and a cold wind.
+
+"I do not see your people or their kraals," I said; "I only see grass
+and wild game."
+
+"Our people will come," they replied, rather nervously. "No doubt even
+now their spies watch us from among the tall grass or out of some
+hole."
+
+"The deuce they do," I said, or something like it, and thought no more
+of the matter. When one is in conditions in which anything /may/
+happen, such as, so far as I am concerned, have prevailed through most
+of my life, one grows a little careless as to what /will/ happen. For
+my part I have long been a fatalist, to a certain extent. I mean I
+believe that the individual, or rather the identity which animates
+him, came out from the Source of all life a long while, perhaps
+hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, and when his career is
+finished, perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions of years hence, or
+perhaps to-morrow, will return perfected, but still as an individual,
+to dwell in or with that Source of Life. I believe also that his
+various existences, here or elsewhere, are fore-known and fore-
+ordained, although in a sense he may shape them by the action of his
+free will, and that nothing which he can do will lengthen or shorten
+one of them by a single hour. Therefore, so far as I am concerned, I
+have always acted up to the great injunction of our Master and taken
+no thought for the morrow.
+
+However, in this instance, as in many others of my experience, the
+morrow took plenty of thought for itself. Indeed, before the dawn,
+Hans, who never seemed really to sleep any more than a dog does, woke
+me up with the ominous information that he heard a sound which he
+thought was caused by the tramp of hundreds of marching men.
+
+"Where?" I asked, after listening without avail--to look was useless,
+for the night was dark as pitch.
+
+He put his ear to the ground and said:
+
+"There."
+
+I put /my/ ear to the ground, but although my senses are fairly acute,
+could hear nothing.
+
+Then I sent for the sentries, but these, too, could hear nothing.
+After this I gave the business up and went to sleep again.
+
+However, as it proved, Hans was quite right; in such matters he
+generally was right, for his senses were as keen as those of any wild
+beast. At dawn I was once more awakened, this time by Mavovo, who
+reported that we were being surrounded by a regiment, or regiments. I
+rose and looked out through the mist. There, sure enough, in dim and
+solemn outline, though still far off, I perceived rank upon rank of
+men, armed men, for the light glimmered faintly upon their spears.
+
+"What is to be done, Macumazana?" asked Mavovo.
+
+"Have breakfast, I think," I answered. "If we are going to be killed
+it may as well be after breakfast as before," and calling the
+trembling Sammy, I instructed him to make the coffee. Also I awoke
+Stephen and explained the situation to him.
+
+"Capital!" he answered. "No doubt these are the Mazitu, and we have
+found them much more easily than we expected. People generally take
+such a lot of hunting for in this confounded great country."
+
+"That's not such a bad way of looking at things," I answered, "but
+would you be good enough to go round the camp and make it clear that
+not on any account is anyone to fire without orders. Stay, collect all
+the guns from those slaves, for heaven knows what they will do with
+them if they are frightened!"
+
+Stephen nodded and sauntered off with three or four of the hunters.
+While he was gone, in consultation with Mavovo, I made certain little
+arrangements of my own, which need not be detailed. They were designed
+to enable us to sell our lives as dearly as possible, should things
+come to the worst. One should always try to make an impression upon
+the enemy in Africa, for the sake of future travellers if for no other
+reason.
+
+In due course Stephen and the hunters returned with the guns, or most
+of them, and reported that the slave people were in great state of
+terror, and showed a disposition to bolt.
+
+"Let them bolt," I answered. "They would be of no use to us in a row
+and might even complicate matters. Call in the Zulus who are watching
+at once."
+
+He nodded, and a few minutes later I heard--for the mist which hung
+about the bush to the east of the camp was still too dense to allow of
+my seeing anything--a clamour of voices, followed by the sound of
+scuttling feet. The slave people, including our bearers, had gone,
+every one of them. They even carried away the wounded. Just as the
+soldiers who surrounded us were completing their circle they bolted
+between the two ends of it and vanished into the bush out of which we
+had marched on the previous evening. Often since then I have wondered
+what became of them. Doubtless some perished, and the rest worked
+their way back to their homes or found new ones among other tribes.
+The experiences of those who escaped must be interesting to them if
+they still live. I can well imagine the legends in which these will be
+embodied two or three generations hence.
+
+Deducting the slave people and the bearers whom we had wrung out of
+Hassan, we were now a party of seventeen, namely eleven Zulu hunters
+including Mavovo, two white men, Hans and Sammy, and the two Mazitus
+who had elected to remain with us, while round us was a great circle
+of savages which closed in slowly.
+
+As the light grew--it was long in coming on that dull morning--and the
+mist lifted, I examined these people, without seeming to take any
+particular notice of them. They were tall, much taller than the
+average Zulu, and slighter in their build, also lighter in colour.
+Like the Zulus they carried large hide shields and one very broad-
+bladed spear. Throwing assegais seemed to be wanting, but in place of
+them I saw that they were armed with short bows, which, together with
+a quiver of arrows, were slung upon their backs. The officers wore a
+short skin cloak or kaross, and the men also had cloaks, which I found
+out afterwards were made from the inner bark of trees.
+
+They advanced in the most perfect silence and very slowly. Nobody said
+anything, and if orders were given this must have been done by signs.
+I could not see that any of them had firearms.
+
+"Now," I said to Stephen, "perhaps if we shot and killed some of those
+fellows, they might be frightened and run away. Or they might not; or
+if they did they might return."
+
+"Whatever happened," he remarked sagely, "we should scarcely be
+welcome in their country afterwards, so I think we had better do
+nothing unless we are obliged."
+
+I nodded, for it was obvious that we could not fight hundreds of men,
+and told Sammy, who was perfectly livid with fear, to bring the
+breakfast. No wonder he was afraid, poor fellow, for we were in great
+danger. These Mazitu had a bad name, and if they chose to attack us we
+should all be dead in a few minutes.
+
+The coffee and some cold buck's flesh were put upon our little camp-
+table in front of the tent which we had pitched because of the rain,
+and we began to eat. The Zulu hunters also ate from a bowl of mealie
+porridge which they had cooked on the previous night, each of them
+with his loaded rifle upon his knees. Our proceedings appeared to
+puzzle the Mazitu very much indeed. They drew quite near to us, to
+within about forty yards, and halted there in a dead circle, staring
+at us with their great round eyes. It was like a scene in a dream; I
+shall never forget it.
+
+Everything about us appeared to astonish them, our indifference, the
+colour of Stephen and myself (as a matter of fact at that date Brother
+John was the only white man they had ever seen), our tent and our two
+remaining donkeys. Indeed, when one of these beasts broke into a bray,
+they showed signs of fright, looking at each other and even retreating
+a few paces.
+
+At length the position got upon my nerves, especially as I saw that
+some of them were beginning to fiddle with their bows, and that their
+General, a tall, one-eyed old fellow, was making up his mind to do
+something. I called to one of the two Mazitus, whom I forgot to say we
+had named Tom and Jerry, and gave him a pannikin of coffee.
+
+"Take that to the captain there with my good wishes, Jerry, and ask
+him if he will drink with us," I said.
+
+Jerry, who was a plucky fellow, obeyed. Advancing with the steaming
+coffee, he held it under the Captain's nose. Evidently he knew the
+man's name, for I heard him say:
+
+"O Babemba, the white lords, Macumazana and Wazela, ask if you will
+share their holy drink with them?"
+
+I could perfectly understand the words, for these people spoke a
+dialect so akin to Zulu that by now it had no difficulty for me.
+
+"Their holy drink!" exclaimed the old fellow, starting back. "Man, it
+is hot red-water. Would these white wizards poison me with /mwavi/?"
+
+Here I should explain that /mwavi/ or /mkasa/, as it is sometimes
+called, is the liquor distilled from the inner bark of a sort of
+mimosa tree or sometimes from a root of the strychnos tribe, which is
+administered by the witch-doctors to persons accused of crime. If it
+makes them sick they are declared innocent. If they are thrown into
+convulsions or stupor they are clearly guilty and die, either from the
+effects of the poison or afterwards by other means.
+
+"This is no /mwavi/, O Babemba," said Jerry. "It is the divine liquor
+that makes the white lords shoot straight with their wonderful guns
+which kill at a thousand paces. See, I will swallow some of it," and
+he did, though it must have burnt his tongue.
+
+Thus encouraged, old Babemba sniffed at the coffee and found it
+fragrant. Then he called a man, who from his peculiar dress I took to
+be a doctor, made him drink some, and watched the results, which were
+that the doctor tried to finish the pannikin. Snatching it away
+indignantly Babemba drank himself, and as I had half-filled the cup
+with sugar, found the mixture good.
+
+"It is indeed a holy drink," he said, smacking his lips. "Have you any
+more of it?"
+
+"The white lords have more," said Jerry. "They invite you to eat with
+them."
+
+Babemba stuck his finger into the tin, and covering it with the
+sediment of sugar, sucked and reflected.
+
+"It's all right," I whispered to Stephen. "I don't think he'll kill us
+after drinking our coffee, and what's more, I believe he is coming to
+breakfast."
+
+"This may be a snare," said Babemba, who now began to lick the sugar
+out of the pannikin.
+
+"No," answered Jerry with creditable resource; "though they could
+easily kill you all, the white lords do not hurt those who have
+partaken of their holy drink, that is unless anyone tries to harm
+them."
+
+"Cannot you bring some more of the holy drink here?" he asked, giving
+a final polish to the pannikin with his tongue.
+
+"No," said Jerry, "if you want it you must go there. Fear nothing.
+Would I, one of your own people, betray you?"
+
+"True!" exclaimed Babemba. "By your talk and your face you are a
+Mazitu. How came you--well, we will speak of that afterwards. I am
+very thirsty. I will come. Soldiers, sit down and watch, and if any
+harm happens to me, avenge it and report to the king."
+
+Now, while all this was going on, I had made Hans and Sammy open one
+of the boxes and extract therefrom a good-sized mirror in a wooden
+frame with a support at the back so that it could be stood anywhere.
+Fortunately it was unbroken; indeed, our packing had been so careful
+that none of the looking-glasses or other fragile things were injured.
+To this mirror I gave a hasty polish, then set it upright upon the
+table.
+
+Old Babemba came along rather suspiciously, his one eye rolling over
+us and everything that belonged to us. When he was quite close it fell
+upon the mirror. He stopped, he stared, he retreated, then drawn by
+his overmastering curiosity, came on again and again stood still.
+
+"What is the matter?" called his second in command from the ranks.
+
+"The matter is," he answered, "that here is great magic. Here I see
+myself walking towards myself. There can be no mistake, for one eye is
+gone in my other self."
+
+"Advance, O Babemba," cried the doctor who had tried to drink all the
+coffee, "and see what happens. Keep your spear ready, and if your
+witch-self attempts to harm you, kill it."
+
+Thus encouraged, Babemba lifted his spear and dropped it again in a
+great hurry.
+
+"That won't do, fool of a doctor," he shouted back. "My other self
+lifts a spear also, and what is more all of you who should be behind
+are in front of me. The holy drink has made me drunk; I am bewitched.
+Save me!"
+
+Now I saw that the joke had gone too far, for the soldiers were
+beginning to string their bows in confusion. Luckily at this moment,
+the sun at length came out almost opposite to us.
+
+"O Babemba," I said in a solemn voice, "it is true that this magic
+shield, which we have brought as a gift to you, gives you another
+self. Henceforth your labours will be halved, and your pleasures
+doubled, for when you look into this shield you will be not one but
+two. Also it has other properties--see," and lifting the mirror I used
+it as a heliograph, flashing the reflected sunlight into the eyes of
+the long half-circle of men in front of us. My word! didn't they run.
+
+"Wonderful!" exclaimed old Babemba, "and can I learn to do that also,
+white lord?"
+
+"Certainly," I answered, "come and try. Now, hold it so while I say
+the spell," and I muttered some hocus-pocus, then directed it towards
+certain of the Mazitu who were gathering again. "There! Look! Look!
+You have hit them in the eye. You are a master of magic. They run,
+they run!" and run they did indeed. "Is there anyone yonder whom you
+dislike?"
+
+"Yes, plenty," answered Babemba with emphasis, "especially that witch-
+doctor who drank nearly all the holy drink."
+
+"Very well; by-and-by I will show you how you can burn a hole in him
+with this magic. No, not now, not now. For a while this mocker of the
+sun is dead. Look," and dipping the glass beneath the table I produced
+it back first. "You cannot see anything, can you?"
+
+"Nothing except wood," replied Babemba, staring at the deal slip with
+which it was lined.
+
+Then I threw a dish-cloth over it and, to change the subject, offered
+him another pannikin of the "holy drink" and a stool to sit on.
+
+The old fellow perched himself very gingerly upon the stool, which was
+of the folding variety, stuck the iron-tipped end of his great spear
+in the ground between his knees and took hold of the pannikin. Or
+rather he took hold of a pannikin and not the right one. So ridiculous
+was his appearance that the light-minded Stephen, who, forgetting the
+perils of the situation, had for the last minute or two been
+struggling with inward laughter, clapped down his coffee on the table
+and retired into the tent, where I heard him gurgling in unseemly
+merriment. It was this coffee that in the confusion of the moment
+Sammy gave to old Babemba. Presently Stephen reappeared, and to cover
+his confusion seized the pannikin meant for Babemba and drank it, or
+most of it. Then Sammy, seeing his mistake, said:
+
+"Mr. Somers, I regret that there is an error. You are drinking from
+the cup which that stinking savage has just licked clean."
+
+The effect was dreadful and instantaneous, for then and there Stephen
+was violently sick.
+
+"Why does the white lord do that?" asked Babemba. "Now I see that you
+are truly deceiving me, and that what you are giving me to swallow is
+nothing but hot /mwavi/, which in the innocent causes vomiting, but
+that in those who mean evil, death."
+
+"Stop that foolery, you idiot," I muttered to Stephen, kicking him on
+the shins, "or you'll get our throats cut." Then, collecting myself
+with an effort, I said:
+
+"Oh! not at all, General. This white lord is the priest of the holy
+drink and--what you see is a religious rite."
+
+"Is it so," said Babemba. "Then I hope that the rite is not catching."
+
+"Never," I replied, proffering him a biscuit. "And now, General
+Babemba, tell me, why do you come against us with about five hundred
+armed men?"
+
+"To kill you, white lords--oh! how hot is this holy drink, yet
+pleasant. You said that it was not catching, did you not? For I
+feel----"
+
+"Eat the cake," I answered. "And why do you wish to kill us? Be so
+good as to tell me the truth now, or I shall read it in the magic
+shield which portrays the inside as well as the out," and lifting the
+cloth I stared at the glass.
+
+"If you can read my thoughts, white lord, why trouble me to tell
+them?" asked Babemba sensibly enough, his mouth full of biscuit.
+"Still, as that bright thing may lie, I will set them out. Bausi, king
+of our people, has sent me to kill you, because news has reached him
+that you are great slave dealers who come hither with guns to capture
+the Mazitus and take them away to the Black Water to be sold and sent
+across it in big canoes that move of themselves. Of this he has been
+warned by messengers from the Arab men. Moreover, we know that it is
+true, for last night you had with you many slaves who, seeing our
+spears, ran away not an hour ago."
+
+Now I stared hard at the looking-glass and answered coolly:
+
+"This magic shield tells a somewhat different story. It says that your
+king, Bausi, for whom by the way we have many things as presents, told
+you to lead us to him with honour, that we might talk over matters
+with him."
+
+The shot was a good one. Babemba grew confused.
+
+"It is true," he stammered, "that--I mean, the king left it to my
+judgment. I will consult the witch-doctor."
+
+"If he left it to your judgment, the matter is settled," I said,
+"since certainly, being so great a noble, you would never try to
+murder those of whose holy drink you have just partaken. Indeed if you
+did so," I added in a cold voice, "you would not live long yourself.
+One secret word and that drink will turn to /mwavi/ of the worst sort
+inside of you."
+
+"Oh! yes, white lord, it is settled," exclaimed Babemba, "it is
+settled. Do not trouble the secret word. I will lead you to the king
+and you shall talk with him. By my head and my father's spirit you are
+safe from me. Still, with your leave, I will call the great doctor,
+Imbozwi, and ratify the agreement in his presence, and also show him
+the magic shield."
+
+So Imbozwi was sent for, Jerry taking the message. Presently he
+arrived. He was a villainous-looking person of uncertain age,
+humpbacked like the picture of Punch, wizened and squint-eyed. His
+costume was of the ordinary witch-doctor type being set off with snake
+skins, fish bladders, baboon's teeth and little bags of medicine. To
+add to his charms a broad strip of pigment, red ochre probably, ran
+down his forehead and the nose beneath, across the lips and chin,
+ending in a red mark the size of a penny where the throat joins the
+chest. His woolly hair also, in which was twisted a small ring of
+black gum, was soaked with grease and powdered blue. It was arranged
+in a kind of horn, coming to a sharp point about five inches above the
+top of the skull. Altogether he looked extremely like the devil. What
+was more, he was a devil in a bad temper, for the first words he said
+embodied a reproach to us for not having asked him to partake of our
+"holy drink" with Babemba.
+
+We offered to make him some more, but he refused, saying that we
+should poison him.
+
+Then Babemba set the matter out, rather nervously I thought, for
+evidently he was afraid of this old wizard, who listened in complete
+silence. When Babemba explained that without the king's direct order
+it would be foolish and unjustifiable to put to death such magicians
+as we were, Imbozwi spoke for the first time, asking why he called us
+magicians.
+
+Babemba instanced the wonders of the shining shield that showed
+pictures.
+
+"Pooh!" said Imbozwi, "does not calm water or polished iron show
+pictures?"
+
+"But this shield will make fire," said Babemba. "The white lords say
+it can burn a man up."
+
+"Then let it burn me up," replied Imbozwi with ineffable contempt,
+"and I will believe that these white men are magicians worthy to be
+kept alive, and not common slave-traders such as we have often heard
+of."
+
+"Burn him, white lords, and show him that I am right," exclaimed the
+exasperated Babemba, after which they fell to wrangling. Evidently
+they were rivals, and by this time both of them had lost their
+tempers.
+
+The sun was now very hot, quite sufficiently so to enable us to give
+Mr. Imbozwi a taste of our magic, which I determined he should have.
+Not being certain whether an ordinary mirror would really reflect
+enough heat to scorch, I drew from my pocket a very powerful burning-
+glass which I sometimes used for the lighting of fires in order to
+save matches, and holding the mirror in one hand and the burning-glass
+in the other, I worked myself into a suitable position for the
+experiment. Babemba and the witch-doctor were arguing so fiercely that
+neither of them seemed to notice what I was doing. Getting the focus
+right, I directed the concentrated spark straight on to Imbozwi's
+greased top-knot, where I knew he would feel nothing, my plan being to
+char a hole in it. But as it happened this top-knot was built up round
+something of a highly inflammable nature, reed or camphor-wood, I
+expect. At any rate, about thirty seconds later the top-knot was
+burning like a beautiful torch.
+
+"/Ow!/" said the Kaffirs who were watching. "My Aunt!" exclaimed
+Stephen. "Look, look!" shouted Babemba in tones of delight. "Now will
+you believe, O blown-out bladder of a man, that there are greater
+magicians than yourself in the world?"
+
+"What is the matter, son of a dog, that you make a mock of me?"
+screeched the unfuriated Imbozwi, who alone was unaware of anything
+unusual.
+
+As he spoke some suspicion rose in his mind which caused him to put
+his hand to his top-knot, and withdraw it with a howl. Then he sprang
+up and began to dance about, which of course only fanned the fire that
+had now got hold of the grease and gum. The Zulus applauded; Babemba
+clapped his hands; Stephen burst into one of his idiotic fits of
+laughter. For my part I grew frightened. Near at hand stood a large
+wooden pot such as the Kaffirs make, from which the coffee kettle had
+been filled, that fortunately was still half-full of water. I seized
+it and ran to him.
+
+"Save me, white lord!" he howled. "You are the greatest of magicians
+and I am your slave."
+
+Here I cut him short by clapping the pot bottom upwards on his burning
+head, into which it vanished as a candle does into an extinguisher.
+Smoke and a bad smell issued from beneath the pot, the water from
+which ran all over Imbozwi, who stood quite still. When I was sure the
+fire was out, I lifted the pot and revealed the discomfited wizard,
+but without his elaborate head-dress. Beyond a little scorching he was
+not in the least hurt, for I had acted in time; only he was bald, for
+when touched the charred hair fell off at the roots.
+
+"It is gone," he said in an amazed voice after feeling at his scalp.
+
+"Yes," I answered, "quite. The magic shield worked very well, did it
+not?"
+
+"Can you put it back again, white lord?" he asked.
+
+"That will depend upon how you behave," I replied.
+
+Then without another word he turned and walked back to the soldiers,
+who received him with shouts of laughter. Evidently Imbozwi was not a
+popular character, and his discomfiture delighted them.
+
+Babemba also was delighted. Indeed, he could not praise our magic
+enough, and at once began to make arrangements to escort us to the
+king at his head town, which was called Beza, vowing that we need fear
+no harm at his hands or those of his soldiers. In fact, the only
+person who did not appreciate our black arts was Imbozwi himself. I
+caught a look in his eye as he marched off which told me that he hated
+us bitterly, and reflected to myself that perhaps I had been foolish
+to use that burning-glass, although in truth I had not intended to set
+his head on fire.
+
+"My father," said Mavovo to me afterwards, "it would have been better
+to let that snake burn to death, for then you would have killed his
+poison. I am something of a doctor myself, and I tell you there is
+nothing our brotherhood hates so much as being laughed at. You have
+made a fool of him before all his people and he will not forget it,
+Macumazana."
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+                            BAUSI THE KING
+
+About midday we made a start for Beza Town where King Bausi lived,
+which we understood we ought to reach on the following evening. For
+some hours the regiment marched in front, or rather round us, but as
+we complained to Babemba of the noise and dust, with a confidence that
+was quite touching, he sent it on ahead. First, however, he asked us
+to pass our word "by our mothers," which was the most sacred of oaths
+among many African peoples, that we would not attempt to escape. I
+confess that I hesitated before giving an answer, not being entirely
+enamoured of the Mazitu and of our prospects among them, especially as
+I had discovered through Jerry that the discomfited Imbozwi had
+departed from the soldiers on some business of his own. Had the matter
+been left to me, indeed, I should have tried to slip back into the
+bush over the border, and there put in a few months shooting during
+the dry season, while working my way southwards. This, too, was the
+wish of the Zulu hunters, of Hans, and I need not add of Sammy. But
+when I mentioned the matter to Stephen, he implored me to abandon the
+idea.
+
+"Look here, Quatermain," he said, "I have come to this God-forsaken
+country to get that great Cypripedium, and get it I will or die in the
+attempt. Still," he added after surveying our rather blank faces, "I
+have no right to play with your lives, so if you think the thing too
+dangerous I will go on alone with this old boy, Babemba. Putting
+everything else aside, I think that one of us ought to visit Bausi's
+kraal in case the gentleman who you call Brother John should turn up
+there. In short, I have made up my mind, so it is no use talking."
+
+I lit my pipe, and for quite a time contemplated this obstinate young
+man while considering the matter from every point of view. Finally, I
+came to the conclusion that he was right and I was wrong. It was true
+that by bribing Babemba, or otherwise, there was still an excellent
+prospect of effecting a masterly retreat and of avoiding many perils.
+On the other hand, we had not come to this wild place in order to
+retreat. Further, at whose expense had we come here? At that of
+Stephen Somers who wished to proceed. Lastly, to say nothing of the
+chance of meeting Brother John, to whom I felt no obligation since he
+had given us the slip at Durban, I did not like the idea of being
+beaten. We had started out to visit some mysterious savages who
+worshipped a monkey and a flower, and we might as well go on till
+circumstances were too much for us. After all, dangers are everywhere;
+those who turn back because of dangers will never succeed in any life
+that we can imagine.
+
+"Mavovo," I said presently, pointing to Stephen with my pipe, "the
+/inkoosi/ Wazela does not wish to try to escape. He wishes to go on to
+the country of the Pongo people if we can get there. And, Mavovo,
+remember that he has paid for everything; we are his hired servants.
+Also that he says that if we run back he will walk forward alone with
+these Mazitus. Still, if any of you hunters desire to slip off, he
+will not look your way, nor shall I. What say you?"
+
+"I say, Macumazana, that, though young, Wazela is a chief with a great
+heart, and that where you and he go, I shall go also, as I think will
+the rest of us. I do not like these Mazitu, for if their fathers were
+Zulus their mothers were low people. They are bastards, and of the
+Pongo I hear nothing but what is evil. Still, no good ox ever turns in
+the yoke because of a mud-hole. Let us go on, for if we sink in the
+swamp what does it matter? Moreover, my Snake tells me that we shall
+not sink, at least not all of us."
+
+So it was arranged that no effort should be made to return. Sammy, it
+is true, wished to do so, but when it came to the point and he was
+offered one of the remaining donkeys and as much food and ammunition
+as he could carry, he changed his mind.
+
+"I think it better, Mr. Quatermain," he said, "to meet my end in the
+company of high-born, lofty souls than to pursue a lonely career
+towards the inevitable in unknown circumstances."
+
+"Very well put, Sammy," I answered; "so while waiting for the
+inevitable, please go and cook the dinner."
+
+Having laid aside our doubts, we proceeded on the journey comfortably
+enough, being well provided with bearers to take the place of those
+who had run away. Babemba, accompanied by a single orderly, travelled
+with us, and from him we collected much information. It seemed that
+the Mazitu were a large people who could muster from five to seven
+thousand spears. Their tradition was that they came from the south and
+were of the same stock as the Zulus, of whom they had heard vaguely.
+Indeed, many of their customs, to say nothing of their language,
+resembled those of that country. Their military organisation, however,
+was not so thorough, and in other ways they struck me as a lower race.
+In one particular, it is true, that of their houses, they were more
+advanced, for these, as we saw in the many kraals that we passed, were
+better built, with doorways through which one could walk upright,
+instead of the Kaffir bee-holes.
+
+We slept in one of these houses on our march, and should have found it
+very comfortable had it not been for the innumerable fleas which at
+length drove us out into the courtyard. For the rest, these Mazitu
+much resembled the Zulus. They had kraals and were breeders of cattle;
+they were ruled by headmen under the command of a supreme chief or
+king; they believed in witchcraft and offered sacrifice to the spirits
+of their ancestors, also in some kind of a vague and mighty god who
+dominated the affairs of the world and declared his will through the
+doctors. Lastly, they were, and I dare say still are, a race of
+fighting men who loved war and raided the neighbouring peoples upon
+any and every pretext, killing their men and stealing their women and
+cattle. They had their virtues, too, being kindly and hospitable by
+nature, though cruel enough to their enemies. Moreover, they detested
+dealing in slaves and those who practised it, saying that it was
+better to kill a man than to deprive him of his freedom. Also they had
+a horror of the cannibalism which is so common in the dark regions of
+Africa, and for this reason, more than any other, loathed the Pongo
+folk who were supposed to be eaters of men.
+
+On the evening of the second day of our march, during which we had
+passed through a beautiful and fertile upland country, very well
+watered, and except in the valleys, free from bush, we arrived at
+Beza. This town was situated on a wide plain surrounded by low hills
+and encircled by a belt of cultivated land made beautiful by the crops
+of maize and other cereals which were then ripe to harvest. It was
+fortified in a way. That is, a tall, unclimbable palisade of timber
+surrounded the entire town, which fence was strengthened by prickly
+pears and cacti planted on its either side.
+
+Within this palisade the town was divided into quarters more or less
+devoted to various trades. Thus one part of it was called the
+Ironsmiths' Quarter; another the Soldiers' Quarter; another the
+Quarter of the Land-tillers; another that of the Skin-dressers, and so
+on. The king's dwelling and those of his women and dependents were
+near the North gate, and in front of these, surrounded by semi-circles
+of huts, was a wide space into which cattle could be driven if
+necessary. This, however, at the time of our visit, was used as a
+market and a drilling ground.
+
+We entered the town, that must in all have contained a great number of
+inhabitants, by the South gate, a strong log structure facing a wooded
+slope through which ran a road. Just as the sun was setting we marched
+to the guest-huts up a central street lined with the population of the
+place who had gathered to stare at us. These huts were situated in the
+Soldiers' Quarter, not far from the king's house and surrounded by an
+inner fence to keep them private.
+
+None of the people spoke as we passed them, for the Mazitu are polite
+by nature; also it seemed to me that they regarded us with awe
+tempered by curiosity. They only stared, and occasionally those of
+them who were soldiers saluted us by lifting their spears. The huts
+into which we were introduced by Babemba, with whom we had grown very
+friendly, were good and clean.
+
+Here all our belongings, including the guns which we had collected
+just before the slaves ran away, were placed in one of the huts over
+which a Mazitu mounted guard, the donkeys being tied to the fence at a
+little distance. Outside this fence stood another armed Mazitu, also
+on guard.
+
+"Are we prisoners here?" I asked of Babemba.
+
+"The king watches over his guests," he answered enigmatically. "Have
+the white lords any message for the king whom I am summoned to see
+this night?"
+
+"Yes," I answered. "Tell the king that we are the brethren of him who
+more than a year ago cut a swelling from his body, whom we have
+arranged to meet here. I mean the white lord with a long beard who
+among you black people is called Dogeetah."
+
+Babemba started. "You are the brethren of Dogeetah! How comes it then
+that you never mentioned his name before, and when is he going to meet
+you here? Know that Dogeetah is a great man among us, for with him
+alone of all men the king has made blood-brotherhood. As the king is,
+so is Dogeetah among the Mazitu."
+
+"We never mentioned him because we do not talk about everything at
+once, Babemba. As to when Dogeetah will meet us I am not sure; I am
+only sure that he is coming."
+
+"Yes, lord Macumazana, but when, when? That is what the king will want
+to know and that is what you must tell him. Lord," he added, dropping
+his voice, "you are in danger here where you have many enemies, since
+it is not lawful for white men to enter this land. If you would save
+your lives, be advised by me and be ready to tell the king to-morrow
+when Dogeetah, whom he loves, will appear here to vouch for you, and
+see that he does appear very soon and by the day you name. Since
+otherwise when he comes, if come he does, he may not find you able to
+talk to him. Now I, your friend, have spoken and the rest is with
+you."
+
+Then without another word he rose, slipped through the door of the hut
+and out by the gateway of the fence from which the sentry moved aside
+to let him pass. I, too, rose from the stool on which I sat and danced
+about the hut in a perfect fury.
+
+"Do you understand what that infernal (I am afraid I used a stronger
+word) old fool told me?" I exclaimed to Stephen. "He says that we must
+be prepared to state exactly when that other infernal old fool,
+Brother John, will turn up at Beza Town, and that if we don't we shall
+have our throats cut as indeed has already been arranged."
+
+"Rather awkward," replied Stephen. "There are no express trains to
+Beza, and if there were we couldn't be sure that Brother John would
+take one of them. I suppose there /is/ a Brother John?" he added
+reflectively. "To me he seems to be--intimately connected with Mrs.
+Harris."
+
+"Oh! there is, or there was," I explained. "Why couldn't the
+confounded ass wait quietly for us at Durban instead of fooling off
+butterfly hunting to the north of Zululand and breaking his leg or his
+neck there if he has done anything of the sort?"
+
+"Don't know, I am sure. It's hard enough to understand one's own
+motives, let alone Brother John's."
+
+Then we sat down on our stools again and stared at each other. At this
+moment Hans crept into the hut and squatted down in front of us. He
+might have walked in as there was a doorway, but he preferred to creep
+on his hands and knees, I don't know why.
+
+"What is it, you ugly little toad?" I asked viciously, for that was
+just what he looked like; even the skin under his jaw moved like a
+toad's.
+
+"The Baas is in trouble?" remarked Hans.
+
+"I should think he was," I answered, "and so will you be presently
+when you are wriggling on the point of a Mazitu spear."
+
+"They are broad spears that would make a big hole," remarked Hans
+again, whereupon I rose to kick him out, for his ideas were, as usual,
+unpleasant.
+
+"Baas," he went on, "I have been listening--there is a very good hole
+in this hut for listening if one lies against the wall and pretends to
+be asleep. I have heard all and understood most of your talk with that
+one-eyed savage and the Baas Stephen."
+
+"Well, you little sneak, what of it?"
+
+"Only, Baas, that if we do not want to be killed in this place from
+which there is no escape, it is necessary that you should find out
+exactly on what day and at what hour Dogeetah is going to arrive."
+
+"Look here, you yellow idiot," I exclaimed, "if you are beginning that
+game too, I'll----" then I stopped, reflecting that my temper was
+getting the better of me and that I had better hear what Hans had to
+say before I vented it on him.
+
+"Baas, Mavovo is a great doctor; it is said that his Snake is the
+straightest and the strongest in all Zululand save that of his master,
+Zikali, the old slave. He told you that Dogeetah was laid up somewhere
+with a hurt leg and that he was coming to meet you here; no doubt
+therefore he can tell you also /when/ he is coming. I would ask him,
+but he won't set his Snake to work for me. So you must ask him, Baas,
+and perhaps he will forget that you laughed at his magic and that he
+swore you would never see it again."
+
+"Oh! blind one," I answered, "how do I know that Mavovo's story about
+Dogeetah was not all nonsense?"
+
+Hans stared at me amazed.
+
+"Mavovo's story nonsense! Mavovo's Snake a liar! Oh! Baas, that is
+what comes of being too much a Christian. Now, thanks to your father
+the Predikant, I am a Christian too, but not so much that I have
+forgotten how to know good magic from bad. Mavovo's Snake a liar, and
+after he whom we buried yonder was the first of the hunters whom the
+feathers named to him at Durban!" and he began to chuckle in intense
+amusement, then added, "Well, Baas, there it is. You must either ask
+Mavovo, and very nicely, or we shall all be killed. /I/ don't mind
+much, for I should rather like to begin again a little younger
+somewhere else, but just think what a noise Sammy will make!" and
+turning he crept out as he had crept in.
+
+"Here's a nice position," I groaned to Stephen when he had gone. "I, a
+white man, who, in spite of some coincidences with which I am
+acquainted, know that all this Kaffir magic is bosh am to beg a savage
+to tell me something of which he /must/ be ignorant. That is, unless
+we educated people have got hold of the wrong end of the stick
+altogether. It is humiliating; it isn't Christian, and I'm hanged if
+I'll do it!"
+
+"I dare say you will be--hanged I mean--whether you do it or whether
+you don't," replied Stephen with his sweet smile. "But I say, old
+fellow, how do you know it is all bosh? We are told about lots of
+miracles which weren't bosh, and if miracles ever existed, why can't
+they exist now? But there, I know what you mean and it is no use
+arguing. Still, if you're proud, I ain't. I'll try to soften the stony
+heart of Mavovo--we are rather pals, you know--and get him to unroll
+the book of his occult wisdom," and he went.
+
+A few minutes later I was called out to receive a sheep which, with
+milk, native beer, some corn, and other things, including green forage
+for the donkeys, Bausi had sent for us to eat. Here I may remark that
+while we were among the Mazitu we lived like fighting cocks. There was
+none of that starvation which is, or was, so common in East Africa
+where the traveller often cannot get food for love or money--generally
+because there is none.
+
+When this business was settled by my sending a message of thanks to
+the king with an intimation that we hoped to wait upon him on the
+morrow with a few presents, I went to seek Sammy in order to tell him
+to kill and cook the sheep. After some search I found, or rather heard
+him beyond a reed fence which divided two of the huts. He was acting
+as interpreter between Stephen Somers and Mavovo.
+
+"This Zulu man declares, Mr. Somers," he said, "that he quite
+understands everything you have been explaining, and that it is
+probable that we shall all be butchered by this savage Bausi, if we
+cannot tell him when the white man, Dogeetah, whom he loves, will
+arrive here. He says also that he thinks that by his magic he could
+learn when this will happen--if it is to happen at all--(which of
+course, Mr. Somers, for your private information only, is a mighty lie
+of the ignorant heathen). He adds, however, that he does not care one
+brass farthing--his actual expression, Mr. Somers, is 'one grain of
+corn on a mealie-cob'--about his or anybody else's life, which from
+all I have heard of his proceedings I can well believe to be true. He
+says in his vulgar language that there is no difference between the
+belly of a Mazitu-land hyena and that of any other hyena, and that the
+earth of Mazitu-land is as welcome to his bones as any other earth,
+since the earth is the wickedest of all hyenas, in that he has
+observed that soon or late it devours everlastingly everything which
+once it bore. You must forgive me for reproducing his empty and
+childish talk, Mr. Somers, but you bade me to render the words of this
+savage with exactitude. In fact, Mr. Somers, this reckless person
+intimates, in short that some power with which he is not acquainted--
+he calls it the 'Strength that makes the Sun to shine and broiders the
+blanket of the night with stars' (forgive me for repeating his silly
+words), caused him 'to be born into this world, and, at an hour
+already appointed, will draw him from this world back into its dark,
+eternal bosom, there to be rocked in sleep, or nursed to life again,
+according to its unknown will'--I translate exactly, Mr. Somers,
+although I do not know what it all means--and that he does not care a
+curse when this happens. Still, he says that whereas he is growing old
+and has known many sorrows--he alludes here, I gather, to some nigger
+wives of his whom another savage knocked on the head; also to a child
+to whom he appears to have been attached--you are young with all your
+days and, he hopes, joys, before you. Therefore he would gladly do
+anything in his power to save your life, because although you are
+white and he is black he has conceived an affection for you and looks
+on you as his child. Yes, Mr. Somers, although I blush to repeat it,
+this black fellow says he looks upon you as his child. He adds,
+indeed, that if the opportunity arises, he will gladly give his life
+to save your life, and that it cuts his heart in two to refuse you
+anything. Still he must refuse this request of yours, that he will ask
+the creature he calls his Snake--what he means by that, I don't know,
+Mr. Somers--to declare when the white man, named Dogeetah, will arrive
+in this place. For this reason, that he told Mr. Quatermain when he
+laughed at him about his divinations that he would make no more magic
+for him or any of you, and that he will die rather than break his
+word. That's all, Mr. Somers, and I dare say you will think--quite
+enough, too."
+
+"I understand," replied Stephen. "Tell the chief, Mavovo" (I observed
+he laid an emphasis on the word, /chief/) "that I /quite/ understand,
+and that I thank him very much for explaining things to me so fully.
+Then ask him whether, as the matter is so important, there is no way
+out of this trouble?"
+
+Sammy translated into Zulu, which he spoke perfectly, as I noted
+without interpolations or additions.
+
+"Only one way," answered Mavovo in the intervals of taking snuff. "It
+is that Macumazana himself shall ask me to do this thing, Macumazana
+is my old chief and friend, and for his sake I will forget what in the
+case of others I should always remember. If he will come and ask me,
+without mockery, to exercise my skill on behalf of all of us, I will
+try to exercise it, although I know very well that he believes it to
+be but as an idle little whirlwind that stirs the dust, that raises
+the dust and lets it fall again without purpose or meaning,
+forgetting, as the wise white men forget, that even the wind which
+blows the dust is the same that breathes in our nostrils, and that to
+it, we also are as is the dust."
+
+Now I, the listener, thought for a moment or two. The words of this
+fighting savage, Mavovo, even those of them of which I had heard only
+the translation, garbled and beslavered by the mean comments of the
+unutterable Sammy, stirred my imagination. Who was I that I should
+dare to judge of him and his wild, unknown gifts? Who was I that I
+should mock at him and by my mockery intimate that I believed him to
+be a fraud?
+
+Stepping through the gateway of the fence, I confronted him.
+
+"Mavovo," I said, "I have overheard your talk. I am sorry if I laughed
+at you in Durban. I do not understand what you call your magic. It is
+beyond me and may be true or may be false. Still, I shall be grateful
+to you if you will use your power to discover, if you can, whether
+Dogeetah is coming here, and if so, when. Now, do as it may please
+you; I have spoken."
+
+"And I have heard, Macumazana, my father. To-night I will call upon my
+Snake. Whether it will answer or what it will answer, I cannot say."
+
+Well, he did call upon his Snake with due and portentous ceremony and,
+according to Stephen, who was present, which I declined to be, that
+mystic reptile declared that Dogeetah, alias Brother John, would
+arrive in Beza Town precisely at sunset on the third day from that
+night. Now as he had divined on Friday, according to our almanac, this
+meant that we might hope to see him--hope exactly described my state
+of mind on the matter--on the Monday evening in time for supper.
+
+"All right," I said briefly. "Please do not talk to me any more about
+this impious rubbish, for I want to go to sleep."
+
+Next morning early we unpacked our boxes and made a handsome selection
+of gifts for the king, Bausi, hoping thus to soften his royal heart.
+It included a bale of calico, several knives, a musical box, a cheap
+American revolver, and a bundle of tooth-picks; also several pounds of
+the best and most fashionable beads for his wives. This truly noble
+present we sent to the king by our two Mazitu servants, Tom and Jerry,
+who were marched off in the charge of several sentries, for I hoped
+that these men would talk to their compatriots and tell them what good
+fellows we were. Indeed I instructed them to do so.
+
+Imagine our horror, therefore, when about an hour later, just as we
+were tidying ourselves up after breakfast, there appeared through the
+gate, not Tom and Jerry, for they had vanished, but a long line of
+Mazitu soldiers each of whom carried one of the articles that we had
+sent. Indeed the last of them held the bundle of toothpicks on his
+fuzzy head as though it were a huge faggot of wood. One by one they
+set them down upon the lime flooring of the verandah of the largest
+hut. Then their captain said solemnly:
+
+"Bausi, the Great Black One, has no need of the white men's gifts."
+
+"Indeed," I replied, for my dander was up. "Then he won't get another
+chance at them."
+
+The men turned away without more words, and presently Babemba turned
+up with a company of about fifty soldiers.
+
+"The king is waiting to see you, white lords," he said in a voice of
+very forced jollity, "and I have come to conduct you to him."
+
+"Why would he not accept our presents?" I asked, pointing to the row
+of them.
+
+"Oh! that is because of Imbozwi's story of the magic shield. He said
+he wanted no gifts to burn his hair off. But, come, come. He will
+explain for himself. If the Elephant is kept waiting he grows angry
+and trumpets."
+
+"Does he?" I said. "And how many of us are to come?"
+
+"All, all, white lord. He wishes to see every one of you."
+
+"Not me, I suppose?" said Sammy, who was standing close by. "I must
+stop to make ready the food."
+
+"Yes, you too," replied Babemba. "The king would look on the mixer of
+the holy drink."
+
+Well, there was no way out of it, so off we marched, all well armed as
+I need not say, and were instantly surrounded by the soldiers. To give
+an unusual note to the proceedings I made Hans walk first, carrying on
+his head the rejected musical box from which flowed the touching
+melody of "Home, Sweet Home." Then came Stephen bearing the Union Jack
+on a pole, then I in the midst of the hunters and accompanied by
+Babemba, then the reluctant Sammy, and last of all the two donkeys led
+by Mazitus, for it seemed that the king had especially ordered that
+these should be brought also.
+
+It was a truly striking cavalcade, the sight of which under any other
+circumstances would have made me laugh. Nor did it fail in its effect,
+for even the silent Mazitu people through whom we wended our way, were
+moved to something like enthusiasm. "Home, Sweet Home" they evidently
+thought heavenly, though perhaps the two donkeys attracted them most,
+especially when these brayed.
+
+"Where are Tom and Jerry?" I asked of Babemba.
+
+"I don't know," he answered; "I think they have been given leave to go
+to see their friends."
+
+Imbozwi is suppressing evidence in our favour, I thought to myself,
+and said no more.
+
+Presently we reached the gate of the royal enclosure. Here to my
+dismay the soldiers insisted on disarming us, taking away our rifles,
+our revolvers, and even our sheath knives. In vain did I remonstrate,
+saying that we were not accustomed to part with these weapons. The
+answer was that it was not lawful for any man to appear before the
+king armed even with so much as a dancing-stick. Mavovo and the Zulus
+showed signs of resisting and for a minute I thought there was going
+to be a row, which of course would have ended in our massacre, for
+although the Mazitus feared guns very much, what could we have done
+against hundreds of them? I ordered him to give way, but for once he
+was on the point of disobeying me. Then by a happy thought I reminded
+him that, according to his Snake, Dogeetah was coming, and that
+therefore all would be well. So he submitted with an ill grace, and we
+saw our precious guns borne off we knew not where.
+
+Then the Mazitu soldiers piled their spears and bows at the gate of
+the kraal and we proceeded with only the Union Jack and the musical
+box, which was now discoursing "Britannia rules the waves."
+
+Across the open space we marched to where several broad-leaved trees
+grew in front of a large native house. Not far from the door of this
+house a fat, middle-aged and angry-looking man was seated on a stool,
+naked except for a moocha of catskins about his loins and a string of
+large blue beads round his neck.
+
+"Bausi, the King," whispered Babemba.
+
+At his side squatted a little hunchbacked figure, in whom I had no
+difficulty in recognising Imbozwi, although he had painted his
+scorched scalp white with vermillion spots and adorned his snub nose
+with a purple tip, his dress of ceremony I presume. Round and behind
+there were a number of silent councillors. At some signal or on
+reaching a given spot, all the soldiers, including old Babemba, fell
+upon their hands and knees and began to crawl. They wanted us to do
+the same, but here I drew the line, feeling that if once we crawled we
+must always crawl.
+
+So at my word we advanced upright, but with slow steps, in the midst
+of all this wriggling humanity and at length found ourselves in the
+august presence of Bausi, "the Beautiful Black One," King of the
+Mazitu.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X
+
+                             THE SENTENCE
+
+We stared at Bausi and Bausi stared at us.
+
+"I am the Black Elephant Bausi," he exclaimed at last, worn out by our
+solid silence, "and I trumpet! I trumpet! I trumpet!" (It appeared
+that this was the ancient and hallowed formula with which a Mazitu
+king was wont to open a conversation with strangers.)
+
+After a suitable pause I replied in a cold voice:
+
+"We are the white lions, Macumazana and Wazela, and we roar! we roar!
+we roar!"
+
+"I can trample," said Bausi.
+
+"And we can bite," I said haughtily, though how we were to bite or do
+anything else effectual with nothing but a Union Jack, I did not in
+the least know.
+
+"What is that thing?" asked Bausi, pointing to the flag.
+
+"That which shadows the whole earth," I answered proudly, a remark
+that seemed to impress him, although he did not at all understand it,
+for he ordered a soldier to hold a palm leaf umbrella over him to
+prevent it from shadowing /him/.
+
+"And that," he asked again, pointing to the music box, "which is not
+alive and yet makes a noise?"
+
+"That sings the war-song of our people," I said. "We sent it to you as
+a present and you returned it. Why do you return our presents, O
+Bausi?"
+
+Then of a sudden this potentate grew furious.
+
+"Why do you come here, white men," he asked, "uninvited and against
+the law of my land, where only one white man is welcome, my brother
+Dogeetah, who cured me of sickness with a knife? I know who you are.
+You are dealers in men. You come here to steal my people and sell them
+into slavery. You had many slaves with you on the borders of my
+country, but you sent them away. You shall die, you shall die, you who
+call yourselves lions, and the painted rag which you say shadows the
+world, shall rot with your bones. As for that box which sings a war-
+song, I will smash it; it shall not bewitch me as your magic shield
+bewitched my great doctor, Imbozwi, burning off his hair."
+
+Then springing up with wonderful agility for one so fat, he knocked
+the musical box from Hans' head, so that it fell to the ground and
+after a little whirring grew silent.
+
+"That is right," squeaked Imbozwi. "Trample on their magic, O
+Elephant. Kill them, O Black One; burn them as they burned my hair."
+
+Now things were, I felt, very serious, for already Bausi was looking
+about him as though to order his soldiers to make an end of us. So I
+said in desperation:
+
+"O King, you mentioned a certain white man, Dogeetah, a doctor of
+doctors, who cured you of sickness with a knife, and called him your
+brother. Well, he is our brother also, and it was by his invitation
+that we have come to visit you here, where he will meet us presently."
+
+"If Dogeetah is your friend, then you are my friends," answered Bausi,
+"for in this land he rules as I rule, he whose blood flows in my
+veins, as my blood flows in his veins. But you lie. Dogeetah is no
+brother of slave-dealers, his heart is good and yours are evil. You
+say that he will meet you here. When will he meet you? Tell me, and if
+it is soon, I will hold my hand and wait to hear his report of you
+before I put you to death, for if he speaks well of you, you shall not
+die."
+
+Now I hesitated, as well I might, for I felt that looking at our case
+from his point of view, Bausi, believing us to be slave-traders, was
+not angry without cause. While I was racking my brains for a reply
+that might be acceptable to him and would not commit us too deeply, to
+my astonishment Mavovo stepped forward and confronted the king.
+
+"Who are you, fellow?" shouted Bausi.
+
+"I am a warrior, O King, as my scars show," and he pointed to the
+assegai wounds upon his breast and to his cut nostril. "I am a chief
+of a people from whom your people sprang and my name is Mavovo, Mavovo
+who is ready to fight you or any man whom you may name, and to kill
+him or you if you will. Is there one here who wishes to be killed?"
+
+No one answered, for the mighty-chested Zulu looked very formidable.
+
+"I am a doctor also," went on Mavovo, "one of the greatest of doctors
+who can open the 'Gates of Distance' and read that which is hid in the
+womb of the Future. Therefore I will answer your questions which you
+put to the lord Macumazana, the great and wise white man whom I serve,
+because we have fought together in many battles. Yes, I will be his
+Mouth, I will answer. The white man Dogeetah, who is your blood-
+brother and whose word is your word among the Mazitu, will arrive here
+at sunset on the second day from now. I have spoken."
+
+Bausi looked at me in question.
+
+"Yes," I exclaimed, feeling that I must say something and that it did
+not much matter what I said, "Dogeetah will arrive here on the second
+day from now within half an hour after sunset."
+
+Something, I know not what, prompted me to allow that extra half-hour,
+which in the event, saved all our lives. Now Bausi consulted a while
+with the execrable Imbozwi and also with the old one-eyed General
+Babemba while we watched, knowing that our fate hung upon the issue.
+
+At length he spoke.
+
+"White men," he said, "Imbozwi, the head of the witch-finders here,
+whose hair you burnt off by your evil magic, says that it would be
+better to kill you at once as your hearts are bad and you are planning
+mischief against my people. So I think also. But Babemba my General,
+with whom I am angry because he did not obey my orders and put you to
+death on the borders of my country when he met you there with your
+caravan of slaves, thinks otherwise. He prays me to hold my hand,
+first because you have bewitched him into liking you and secondly
+because if you should happen to be speaking the truth--which we do not
+believe--and to have come here at the invitation of my brother
+Dogeetah, he, Dogeetah, would be pained if he arrived and found you
+dead, nor could even he bring you to life again. This being so, since
+it matters little whether you die now or later, my command is that you
+be kept prisoners till sunset of the second day from this, and that
+then you will be led out and tied to stakes in the market-place, there
+to wait till the approach of darkness, by when you say Dogeetah will
+be here. If he arrives and owns you as his brethren, well and good; if
+he does not arrive, or disowns you--better still, for then you shall
+be shot to death with arrows as a warning to all other stealers of men
+not to cross the borders of the Mazitu."
+
+I listened to this atrocious sentence with horror, then gasped out:
+
+"We are not stealers of men, O King, we are freers of men, as Tom and
+Jerry of your own people could tell you."
+
+"Who are Tom and Jerry?" he asked, indifferently. "Well, it does not
+matter, for doubtless they are liars like the rest of you. I have
+spoken. Take them away, feed them well and keep them safe till within
+an hour of sunset on the second day from this."
+
+Then, without giving us any further opportunity of speaking, Bausi
+rose, and followed by Imbozwi and his councillors, marched off into
+his big hut. We too, were marched off, this time under a double guard
+commanded by someone whom I had not seen before. At the gate of the
+kraal we halted and asked for the arms that had been taken from us. No
+answer was given; only the soldiers put their hands upon our shoulders
+and thrust us along.
+
+"This is a nice business," I whispered to Stephen.
+
+"Oh! it doesn't matter," he answered. "There are lots more guns in the
+huts. I am told that these Mazitus are dreadfully afraid of bullets.
+So all we have to do is just to break out and shoot our way through
+them, for of course they will run when we begin to fire."
+
+I looked at him but did not answer, for to tell the truth I felt in no
+mood for argument.
+
+Presently we arrived at our quarters, where the soldiers left us, to
+camp outside. Full of his warlike plan, Stephen went at once to the
+hut in which the slavers' guns had been stored with our own spare
+rifles and all the ammunition. I saw him emerge looking very blank
+indeed and asked him what was the matter.
+
+"Matter!" he answered in a voice that for once really was full of
+dismay. "The matter is that those Mazitu have stolen all the guns and
+all the ammunition. There's not enough powder left to make a blue
+devil."
+
+"Well," I replied, with the kind of joke one perpetrates under such
+circumstances, "we shall have plenty of blue devils without making any
+more."
+
+Truly ours was a dreadful situation. Let the reader imagine it. Within
+a little more than forty-eight hours we were to be shot to death with
+arrows if an erratic old gentleman who, for aught I knew might be
+dead, did not turn up at what was then one of the remotest and most
+inaccessible spots in Central Africa. Moreover, our only hope that
+such a thing would happen, if hope it could be called, was the
+prophecy of a Kaffir witch-doctor.
+
+To rely on this in any way was so absurd that I gave up thinking of it
+and set my mind to considering if there were any possible means of
+escape. After hours of reflection I could find none. Even Hans, with
+all his experience and nearly superhuman cunning, could suggest none.
+We were unarmed and surrounded by thousands of savages, all of whom
+save perhaps Babemba, believed us to be slave-traders, a race that
+very properly they held in abhorrence, who had visited the country
+with the object of stealing their women and children. The king, Bausi,
+a very prejudiced fellow, was dead against us. Also by a piece of
+foolishness which I now bitterly regretted, as indeed I regretted the
+whole expedition, or at any rate entering on it in the absence of
+Brother John, we had made an implacable enemy of the head medicine-
+man, who to these folk was a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury. Short
+of a miracle, there was no hope for us. All that we could do was to
+say our prayers and prepare for the end.
+
+Mavovo, it is true, remained cheerful. His faith in his "Snake" was
+really touching. He offered to go through that divination process
+again in our presence and demonstrate that there was no mistake. I
+declined because I had no faith in divinations, and Stephen also
+declined, for another reason, namely that the result might prove to be
+different, which, he held, would be depressing. The other Zulus
+oscillated between belief and scepticism, as do the unstable who set
+to work to study the evidences of Christianity. But Sammy did not
+oscillate, he literally howled, and prepared the food which poured in
+upon us so badly that I had to turn on Hans to do the cooking, for
+however little appetite we might have, it was necessary that we should
+keep up our strength by eating.
+
+"What, Mr. Quatermain," asked Sammy between his tears, "is the use of
+dressing viands that our systems will never have time to thoroughly
+assimilate?"
+
+The first night passed somehow, and so did the next day and the next
+night which heralded our last morning. I got up quite early and
+watched the sunrise. Never, I think, had I realised before what a
+beautiful thing the sunrise is, at least not to the extent I did now
+when I was saying good-bye to it for ever. Unless indeed there should
+prove to be still lovelier sunrises beyond the dark of death! Then I
+went into our hut, and as Stephen, who had the nerves of a rhinoceros,
+was still sleeping like a tortoise in winter, I said my prayers
+earnestly enough, mourned over my sins which proved to be so many that
+at last I gave up the job in despair, and then tried to occupy myself
+by reading the Old Testament, a book to which I have always been
+extremely attached.
+
+As a passage that I lit on described how the prophet Samuel for whom I
+could not help reading "Imbozwi," hewed Agag in pieces after Bausi--I
+mean Saul--had relented and spared his life, I cannot say that it
+consoled me very much. Doubtless, I reflected, these people believe
+that I, like Agag, had "made women childless" by my sword, so there
+remained nothing save to follow the example of that unhappy king and
+walk "delicately" to doom.
+
+Then, as Stephen was still sleeping--how /could/ he do it, I wondered
+--I set to work to make up the accounts of the expedition to date. It
+had already cost £1,423. Just fancy expending £1,423 in order to be
+tied to a post and shot to death with arrows. And all to get a rare
+orchid! Oh! I reflected to myself, if by some marvel I should escape,
+or if I should live again in any land where these particular flowers
+flourish, I would never even look at them. And as a matter of fact I
+never have.
+
+At length Stephen did wake up and, as criminals are reported to do in
+the papers before execution, made an excellent breakfast.
+
+"What's the good of worrying?" he said presently. "I shouldn't if it
+weren't for my poor old father. It must have come to this one day, and
+the sooner it is over the sooner to sleep, as the song says. When one
+comes to think of it there are enormous advantages in sleep, for
+that's the only time one is quite happy. Still, I should have liked to
+see that Cypripedium first."
+
+"Oh! drat the Cypripedium!" I exclaimed, and blundered from the hut to
+tell Sammy that if he didn't stop his groaning I would punch his head.
+
+"Jumps! Regular jumps! Who'd have thought it of Quatermain?" I heard
+Stephen mutter in the intervals of lighting his pipe.
+
+The morning went "like lightning that is greased," as Sammy remarked.
+Three o'clock came and Mavovo and his following sacrificed a kid to
+the spirits of their ancestors, which, as Sammy remarked again, was "a
+horrible, heathen ceremony much calculated to prejudice our cause with
+Powers Above."
+
+When it was over, to my delight, Babemba appeared. He looked so
+pleasant that I jumped to the conclusion that he brought the best of
+news with him. Perhaps that the king had pardoned us, or perhaps--
+blessed thought--that Brother John had really arrived before his time.
+
+But not a bit of it! All he had to say was that he had caused
+inquiries to be made along the route that ran to the coast and that
+certainly for a hundred miles there was at present no sign of
+Dogeetah. So as the Black Elephant was growing more and more enraged
+under the stirrings up of Imbozwi, it was obvious that that evening's
+ceremony must be performed. Indeed, as it was part of his duty to
+superintend the erection of the posts to which we were to be tied and
+the digging of our graves at their bases, he had just come to count us
+again to be sure that he had not made any mistake as to the number.
+Also, if there were any articles that we would like buried with us,
+would we be so kind as to point them out and he would be sure to see
+to the matter. It would be soon over, and not painful, he added, as he
+had selected the very best archers in Beza Town who rarely missed and
+could, most of them, send an arrow up to the feather into a buffalo.
+
+Then he chatted a little about other matters, as to where he should
+find the magic shield I had given him, which he would always value as
+a souvenir, etc., took a pinch of snuff with Mavovo and departed,
+saying that he would be sure to return again at the proper time.
+
+It was now four o'clock, and as Sammy was quite beyond it, Stephen
+made himself some tea. It was very good tea, especially as we had milk
+to put in it, although I did not remember what it tasted like till
+afterwards.
+
+Now, having abandoned hope, I went into a hut alone to compose myself
+to meet my end like a gentleman, and seated there in silence and semi-
+darkness my spirit grew much calmer. After all, I reflected, why
+should I cling to life? In the country whither I travelled, as the
+reader who has followed my adventures will know, were some whom I
+clearly longed to see again, notably my father and my mother, and two
+noble women who were even more to me. My boy, it is true, remained (he
+was alive then), but I knew that he would find friends, and as I was
+not so badly off at that time, I had been able to make a proper
+provision for him. Perhaps it was better that I should go, seeing that
+if I lived on it would only mean more troubles and more partings.
+
+What was about to befall me of course I could not tell, but I knew
+then as I know now, that it was not extinction or even that sleep of
+which Stephen had spoken. Perhaps I was passing to some place where at
+length the clouds would roll away and I should understand; whence,
+too, I should see all the landscape of the past and future, as an
+eagle does watching from the skies, and be no longer like one
+struggling through dense bush, wild-beast and serpent haunted, beat
+upon by the storms of heaven and terrified with its lightnings, nor
+knowing whither I hewed my path. Perhaps in that place there would be
+no longer what St. Paul describes as another law in my members warring
+against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law
+of sin. Perhaps there the past would be forgiven by the Power which
+knows whereof we are made, and I should become what I have always
+longed to be--good in every sense and even find open to me new and
+better roads of service. I take these thoughts from a note that I made
+in my pocket-book at the time.
+
+Thus I reflected and then wrote a few lines of farewell in the fond
+and foolish hope that somehow they might find those to whom they were
+addressed (I have those letters still and very oddly they read
+to-day). This done, I tried to throw out my mind towards Brother John
+if he still lived, as indeed I had done for days past, so that I might
+inform him of our plight and, I am afraid, reproach him for having
+brought us to such an end by his insane carelessness or want of faith.
+
+Whilst I was still engaged thus Babemba arrived with his soldiers to
+lead us off to execution. It was Hans who came to tell me that he was
+there. The poor old Hottentot shook me by the hand and wiped his eyes
+with his ragged coat-sleeve.
+
+"Oh! Baas, this is our last journey," he said, "and you are going to
+be killed, Baas, and it is all my fault, Baas, because I ought to have
+found a way out of the trouble which is what I was hired to do. But I
+can't, my head grows so stupid. Oh! if only I could come even with
+Imbozwi I shouldn't mind, and I will, I /will/, if I have to return as
+a ghost to do it. Well, Baas, you know the Predikant, your father,
+told us that we don't go out like a fire, but burn again for always
+elsewhere----"
+
+("I hope not," I thought to myself.)
+
+"And that quite easily without anything to pay for the wood. So I hope
+that we shall always burn together, Baas. And meanwhile, I have
+brought you a little something," and he produced what looked like a
+peculiarly obnoxious horseball. "You swallow this now and you will
+never feel anything; it is a very good medicine that my grandfather's
+grandfather got from the Spirit of his tribe. You will just go to
+sleep as nicely as though you were very drunk, and wake up in the
+beautiful fire which burns without any wood and never goes out for
+ever and ever, Amen."
+
+"No, Hans," I said, "I prefer to die with my eyes open."
+
+"And so would I, Baas, if I thought there was any good in keeping them
+open, but I don't, for I can't believe any more in the Snake of that
+black fool, Mavovo. If it had been a good Snake, it would have told
+him to keep clear of Beza Town, so I will swallow one of these pills
+and give the other to the Baas Stephen," and he crammed the filthy
+mess into his mouth and with an effort got it down, as a young turkey
+does a ball of meal that is too big for its throat.
+
+Then, as I heard Stephen calling me, I left him invoking a most
+comprehensive and polyglot curse upon the head of Imbozwi, to whom he
+rightly attributed all our woes.
+
+"Our friend here says it is time to start," said Stephen, rather
+shakily, for the situation seemed to have got a hold of him at last,
+and nodding towards old Babemba, who stood there with a cheerful smile
+looking as though he were going to conduct us to a wedding.
+
+"Yes, white lord," said Babemba, "it is time, and I have hurried so as
+not to keep you waiting. It will be a very fine show, for the 'Black
+Elephant' himself is going to do you the honour to be present, as will
+all the people of Beza Town and those for many miles round."
+
+"Hold your tongue, you old idiot," I said, "and stop your grinning. If
+you had been a man and not a false friend you would have got us out of
+this trouble, knowing as you do very well that we are no sellers of
+men, but rather the enemy of those who do such things."
+
+"Oh! white lord," said Babemba, in a changed voice, "believe me I only
+smile to make you happy up to the end. My lips smile, but I am crying
+inside. I know that you are good and have told Bausi so, but he will
+not believe me, who thinks that I have been bribed by you. What can I
+do against that evil-hearted Imbozwi, the head of the witch-doctors,
+who hates you because he thinks you have better magic than he has and
+who whispers day and night into the king's ear, telling him that if he
+does not kill you, all our people will be slain or sold for slaves, as
+you are only the scouts or a big army that is coming. Only last night
+Imbozwi held a great divination /indaba/, and read this and a great
+deal more in the enchanted water, making the king think he saw it in
+pictures, whereas I, looking over his shoulder, could see nothing at
+all, except the ugly face of Imbozwi reflected in the water. Also he
+swore that his spirit told me that Dogeetah, the king's blood-brother,
+being dead, would never come to Beza Town again. I have done my best.
+Keep your heart white towards me, O Macumazana, and do not haunt me,
+for I tell you I have done my best, and if ever I should get a chance
+against Imbozwi, which I am afraid I shan't, as he will poison me
+first, I will pay him back. Oh! he shall not die quickly as you will."
+
+"I wish I could get a chance at him," I muttered, for even in this
+solemn moment I could cultivate no Christian spirit towards Imbozwi.
+
+Feeling that he was honest after all, I shook old Babemba's hand and
+gave him the letters I had written, asking him to try and get them to
+the coast. Then we started on our last walk.
+
+The Zulu hunters were already outside the fence, seated on the ground,
+chatting and taking snuff. I wondered if this was because they really
+believed in Mavovo's confounded Snake, or from bravado, inspired by
+the innate courage of their race. When they saw me they sprang to
+their feet and, lifting their right hands, gave me a loud and hearty
+salute of "Inkoosi! Baba! Inkoosi! Macumazana!" Then, at a signal from
+Mavovo, they broke into some Zulu war-chant, which they kept up till
+we reached the stakes. Sammy, too, broke into a chant, but one of
+quite a different nature.
+
+"Be quiet!" I said to him. "Can't you die like a man?"
+
+"No, indeed I cannot, Mr. Quatermain," he answered, and went on
+howling for pity in about twenty different languages.
+
+Stephen and I walked together, he still carrying the Union Jack, of
+which no one tried to deprive him. I think the Mazitu believed it was
+his fetish. We didn't talk much, though once he said:
+
+"Well, the love of orchids has brought many a man to a bad end. I
+wonder whether the Governor will keep my collection or sell it."
+
+After this he relapsed into silence, and not knowing and indeed not
+caring what would happen to his collection, I made no answer.
+
+We had not far to go; personally I could have preferred a longer walk.
+Passing with our guards down a kind of by-street, we emerged suddenly
+at the head of the market-place, to find that it was packed with
+thousands of people gathered there to see our execution. I noticed
+that they were arranged in orderly companies and that a broad open
+roadway was left between them, running to the southern gate of the
+market, I suppose to facilitate the movements of so large a crowd.
+
+All this multitude received us in respectful silence, though Sammy's
+howls caused some of them to smile, while the Zulu war-chant appeared
+to excite their wonder, or admiration. At the head of the market-
+place, not far from the king's enclosure, fifteen stout posts had been
+planted on as many mounds. These mounds were provided so that everyone
+might see the show and, in part at any rate, were made of soil
+hollowed from fifteen deep graves dug almost at the foot of the
+mounds. Or rather there were seventeen posts, an extra large one being
+set at each end of the line in order to accommodate the two donkeys,
+which it appeared were also to be shot to death. A great number of
+soldiers kept a space clear in front of the posts. On this space were
+gathered Bausi, his councillors, some of his head wives, Imbozwi more
+hideously painted than usual, and perhaps fifty or sixty picked
+archers with strung bows and an ample supply of arrows, whose part in
+the ceremony it was not difficult for us to guess.
+
+"King Bausi," I said as I was led past that potentate, "you are a
+murderer and Heaven Above will be avenged upon you for this crime. If
+our blood is shed, soon you shall die and come to meet us where /we/
+have power, and your people shall be destroyed."
+
+My words seemed to frighten the man, for he answered:
+
+"I am no murderer. I kill you because you are robbers of men.
+Moreover, it is not I who have passed sentence on you. It is Imbozwi
+here, the chief of the doctors, who has told me all about you, and
+whose spirit says you must die unless my brother Dogeetah appears to
+save you. If Dogeetah comes, which he cannot do because he is dead,
+and vouches for you, then I shall know that Imbozwi is a wicked liar,
+and as you were to die, so he shall die."
+
+"Yes, yes," screeched Imbozwi. "If Dogeetah comes, as that false
+wizard prophesies," and he pointed to Mavovo, "then I shall be ready
+to die in your place, white slave-dealers. Yes, yes, then you may
+shoot /me/ with arrows."
+
+"King, take note of those words, and people, take note of those words,
+that they may be fulfilled if Dogeetah comes," said Mavovo in a great,
+deep voice.
+
+"I take note of them," answered Bausi, "and I swear by my mother on
+behalf of all the people, that they shall be fulfilled--if Dogeetah
+comes."
+
+"Good," exclaimed Mavovo, and stalked on to the stake which had been
+pointed out to him.
+
+As he went he whispered something into Imbozwi's ear that seemed to
+frighten that limb of Satan, for I saw him start and shiver. However,
+he soon recovered, for in another minute he was engaged in
+superintending those whose business it was to lash us to the posts.
+
+This was done simply and effectively by tying our wrists with a grass
+rope behind these posts, each of which was fitted with two projecting
+pieces of wood that passed under our arms and practically prevented us
+from moving. Stephen and I were given the places of honour in the
+middle, the Union Jack being fixed, by his own request, to the top of
+Stephen's stake. Mavovo was on my right, and the other Zulus were
+ranged on either side of us. Hans and Sammy occupied the end posts
+respectively (except those to which the poor jackasses were bound). I
+noted that Hans was already very sleepy and that shortly after he was
+fixed up, his head dropped forward on his breast. Evidently his
+medicine was working, and almost I regretted that I had not taken some
+while I had the chance.
+
+When we were all fastened, Imbozwi came round to inspect. Moreover,
+with a piece of white chalk he made a round mark on the breast of each
+of us; a kind of bull's eye for the archers to aim at.
+
+"Ah! white man," he said to me as he chalked away at my shooting coat,
+"you will never burn anyone's hair again with your magic shield.
+Never, never, for presently I shall be treading down the earth upon
+you in that hole, and your goods will belong to me."
+
+I did not answer, for what was the use of talking to this vile brute
+when my time was so short. So he passed on to Stephen and began to
+chalk him. Stephen, however, in whom the natural man still prevailed,
+shouted:
+
+"Take your filthy hands off me," and lifting his leg, which was
+unfettered, gave the painted witch-doctor such an awful kick in the
+stomach, that he vanished backwards into the grave beneath him.
+
+"/Ow!/ Well done, Wazela!" said the Zulus, "we hope that you have
+killed him."
+
+"I hope so too," said Stephen, and the multitude of spectators gasped
+to see the sacred person of the head witch-doctor, of whom they
+evidently went in much fear, treated in such a way. Only Babemba
+grinned, and even the king Bausi did not seem displeased.
+
+But Imbozwi was not to be disposed of so easily, for presently, with
+the help of sundry myrmidons, minor witch-doctors, he scrambled out of
+the grave, cursing and covered with mud, for it was wet down there.
+After that I took no more heed of him or of much else. Seeing that I
+had only half an hour to live, as may be imagined, I was otherwise
+engaged.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+                        THE COMING OF DOGEETAH
+
+The sunset that day was like the sunrise, particularly fine, although
+as in the case of the tea, I remembered little of it till afterwards.
+In fact, thunder was about, which always produces grand cloud effects
+in Africa.
+
+The sun went down like a great red eye, over which there dropped
+suddenly a black eyelid of cloud with a fringe of purple lashes.
+
+There's the last I shall see of you, my old friend, thought I to
+myself, unless I catch you up presently.
+
+The gloom began to gather. The king looked about him, also at the sky
+overhead, as though he feared rain, then whispered something to
+Babemba, who nodded and strolled up to my post.
+
+"White lord," he said, "the Elephant wishes to know if you are ready,
+as presently the light will be very bad for shooting?"
+
+"No," I answered with decision, "not till half an hour after sundown
+as was agreed."
+
+Babemba went to the king and returned to me.
+
+"White lord, the king says that a bargain is a bargain, and he will
+keep to his word. Only you must not then blame him if the shooting is
+bad, since of course he did not know that the night would be so
+cloudy, which is not usual at this time of year."
+
+It grew darker and darker, till at length we might have been lost in a
+London fog. The dense masses of the people looked like banks, and the
+archers, flitting to and fro as they made ready, might have been
+shadows in Hades. Once or twice lightning flashed and was followed
+after a pause by the distant growling of thunder. The air, too, grew
+very oppressive. Dense silence reigned. In all those multitudes no one
+spoke or stirred; even Sammy ceased his howling, I suppose because he
+had become exhausted and fainted away, as people often do just before
+they are hanged. It was a most solemn time. Nature seemed to be
+adapting herself to the mood of sacrifice and making ready for us a
+mighty pall.
+
+At length I heard the sound of arrows being drawn from their quivers,
+and then the squeaky voice of Imbozwi, saying:
+
+"Wait a little, the cloud will lift. There is light behind it, and it
+will be nicer if they can see the arrows coming."
+
+The cloud did begin to lift, very slowly, and from beneath it flowed a
+green light like that in a cat's eye.
+
+"Shall we shoot, Imbozwi?" asked the voice of the captain of the
+archers.
+
+"Not yet, not yet. Not till the people can watch them die."
+
+The edge of cloud lifted a little more; the green light turned to a
+fiery red thrown by the sunk sun and reflected back upon the earth
+from the dense black cloud above. It was as though all the landscape
+had burst into flames, while the heaven over us remained of the hue of
+ink. Again the lightning flashed, showing the faces and staring eyes
+of the thousands who watched, and even the white teeth of a great bat
+that flittered past. That flash seemed to burn off an edge of the
+lowering cloud and the light grew stronger and stronger, and redder
+and redder.
+
+Imbozwi uttered a hiss like a snake. I heard a bow-string twang, and
+almost at the same moment the thud of an arrow striking my post just
+above my head. Indeed, by lifting myself I could touch it. I shut my
+eyes and began to see all sorts of queer things that I had forgotten
+for years and years. My brain swam and seemed to melt into a kind of
+confusion. Through the intense silence I thought I heard the sound of
+some animal running heavily, much as a fat bull eland does when it is
+suddenly disturbed. Someone uttered a startled exclamation, which
+caused me to open my eyes again. The first thing I saw was the squad
+of savage archers lifting their bows--evidently that first arrow had
+been a kind of trial shot. The next, looking absolutely unearthly in
+that terrible and ominous light, was a tall figure seated on a white
+ox shambling rapidly towards us along the open roadway that ran from
+the southern gate of the market-place.
+
+Of course, I knew that I dreamed, for this figure exactly resembled
+Brother John. There was his long, snowy beard. There in his hand was
+his butterfly net, with the handle of which he seemed to be prodding
+the ox. Only he was wound about with wreaths of flowers as were the
+great horns of the ox, and on either side of him and before and behind
+him ran girls, also wreathed with flowers. It was a vision, nothing
+else, and I shut my eyes again awaiting the fatal arrow.
+
+"Shoot!" screamed Imbozwi.
+
+"Nay, shoot not!" shouted Babemba. "/Dogeetah is come!/"
+
+A moment's pause, during which I heard arrows falling to the ground;
+then from all those thousands of throats a roar that shaped itself to
+the words:
+
+"Dogeetah! Dogeetah is come to save the white lords."
+
+I must confess that after this my nerve, which is generally pretty
+good, gave out to such an extent that I think I fainted for a few
+minutes. During that faint I seemed to be carrying on a conversation
+with Mavovo, though whether it ever took place or I only imagined it I
+am not sure, since I always forgot to ask him.
+
+He said, or I thought he said, to me:
+
+"And now, Macumazana, my father, what have you to say? Does my Snake
+stand upon its tail or does it not? Answer, I am listening."
+
+To which I replied, or seemed to reply:
+
+"Mavovo, my child, certainly it appears as though your Snake /does/
+stand upon its tail. Still, I hold that all this is a phantasy; that
+we live in a land of dream in which nothing is real except those
+things which we cannot see or touch or hear. That there is no me and
+no you and no Snake at all, nothing but a Power in which we move, that
+shows us pictures and laughs when we think them real."
+
+Whereon Mavovo said, or seemed to say:
+
+"Ah! at last you touch the truth, O Macumazana, my father. All things
+are a shadow and we are shadows in a shadow. But what throws the
+shadow, O Macumazana, my father? Why does Dogeetah appear to come
+hither riding on a white ox and why do all these thousands think that
+my Snake stands so very stiff upon its tail?"
+
+"I'm hanged if I know," I replied and woke up.
+
+There, without doubt, /was/ old Brother John with a wreath of flowers
+--I noted in disgust that they were orchids--hanging in a bacchanalian
+fashion from his dinted sun-helmet over his left eye. He was in a
+furious rage and reviling Bausi, who literally crouched before him,
+and I was in a furious rage and reviling him. What I said I do not
+remember, but he said, his white beard bristling with indignation
+while he threatened Bausi with the handle of the butterfly net:
+
+"You dog! You savage, whom I saved from death and called Brother. What
+were you doing to these white men who are in truth my brothers, and to
+their followers? Were you about to kill them? Oh! if so, I will forget
+my vow, I will forget the bond that binds us and----"
+
+"Don't, pray don't," said Bausi. "It is all a horrible mistake; I am
+not to be blamed at all. It is that witch-doctor, Imbozwi, whom by the
+ancient law of the land I must obey in such matters. He consulted his
+Spirit and declared that you were dead; also that these white lords
+were the most wicked of men, slave-traders with spotted hearts, who
+came hither to spy out the Mazitu people and to destroy them with
+magic and bullets."
+
+"Then he lied," thundered Brother John, "and he knew that he lied."
+
+"Yes, yes, it is evident that he lied," answered Bausi. "Bring him
+here, and with him those who serve him."
+
+Now by the light of the moon which was shining brightly in the
+heavens, for the thunder-clouds had departed with the last glow of
+sunset, soldiers began an active search for Imbozwi and his
+confederates. Of these they caught eight or ten, all wicked-looking
+fellows hideously painted and adorned like their master, but Imbozwi
+himself they could not find.
+
+I began to think that in the confusion he had given us the slip, when
+presently from the far end of the line, for we were still all tied to
+our stakes, I heard the voice of Sammy, hoarse, it is true, but quite
+cheerful now, saying:
+
+"Mr. Quatermain, in the interests of justice, will you inform his
+Majesty that the treacherous wizard for whom he is seeking, is now
+peeping and muttering at the bottom of the grave which was dug to
+receive my mortal remains."
+
+I did inform his Majesty, and in double-quick time our friend Imbozwi
+was once more fished out of a grave by the strong arms of Babemba and
+his soldiers, and dragged into the presence of the irate Bausi.
+
+"Loose the white lords and their followers," said Bausi, "and let them
+come here."
+
+So our bonds were undone and we walked to where the king and Brother
+John stood, the miserable Imbozwi and his attendant doctors huddled in
+a heap before them.
+
+"Who is this?" said Bausi to him, pointing at Brother John. "Is it not
+he whom you vowed was dead?"
+
+Imbozwi did not seem to think that the question required an answer, so
+Bausi continued:
+
+"What was the song that you sang in our ears just now--that if
+Dogeetah came you would be ready to be shot to death with arrows in
+the place of these white lords whose lives you swore away, was it
+not?"
+
+Again Imbozwi made no answer, although Babemba called his attention to
+the king's query with a vigorous kick. Then Bausi shouted:
+
+"By your own mouth are you condemned, O liar, and that shall be done
+to you which you have yourself decreed," adding almost in the words of
+Elijah after he had triumphed over the priests of Baal, "Take away
+these false prophets. Let none of them escape. Say you not so, O
+people?"
+
+"Aye," roared the multitude fiercely, "take them away."
+
+"Not a popular character, Imbozwi," Stephen remarked to me in a
+reflective voice. "Well, he is going to be served hot on his own toast
+now, and serve the brute right."
+
+"Who is the false doctor now?" mocked Mavovo in the silence that
+followed. "Who is about to sup on arrow-heads, O Painter-of-white-
+spots?" and he pointed to the mark that Imbozwi had so gleefully
+chalked over his heart as a guide to the arrows of the archers.
+
+Now, seeing that all was lost, the little humpbacked villain with a
+sudden twist caught me by the legs and began to plead for mercy. So
+piteously did he plead, that being already softened by the fact of our
+wonderful escape from those black graves, my heart was melted in me. I
+turned to ask the king to spare his life, though with little hope that
+the prayer would be granted, for I saw that Bausi feared and hated the
+man and was only too glad of the opportunity to be rid of him.
+Imbozwi, however, interpreted my movement differently, since among
+savages the turning of the back always means that a petition is
+refused. Then, in his rage and despair, the venom of his wicked heart
+boiled over. He leapt to his feet, and drawing a big, carved knife
+from among his witch-doctor's trappings, sprang at me like a wild cat,
+shouting:
+
+"At least you shall come too, white dog!"
+
+Most mercifully Mavovo was watching him, for that is a good Zulu
+saying which declares that "Wizard is Wizard's fate." With one bound
+he was on him. Just as the knife touched me--it actually pricked my
+skin though without drawing blood, which was fortunate as probably it
+was poisoned--he gripped Imbozwi's arm in his grasp of iron and hurled
+him to the ground as though he were but a child.
+
+After this of course all was over.
+
+"Come away," I said to Stephen and Brother John; "this is no place for
+us."
+
+So we went and gained our huts without molestation and indeed quite
+unobserved, for the attention of everyone in Beza Town was fully
+occupied elsewhere. From the market-place behind us rose so hideous a
+clamour that we rushed into my hut and shut the door to escape or
+lessen the sound. It was dark in the hut, for which I was really
+thankful, for the darkness seemed to soothe my nerves. Especially was
+this so when Brother John said:
+
+"Friend, Allan Quatermain, and you, young gentleman, whose name I
+don't know, I will tell you what I think I never mentioned to you
+before, that, in addition to being a doctor, I am a clergyman of the
+American Episcopalian Church. Well, as a clergyman, I will ask your
+leave to return thanks for your very remarkable deliverance from a
+cruel death."
+
+"By all means," I muttered for both of us, and he did so in a most
+earnest and beautiful prayer. Brother John may or may not have been a
+little touched in the head at this time of his life, but he was
+certainly an able and a good man.
+
+Afterwards, as the shrieks and shouting had now died down to a
+confused murmur of many voices, we went and sat outside under the
+projecting eaves of the hut, where I introduced Stephen Somers to
+Brother John.
+
+"And now," I said, "in the name of goodness, where do you come from
+tied up in flowers like a Roman priest at sacrifice, and riding on a
+bull like the lady called Europa? And what on earth do you mean by
+playing us such a scurvy trick down there in Durban, leaving us
+without a word after you had agreed to guide us to this hellish hole?"
+
+Brother John stroked his long beard and looked at me reproachfully.
+
+"I guess, Allan," he said in his American fashion, "there is a mistake
+somewhere. To answer the last part of your question first, I did not
+leave you without a word; I gave a letter to that lame old Griqua
+gardener of yours, Jack, to be handed to you when you arrived."
+
+"Then the idiot either lost it and lied to me, as Griquas will, or he
+forgot all about it."
+
+"That is likely. I ought to have thought of that, Allan, but I didn't.
+Well, in that letter I said that I would meet you here, where I should
+have been six weeks ago awaiting you. Also I sent a message to Bausi
+to warn him of your coming in case I should be delayed, but I suppose
+that something happened to it on the road."
+
+"Why did you not wait and come with us like a sensible man?"
+
+"Allan, as you ask me straight out, I will tell you, although the
+subject is one of which I do not care to speak. I knew that you were
+going to journey by Kilwa; indeed it was your only route with a lot of
+people and so much baggage, and I did not wish to visit Kilwa." He
+paused, then went on: "A long while ago, nearly twenty-three years to
+be accurate, I went to live at Kilwa as a missionary with my young
+wife. I built a mission station and a church there, and we were happy
+and fairly successful in our work. Then on one evil day the Swahili
+and other Arabs came in dhows to establish a slave-dealing station. I
+resisted them, and the end of it was that they attacked us, killed
+most of my people and enslaved the rest. In that attack I received a
+cut from a sword on the head--look, here is the mark of it," and
+drawing his white hair apart he showed us a long scar that was plainly
+visible in the moonlight.
+
+"The blow knocked me senseless just about sunset one evening. When I
+came to myself again it was broad daylight and everybody was gone,
+except one old woman who was tending me. She was half-crazed with
+grief because her husband and two sons had been killed, and another
+son, a boy, and a daughter had been taken away. I asked her where my
+young wife was. She answered that she, too, had been taken away eight
+or ten hours before, because the Arabs had seen the lights of a ship
+out at sea, and thought they might be those of a British man-of-war
+that was known to be cruising on the coast. On seeing these they had
+fled inland in a hurry, leaving me for dead, but killing the wounded
+before they went. The old woman herself had escaped by hiding among
+some rocks on the seashore, and after the Arabs had gone had crept
+back to the house and found me still alive.
+
+"I asked her where my wife had been taken. She said she did not know,
+but some others of our people told her that they had heard the Arabs
+say they were going to some place a hundred miles inland, to join
+their leader, a half-bred villain named Hassan-ben-Mohammed, to whom
+they were carrying my wife as a present.
+
+"Now we knew this wretch, for after the Arabs landed at Kilwa, but
+before actual hostilities broke out between us, he had fallen sick of
+smallpox and my wife had helped to nurse him. Had it not been for her,
+indeed, he would have died. However, although the leader of the band,
+he was not present at the attack, being engaged in some slave-raiding
+business in the interior.
+
+"When I learned this terrible news, the shock of it, or the loss of
+blood, brought on a return of insensibility, from which I only awoke
+two days later to find myself on board a Dutch trading vessel that was
+sailing for Zanzibar. It was the lights of this ship that the Arabs
+had seen and mistaken for those of an English man-of-war. She had put
+into Kilwa for water, and the sailors, finding me on the verandah of
+the house and still living, in the goodness of their hearts carried me
+on board. Of the old woman they had seen nothing; I suppose that at
+their approach she ran away.
+
+"At Zanzibar, in an almost dying condition, I was handed over to a
+clergyman of our mission, in whose house I lay desperately ill for a
+long while. Indeed six months went by before I fully recovered my
+right mind. Some people say that I have never recovered it; perhaps
+you are one of them, Allan.
+
+"At last the wound in my skull healed, after a clever English naval
+surgeon had removed some bits of splintered bone, and my strength came
+back to me. I was and still am an American subject, and in those days
+we had no consul at Zanzibar, if there is one there now, of which I am
+not sure, and of course no warship. The English made what inquiries
+they could for me, but could find out little or nothing, since all the
+country about Kilwa was in possession of Arab slave-traders who were
+supported by a ruffian who called himself the Sultan of Zanzibar."
+
+Again he paused, as though overcome by the sadness of his
+recollections.
+
+"Did you never hear any more of your wife?" asked Stephen.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Somers; I heard at Zanzibar from a slave whom our mission
+bought and freed, that he had seen a white woman who answered to her
+description alive and apparently well, at some place I was unable to
+identify. He could only tell me that it was fifteen days' journey from
+the coast. She was then in charge of some black people, he did not
+know of what tribe, who, he believed, had found her wandering in the
+bush. He noted that the black people seemed to treat her with the
+greatest reverence, although they could not understand what she said.
+On the following day, whilst searching for six lost goats, he was
+captured by Arabs who, he heard afterwards, were out looking for this
+white woman. The day after the man had told me this, he was seized
+with inflammation of the lungs, of which, being in a weak state from
+his sufferings in the slave gang, he quickly died. Now you will
+understand why I was not particularly anxious to revisit Kilwa."
+
+"Yes," I said, "we understand that, and a good deal more of which we
+will talk later. But, to change the subject, where do you come from
+now, and how did you happen to turn up just in the nick of time?"
+
+"I was journeying here across country by a route I will show you on my
+map," he answered, "when I met with an accident to my leg" (here
+Stephen and I looked at each other) "which kept me laid up in a Kaffir
+hut for six weeks. When I got better, as I could not walk very well I
+rode upon oxen that I had trained. That white beast you saw is the
+last of them; the others died of the bite of the tsetse fly. A fear
+which I could not define caused me to press forward as fast as
+possible; for the last twenty-four hours I have scarcely stopped to
+eat or sleep. When I got into the Mazitu country this morning I found
+the kraals empty, except for some women and girls, who knew me again,
+and threw these flowers over me. They told me that all the men had
+gone to Beza Town for a great feast, but what the feast was they
+either did not know or would not reveal. So I hurried on and arrived
+in time--thank God in time! It is a long story; I will tell you the
+details afterwards. Now we are all too tired. What's that noise?"
+
+I listened and recognised the triumphant song of the Zulu hunters, who
+were returning from the savage scene in the market-place. Presently
+they arrived, headed by Sammy, a very different Sammy from the wailing
+creature who had gone out to execution an hour or two before. Now he
+was the gayest of the gay, and about his neck were strung certain
+weird ornaments which I identified as the personal property of
+Imbozwi.
+
+"Virtue is victorious and justice has been done, Mr. Quatermain. These
+are the spoils of war," he said, pointing to the trappings of the late
+witch-doctor.
+
+"Oh! get out, you little cur! We want to know nothing more," I said.
+"Go, cook us some supper," and he went, not in the least abashed.
+
+The hunters were carrying between them what appeared to be the body of
+Hans. At first I was frightened, thinking that he must be dead, but
+examination showed that he was only in a state of insensibility such
+as might be induced by laudanum. Brother John ordered him to be
+wrapped up in a blanket and laid by the fire, and this was done.
+
+Presently Mavovo approached and squatted down in front of us.
+
+"Macumazana, my father," he said quietly, "what words have you for
+me?"
+
+"Words of thanks, Mavovo. If you had not been so quick, Imbozwi would
+have finished me. As it is, the knife only touched my skin without
+breaking it, for Dogeetah has looked to see."
+
+Mavovo waved his hand as though to sweep this little matter aside, and
+asked, looking me straight in the eyes:
+
+"And what other words, Macumazana? As to my Snake I mean."
+
+"Only that you were right and I was wrong," I answered shamefacedly.
+"Things have happened as you foretold, how or why I do not
+understand."
+
+"No, my father, because you white men are so vain" ("blown out was his
+word), "that you think you have all wisdom. Now you have learned that
+this is not so. I am content. The false doctors are all dead, my
+father, and I think that Imbozwi----"
+
+I held up my hand, not wishing to hear details. Mavovo rose, and with
+a little smile, went about his business.
+
+"What does he mean about his Snake?" inquired Brother John curiously.
+
+I told him as briefly as I could, and asked him if he could explain
+the matter. He shook his head.
+
+"The strangest example of native vision that I have ever heard of," he
+answered, "and the most useful. Explain! There is no explanation,
+except the old one that there are more things in heaven and earth,
+etc., and that God gives different gifts to different men."
+
+Then we ate our supper; I think one of the most joyful meals of which
+I have ever partaken. It is wonderful how good food tastes when one
+never expected to swallow another mouthful. After it was finished the
+others went to bed but, with the still unconscious Hans for my only
+companion, I sat for a while smoking by the fire, for on this high
+tableland the air was chilly. I felt that as yet I could not sleep; if
+for no other reason because of the noise that the Mazitu were making
+in the town, I suppose in celebration of the execution of the terrible
+witch-doctors and the return of Dogeetah.
+
+Suddenly Hans awoke, and sitting up, stared at me through the bright
+flame which I had recently fed with dry wood.
+
+"Baas," he said in a hollow voice, "there you are, here I am, and
+there is the fire which never goes out, a very good fire. But, Baas,
+why are we not inside of it as your father the Predikant promised,
+instead of outside here in the cold?"
+
+"Because you are still in the world, you old fool, and not where you
+deserve to be," I answered. "Because Mavovo's Snake was a snake with a
+true tongue after all, and Dogeetah came as it foretold. Because we
+are all alive and well, and it is Imbozwi with his spawn who are dead
+upon the posts. That is why, Hans, as you would have seen for yourself
+if you had kept awake, instead of swallowing filthy medicine like a
+frightened woman, just because you were afraid of death, which at your
+age you ought to have welcomed."
+
+"Oh! Baas," broke in Hans, "don't tell me that things are so and that
+we are really alive in what your honoured father used to call this
+gourd full of tears. Don't tell me, Baas, that I made a coward of
+myself and swallowed that beastliness--if you knew what it was made of
+you would understand, Baas--for nothing but a bad headache. Don't tell
+me that Dogeetah came when my eyes were not open to see him, and worst
+of all, that Imbozwi and his children were tied to those poles when I
+was not able to help them out of the bottle of tears into the fire
+that burns for ever and ever. Oh! it is too much, and I swear, Baas,
+that however often I have to die, henceforward it shall always be with
+my eyes open," and holding his aching head between his hands he rocked
+himself to and fro in bitter grief.
+
+Well might Hans be sad, seeing that he never heard the last of the
+incident. The hunters invented a new and gigantic name for him, which
+meant "The little-yellow-mouse-who-feeds-on-sleep-while-the-black-
+rats-eat-up-their-enemies." Even Sammy made a mock of him, showing him
+the spoils which he declared he had wrenched unaided from the mighty
+master of magic, Imbozwi. As indeed he had--after the said Imbozwi was
+stone dead at the stake.
+
+It was very amusing until things grew so bad that I feared Hans would
+kill Sammy, and had to put a stop to the joke.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII
+
+                         BROTHER JOHN'S STORY
+
+Although I went to bed late I was up before sunrise. Chiefly because I
+wished to have some private conversation with Brother John, whom I
+knew to be a very early riser. Indeed, he slept less than any man I
+ever met.
+
+As I expected, I found him astir in his hut; he was engaged in
+pressing flowers by candlelight.
+
+"John," I said, "I have brought you some property which I think you
+have lost," and I handed him the morocco-bound /Christian Year/ and
+the water-colour drawing which we had found in the sacked mission
+house at Kilwa.
+
+He looked first at the picture and then at the book; at least, I
+suppose he did, for I went outside the hut for a while--to observe the
+sunrise. In a few minutes he called me, and when the door was shut,
+said in an unsteady voice:
+
+"How did you come by these relics, Allan?"
+
+I told him the story from beginning to end. He listened without a
+word, and when I had finished said:
+
+"I may as well tell what perhaps you have guessed, that the picture is
+that of my wife, and the book is her book."
+
+"Is!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, Allan. I say /is/ because I do not believe that she is dead. I
+cannot explain why, any more than I could explain last night how that
+great Zulu savage was able to prophesy my coming. But sometimes we can
+wring secrets from the Unknown, and I believe that I have won this
+truth in answer to my prayers, that my wife still lives."
+
+"After twenty years, John?"
+
+"Yes, after twenty years. Why do you suppose," he asked almost
+fiercely, "that for two-thirds of a generation I have wandered about
+among African savages, pretending to be crazy because these wild
+people revere the mad and always let them pass unharmed?"
+
+"I thought it was to collect butterflies and botanical specimens."
+
+"Butterflies and botanical specimens! These were the pretext. I have
+been and am searching for my wife. You may think it a folly,
+especially considering what was her condition when we separated--she
+was expecting a child, Allan--but I do not. I believe that she is
+hidden away among some of these wild peoples."
+
+"Then perhaps it would be as well not to find her," I answered,
+bethinking me of the fate which had overtaken sundry white women in
+the old days, who had escaped from shipwrecks on the coast and become
+the wives of Kaffirs.
+
+"Not so, Allan. On that point I fear nothing. If God has preserved my
+wife, He has also protected her from every harm. And now," he went on,
+"you will understand why I wish to visit these Pongo--the Pongo who
+worship a white goddess!"
+
+"I understand," I said and left him, for having learned all there was
+to know, I thought it best not to prolong a painful conversation. To
+me it seemed incredible that this lady should still live, and I feared
+the effect upon him of the discovery that she was no more. How full of
+romance is this poor little world of ours! Think of Brother John
+(Eversley was his real name as I discovered afterwards), and what his
+life had been. A high-minded educated man trying to serve his Faith in
+the dark places of the earth, and taking his young wife with him,
+which for my part I have never considered a right thing to do. Neither
+tradition nor Holy Writ record that the Apostles dragged their wives
+and families into the heathen lands where they went to preach,
+although I believe that some of them were married. But this is by the
+way.
+
+Then falls the blow; the mission house is sacked, the husband escapes
+by a miracle and the poor young lady is torn away to be the prey of a
+vile slave-trader. Lastly, according to the quite unreliable evidence
+of some savage already in the shadow of death, she is seen in the
+charge of other unknown savages. On the strength of this the husband,
+playing the part of a mad botanist, hunts for her for a score of
+years, enduring incredible hardships and yet buoyed up by a high and
+holy trust. To my mind it was a beautiful and pathetic story. Still,
+for reasons which I have suggested, I confess that I hoped that long
+ago she had returned into the hands of the Power which made her, for
+what would be the state of a young white lady who for two decades had
+been at the mercy of these black brutes?
+
+And yet, and yet, after my experience of Mavovo and his Snake, I did
+not feel inclined to dogmatise about anything. Who and what was I,
+that I should venture not only to form opinions, but to thrust them
+down the throats of others? After all, how narrow are the limits of
+the knowledge upon which we base our judgments. Perhaps the great sea
+of intuition that surrounds us is safer to float on than are these
+little islets of individual experience, whereon we are so wont to take
+our stand.
+
+Meanwhile my duty was not to speculate on the dreams and mental
+attitudes of others, but like a practical hunter and trader, to carry
+to a successful issue an expedition that I was well paid to manage,
+and to dig up a certain rare flower root, if I could find it, in the
+marketable value of which I had an interest. I have always prided
+myself upon my entire lack of imagination and all such mental
+phantasies, and upon an aptitude for hard business and an appreciation
+of the facts of life, that after all are the things with which we have
+to do. This is the truth; at least, I hope it is. For if I were to be
+/quite/ honest, which no one ever has been, except a gentleman named
+Mr. Pepys, who, I think, lived in the reign of Charles II, and who, to
+judge from his memoirs, which I have read lately, did not write for
+publication, I should have to admit that there is another side to my
+nature. I sternly suppress it, however, at any rate for the present.
+
+While we were at breakfast Hans who, still suffering from headache and
+remorse, was lurking outside the gateway far from the madding crowd of
+critics, crept in like a beaten dog and announced that Babemba was
+approaching followed by a number of laden soldiers. I was about to
+advance to receive him. Then I remembered that, owing to a queer
+native custom, such as that which caused Sir Theophilus Shepstone,
+whom I used to know very well, to be recognised as the holder of the
+spirit of the great Chaka and therefore as the equal of the Zulu
+monarchs, Brother John was the really important man in our company. So
+I gave way and asked him to be good enough to take my place and to
+live up to that station in savage life to which it had pleased God to
+call him.
+
+I am bound to say he rose to the occasion very well, being by nature
+and appearance a dignified old man. Swallowing his coffee in a hurry,
+he took his place at a little distance from us, and stood there in a
+statuesque pose. To him entered Babemba crawling on his hands and
+knees, and other native gentlemen likewise crawling, also the burdened
+soldiers in as obsequious an attitude as their loads would allow.
+
+"O King Dogeetah," said Babemba, "your brother king, Bausi, returns
+the guns and fire-goods of the white men, your children, and sends
+certain gifts."
+
+"Glad to hear it, General Babemba," said Brother John, "although it
+would be better if he had never taken them away. Put them down and get
+on to your feet. I do not like to see men wriggling on their stomachs
+like monkeys."
+
+The order was obeyed, and we checked the guns and ammunition; also our
+revolvers and the other articles that had been taken away from us.
+Nothing was missing or damaged; and in addition there were four fine
+elephant's tusks, an offering to Stephen and myself, which, as a
+business man, I promptly accepted; some karosses and Mazitu weapons,
+presents to Mavovo and the hunters, a beautiful native bedstead with
+ivory legs and mats of finely-woven grass, a gift to Hans in testimony
+to his powers of sleep under trying circumstances (the Zulus roared
+when they heard this, and Hans vanished cursing behind the huts), and
+for Sammy a weird musical instrument with a request that in future he
+would use it in public instead of his voice.
+
+Sammy, I may add, did not see the joke any more than Hans had done,
+but the rest of us appreciated the Mazitu sense of humour very much.
+
+"It is very well, Mr. Quatermain," he said, "for these black babes and
+sucklings to sit in the seat of the scornful. On such an occasion
+silent prayers would have been of little use, but I am certain that my
+loud crying to Heaven delivered you all from the bites of the heathen
+arrows."
+
+"O Dogeetah and white lords," said Babemba, "the king invites your
+presence that he may ask your forgiveness for what has happened, and
+this time there will be no need for you to bring arms, since
+henceforward no hurt can come to you from the Mazitu people."
+
+So presently we set out once more, taking with us the gifts that had
+been refused. Our march to the royal quarters was a veritable
+triumphal progress. The people prostrated themselves and clapped their
+hands slowly in salutation as we passed, while the girls and children
+pelted us with flowers as though we were brides going to be married.
+Our road ran by the place of execution where the stakes, at which I
+confess I looked with a shiver, were still standing, though the graves
+had been filled in.
+
+On our arrival Bausi and his councillors rose and bowed to us. Indeed,
+the king did more, for coming forward he seized Brother John by the
+hand, and insisted upon rubbing his ugly black nose against that of
+this revered guest. This, it appeared, was the Mazitu method of
+embracing, an honour which Brother John did not seem at all to
+appreciate. Then followed long speeches, washed down with draughts of
+thick native beer. Bausi explained that his evil proceedings were
+entirely due to the wickedness of the deceased Imbozwi and his
+disciples, under whose tyranny the land had groaned for long, since
+the people believed them to speak "with the voice of 'Heaven Above.'"
+
+Brother John, on our behalf, accepted the apology, and then read a
+lecture, or rather preached a sermon, that took exactly twenty-five
+minutes to deliver (he is rather long in the wind), in which he
+demonstrated the evils of superstition and pointed to a higher and a
+better path. Bausi replied that he would like to hear more of that
+path another time which, as he presumed that we were going to spend
+the rest of our lives in his company, could easily be found--say
+during the next spring when the crops had been sown and the people had
+leisure on their hands.
+
+After this we presented our gifts, which now were eagerly accepted.
+Then I took up my parable and explained to Bausi that so far from
+stopping in Beza Town for the rest of our lives, we were anxious to
+press forward at once to Pongo-land. The king's face fell, as did
+those of his councillors.
+
+"Listen, O lord Macumazana, and all of you," he said. "These Pongo are
+horrible wizards, a great and powerful people who live by themselves
+amidst the swamps and mix with none. If the Pongo catch Mazitu or folk
+of any other tribe, either they kill them or take them as prisoners to
+their own land where they enslave them, or sometimes sacrifice them to
+the devils they worship."
+
+"That is so," broke in Babemba, "for when I was a lad I was a slave to
+the Pongo and doomed to be sacrificed to the White Devil. It was in
+escaping from them that I lost this eye."
+
+Needless to say, I made a note of this remark, though I did not think
+the moment opportune to follow the matter up. If Babemba has once been
+to Pongo-land, I reflected to myself, Babemba can go again or show us
+the way there.
+
+"And if we catch any of the Pongo," went on Bausi, "as sometimes we do
+when they come to hunt for slaves, we kill them. Ever since the Mazitu
+have been in this place there has been hate and war between them and
+the Pongo, and if I could wipe out those evil ones, then I should die
+happily."
+
+"That you will never do, O King, while the White Devil lives," said
+Babemba. "Have you not heard the Pongo prophecy, that while the White
+Devil lives and the Holy Flower blooms, they will live. But when the
+White Devil dies and the Holy Flower ceases to bloom, then their women
+will become barren and their end will be upon them."
+
+"Well, I suppose that this White Devil will die some day," I said.
+
+"Not so, Macumazana. It will never die of itself. Like its wicked
+Priest, it has been there from the beginning and will always be there
+unless it is killed. But who is there that can kill the White Devil?"
+
+I thought to myself that I would not mind trying, but again I did not
+pursue the point.
+
+"My brother Dogeetah and lords," exclaimed Bausi, "it is not possible
+that you should visit these wizards except at the head of an army. But
+how can I send an army with you, seeing that the Mazitu are a land
+people and have no canoes in which to cross the great lake, and no
+trees whereof to make them?"
+
+We answered that we did not know but would think the matter over, as
+we had come from our own place for this purpose and meant to carry it
+out.
+
+Then the audience came to an end, and we returned to our huts, leaving
+Dogeetah to converse with his "brother Bausi" on matters connected
+with the latter's health. As I passed Babemba I told him that I should
+like to see him alone, and he said that he would visit me that evening
+after supper. The rest of the day passed quietly, for we had asked
+that people might be kept away from our encampment.
+
+We found Hans, who had not accompanied us, being a little shy of
+appearing in public just then, engaged in cleaning the rifles, and
+this reminded me of something. Taking the double-barrelled gun of
+which I have spoken, I called Mavovo and handed it to him, saying:
+
+"It is yours, O true prophet."
+
+"Yes, my father," he answered, "it is mine for a little while, then
+perhaps it will be yours again."
+
+The words struck me, but I did not care to ask their meaning. Somehow
+I wanted to hear no more of Mavovo's prophecies.
+
+Then we dined, and for the rest of that afternoon slept, for all of
+us, including Brother John, needed rest badly. In the evening Babemba
+came, and we three white men saw him alone.
+
+"Tell us about the Pongo and this white devil they worship," I said.
+
+"Macumazana," he answered, "fifty years have gone by since I was in
+that land and I see things that happened to me there as through a
+mist. I went to fish amongst the reeds when I was a boy of twelve, and
+tall men robed in white came in a canoe and seized me. They led me to
+a town where there were many other such men, and treated me very well,
+giving me sweet things to eat till I grew fat and my skin shone. Then
+in the evening I was taken away, and we marched all night to the mouth
+of a great cave. In this cave sat a horrible old man about whom danced
+robed people, performing the rites of the White Devil.
+
+"The old man told me that on the following morning I was to be cooked
+and eaten, for which reason I had been made so fat. There was a canoe
+at the mouth of the cave, beyond which lay water. While all were
+asleep I crept to the canoe. As I loosed the rope one of the priests
+woke up and ran at me. But I hit him on the head with the paddle, for
+though only a boy I was bold and strong, and he fell into the water.
+He came up again and gripped the edge of the canoe, but I struck his
+fingers with the paddle till he let go. A great wind was blowing that
+night, tearing off boughs from the trees which grew upon the other
+shore of the water. It whirled the canoe round and round and one of
+the boughs struck me in the eye. I scarcely felt it at the time, but
+afterwards the eye withered. Or perhaps it was a spear or a knife that
+struck me in the eye, I do not know. I paddled till I lost my senses
+and always that wind blew. The last thing that I remember was the
+sound of the canoe being driven by the gale through reeds. When I woke
+up again I found myself near a shore, to which I waded through the
+mud, scaring great crocodiles. But this must have been some days
+later, for now I was quite thin. I fell down upon the shore, and there
+some of our people found me and nursed me till I recovered. That is
+all."
+
+"And quite enough too," I said. "Now answer me. How far was the town
+from the place where you were captured in Mazitu-land?"
+
+"A whole day's journey in the canoe, Macumazana. I was captured in the
+morning early and we reached the harbour in the evening at a place
+where many canoes were tied up, perhaps fifty of them, some of which
+would hold forty men."
+
+"And how far was the town from this harbour?"
+
+"Quite close, Macumazana."
+
+Now Brother John asked a question.
+
+"Did you hear anything about the land beyond the water by the cave?"
+
+"Yes, Dogeetah. I heard then, or afterwards--for from time to time
+rumours reach us concerning these Pongo--that it is an island where
+grows the Holy Flower, of which you know, for when last you were here
+you had one of its blooms. I heard, too, that this Holy Flower was
+tended by a priestess named Mother of the Flower, and her servants,
+all of whom were virgins."
+
+"Who was the priestess?"
+
+"I do not know, but I heave heard that she was one of those people
+who, although their parents are black, are born white, and that if any
+females among the Pongo are born white, or with pink eyes, or deaf and
+dumb, they are set apart to be the servants of the priestess. But this
+priestess must now be dead, seeing that when I was a boy she was
+already old, very, very old, and the Pongo were much concerned because
+there was no one of white skin who could be appointed to succeed her.
+Indeed she /is/ dead, since many years ago there was a great feast in
+Pongo-land and numbers of slaves were eaten, because the priests had
+found a beautiful new princess who was white with yellow hair and had
+finger-nails of the right shape."
+
+Now I bethought me that this finding of the priestess named "Mother of
+the Flower," who must be distinguished by certain personal
+peculiarities, resembled not a little that of the finding of the Apis
+bull-god, which also must have certain prescribed and holy markings,
+by the old Egyptians, as narrated by Herodotus. However, I said
+nothing about it at the time, because Brother John asked sharply:
+
+"And is this priestess also dead?"
+
+"I do not know, Dogeetah, but I think not. If she were dead I think
+that we should have heard some rumour of the Feast of the eating of
+the dead Mother."
+
+"Eating the dead mother!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, Macumazana. It is the law among the Pongo that, for a certain
+sacred reason, the body of the Mother of the Flower, when she dies,
+must be partaken of by those who are privileged to the holy food."
+
+"But the White Devil neither dies nor is eaten?" I said.
+
+"No, as I have told you, he never dies. It is he who causes others to
+die, as if you go to Pongo-land doubtless you will find out," Babemba
+added grimly.
+
+Upon my word, thought I to myself, as the meeting broke up because
+Babemba had nothing more to say, if I had my way I would leave Pongo-
+land and its white devil alone. Then I remembered how Brother John
+stood in reference to this matter, and with a sigh resigned myself to
+fate. As it proved it, I mean Fate, was quite equal to the occasion.
+The very next morning, early, Babemba turned up again.
+
+"Lords, lords," he said, "a wonderful thing has happened! Last night
+we spoke of the Pongo and now behold! an embassy from the Pongo is
+here; it arrived at sunrise."
+
+"What for?" I asked.
+
+"To propose peace between their people and the Mazitu. Yes, they ask
+that Bausi should send envoys to their town to arrange a lasting
+peace. As if anyone would go!" he added.
+
+"Perhaps some might dare to," I answered, for an idea occurred to me,
+"but let us go to see Bausi."
+
+Half an hour later we were seated in the king's enclosure, that is,
+Stephen and I were, for Brother John was already in the royal hut,
+talking to Bausi. As we went a few words had passed between us.
+
+"Has it occurred to you, John," I asked, "that if you really wish to
+visit Pongo-land here is perhaps what you would call a providential
+opportunity. Certainly none of these Mazitu will go, since they fear
+lest they should find a permanent peace--inside of the Pongo. Well,
+you are a blood-brother to Bausi and can offer to play the part of
+Envoy Extraordinary, with us as the members of your staff."
+
+"I have already thought of it, Allan," he replied, stroking his long
+beard.
+
+We sat down among a few of the leading councillors, and presently
+Bausi came out of his hut accompanied by Brother John, and having
+greeted us, ordered the Pongo envoys to be admitted. They were led in
+at once, tall, light-coloured men with regular and Semitic features,
+who were clothed in white linen like Arabs, and wore circles of gold
+or copper upon their necks and wrists.
+
+In short, they were imposing persons, quite different from ordinary
+Central African natives, though there was something about their
+appearance which chilled and repelled me. I should add that their
+spears had been left outside, and that they saluted the king by
+folding their arms upon their breasts and bowing in a dignified
+fashion.
+
+"Who are you?" asked Bausi, "and what do you want?"
+
+"I am Komba," answered their spokesman, quite a young man with
+flashing eyes, "the Accepted-of-the-Gods, who, in a day to come that
+perhaps is near, will be the Kalubi of the Pongo people, and these are
+my servants. I have come here bearing gifts of friendship which are
+without, by the desire of the holy Motombo, the High Priest of the
+gods----"
+
+"I thought that the Kalubi was the priest of your gods," interrupted
+Bausi.
+
+"Not so. The Kalubi is the King of the Pongo as you are the King of
+the Mazitu. The Motombo, who is seldom seen, is King of the spirits
+and the Mouth of the gods."
+
+Bausi nodded in the African fashion, that is by raising the chin, not
+depressing it, and Komba went on:
+
+"I have placed myself in your power, trusting to your honour. You can
+kill me if you wish, though that will avail nothing, since there are
+others waiting to become Kalubi in my place."
+
+"Am I a Pongo that I should wish to kill messengers and eat them?"
+asked Bausi, with sarcasm, a speech at which I noticed the Pongo
+envoys winced a little.
+
+"King, you are mistaken. The Pongo only eat those whom the White God
+has chosen. It is a religious rite. Why should they who have cattle in
+plenty desire to devour men?"
+
+"I don't know," grunted Bausi, "but there is one here who can tell a
+different story," and he looked at Babemba, who wriggled
+uncomfortably.
+
+Komba also looked at him with his fierce eyes.
+
+"It is not conceivable," he said, "that anybody should wish to eat one
+so old and bony, but let that pass. I thank you, King, for your
+promise of safety. I have come here to ask that you should send envoys
+to confer with the Kalubi and the Motombo, that a lasting peace may be
+arranged between our peoples."
+
+"Why do not the Kalubi and the Motombo come here to confer?" asked
+Bausi.
+
+"Because it is not lawful that they should leave their land, O King.
+Therefore they have sent me who am the Kalubi-to-come. Hearken. There
+has been war between us for generations. It began so long ago that
+only the Motombo knows of its beginning which he has from the gods.
+Once the Pongo people owned all this land and only had their sacred
+places beyond the water. Then your forefathers came and fell on them,
+killing many, enslaving many and taking their women to wife. Now, say
+the Motombo and the Kalubi, in the place of war let there be peace;
+where there is but barren sand, there let corn and flowers grow; let
+the darkness, wherein men lose their way and die, be changed to
+pleasant light in which they can sit in the sun holding each other's
+hands."
+
+"Hear, hear!" I muttered, quite moved by this eloquence. But Bausi was
+not at all moved; indeed, he seemed to view these poetic proposals
+with the darkest suspicion.
+
+"Give up killing our people or capturing them to be sacrificed to your
+White Devil, and then in a year or two we may listen to your words
+that are smeared with honey," he said. "As it is, we think that they
+are but a trap to catch flies. Still, if there are any of our
+councillors willing to visit your Motombo and your Kalubi and hear
+what they have to propose, taking the risk of whatever may happen to
+them there, I do not forbid it. Now, O my Councillors, speak, not
+altogether, but one by one, and be swift, since to the first that
+speaks shall be given this honour."
+
+I think I never heard a denser silence than that which followed this
+invitation. Each of the /indunas/ looked at his neighbour, but not one
+of them uttered a single word.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Bausi, in affected surprise. "Do none speak? Well,
+well, you are lawyers and men of peace. What says the great general,
+Babemba?"
+
+"I say, O King, that I went once to Pongo-land when I was young, taken
+by the hair of my head, to leave an eye there and that I do not wish
+to visit it again walking on the soles of my feet."
+
+"It seems, O Komba, that since none of my people are willing to act as
+envoys, if there is to be talk of peace between us, the Motombo and
+the Kalubi must come here under safe conduct."
+
+"I have said that cannot be, O King."
+
+"If so, all is finished, O Komba. Rest, eat of our food and return to
+your own land."
+
+Then Brother John rose and said:
+
+"We are blood-brethren, Bausi, and therefore I can speak for you. If
+you and your councillors are willing, and these Pongos are willing, I
+and my friends do not fear to visit the Motombo and the Kalubi, to
+talk with them of peace on behalf of your people, since we love to see
+new lands and new races of mankind. Say, Komba, if the king allows,
+will you accept us as ambassadors?"
+
+"It is for the king to name his own ambassadors," answered Komba. "Yet
+the Kalubi has heard of the presence of you white lords in Mazitu-land
+and bade me say that if it should be your pleasure to accompany the
+embassy and visit him, he would give you welcome. Only when the matter
+was laid before the Motombo, the oracle spoke thus:
+
+"'Let the white men come if come they will, or let them stay away. But
+if they come, let them bring with them none of those iron tubes, great
+or small, whereof the land has heard, that vomit smoke with a noise
+and cause death from afar. They will not need them to kill meat, for
+meat shall be given to them in plenty; moreover, among the Pongo they
+will be safe, unless they offer insult to the god.'"
+
+These words Komba spoke very slowly and with much emphasis, his
+piercing eyes fixed upon my face as though to read the thoughts it
+hid. As I heard them my courage sank into my boots. Well, I knew that
+the Kalubi was asking us to Pongo-land that we might kill this Great
+White Devil that threatened his life, which, I took it, was a
+monstrous ape. And how could we face that or some other frightful
+brute without firearms? My mind was made up in a minute.
+
+"O Komba," I said, "my gun is my father, my mother, my wife and all my
+other relatives. I do not stir from here without it."
+
+"Then, white lord," answered Komba, "you will do well to stop in this
+place in the midst of your family, since, if you try to bring it with
+you to Pongo-land, you will be killed as you set foot upon the shore."
+
+Before I could find an answer Brother John spoke, saying:
+
+"It is natural that the great hunter, Macumazana, should not wish to
+be parted from what which to him is as a stick to a lame man. But with
+me it is different. For years I have used no gun, who kill nothing
+that God made, except a few bright-winged insects. I am ready to visit
+your country with naught save this in my hand," and he pointed to the
+butterfly net that leaned against the fence behind him.
+
+"Good, you are welcome," said Komba, and I thought that I saw his eyes
+gleam with unholy joy. There followed a pause, during which I
+explained everything to Stephen, showing that the thing was madness.
+But here, to my horror, that young man's mulish obstinacy came in.
+
+"I say, you know, Quatermain," he said, "we can't let the old boy go
+alone, or at least I can't. It's another matter for you who have a son
+dependent on you. But putting aside the fact that I mean to get----"
+he was about to add, "the orchid," when I nudged him. Of course, it
+was ridiculous, but an uneasy fear took me lest this Komba should in
+some mysterious way understand what he was saying. "What's up? Oh! I
+see, but the beggar can't understand English. Well, putting aside
+everything else, it isn't the game, and there you are, you know. If
+Mr. Brother John goes, I'll go too, and indeed if he doesn't go, I'll
+go alone."
+
+"You unutterable young ass," I muttered in a stage aside.
+
+"What is it the young white lord says he wishes in our country?" asked
+the cold Komba, who with diabolical acuteness had read some of
+Stephen's meaning in his face.
+
+"He says that he is a harmless traveller who would like to study the
+scenery and to find out if you have any gold there," I answered.
+
+"Indeed. Well, he shall study the scenery and we have gold," and he
+touched the bracelets on his arm, "of which he shall be given as much
+as he can carry away. But perchance, white lords, you would wish to
+talk this matter over alone. Have we your leave to withdraw a while, O
+King?"
+
+Five minutes later we were seated in the king's "great house" with
+Bausi himself and Babemba. Here there was a mighty argument. Bausi
+implored Brother John not to go, and so did I. Babemba said that to go
+would be madness, as he smelt witchcraft and murder in the air, he who
+knew the Pongo.
+
+Brother John replied sweetly that he certainly intended to avail
+himself of this heaven-sent opportunity to visit one of the few
+remaining districts in this part of Africa through which he had not
+yet wandered. Stephen yawned and fanned himself with a pocket-
+handkerchief, for the hut was hot, and remarked that having come so
+far after a certain rare flower he did not mean to return empty-
+handed.
+
+"I perceive, Dogeetah," said Bausi at last, "that you have some reason
+for this journey which you are hiding from me. Still, I am minded to
+hold you here by force."
+
+"If you do, it will break our brotherhood," answered Brother John.
+"Seek not to know what I would hide, Bausi, but wait till the future
+shall declare it."
+
+Bausi groaned and gave in. Babemba said that Dogeetah and Wazela were
+bewitched, and that I, Macumazana, alone retained my senses.
+
+"Then that's settled," exclaimed Stephen. "John and I are to go as
+envoys to the Pongo, and you, Quatermain, will stop here to look after
+the hunters and the stores."
+
+"Young man," I replied, "do you wish to insult me? After your father
+put you in my charge, too! If you two are going, I shall come also, if
+I have to do so mother-naked. But let me tell you once and for all in
+the most emphatic language I can command, that I consider you a brace
+of confounded lunatics, and that if the Pongo don't eat you, it will
+be more than you deserve. To think that at my age I should be dragged
+among a lot of cannibal savages without even a pistol, to fight some
+unknown brute with my bare hands! Well, we can only die once--that is,
+so far as we know at present."
+
+"How true," remarked Stephen; "how strangely and profoundly true!"
+
+Oh! I could have boxed his ears.
+
+We went into the courtyard again, whither Komba was summoned with his
+attendants. This time they came bearing gifts, or having them borne
+for them. These consisted, I remember, of two fine tusks of ivory
+which suggested to me that their country could not be entirely
+surrounded by water, since elephants would scarcely live upon an
+island; gold dust in a gourd and copper bracelets, which showed that
+it was mineralized; white native linen, very well woven, and some
+really beautiful decorated pots, indicating that the people had
+artistic tastes. Where did they get them from, I wonder, and what was
+the origin of their race? I cannot answer the question, for I never
+found out with any certainty. Nor do I think they knew themselves.
+
+The /indaba/ was resumed. Bausi announced that we three white men with
+a servant apiece (I stipulated for this) would visit Pongo-land as his
+envoys, taking no firearms with us, there to discuss terms of peace
+between the two peoples, and especially the questions of trade and
+intermarriage. Komba was very insistent that this should be included;
+at the time I wondered why. He, Komba, on behalf of the Motombo and
+the Kalubi, the spiritual and temporal rulers of his land, guaranteed
+us safe conduct on the understanding that we attempted no insult or
+violence to the gods, a stipulation from which there was no escape,
+though I liked it little. He swore also that we should be delivered
+safe and sound in the Mazitu country within six days of our having
+left its shores.
+
+Bausi said that it was good, adding that he would send five hundred
+armed men to escort us to the place where we were to embark, and to
+receive us on our return; also that if any hurt came to us he would
+wage war upon the Pongo people for ever until he found means to
+destroy them.
+
+So we parted, it being agreed that we were to start upon our journey
+on the following morning.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+                              RICA TOWN
+
+As a matter of fact we did not leave Beza Town till twenty-four hours
+later than had been arranged, since it took some time for old Babemba,
+who was to be in charge of it, to collect and provision our escort of
+five hundred men.
+
+Here, I may mention, that when we got back to our huts we found the
+two Mazitu bearers, Tom and Jerry, eating a hearty meal, but looking
+rather tired. It appeared that in order to get rid of their favourable
+evidence, the ceased witch-doctor, Imbozwi, who for some reason or
+other had feared to kill them, caused them to be marched off to a
+distant part of the land where they were imprisoned. On the arrival of
+the news of the fall and death of Imbozwi and his subordinates, they
+were set at liberty, and at once returned to us at Beza Town.
+
+Of course it became necessary to explain to our servants what we were
+about to do. When they understood the nature of our proposed
+expedition they shook their heads, and when they learned that we had
+promised to leave our guns behind us, they were speechless with
+amazement.
+
+"/Kransick! Kransick!/" which means "ill in the skull," or "mad,"
+exclaimed Hans to the others as he tapped his forehead significantly.
+"They have caught it from Dogeetah, one who lives on insects which he
+entangles in a net, and carries no gun to kill game. Well, I knew they
+would."
+
+The hunters nodded in assent, and Sammy lifted his arms to Heaven as
+though in prayer. Only Mavovo seemed indifferent. Then came the
+question of which of them was to accompany us.
+
+"So far as I am concerned that is soon settled," said Mavovo. "I go
+with my father, Macumazana, seeing that even without a gun I am still
+strong and can fight as my male ancestors fought with a spear."
+
+"And I, too, go with the Baas Quatermain," grunted Hans, "seeing that
+even without a gun I am cunning, as /my/ female ancestors were before
+me."
+
+"Except when you take medicine, Spotted Snake, and lose yourself in
+the mist of sleep," mocked one of the Zulus. "Does that fine bedstead
+which the king sent you go with you?"
+
+"No, son of a fool!" answered Hans. "I'll lend it to you who do not
+understand that there is more wisdom within me when I am asleep than
+there is in you when you are awake."
+
+It remained to be decided who the third man should be. As neither of
+Brother John's two servants, who had accompanied him on his cross-
+country journey, was suitable, one being ill and the other afraid,
+Stephen suggested Sammy as the man, chiefly because he could cook.
+
+"No, Mr. Somers, no," said Sammy, with earnestness. "At this proposal
+I draw the thick rope. To ask one who can cook to visit a land where
+he will be cooked, is to seethe the offspring in its parent's milk."
+
+So we gave him up, and after some discussion fixed upon Jerry, a smart
+and plucky fellow, who was quite willing to accompany us. The rest of
+that day we spent in making our preparations which, if simple,
+required a good deal of thought. To my annoyance, at the time I wanted
+to find Hans to help me, he was not forthcoming. When at length he
+appeared I asked him where he had been. He answered, to cut himself a
+stick in the forest, as he understood we should have to walk a long
+way. Also he showed me the stick, a long, thick staff of a hard and
+beautiful kind of bamboo which grows in Mazitu-land.
+
+"What do you want that clumsy thing for," I said, "when there are
+plenty of sticks about?"
+
+"New journey, new stick! Baas. Also this kind of wood is full of air
+and might help me to float if we are upset into the water."
+
+"What an idea!" I exclaimed, and dismissed the matter from my mind.
+
+At dawn, on the following day, we started, Stephen and I riding on the
+two donkeys, which were now fat and lusty, and Brother John upon his
+white ox, a most docile beast that was quite attached to him. All the
+hunters, fully armed, came with us to the borders of the Mazitu
+country, where they were to await our return in company with the
+Mazitu regiment. The king himself went with us to the west gate of the
+town, where he bade us all, and especially Brother John, an
+affectionate farewell. Moreover, he sent for Komba and his attendants,
+and again swore to him that if any harm happened to us, he would not
+rest till he had found a way to destroy the Pongo, root and branch.
+
+"Have no fear," answered the cold Komba, "in our holy town of Rica we
+do not tie innocent guests to stakes to be shot to death with arrows."
+
+The repartee, which was undoubtedly neat, irritated Bausi, who was not
+fond of allusions to this subject.
+
+"If the white men are so safe, why do you not let them take their guns
+with them?" he asked, somewhat illogically.
+
+"If we meant evil, King, would their guns help them, they being but
+few among so many. For instance, could we not steal them, as you did
+when you plotted the murder of these white lords. It is a law among
+the Pongo that no such magic weapon shall be allowed to enter their
+land."
+
+"Why?" I asked, to change the conversation, for I saw that Bausi was
+growing very wrath and feared complications.
+
+"Because, my lord Macumazana, there is a prophecy among us that when a
+gun is fired in Pongo-land, its gods will desert us, and the Motombo,
+who is their priest, will die. That saying is very old, but until a
+little while ago none knew what it meant, since it spoke of 'a hollow
+spear that smoked,' and such a weapon was not known to us."
+
+"Indeed," I said, mourning within myself that we should not be in a
+position to bring about the fulfilment of that prophecy, which, as
+Hans said, shaking his head sadly, "was a great pity, a very great
+pity!"
+
+Three days' march over country that gradually sloped downwards from
+the high tableland on which stood Beza Town, brought us to the lake
+called Kirua, a word which, I believe, means The Place of the Island.
+Of the lake itself we could see nothing, because of the dense brake of
+tall reeds which grew out into the shallow water for quite a mile from
+the shore and was only pierced here and there with paths made by the
+hippopotami when they came to the mainland at night to feed. From a
+high mound which looked exactly like a tumulus and, for aught I know,
+may have been one, however, the blue waters beyond were visible, and
+in the far distance what, looked at through glasses, appeared to be a
+tree-clad mountain top. I asked Komba what it might be, and he
+answered that it was the Home of the gods in Pongo-land.
+
+"What gods?" I asked again, whereon he replied like a black Herodotus,
+that of these it was not lawful to speak.
+
+I have rarely met anyone more difficult to pump than that frigid and
+un-African Komba.
+
+On the top of this mound we planted the Union Jack, fixed to the
+tallest pole that we could find. Komba asked suspiciously why we did
+so, and as I was determined to show this unsympathetic person that
+there were others as unpumpable as himself, I replied that it was the
+god of our tribe, which we set up there to be worshipped, and that
+anyone who tried to insult or injure it, would certainly die, as the
+witch-doctor, Imbozwi, and his children had found out. For once Komba
+seemed a little impressed, and even bowed to the bunting as he passed
+by.
+
+What I did not inform him was that we had set the flag there to be a
+sign and a beacon to us in case we should ever be forced to find our
+way back to this place unguided and in a hurry. As a matter of fact,
+this piece of forethought, which oddly enough originated with the most
+reckless of our party, Stephen, proved our salvation, as I shall tell
+later on. At the foot of the mound we set our camp for the night, the
+Mazitu soldiers under Babemba, who did not mind mosquitoes, making
+theirs nearer to the lake, just opposite to where a wide hippopotamus
+lane pierced the reeds, leaving a little canal of clear water.
+
+I asked Komba when and how we were to cross the lake. He said that we
+must start at dawn on the following morning when, at this time of the
+year, the wind generally blew off shore, and that if the weather were
+favourable, we should reach the Pongo town of Rica by nightfall. As to
+how we were to do this, he would show me if I cared to follow him. I
+nodded, and he led me four or five hundred yards along the edge of the
+reeds in a southerly direction.
+
+As we went, two things happened. The first of these was that a very
+large, black rhinoceros, which was sleeping in some bushes, suddenly
+got our wind and, after the fashion of these beasts, charged down on
+us from about fifty yards away. Now I was carrying a heavy, single-
+barrelled rifle, for as yet we and our weapons were not parted. On
+came the rhinoceros, and Komba, small blame to him for he only had a
+spear, started to run. I cocked the rifle and waited my chance.
+
+When it was not more than fifteen paces away the rhinoceros threw up
+its head, at which, of course, it was useless to fire because of the
+horn, and I let drive at the throat. The bullet hit it fair, and I
+suppose penetrated to the heart. At any rate, it rolled over and over
+like a shot rabbit, and with a single stretch of its limbs, expired
+almost at my feet.
+
+Komba was much impressed. He returned; he stared at the dead
+rhinoceros and at the hole in its throat; he stared at me; he stared
+at the still smoking rifle.
+
+"The great beast of the plains killed with a noise!" he muttered.
+"Killed in an instant by this little monkey of a white man" (I thanked
+him for that and made a note of it) "and his magic. Oh! the Motombo
+was wise when he commanded----" and with an effort he stopped.
+
+"Well, friend, what is the matter?" I asked. "You see there was no
+need for you to run. If you had stepped behind me you would have been
+as safe as you are now--after running."
+
+"It is so, lord Macumazana, but the thing is strange to me. Forgive me
+if I do not understand."
+
+"Oh! I forgive you, my lord Kalubi--that is--to be. It is clear that
+you have a good deal to learn in Pongo-land."
+
+"Yes, my lord Macumazana, and so perhaps have you," he replied dryly,
+having by this time recovered his nerve and sarcastic powers.
+
+Then after telling Mavovo, who appeared mysteriously at the sound of
+the shot--I think he was stalking us in case of accidents--to fetch
+men to cut up the rhinoceros, Komba and I proceeded on our walk.
+
+A little further on, just by the edge of the reeds, I caught sight of
+a narrow, oblong trench dug in a patch of stony soil, and of a rusted
+mustard tin half-hidden by some scanty vegetation.
+
+"What is that?" I asked, in seeming astonishment, though I knew well
+what it must be.
+
+"Oh!" replied Komba, who evidently was not yet quite himself, "that is
+where the white lord Dogeetah, Bausi's blood-brother, set his little
+canvas house when he was here over twelve moons ago."
+
+"Really!" I exclaimed, "he never told me he was here." (This was a
+lie, but somehow I was not afraid of lying to Komba.) "How do you know
+that he was here?"
+
+"One of our people who was fishing in the reeds saw him."
+
+"Oh! that explains it, Komba. But what an odd place for him to fish
+in; so far from home; and I wonder what he was fishing for. When you
+have time, Komba, you must explain to me what it is that you catch
+amidst the roots of thick reeds in such shallow water."
+
+Komba replied that he would do so with pleasure--when he had time.
+Then, as though to avoid further conversation he ran forward, and
+thrusting the reeds apart, showed me a great canoe, big enough to hold
+thirty or forty men, which with infinite labour had been hollowed out
+of the trunk of a single, huge tree. This canoe differed from the
+majority of those that personally I have seen used on African lakes
+and rivers, in that it was fitted for a mast, now unshipped. I looked
+at it and said it was a fine boat, whereon Komba replied that there
+were a hundred such at Rica Town, though not all of them were so
+large.
+
+Ah! thought I to myself as we walked back to the camp. Then, allowing
+an average of twenty to a canoe, the Pongo tribe number about two
+thousand males old enough to paddle, an estimate which turned out to
+be singularly correct.
+
+Next morning at dawn we started, with some difficulty. To begin with,
+in the middle of the night old Babemba came to the canvas shelter
+under which I was sleeping, woke me up and in a long speech implored
+me not to go. He said he was convinced that the Pongo intended foul
+play of some sort and that all this talk of peace was a mere trick to
+entrap us white men into the country, probably in order to sacrifice
+us to its gods for a religious reason.
+
+I answered that I quite agreed with him, but that as my companions
+insisted upon making this journey, I could not desert them. All that I
+could do was to beg him to keep a sharp look-out so that he might be
+able to help us in case we got into trouble.
+
+"Here I will stay and watch for you, lord Macumazana," he answered,
+"but if you fall into a snare, am I able to swim through the water
+like a fish, or to fly through the air like a bird to free you?"
+
+After he had gone one of the Zulu hunters arrived, a man named Ganza,
+a sort of lieutenant to Mavovo, and sang the same song. He said that
+it was not right that I should go without guns to die among devils and
+leave him and his companions wandering alone in a strange land.
+
+I answered that I was much of the same opinion, but that Dogeetah
+insisted upon going and that I had no choice.
+
+"Then let us kill Dogeetah, or at any rate tie him up, so that he can
+do no more mischief in his madness," Ganza suggested blandly, whereon
+I turned him out.
+
+Lastly Sammy arrived and said:
+
+"Mr. Quatermain, before you plunge into this deep well of foolishness,
+I beg that you will consider your responsibilities to God and man, and
+especially to us, your household, who are now but lost sheep far from
+home, and further, that you will remember that if anything
+disagreeable should overtake you, you are indebted to me to the extent
+of two months' wages which will probably prove unrecoverable."
+
+I produced a little leather bag from a tin box and counted out to
+Sammy the wages due to him, also those for three months in advance.
+
+To my astonishment he began to weep. "Sir," he said, "I do not seek
+filthy lucre. What I mean is that I am afraid you will be killed by
+these Pongo, and, alas! although I love you, sir, I am too great a
+coward to come and be killed with you, for God made me like that. I
+pray you not to go, Mr. Quatermain, because I repeat, I love you,
+sir."
+
+"I believe you do, my good fellow," I answered, "and I also am afraid
+of being killed, who only seem to be brave because I must. However, I
+hope we shall come through all right. Meanwhile, I am going to give
+this box and all the gold in it, of which there is a great deal, into
+your charge, Sammy, trusting to you, if anything happens to us, to get
+it safe back to Durban if you can."
+
+"Oh! Mr. Quatermain," he exclaimed, "I am indeed honoured, especially
+as you know that once I was in jail for--embezzlement--with
+extenuating circumstances, Mr. Quatermain. I tell you that although I
+am a coward, I will die before anyone gets his fingers into that box."
+
+"I am sure that you will, Sammy my boy," I said. "But I hope, although
+things look queer, that none of us will be called upon to die just
+yet."
+
+
+
+The morning came at last, and the six of us marched down to the canoe
+which had been brought round to the open waterway. Here we had to
+undergo a kind of customs-house examination at the hands of Komba and
+his companions, who seemed terrified lest we should be smuggling
+firearms.
+
+"You know what rifles are like," I said indignantly. "Can you see any
+in our hands? Moreover, I give you my word that we have none."
+
+Komba bowed politely, but suggested that perhaps some "little guns,"
+by which he meant pistols, remained in our baggage--by accident. Komba
+was a most suspicious person.
+
+"Undo all the loads," I said to Hans, who obeyed with an enthusiasm
+which I confess struck me as suspicious.
+
+Knowing his secretive and tortuous nature, this sudden zeal for
+openness seemed almost unnatural. He began by unrolling his own
+blanket, inside of which appeared a miscellaneous collection of
+articles. I remember among them a spare pair of very dirty trousers, a
+battered tin cup, a wooden spoon such as Kaffirs use to eat their
+/scoff/ with, a bottle full of some doubtful compound, sundry roots
+and other native medicines, an old pipe I had given him, and last but
+not least, a huge head of yellow tobacco in the leaf, of a kind that
+the Mazitu, like the Pongos, cultivate to some extent.
+
+"What on earth do you want so much tobacco for, Hans?" I asked.
+
+"For us three black people to smoke, Baas, or to take as snuff, or to
+chew. Perhaps where we are going we may find little to eat, and then
+tobacco is a food on which one can live for days. Also it brings sleep
+at nights."
+
+"Oh! that will do," I said, fearing lest Hans, like a second Walter
+Raleigh, was about to deliver a long lecture upon the virtue of
+tobacco.
+
+"There is no need for the yellow man to take this weed to our land,"
+interrupted Komba, "for there we have plenty. Why does he cumber
+himself with the stuff?" and he stretched out his hand idly as though
+to take hold of and examine it closely.
+
+At this moment, however, Mavovo called attention to his bundle which
+he had undone, whether on purpose or by accident, I do not know, and
+forgetting the tobacco, Komba turned to attend to him. With a
+marvellous celerity Hans rolled up his blanket again. In less than a
+minute the lashings were fast and it was hanging on his back. Again
+suspicion took me, but an argument which had sprung up between Brother
+John and Komba about the former's butterfly net, which Komba suspected
+of being a new kind of gun or at least a magical instrument of a
+dangerous sort, attracted my notice. After this dispute, another arose
+over a common garden trowel that Stephen had thought fit to bring with
+him. Komba asked what it was for. Stephen replied through Brother John
+that it was to dig up flowers.
+
+"Flowers!" said Komba. "One of our gods is a flower. Does the white
+lord wish to dig up our god?"
+
+Of course this was exactly what Stephen did desire to do, but not
+unnaturally he kept the fact to himself. The squabble grew so hot that
+finally I announced that if our little belongings were treated with so
+much suspicion, it might be better that we should give up the journey
+altogether.
+
+"We have passed our word that we have no firearms," I said in the most
+dignified manner that I could command, "and that should be enough for
+you, O Komba."
+
+Then Komba, after consultation with his companions, gave way.
+Evidently he was anxious that we should visit Pongo-land.
+
+So at last we started. We three white men and our servants seated
+ourselves in the stern of the canoe on grass cushions that had been
+provided. Komba went to the bows and his people, taking the broad
+paddles, rowed and pushed the boat along the water-way made by the
+hippopotami through the tall and matted reeds, from which ducks and
+other fowl rose in multitudes with a sound like thunder. A quarter of
+an hour or so of paddling through these weed-encumbered shallows
+brought us to the deep and open lake. Here, on the edge of the reeds a
+tall pole that served as a mast was shipped, and a square sail, made
+of closely-woven mats, run up. It filled with the morning off-land
+breeze and presently we were bowling along at a rate of quite eight
+miles the hour. The shore grew dim behind us, but for a long while
+above the clinging mists I could see the flag that we had planted on
+the mound. By degrees it dwindled till it became a mere speck and
+vanished. As it grew smaller my spirits sank, and when it was quite
+gone, I felt very low indeed.
+
+Another of your fool's errands, Allan my boy, I said to myself. I
+wonder how many more you are destined to survive.
+
+The others, too, did not seem in the best of spirits. Brother John
+stared at the horizon, his lips moving as though he were engaged in
+prayer, and even Stephen was temporarily depressed. Jerry had fallen
+asleep, as a native generally does when it is warm and he has nothing
+to do. Mavovo looked very thoughtful. I wondered whether he had been
+consulting his Snake again, but did not ask him. Since the episode of
+our escape from execution by bow and arrow I had grown somewhat afraid
+of that unholy reptile. Next time it might foretell our immediate
+doom, and if it did I knew that I should believe.
+
+As for Hans, he looked much disturbed, and was engaged in wildly
+hunting for something in the flap pockets of an antique corduroy
+waistcoat which, from its general appearance, must, I imagine, years
+ago have adorned the person of a British game-keeper.
+
+"Three," I heard him mutter. "By my great grandfather's spirit! only
+three left."
+
+"Three what?" I asked in Dutch.
+
+"Three charms, Baas, and there ought to have been quite twenty-four.
+The rest have fallen out through a hole that the devil himself made in
+this rotten stuff. Now we shall not die of hunger, and we shall not be
+shot, and we shall not be drowned, at least none of those things will
+happen to me. But there are twenty-one other things that may finish
+us, as I have lost the charms to ward them off. Thus----"
+
+"Oh! stop your rubbish," I said, and fell again into the depths of my
+uncomfortable reflections. After this I, too, went to sleep. When I
+woke it was past midday and the wind was falling. However, it held
+while we ate some food we had brought with us, after which it died
+away altogether, and the Pongo people took to their paddles. At my
+suggestion we offered to help them, for it occurred to me that we
+might just as well learn how to manage these paddles. So six were
+given to us, and Komba, who now I noted was beginning to speak in a
+somewhat imperious tone, instructed us in their use. At first we made
+but a poor hand at the business, but three or four hours' steady
+practice taught us a good deal. Indeed, before our journey's end, I
+felt that we should be quite capable of managing a canoe, if ever it
+became necessary for us to do so.
+
+By three in the afternoon the shores of the island we were approaching
+--if it really was an island, a point that I never cleared up--were
+well in sight, the mountain top that stood some miles inland having
+been visible for hours. In fact, through my glasses, I had been able
+to make out its configuration almost from the beginning of the voyage.
+About five we entered the mouth of a deep bay fringed on either side
+with forests, in which were cultivated clearings with small villages
+of the ordinary African stamp. I observed from the smaller size of the
+trees adjacent to these clearings, that much more land had once been
+under cultivation here, probably within the last century, and asked
+Komba why this was so.
+
+He answered in an enigmatic sentence which impressed me so much that I
+find I entered it verbatim in my notebook.
+
+"When man dies, corn dies. Man is corn, and corn is man."
+
+Under this entry I see that I wrote "Compare the saying, 'Bread is the
+staff of life.'"
+
+I could not get any more out of him. Evidently he referred, however,
+to a condition of shrinking in the population, a circumstance which he
+did not care to discuss.
+
+After the first few miles the bay narrowed sharply, and at its end
+came to a point where a stream of no great breadth fell into it. On
+either side of this stream that was roughly bridged in many places
+stood the town of Rica. It consisted of a great number of large huts
+roofed with palm leaves and constructed apparently of whitewashed
+clay, or rather, as we discovered afterwards, of lake mud mixed with
+chopped straw or grass.
+
+Reaching a kind of wharf which was protected from erosion by piles
+formed of small trees driven into the mud, to which were tied a fleet
+of canoes, we landed just as the sun was beginning to sink. Our
+approach had doubtless been observed, for as we drew near the wharf a
+horn was blown by someone on the shore, whereon a considerable number
+of men appeared. I suppose out of the huts, and assisted to make the
+canoe fast. I noted that these all resembled Komba and his companions
+in build and features; they were so like each other that, except for
+the difference of their ages, it was difficult to tell them apart.
+They might all have been members of one family; indeed, this was
+practically the case, owing to constant intermarriage carried on for
+generations.
+
+There was something in the appearance of these tall, cold, sharp-
+featured, white-robed men that chilled my blood, something unnatural
+and almost inhuman. Here was nothing of the usual African jollity. No
+one shouted, no one laughed or chattered. No one crowded on us, trying
+to handle our persons or clothes. No one appeared afraid or even
+astonished. Except for a word or two they were silent, merely
+contemplating us in a chilling and distant fashion, as though the
+arrival of three white men in a country where before no white man had
+ever set foot were an everyday occurrence.
+
+Moreover, our personal appearance did not seem to impress them, for
+they smiled faintly at Brother John's long beard and at my stubbly
+hair, pointing these out to each other with their slender fingers or
+with the handles of their big spears. I remarked that they never used
+the blade of the spear for this purpose, perhaps because they thought
+that we might take this for a hostile or even a warlike demonstration.
+It is humiliating to have to add that the only one of our company who
+seemed to move them to wonder or interest was Hans. His extremely ugly
+and wrinkled countenance, it was clear, did appeal to them to some
+extent, perhaps because they had never seen anything in the least like
+it before, or perhaps for another reason which the reader may guess in
+due course.
+
+At any rate, I heard one of them, pointing to Hans, ask Komba whether
+the ape-man was our god or only our captain. The compliment seemed to
+please Hans, who hitherto had never been looked on either as a god or
+a captain. But the rest of us were not flattered; indeed, Mavovo was
+indignant, and told Hans outright that if he heard any more such talk
+he would beat him before these people, to show them that he was
+neither a captain nor a god.
+
+"Wait till I claim to be either, O butcher of a Zulu, before you
+threaten to treat me thus!" ejaculated Hans, indignantly. Then he
+added, with his peculiar Hottentot snigger, "Still, it is true that
+before all the meat is eaten (i.e. before all is done) you may think
+me both," a dark saying which at the time we did not understand.
+
+When we had landed and collected our belongings, Komba told us to
+follow him, and led us up a wide street that was very tidily kept and
+bordered on either side by the large huts whereof I have spoken. Each
+of these huts stood in a fenced garden of its own, a thing I have
+rarely seen elsewhere in Africa. The result of this arrangement was
+that although as a matter of fact it had but a comparatively small
+population, the area covered by Rica was very great. The town, by the
+way, was not surrounded with any wall or other fortification, which
+showed that the inhabitants feared no attack. The waters of the lake
+were their defence.
+
+For the rest, the chief characteristic of this place was the silence
+that brooded there. Apparently they kept no dogs, for none barked, and
+no poultry, for I never heard a cock crow in Pongo-land. Cattle and
+native sheep they had in abundance, but as they did not fear any
+enemy, these were pastured outside the town, their milk and meat being
+brought in as required. A considerable number of people were gathered
+to observe us, not in a crowd, but in little family groups which
+collected separately at the gates of the gardens.
+
+For the most part these consisted of a man and one or more wives,
+finely formed and handsome women. Sometimes they had children with
+them, but these were very few; the most I saw with any one family was
+three, and many seemed to possess none at all. Both the women and the
+children, like the men, were decently clothed in long, white garments,
+another peculiarity which showed that these natives were no ordinary
+African savages.
+
+Oh! I can see Rica Town now after all these many years: the wide
+street swept and garnished, the brown-roofed, white-walled huts in
+their fertile, irrigated gardens, the tall, silent folk, the smoke
+from the cooking fires rising straight as a line in the still air, the
+graceful palms and other tropical trees, and at the head of the
+street, far away to the north, the rounded, towering shape of the
+forest-clad mountain that was called House of the Gods. Often that
+vision comes back to me in my sleep, or at times in my waking hours
+when some heavy odour reminds me of the overpowering scent of the
+great trumpet-like blooms which hung in profusion upon broad-leaved
+bushes that were planted in almost every garden.
+
+On we marched till at last we reached a tall, live fence that was
+covered with brilliant scarlet flowers, arriving at its gate just as
+the last red glow of day faded from the sky and night began to fall.
+Komba pushed open the gate, revealing a scene that none of us are
+likely to forget. The fence enclosed about an acre of ground of which
+the back part was occupied by two large huts standing in the usual
+gardens.
+
+In front of these, not more than fifteen paces from the gate, stood
+another building of a totally different character. It was about fifty
+feet in length by thirty broad and consisted only of a roof supported
+upon carved pillars of wood, the spaces between the pillars being
+filled with grass mats or blinds. Most of these blinds were pulled
+down, but four exactly opposite the gate were open. Inside the shed
+forty or fifty men, who wore white robes and peculiar caps and who
+were engaged in chanting a dreadful, melancholy song, were gathered on
+three sides of a huge fire that burned in a pit in the ground. On the
+fourth side, that facing the gate, a man stood alone with his arms
+outstretched and his back towards us.
+
+Of a sudden he heard our footsteps and turned round, springing to the
+left, so that the light might fall on us. Now we saw by the glow of
+the great fire, that over it was an iron grid not unlike a small
+bedstead, and that on this grid lay some fearful object. Stephen, who
+was a little ahead, stared, then exclaimed in a horrified voice:
+
+"My God! it is a woman!"
+
+In another second the blinds fell down, hiding everything, and the
+singing ceased.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV
+
+                          THE KALUBI'S OATH
+
+"Be silent!" I whispered, and all understood my tone if they did not
+catch the words. Then steadying myself with an effort, for this
+hideous vision, which might have been a picture from hell, made me
+feel faint, I glanced at Komba, who was a pace or two in front of us.
+Evidently he was much disturbed--the motions of his back told me this
+--by the sense of some terrible mistake that he had made. For a moment
+he stood still, then wheeled round and asked me if we had seen
+anything.
+
+"Yes," I answered indifferently, "we saw a number of men gathered
+round a fire, nothing more."
+
+He tried to search our faces, but luckily the great moon, now almost
+at her full, was hidden behind a thick cloud, so that he could not
+read them well. I heard him sigh in relief as he said:
+
+"The Kalubi and the head men are cooking a sheep; it is their custom
+to feast together on those nights when the moon is about to change.
+Follow me, white lords."
+
+Then he led us round the end of the long shed at which we did not even
+look, and through the garden on its farther side to the two fine huts
+I have mentioned. Here he clapped his hands and a woman appeared, I
+know not whence. To her he whispered something. She went away and
+presently returned with four or five other women who carried clay
+lamps filled with oil in which floated a wick of palm fibre. These
+lamps were set down in the huts that proved to be very clean and
+comfortable places, furnished after a fashion with wooden stools and a
+kind of low table of which the legs were carved to the shape of
+antelope's feet. Also there was a wooden platform at the end of the
+hut whereon lay beds covered with mats and stuffed with some soft
+fibre.
+
+"Here you may rest safe," he said, "for, white lords, are you not the
+honoured guests of the Pongo people? Presently food" (I shuddered at
+the word) "will be brought to you, and after you have eaten well, if
+it is your pleasure, the Kalubi and his councillors will receive you
+in yonder feast-house and you can talk with them before you sleep. If
+you need aught, strike upon that jar with a stick," and he pointed to
+what looked like a copper cauldron that stood in the garden of the hut
+near the place where the women were already lighting a fire, "and some
+will wait on you. Look, here are your goods; none are missing, and
+here comes water in which you may wash. Now I must go to make report
+to the Kalubi," and with a courteous bow he departed.
+
+So after a while did the silent, handsome women--to fetch our meal, I
+understood one of them to say, and at length we were alone.
+
+"My aunt!" said Stephen, fanning himself with his pocket-handkerchief,
+"did you see that lady toasting? I have often heard of cannibals,
+those slaves, for instance, but the actual business! Oh! my aunt!"
+
+"It is no use addressing your absent aunt--if you have got one. What
+did you expect if you would insist on coming to a hell like this?" I
+asked gloomily.
+
+"Can't say, old fellow. Don't trouble myself much with expectations as
+a rule. That's why I and my poor old father never could get on. I
+always quoted the text 'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof' to
+him, until at length he sent for the family Bible and ruled it out
+with red ink in a rage. But I say, do you think that we shall be
+called upon to understudy St. Lawrence on that grid?"
+
+"Certainly, I do," I replied, "and, as old Babemba warned you, you
+can't complain."
+
+"Oh! but I will and I can. And so will you, won't you, Brother John?"
+
+Brother John woke up from a reverie and stroked his long beard.
+
+"Since you ask me, Mr. Somers," he said, reflectively, "if it were a
+case of martyrdom for the Faith, like that of the saint to whom you
+have alluded, I should not object--at any rate in theory. But I
+confess that, speaking from a secular point of view, I have the
+strongest dislike to being cooked and eaten by these very disagreeable
+savages. Still, I see no reason to suppose that we shall fall victims
+to their domestic customs."
+
+I, being in a depressed mood, was about to argue to the contrary, when
+Hans poked his head into the hut and said:
+
+"Dinner coming, Baas, very fine dinner!"
+
+So we went out into the garden where the tall, impassive ladies were
+arranging many wooden dishes on the ground. Now the moon was clear of
+clouds, and by its brilliant light we examined their contents. Some
+were cooked meat covered with a kind of sauce that made its nature
+indistinguishable. As a matter of fact, I believe it was mutton, but--
+who could say? Others were evidently of a vegetable nature. For
+instance, there was a whole platter full of roasted mealie cobs and a
+great boiled pumpkin, to say nothing of some bowls of curdled milk.
+Regarding this feast I became aware of a sudden and complete
+conversion to those principles of vegetarianism which Brother John was
+always preaching to me.
+
+"I am sure you are quite right," I said to him, nervously, "in holding
+that vegetables are the best diet in a hot climate. At any rate I have
+made up my mind to try the experiment for a few days," and throwing
+manners to the winds, I grabbed four of the upper mealie cobs and the
+top of the pumpkin which I cut off with a knife. Somehow I did not
+seem to fancy that portion of it which touched the platter, for who
+knew what those dishes might have contained and how often they were
+washed.
+
+Stephen also appeared to have found salvation on this point, for he,
+too, patronized the mealie cobs and the pumpkin; so did Mavovo, and so
+did even that inveterate meat-eater, Hans. Only the simple Jerry
+tackled the fleshpots of Egypt, or rather of Pongo-land, with
+appetite, and declared that they were good. I think that he, being the
+last of us through the gateway, had not realized what it was which lay
+upon the grid.
+
+At length we finished our simple meal--when you are very hungry it
+takes a long time to fill oneself with squashy pumpkin, which is why I
+suppose ruminants and other grazing animals always seem to be eating--
+and washed it down with water in preference to the sticky-looking milk
+which we left to the natives.
+
+"Allan," said Brother John to me in a low voice as we lit our pipes,
+"that man who stood with his back to us in front of the gridiron was
+the Kalubi. Against the firelight I saw the gap in his hand where I
+cut away the finger."
+
+"Well, if we want to get any further, you must cultivate him," I
+answered. "But the question is, shall we get further than--that grid?
+I believe we have been trapped here to be eaten."
+
+Before Brother John could reply, Komba arrived, and after inquiring
+whether our appetites had been good, intimated that the Kalubi and
+head men were ready to receive us. So off we went with the exception
+of Jerry, whom we left to watch our things, taking with us the
+presents we had prepared.
+
+Komba led us to the feast-house, where the fire in the pit was out, or
+had been covered over, and the grid and its horrible burden had
+disappeared. Also now all the mats were rolled up, so that the clear
+moonlight flowed into and illuminated the place. Seated in a
+semicircle on wooden stools with their faces towards the gateway were
+the Kalubi, who occupied the centre, and eight councillors, all of
+them grey-haired men. This Kalubi was a tall, thin individual of
+middle age with, I think, the most nervous countenance that I ever
+saw. His features twitched continually and his hands were never still.
+The eyes, too, as far as I could see them in that light, were full of
+terrors.
+
+He rose and bowed, but the councillors remained seated, greeting us
+with a long-continued and soft clapping of the hands, which, it
+seemed, was the Pongo method of salute.
+
+We bowed in answer, then seated ourselves on three stools that had
+been placed for us, Brother John occupying the middle stool. Mavovo
+and Hans stood behind us, the latter supporting himself with his large
+bamboo stick. As soon as these preliminaries were over the Kalubi
+called upon Komba, whom he addressed in formal language as "You-who-
+have-passed-the-god," and "You-the-Kalubi-to-be" (I thought I saw him
+wince as he said these words), to give an account of his mission and
+of how it came about that they had the honour of seeing the white
+lords there.
+
+Komba obeyed. After addressing the Kalubi with every possible title of
+honour, such as "Absolute Monarch," "Master whose feet I kiss," "He
+whose eyes are fire and whose tongue is a sword," "He at whose nod
+people die," "Lord of the Sacrifice, first Taster of the Sacred meat,"
+"Beloved of the gods" (here the Kalubi shrank as though he had been
+pricked with a spear), "Second to none on earth save the Motombo the
+most holy, the most ancient, who comes from heaven and speaks with the
+voice of heaven," etc., etc., he gave a clear but brief account of all
+that had happened in the course of his mission to Beza Town.
+
+Especially did he narrate how, in obedience to a message which he had
+received from the Motombo, he had invited the white lords to Pongo-
+land, and even accepted them as envoys from the Mazitu when none would
+respond to King Bausi's invitation to fill that office. Only he had
+stipulated that they should bring with them none of their magic
+weapons which vomited out smoke and death, as the Motombo had
+commanded. At this information the expressive countenance of the
+Kalubi once more betrayed mental disturbance that I think Komba noted
+as much as we did. However, he said nothing, and after a pause, Komba
+went on to explain that no such weapons had been brought, since, not
+satisfied with our word that this was so, he and his companions had
+searched our baggage before we left Mazitu-land.
+
+Therefore, he added, there was no cause to fear that we should bring
+about the fulfilment of the old prophecy that when a gun was fired
+among the Pongo the gods would desert the land and the people cease to
+be a people.
+
+Having finished his speech, he sat down in a humble place behind us.
+Then the Kalubi, after formally accepting us as ambassadors from
+Bausi, King of the Mazitu, discoursed at length upon the advantages
+which would result to both peoples from a lasting peace between them.
+Finally he propounded the articles of such a peace. These, it was
+clear, had been carefully prepared, but to set them out would be
+useless, since they never came to anything, and I doubt whether it was
+intended that they should. Suffice it to say that they provided for
+intermarriage, free trade between the countries, blood-brotherhood,
+and other things that I have forgotten, all of which was to be
+ratified by Bausi taking a daughter of the Kalubi to wife, and the
+Kalubi taking a daughter of Bausi.
+
+We listened in silence, and when he had finished, after a pretended
+consultation between us, I spoke as the Mouth of Brother John, who, I
+explained, was too grand a person to talk himself, saying that the
+proposals seemed fair and reasonable, and that we should be happy to
+submit them to Bausi and his council on our return.
+
+The Kalubi expressed great satisfaction at this statement, but
+remarked incidentally that first of all the whole matter must be laid
+before the Motombo for his opinion, without which no State transaction
+had legal weight among the Pongo. He added that with our approval he
+proposed that we should visit his Holiness on the morrow, starting
+when the sun was three hours old, as he lived at a distance of a day's
+journey from Rica. After further consultation we replied that although
+we had little time to spare, as we understood that the Motombo was old
+and could not visit us, we, the white lords, would stretch a point and
+call on him. Meanwhile we were tired and wished to go to bed. Then we
+presented our gifts, which were gracefully accepted, with an
+intimation that return presents would be made to us before we left
+Pongo-land.
+
+After this the Kalubi took a little stick and broke it, to intimate
+that the conference was at an end, and having bade him and his
+councillors good night we retired to our huts.
+
+I should add, because it has a bearing on subsequent events, that on
+this occasion we were escorted, not by Komba, but by two of the
+councillors. Komba, as I noted for the first time when we rose to say
+good-bye, was no longer present at the council. When he left it I
+cannot say, since it will be remembered that his seat was behind us in
+the shadow, and none of us saw him go.
+
+
+
+"What do you make of all that?" I asked the others when the door was
+shut.
+
+Brother John merely shook his head and said nothing, for in those days
+he seemed to be living in a kind of dreamland.
+
+Stephen answered. "Bosh! Tommy rot! All my eye and my elbow! Those
+man-eating Johnnies have some game up their wide sleeves, and whatever
+it may be, it isn't peace with the Mazitu."
+
+"I agree," I said. "If the real object were peace they would have
+haggled more, stood out for better terms, or hostages, or something.
+Also they would have got the consent of this Motombo beforehand.
+Clearly he is the master of the situation, not the Kalubi, who is only
+his tool; if business were meant he should have spoken first, always
+supposing that he exists and isn't a myth. However, if we live we
+shall learn, and if we don't, it doesn't matter, though personally I
+think we should be wise to leave Motombo alone and to clear out to
+Mazitu-land by the first canoe to-morrow morning."
+
+"I intend to visit this Motombo," broke in Brother John with decision.
+
+"Ditto, ditto," exclaimed Stephen, "but it's no use arguing that all
+over again."
+
+"No," I replied with irritation. "It is, as you remark, of no use
+arguing with lunatics. So let's go to bed, and as it will probably be
+our last, have a good night's sleep."
+
+"Hear, hear!" said Stephen, taking off his coat and placing it doubled
+up on the bed to serve as a pillow. "I say," he added, "stand clear a
+minute while I shake this blanket. It's covered with bits of
+something," and he suited the action to the word.
+
+"Bits of something?" I said suspiciously. "Why didn't you wait a
+minute to let me see them. I didn't notice any bits before."
+
+"Rats running about the roof, I expect," said Stephen carelessly.
+
+Not being satisfied, I began to examine this roof and the clay walls,
+which I forgot to mention were painted over in a kind of pattern with
+whorls in it, by the feeble light of the primitive lamps. While I was
+thus engaged there was a knock on the door. Forgetting all about the
+dust, I opened it and Hans appeared.
+
+"One of these man-eating devils wants to speak to you, Baas. Mavovo
+keeps him without."
+
+"Let him in," I said, since in this place fearlessness seemed our best
+game, "but watch well while he is with us."
+
+Hans whispered a word over his shoulder, and next moment a tall man
+wrapped from head to foot in white cloth, so that he looked like a
+ghost, came or rather shot into the hut and closed the door behind
+him.
+
+"Who are you?" I asked.
+
+By way of answer he lifted or unwrapped the cloth from about his face,
+and I saw that the Kalubi himself stood before us.
+
+"I wish to speak alone with the white lord, Dogeetah," he said in a
+hoarse voice, "and it must be now, since afterwards it will be
+impossible."
+
+Brother John rose and looked at him.
+
+"How are you, Kalubi, my friend?" he asked. "I see that your wound has
+healed well."
+
+"Yes, yes, but I would speak with you alone."
+
+"Not so," replied Brother John. "If you have anything to say, you must
+say it to all of us, or leave it unsaid, since these lords and I are
+one, and that which I hear, they hear."
+
+"Can I trust them?" muttered the Kalubi.
+
+"As you can trust me. Therefore speak, or go. Yet, first, can we be
+overheard in this hut?"
+
+"No, Dogeetah. The walls are thick. There is no one on the roof, for I
+have looked all round, and if any strove to climb there, we should
+hear. Also your men who watch the door would see him. None can hear us
+save perhaps the gods."
+
+"Then we will risk the gods, Kalubi. Go on; my brothers know your
+story."
+
+"My lords," he began, rolling his eyes about him like a hunted
+creature, "I am in a terrible pass. Once, since I saw you, Dogeetah, I
+should have visited the White God that dwells in the forest on the
+mountain yonder, to scatter the sacred seed. But I feigned to be sick,
+and Komba, the Kalubi-to-be, 'who has passed the god,' went in my
+place and returned unharmed. Now to-morrow, the night of the full
+moon, as Kalubi, I must visit the god again and once more scatter the
+seed and--Dogeetah, he will kill me whom he has once bitten. He will
+certainly kill me unless I can kill him. Then Komba will rule as
+Kalubi in my stead, and he will kill you in a way you can guess, by
+the 'Hot death,' as a sacrifice to the gods, that the women of the
+Pongo may once more become the mothers of many children. Yes, yes,
+unless we can kill the god who dwells in the forest, we all must die,"
+and he paused, trembling, while the sweat dropped from him to the
+floor.
+
+"That's pleasant," said Brother John, "but supposing that we kill the
+god how would that help us or you to escape from the Motombo and these
+murdering people of yours? Surely they would slay us for the
+sacrilege."
+
+"Not so, Dogeetah. If the god dies, the Motombo dies. It is known from
+of old, and therefore the Motombo watches over the god as a mother
+over her child. Then, until a new god is found, the Mother of the Holy
+Flower rules, she who is merciful and will harm none, and I rule under
+her and will certainly put my enemies to death, especially that wizard
+Komba."
+
+Here I thought I heard a faint sound in the air like the hiss of a
+snake, but as it was not repeated and I could see nothing, concluded
+that I was mistaken.
+
+"Moreover," he went on, "I will load you with gold dust and any gifts
+you may desire, and set you safe across the water among your friends,
+the Mazitu."
+
+"Look here," I broke in, "let us understand matters clearly, and,
+John, do you translate to Stephen. Now, friend Kalubi, first of all,
+who and what is this god you talk of?"
+
+"Lord Macumazana, he is a huge ape white with age, or born white, I
+know not which. He is twice as big as any man, and stronger than
+twenty men, whom he can break in his hands, as I break a reed, or
+whose heads he can bite off in his mouth, as he bit off my finger for
+a warning. For that is how he treats the Kalubis when he wearies of
+them. First he bites off a finger and lets them go, and next he breaks
+them like a reed, as also he breaks those who are doomed to sacrifice
+before the fire."
+
+"Ah!" I said, "a great ape! I thought as much. Well, and how long has
+this brute been a god among you?"
+
+"I do not know how long. From the beginning. He was always there, as
+the Motombo was always there, for they are one."
+
+"That's a lie any way," I said in English, then went on. "And who is
+this Mother of the Holy Flower? Is she also always there, and does she
+live in the same place as the ape god?"
+
+"Not so, lord Macumazana. She dies like other mortals, and is
+succeeded by one who takes her place. Thus the present Mother is a
+white woman of your race, now of middle age. When she dies she will be
+succeeded by her daughter, who also is a white woman and very
+beautiful. After she dies another who is white will be found, perhaps
+one who is of black parents but born white."
+
+"How old is this daughter?" interrupted Brother John in a curiously
+intent voice, "and who is her father?"
+
+"The daughter was born over twenty years ago, Dogeetah, after the
+Mother of the Flower was captured and brought here. She says that the
+father was a white man to whom she was married, but who is dead."
+
+Brother John's head dropped upon his chest, and his eyes shut as
+though he had gone to sleep.
+
+"As for where the Mother lives," went on the Kalubi, "it is on the
+island in the lake at the top of the mountain that is surrounded by
+water. She has nothing to do with the White God, but those women who
+serve her go across the lake at times to tend the fields where grows
+the seed that the Kalubi sows, of which the corn is the White God's
+food."
+
+"Good," I said, "now we understand--not much, but a little. Tell us
+next what is your plan? How are we to come into the place where this
+great ape lives? And if we come there, how are we to kill the beast,
+seeing that your successor, Komba, was careful to prevent us from
+bringing our firearms to your land?"
+
+"Aye, lord Macumazana, may the teeth of the god meet in his brain for
+that trick; yes, may he die as I know how to make him die. That
+prophecy of which he told you is no prophecy from of old. It arose in
+the land within the last moon only, though whether it came from Komba
+or from the Motombo I know not. None save myself, or at least very few
+here, had heard of the iron tubes that throw out death, so how should
+there be a prophecy concerning them?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know, Kalubi, but answer the rest of the question."
+
+"As to your coming into the forest--for the White God lives in a
+forest on the slopes of the mountain, lords--that will be easy since
+the Motombo and the people will believe that I am trapping you there
+to be a sacrifice, such as they desire for sundry reasons," and he
+looked at the plump Stephen in a very suggestive way. "As to how you
+are to kill the god without your tubes of iron, that I do not know.
+But you are very brave and great magicians. Surely you can find a
+way."
+
+Here Brother John seemed to wake up again.
+
+"Yes," he said, "we shall find a way. Have no fear of that, O Kalubi.
+We are not afraid of the big ape whom you call a god. Yet it must be
+at a price. We will not kill this beast and try to save your life,
+save at a price."
+
+"What price?" asked the Kalubi nervously. "There are wives and cattle
+--no, you do not want the wives, and the cattle cannot be taken across
+the lake. There are gold dust and ivory. I have already promised
+these, and there is nothing more that I can give."
+
+"The price is, O Kalubi, that you hand over to us to be taken away the
+white woman who is called Mother of the Holy Flower, with her
+daughter----"
+
+"And," interrupted Stephen, to whom I had been interpreting, "the Holy
+Flower itself, all of it dug up by the roots."
+
+When he heard these modest requests the poor Kalubi became like one
+upon the verge of madness.
+
+"Do you understand," he gasped, "do you understand that you are asking
+for the gods of my country?"
+
+"Quite," replied Brother John with calmness; "for the gods of your
+country--nothing more nor less."
+
+The Kalubi made as though he would fly from the hut, but I caught him
+by the arm and said:
+
+"See, friend, things are thus. You ask us, at great danger to
+ourselves, to kill one of the gods of your country, the highest of
+them, in order to save your life. Well, in payment we ask you to make
+a present of the remaining gods of your country, and to see us and
+them safe across the lake. Do you accept or refuse?"
+
+"I refuse," answered the Kalubi sullenly. "To accept would mean the
+last curse upon my spirit; that is too horrible to tell."
+
+"And to refuse means the first curse upon your body; namely, that in a
+few hours it must be broken and chewed by a great monkey which you
+call a god. Yes, broken and chewed, and afterwards, I think, cooked
+and eaten as a sacrifice. Is it not so?"
+
+The Kalubi nodded his head and groaned.
+
+"Yet," I went on, "for our part we are glad that you have refused,
+since now we shall be rid of a troublesome and dangerous business and
+return in safety to Mazitu land."
+
+"How will you return in safety, O lord Macumazana, you who are doomed
+to the 'Hot Death' if you escape the fangs of the god?"
+
+"Very easily, O Kalubi, by telling Komba, the Kalubi-to-be, of your
+plots against this god of yours, and how we have refused to listen to
+your wickedness. In fact, I think this may be done at once while you
+are here with us, O Kalubi, where perhaps you do not expect to be
+found. I will go strike upon the pot without the door; doubtless
+though it is late, some will hear. Nay, man, stand you still; we have
+knives and our servants have spears," and I made as though to pass
+him.
+
+"Lord," he said, "I will give you the Mother of the Holy Flower and
+her daughter; aye, and the Holy Flower itself dug up by the roots, and
+I swear that if I can, I will set you and them safe across the lake,
+only asking that I may come with you, since here I dare not stay. Yet
+the curse will come too, but if so, it is better to die of a curse in
+a day to be, than to-morrow at the fangs of the god. Oh! why was I
+born! Why was I born!" and he began to weep.
+
+"That is a question many have asked and none have been able to answer,
+O friend Kalubi, though mayhap there is an answer somewhere," I
+replied in a kind voice.
+
+For my heart was stirred with pity of this poor wretch mazed and lost
+in his hell of superstition; this potentate who could not escape from
+the trappings of a hateful power, save by the door of a death too
+horrible to contemplate; this priest whose doom it was to be slain by
+the very hands of his god, as those who went before him had been
+slain, and as those who came after him would be slain.
+
+"Yet," I went on, "I think you have chosen wisely, and we hold you to
+your word. While you are faithful to us, we will say nothing. But of
+this be sure--that if you attempt to betray us, we who are not so
+helpless as we seem, will betray you, and it shall be you who die, not
+us. Is it a bargain?"
+
+"It is a bargain, white lord, although blame me not if things go
+wrong, since the gods know all, and they are devils who delight in
+human woe and mock at bargains and torment those who would injure
+them. Yet, come what will, I swear to keep faith with you thus, by the
+oath that may not be broken," and drawing a knife from his girdle, he
+thrust out the tip of his tongue and pricked it. From the puncture a
+drop of blood fell to the floor.
+
+"If I break my oath," he said, "may my flesh grow cold as that blood
+grows cold, and may it rot as that blood rots! Aye, and may my spirit
+waste and be lost in the world of ghosts as that blood wastes into the
+air and is lost in the dust of the world!"
+
+It was a horrible scene and one that impressed me very much,
+especially as even then there fell upon me a conviction that this
+unfortunate man was doomed, that a fate which he could not escape was
+upon him.
+
+We said nothing, and in another moment he had thrown his white
+wrappings over his face and slipped through the door.
+
+"I am afraid we are playing it rather low down on that jumpy old boy,"
+said Stephen remorsefully.
+
+"The white woman, the white woman and her daughter," muttered Brother
+John.
+
+"Yes," reflected Stephen aloud. "One is justified in doing anything to
+get two white women out of this hell, if they exist. So one may as
+well have the orchid also, for they'd be lonely without it, poor
+things, wouldn't they? Glad I thought of that, it's soothing to the
+conscience."
+
+"I hope you'll find it so when we are all on that iron grid which I
+noticed is wide enough for three," I remarked sarcastically. "Now be
+quiet, I want to go to sleep."
+
+I am sorry to have to add that for the most of that night Want
+remained my master. But if I couldn't sleep, I could, or rather was
+obliged to, think, and I thought very hard indeed.
+
+First I reflected on the Pongo and their gods. What were these and why
+did they worship them? Soon I gave it up, remembering that the problem
+was one which applied equally to dozens of the dark religions of this
+vast African continent, to which none could give an answer, and least
+of all their votaries. That answer indeed must be sought in the
+horrible fears of the unenlightened human heart, which sees death and
+terror and evil around it everywhere and, in this grotesque form or in
+that, personifies them in gods, or rather in devils who must be
+propitiated. For always the fetish or the beast, or whatever it may
+be, is not the real object of worship. It is only the thing or
+creature which is inhabited by the spirit of the god or devil, the
+temple, as it were, that furnishes it with a home, which temple is
+therefore holy. And these spirits are diverse, representing sundry
+attributes or qualities.
+
+Thus the great ape might be Satan, a prince of evil and blood. The
+Holy Flower might symbolise fertility and the growth of the food of
+man from the bosom of the earth. The Mother of the Flower might
+represent mercy and goodness, for which reason it was necessary that
+she should be white in colour, and dwell, not in the shadowed forest,
+but on a soaring mountain, a figure of light, in short, as opposed to
+darkness. Or she might be a kind of African Ceres, a goddess of the
+corn and harvest which were symbolised in the beauteous bloom she
+tended. Who could tell? Not I, either then or afterwards, for I never
+found out.
+
+As for the Pongo themselves, their case was obvious. They were a dying
+tribe, the last descendants of some higher race, grown barren from
+intermarriage. Probably, too, they were at first only cannibals
+occasionally and from religious reasons. Then in some time of dearth
+they became very religious in that respect, and the habit overpowered
+them. Among cannibals, at any rate in Africa, as I knew, this dreadful
+food is much preferred to any other meat. I had not the slightest
+doubt that although the Kalubi himself had brought us here in the wild
+hope that we might save him from a terrible death at the hands of the
+Beelzebub he served, Komba and the councillors, inspired thereto by
+the prophet called Motombo, designed that we should be murdered and
+eaten as an offering to the gods. How we were to escape this fate,
+being unarmed, I could not imagine, unless some special protection
+were vouchsafed to us. Meanwhile, we must go on to the end, whatever
+it might be.
+
+Brother John, or to give him his right name, the Reverend John
+Eversley, was convinced that the white woman imprisoned in the
+mountain was none other than the lost wife for whom he had searched
+for twenty weary years, and that the second white woman of whom we had
+heard that night was, strange as it might seem, her daughter and his
+own. Perhaps he was right and perhaps he was wrong. But even in the
+latter case, if two white persons were really languishing in this
+dreadful land, our path was clear. We must go on in faith until we
+saved them or until we died.
+
+ "Our life is granted, not in Pleasure's round,
+    Or even Love's sweet dream, to lapse, content;
+  Duty and Faith are words of solemn sound,
+    And to their echoes must the soul be bent,"
+
+as some one or other once wrote, very nobly I think. Well, there was
+but little of "Pleasure's round" about the present entertainment, and
+any hope of "Love's sweet dream" seemed to be limited to Brother John
+(here I was quite mistaken, as I so often am). Probably the "echoes"
+would be my share; indeed, already I seemed to hear their ominous
+thunder.
+
+At last I did go to sleep and dreamed a very curious dream. It seemed
+to me that I was disembodied, although I retained all my powers of
+thought and observation; in fact, dead and yet alive. In this state I
+hovered over the people of the Pongo who were gathered together on a
+great plain under an inky sky. They were going about their business as
+usual, and very unpleasant business it often was. Some of them were
+worshipping a dim form that I knew was the devil; some were committing
+murders; some were feasting--at that on which they feasted I would not
+look; some were labouring or engaged in barter; some were thinking.
+But I, who had the power of looking into them, saw within the breast
+of each a tiny likeness of the man or woman or child as it might be,
+humbly bent upon its knees with hands together in an attitude of
+prayer, and with imploring, tear-stained face looking upwards to the
+black heaven.
+
+Then in that heaven there appeared a single star of light, and from
+this star flowed lines of gentle fire that spread and widened till all
+the immense arc was one flame of glory. And now from the pulsing heart
+of the Glory, which somehow reminded me of moving lips, fell countless
+flakes of snow, each of which followed an appointed path till it lit
+upon the forehead of one of the tiny, imploring figures hidden within
+those savage breasts, and made it white and clean.
+
+Then the Glory shrank and faded till there remained of it only the
+similitude of two transparent hands stretched out as though in
+blessing--and I woke up wondering how on earth I found the fancy to
+invent such a vision, and whether it meant anything or nothing.
+
+Afterwards I repeated it to Brother John, who was a very spiritually
+minded as well as a good man--the two things are often quite different
+--and asked him to be kind enough to explain. At the time he shook his
+head, but some days later he said to me:
+
+"I think I have read your riddle, Allan; the answer came to me quite
+of a sudden. In all those sin-stained hearts there is a seed of good
+and an aspiration towards the right. For every one of them also there
+is at last mercy and forgiveness, since how could they learn who never
+had a teacher? Your dream, Allan, was one of the ultimate redemption
+of even the most evil of mankind, by gift of the Grace that shall one
+day glow through the blackness of the night in which they wander."
+
+That is what he said, and I only hope that he was right, since at
+present there is something very wrong with the world, especially in
+Africa.
+
+Also we blame the blind savage for many things, but on the balance are
+we so much better, considering our lights and opportunities? Oh! the
+truth is that the devil--a very convenient word that--is a good
+fisherman. He has a large book full of flies of different sizes and
+colours, and well he knows how to suit them to each particular fish.
+But white or black, every fish takes one fly or the other, and then
+comes the question--is the fish that has swallowed the big gaudy lure
+so much worse or more foolish than that which has fallen to the
+delicate white moth with the same sharp barb in its tail?
+
+In short, are we not all miserable sinners as the Prayer Book says,
+and in the eye of any judge who can average up the elemental
+differences of those waters wherein we were bred and are called upon
+to swim, is there so much to choose between us? Do we not all need
+those outstretched Hands of Mercy which I saw in my dream?
+
+But there, there! What right has a poor old hunter to discuss things
+that are too high for him?
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+                             THE MOTOMBO
+
+After my dream I went to sleep again, till I was finally aroused by a
+strong ray of light hitting me straight in the eye.
+
+Where the dickens does that come from? thought I to myself, for these
+huts had no windows.
+
+Then I followed the ray to its source, which I perceived was a small
+hole in the mud wall some five feet above the floor. I rose and
+examined the said hole, and noted that it appeared to have been
+freshly made, for the clay at the sides of it was in no way
+discoloured. I reflected that if anyone wanted to eavesdrop, such an
+aperture would be convenient, and went outside the hut to pursue my
+investigations. Its wall, I found, was situated about four feet from
+the eastern part of the encircling reed fence, which showed no signs
+of disturbance, although there, in the outer face of the wall, was the
+hole, and beneath it on the lime flooring lay some broken fragments of
+plaster. I called Hans and asked him if he had kept watch round the
+hut when the wrapped-up man visited us during the night. He answered
+yes, and that he could swear that no one had come near it, since
+several times he had walked to the back and looked.
+
+Somewhat comforted, though not satisfied, I went in to wake up the
+others, to whom I said nothing of this matter since it seemed foolish
+to alarm them for no good purpose. A few minutes later the tall,
+silent women arrived with our hot water. It seemed curious to have hot
+water brought to us in such a place by these very queer kind of
+housemaids, but so it was. The Pongo, I may add, were, like the Zulus,
+very clean in their persons, though whether they all used hot water, I
+cannot say. At any rate, it was provided for us.
+
+Half an hour later they returned with breakfast, consisting chiefly of
+a roasted kid, of which, as it was whole, and therefore unmistakable,
+we partook thankfully. A little later the Majestic Komba appeared.
+After many compliments and inquiries as to our general health, he
+asked whether we were ready to start on our visit to the Motombo who,
+he added, was expecting us with much eagerness. I inquired how he knew
+that, since we had only arranged to call on him late on the previous
+night, and I understood that he lived a day's journey away. But Komba
+put the matter by with a smile and a wave of his hand.
+
+So in due course off we went, taking with us all our baggage, which
+now that it had been lightened by the delivery of the presents, was of
+no great weight.
+
+Five minutes' walk along the wide, main street led us to the northern
+gate of Rica Town. Here we found the Kalubi himself with an escort of
+thirty men armed with spears; I noted that unlike the Mazitu they had
+no bows and arrows. He announced in a loud voice that he proposed to
+do us the special honour of conducting us to the sanctuary of the Holy
+One, by which we understood him to mean the Motombo. When we politely
+begged him not to trouble, being in an irritable mood, or assuming it,
+he told us rudely to mind our own business. Indeed, I think this
+irritability was real enough, which, in the circumstances known to the
+reader, was not strange. At any rate, an hour or so later it declared
+itself in an act of great cruelty which showed us how absolute was
+this man's power in all temporal matters.
+
+Passing through a little clump of bush we came to some gardens
+surrounded by a light fence through which a number of cattle of a
+small and delicate breed--they were not unlike Jerseys in appearance--
+had broken to enjoy themselves by devouring the crops. This garden, it
+appeared, belonged to the Kalubi for the time being, who was furious
+at the destruction of its produce by the cattle which also belonged to
+him.
+
+"Where is the herd?" he shouted.
+
+A hunt began--and presently the poor fellow--he was no more than a
+lad, was discovered asleep behind a bush. When he was dragged before
+him the Kalubi pointed, first to the cattle, then to the broken fence
+and the devastated garden. The lad began to mutter excuses and pray
+for mercy.
+
+"Kill him!" said the Kalubi, whereon the herd flung himself to the
+ground, and clutching him by the ankles, began to kiss his feet,
+crying out that he was afraid to die. The Kalubi tried to kick himself
+free, and failing in this, lifted his big spear and made an end of the
+poor boy's prayers and life at a single stroke.
+
+The escort clapped their hands in salute or approval, after which four
+of them, at a sign, took up the body and started with it at a trot for
+Rica Town, where probably that night it appeared upon the grid.
+Brother John saw, and his big white beard bristled with indignation
+like the hair on the back of an angry cat, while Stephen spluttered
+something beginning with "You brute," and lifted his fist as though to
+knock the Kalubi down. This, had I not caught hold of him, I have no
+doubt he would have done.
+
+"O Kalubi!" gasped Brother John, "do you not know that blood calls for
+blood? In the hour of your own death remember this death."
+
+"Would you bewitch me, white man?" said the Kalubi, glaring at him
+angrily. "If so----" and once more he lifted the spear, but as John
+never stirred, held it poised irresolutely. Komba thrust himself
+between them, crying:
+
+"Back, Dogeetah, who dare to meddle with our customs! Is not the
+Kalubi Lord of life and death?"
+
+Brother John was about to answer, but I called to him in English:
+
+"For Heaven's sake be silent, unless you want to follow the boy. We
+are in these men's power."
+
+Then he remembered and walked away, and presently we marched forward
+as though nothing had happened. Only from that moment I do not think
+that any of us worried ourselves about the Kalubi and what might
+befall him. Still, looking back on the thing, I think that there was
+this excuse to be made for the man. He was mad with the fear of death
+and knew not what he did.
+
+All that day we travelled on through a rich, flat country that, as we
+could tell from various indications, had once been widely cultivated.
+Now the fields were few and far between, and bush, for the most part a
+kind of bamboo scrub, was reoccupying the land. About midday we halted
+by a water-pool to eat and rest, for the sun was hot, and here the
+four men who had carried off the boy's body rejoined us and made some
+report. Then we went forward once more towards what seemed to be a
+curious and precipitous wall of black cliff, beyond which the
+volcanic-looking mountain towered in stately grandeur. By three
+o'clock we were near enough to this cliff, which ran east and west as
+far as the eye could reach, to see a hole in it, apparently where the
+road terminated, that appeared to be the mouth of a cave.
+
+The Kalubi came up to us, and in a shy kind of way tried to make
+conversation. I think that the sight of this mountain, drawing ever
+nearer, vividly recalled his terrors and caused him to desire to
+efface the bad impression he knew he had made on us, to whom he looked
+for safety. Among other things he told us that the hole we saw was the
+door of the House of the Motombo.
+
+I nodded my head, but did not answer, for the presence of this
+murderous king made me feel sick. So he went away again, looking at us
+in a humble and deprecatory manner.
+
+Nothing further happened until we reached the remarkable wall of rock
+that I have mentioned, which I suppose is composed of some very hard
+stone that remained when the softer rock in which it lay was
+disintegrated by millions of years of weather or washings by the water
+of the lake. Or perhaps its substance was thrown out of the bowels of
+the volcano when this was active. I am no geologist, and cannot say,
+especially as I lacked time to examine the place. At any rate there it
+was, and there in it appeared the mouth of a great cave that I presume
+was natural, having once formed a kind of drain through which the lake
+overflowed when Pongo-land was under water.
+
+We halted, staring dubiously at this darksome hole, which no doubt was
+the same that Babemba had explored in his youth. Then the Kalubi gave
+an order, and some of the soldiers went to huts that were built near
+the mouth of the cave, where I suppose guardians or attendants lived,
+though of these we saw nothing. Presently they returned with a number
+of lighted torches that were distributed among us. This done, we
+plunged, shivering (at least, I shivered), into the gloomy recesses of
+that great cavern, the Kalubi going before us with half of our escort,
+and Komba following behind us with the remainder.
+
+The floor of the place was made quite smooth, doubtless by the action
+of water, as were the walls and roof, so far as we could see them, for
+it was very wide and lofty. It did not run straight, but curved about
+in the thickness of the cliff. At the first turn the Pongo soldiers
+set up a low and eerie chant which they continued during its whole
+length, that according to my pacings was something over three hundred
+yards. On we wound, the torches making stars of light in the intense
+blackness, till at length we rounded a last corner where a great
+curtain of woven grass, now drawn, was stretched across the cave. Here
+we saw a very strange sight.
+
+On either side of it, near to the walls, burned a large wood fire that
+gave light to the place. Also more light flowed into it from its
+further mouth that was not more than twenty paces from the fires.
+Beyond the mouth was water which seemed to be about two hundred yards
+wide, and beyond the water rose the slopes of the mountain that was
+covered with huge trees. Moreover, a little bay penetrated into the
+cavern, the point of which bay ended between the two fires. Here the
+water, which was not more than six or eight feet wide, and shallow,
+formed the berthing place of a good-sized canoe that lay there. The
+walls of the cavern, from the turn to the point of the tongue of
+water, were pierced with four doorways, two on either side, which led,
+I presume, to chambers hewn in the rock. At each of these doorways
+stood a tall woman clothed in white, who held in her hand a burning
+torch. I concluded that these were attendants set there to guide and
+welcome us, for after we had passed, they vanished into the chambers.
+
+But this was not all. Set across the little bay of water just above
+the canoe that floated there was a wooden platform, eight feet or so
+square, on either side of which stood an enormous elephant's tusk,
+bigger indeed than any I have seen in all my experience, which tusks
+seemed to be black with age. Between the tusks, squatted upon rugs of
+some kind of rich fur, was what from its shape and attitude I at first
+took to be a huge toad. In truth, it had all the appearance of a very
+bloated toad. There was the rough corrugated skin, there the prominent
+backbone (for its back was towards us), and there were the thin,
+splayed-out legs.
+
+We stared at this strange object for quite a long while, unable to
+make it out in that uncertain light, for so long indeed, that I grew
+nervous and was about to ask the Kalubi what it might be. As my lips
+opened, however, it stirred, and with a slow, groping, circular
+movement turned itself towards us very slowly. At length it was round,
+and as the head came in view all the Pongo from the Kalubi down ceased
+their low, weird chant and flung themselves upon their faces, those
+who had torches still holding them up in their right hands.
+
+Oh! what a thing appeared! It was not a toad, but a man that moved
+upon all fours. The large, bald head was sunk deep between the
+shoulders, either through deformity or from age, for this creature was
+undoubtedly very old. Looking at it, I wondered how old, but could
+form no answer in my mind. The great, broad face was sunken and
+withered, like to leather dried in the sun; the lower lip hung
+pendulously upon the prominent and bony jaw. Two yellow, tusk-like
+teeth projected one at each corner of the great mouth; all the rest
+were gone, and from time to time it licked the white gums with a red-
+pointed tongue as a snake might do. But the chief wonder of the Thing
+lay in its eyes that were large and round, perhaps because the flesh
+had shrunk away from them, which gave them the appearance of being set
+in the hollow orbits of a skull. These eyes literally shone like fire;
+indeed, at times they seemed positively to blaze, as I have seen a
+lion's eyes do in the dark. I confess that the aspect of the creature
+terrified and for a while paralysed me; to think that it was human was
+awful.
+
+I glanced at the others and saw that they, too, were frightened.
+Stephen turned very white. I thought that he was going to be sick
+again, as he was after he drank the coffee out of the wrong bowl on
+the day we entered Mazitu-land. Brother John stroked his white beard
+and muttered some invocation to Heaven to protect him. Hans exclaimed
+in his abominable Dutch:
+
+"/Oh! keek, Baas, da is je lelicher oud deel!/" ("Oh! look, Baas,
+there is the ugly old devil himself!")
+
+Jerry went flat on his face among the Pongo, muttering that he saw
+Death before him. Only Mavovo stood firm; perhaps because as a witch-
+doctor of repute he felt that it did not become him to show the white
+feather in the presence of an evil spirit.
+
+The toad-like creature on the platform swayed its great head slowly as
+a tortoise does, and contemplated us with its flaming eyes. At length
+it spoke in a thick, guttural voice, using the tongue that seemed to
+be common to this part of Africa and indeed to that branch of the
+Bantu people to which the Zulus belong, but, as I thought, with a
+foreign accent.
+
+"So /you/ are the white men come back," it said slowly. "Let me
+count!" and lifting one skinny hand from the ground, it pointed with
+the forefinger and counted. "One. Tall, with a white beard. Yes, that
+is right. Two. Short, nimble like a monkey, with hair that wants no
+comb; clever, too, like a father of monkeys. Yes, that is right.
+Three. Smooth-faced, young and stupid, like a fat baby that laughs at
+the sky because he is full of milk, and thinks that the sky is
+laughing at him. Yes, that is right. All three of you are just the
+same as you used to be. Do you remember, White Beard, how, while we
+killed you, you said prayers to One Who sits above the world, and held
+up a cross of bone to which a man was tied who wore a cap of thorns?
+Do you remember how you kissed the man with the cap of thorns as the
+spear went into you? You shake your head--oh! you are a clever liar,
+but I will show you that you are a liar, for I have the thing yet,"
+and snatching up a horn which lay on the kaross beneath him, he blew.
+
+As the peculiar, wailing note that the horn made died away, a woman
+dashed out of one of the doorways that I have described and flung
+herself on her knees before him. He muttered something to her and she
+dashed back again to re-appear in an instant holding in her hand a
+yellow ivory crucifix.
+
+"Here it is, here it is," he said. "Take it, White Beard, and kiss it
+once more, perhaps for the last time," and he threw the crucifix to
+Brother John, who caught it and stared at it amazed. "And do you
+remember, Fat Baby, how we caught you? You fought well, very well, but
+we killed you at last, and you were good, very good; we got much
+strength from you.
+
+"And do you remember, Father of Monkeys, how you escaped from us by
+your cleverness? I wonder where you went to and how you died. I shall
+not forget you, for you gave me this," and he pointed to a big white
+scar upon his shoulder. "You would have killed me, but the stuff in
+that iron tube of yours burned slowly when you held the fire to it, so
+that I had time to jump aside and the iron ball did not strike me in
+the heart as you meant that it should. Yet, it is still here; oh! yes,
+I carry it with me to this day, and now that I have grown thin I can
+feel it with my finger."
+
+I listened astonished to this harangue, which if it meant anything,
+meant that we had all met before, in Africa at some time when men used
+matchlocks that were fired with a fuse--that is to say, about the year
+1700, or earlier. Reflection, however, showed me the interpretation of
+this nonsense. Obviously this old priest's forefather, or, if one put
+him at a hundred and twenty years of age, and I am sure that he was
+not a day less, perhaps his father, as a young man, was mixed up with
+some of the first Europeans who penetrated to the interior of Africa.
+Probably these were Portuguese, of whom one may have been a priest and
+the other two an elderly man and his son, or young brother, or
+companion. The manner of the deaths of these people and of what
+happened to them generally would of course be remembered by the
+descendants of the chief or head medicine-man of the tribe.
+
+"Where did we meet, and when, O Motombo?" I asked.
+
+"Not in this land, not in this land, Father of Monkeys," he replied in
+his low rumbling voice, "but far, far away towards the west where the
+sun sinks in the water; and not in this day, but long, long ago.
+Twenty Kalubis have ruled the Pongo since that day; some have ruled
+for many years and some have ruled for a few years--that depends upon
+the will of my brother, the god yonder," and he chuckled horribly and
+jerked his thumb backwards over his shoulder towards the forest on the
+mountain. "Yes, twenty have ruled, some for thirty years and none for
+less than four."
+
+"Well, you /are/ a large old liar," I thought to myself, for, taking
+the average rule of the Kalubis at ten years, this would mean that we
+met him two centuries ago at least.
+
+"You were clothed otherwise then," he went on, "and two of you wore
+hats of iron on the head, but that of White Beard was shaven. I caused
+a picture of you to be beaten by the master-smith upon a plate of
+copper. I have it yet."
+
+Again he blew upon his horn; again a woman darted out, to whom he
+whispered; again she went to one of the chambers and returned bearing
+an object which he cast to us.
+
+We looked at it. It was a copper or bronze plaque, black, apparently
+with age, which once had been nailed on something for there were the
+holes. It represented a tall man with a long beard and a tonsured head
+who held a cross in his hand; and two other men, both short, who wore
+round metal caps and were dressed in queer-looking garments and boots
+with square toes. These man carried big and heavy matchlocks, and in
+the hand of one of them was a smoking fuse. That was all we could make
+out of the thing.
+
+"Why did you leave the far country and come to this land, O Motombo?"
+I asked.
+
+"Because we were afraid that other white men would follow on your
+steps and avenge you. The Kalubi of that day ordered it, though I said
+No, who knew that none can escape by flight from what must come when
+it must come. So we travelled and travelled till we found this place,
+and here we have dwelt from generation to generation. The gods came
+with us also; my brother that dwells in the forest came, though we
+never saw him on the journey, yet he was here before us. The Holy
+Flower came too, and the white Mother of the Flower--she was the wife
+of one of you, I know not which."
+
+"Your brother the god?" I said. "If the god is an ape as we have
+heard, how can he be the brother of a man?"
+
+"Oh! you white men do not understand, but we black people understand.
+In the beginning the ape killed my brother who was Kalubi, and his
+spirit entered into the ape, making him as a god, and so he kills
+every other Kalubi and their spirits enter also into him. Is it not
+so, O Kalubi of to-day, you without a finger?" and he laughed
+mockingly.
+
+The Kalubi, who was lying on his stomach, groaned and trembled, but
+made no other answer.
+
+"So all has come about as I foresaw," went on the toad-like creature.
+"You have returned, as I knew you would, and now we shall learn
+whether White Beard yonder spoke true words when he said that his god
+would be avenged upon our god. You shall go to be avenged on him if
+you can, and then we shall learn. But this time you have none of your
+iron tubes which alone we fear. For did not the god declare to us
+through me that when the white men came back with an iron tube, then
+he, the god, would die, and I, the Motombo, the god's Mouth, would
+die, and the Holy Flower would be torn up, and the Mother of the
+Flower would pass away, and the people of the Pongo would be dispersed
+and become wanderers and slaves? And did he not declare that if the
+white men came again without their iron tubes, then certain secret
+things would happen--oh! ask them not, in time they shall be known to
+you, and the people of the Pongo who were dwindling would again become
+fruitful and very great? And that is why we welcome you, white men,
+who arise again from the land of ghosts, because through you we, the
+Pongo, shall become fruitful and very great."
+
+Of a sudden he ceased his rumbling talk, his head sank back between
+his shoulders and he sat silent for a long while, his fierce,
+sparkling eyes playing on us as though he would read our very
+thoughts. If he succeeded, I hope that mine pleased him. To tell the
+truth, I was filled with mixed fear, fury and loathing. Although, of
+course, I did not believe a word of all the rubbish he had been
+saying, which was akin to much that is evolved by these black-hearted
+African wizards, I hated the creature whom I felt to be only half-
+human. My whole nature sickened at his aspect and talk. And yet I was
+dreadfully afraid of him. I felt as a man might who wakes up to find
+himself alone with some peculiarly disgusting Christmas-story kind of
+ghost. Moreover I was quite sure that he meant us ill, fearful and
+imminent ill. Suddenly he spoke again:
+
+"Who is that little yellow one," he said, "that old one with a face
+like a skull," and he pointed to Hans, who had kept as much out of
+sight as possible behind Mavovo, "that wizened, snub-nosed one who
+might be a child of my brother the god, if ever he had a child? And
+why, being so small, does he need so large a staff?" Here he pointed
+again to Hans's big bamboo stick. "I think he is as full of guile as a
+new-filled gourd with water. The big black one," and he looked at
+Mavovo, "I do not fear, for his magic is less than my magic," (he
+seemed to recognise a brother doctor in Mavovo) "but the little yellow
+one with the big stick and the pack upon his back, I fear him. I think
+he should be killed."
+
+He paused and we trembled, for if he chose to kill the poor Hottentot,
+how could we prevent him? But Hans, who saw the great danger, called
+his cunning to his aid.
+
+"O Motombo," he squeaked, "you must not kill me for I am the servant
+of an ambassador. You know well that all the gods of every land hate
+and will be revenged upon those who touch ambassadors or their
+servants, whom they, the gods, alone may harm. If you kill me I shall
+haunt you. Yes, I shall sit on your shoulder at night and jibber into
+your ear so that you cannot sleep, until you die. For though you are
+old you must die at last, Motombo."
+
+"It is true," said the Motombo. "Did I not tell you that he was full
+of cunning? All the gods will be avenged upon those who kill
+ambassadors or their servants. That"--here he laughed again in his
+dreadful way--"is the rights of the gods alone. Let the gods of the
+Pongo settle it."
+
+I uttered a sigh of relief, and he went on in a new voice, a dull,
+business-like voice if I may so describe it:
+
+"Say, O Kalubi, on what matter have you brought these white men to
+speak with me, the Mouth of the god? Did I dream that it was a matter
+of a treaty with the King of the Mazitu? Rise and speak."
+
+So the Kalubi rose and with a humble air set out briefly and clearly
+the reason of our visit to Pongo-land as the envoys of Bausi and the
+heads of the treaty that had been arranged subject to the approval of
+the Motombo and Bausi. We noted that the affair did not seem to
+interest the Motombo at all. Indeed, he appeared to go to sleep while
+the speech was being delivered, perhaps because he was exhausted with
+the invention of his outrageous falsehoods, or perhaps for other
+reasons. When it was finished he opened his eyes and pointed to Komba,
+saying:
+
+"Arise, Kalubi-that-is-to-be."
+
+So Komba rose, and in his cold, precise voice narrated his share in
+the transaction, telling how he had visited Bausi, and all that had
+happened in connection with the embassy. Again the Motombo appeared to
+go to sleep, only opening his eyes once as Komba described how we had
+been searched for firearms, whereon he nodded his great head in
+approval and licked his lips with his thin red tongue. When Komba had
+done, he said:
+
+"The gods tell me that the plan is wise and good, since without new
+blood the people of the Pongo will die, but of the end of the matter
+the god knows alone, if even he can read the future."
+
+He paused, then asked sharply:
+
+"Have you anything more to say, O Kalubi-that-is-to-be? Now of a
+sudden the god puts it into my mouth to ask if you have anything more
+to say?"
+
+"Something, O Motombo. Many moons ago the god bit /off/ the finger of
+our High Lord, the Kalubi. The Kalubi, having heard that a white man
+skilled in medicine who could cut off limbs with knives, was in the
+country of the Mazitu and camped on the borders of the great lake,
+took a canoe and rowed to where the white man was camped, he with the
+beard, who is named Dogeetah, and who stands before you. I followed
+him in another canoe, because I wished to know what he was doing, also
+to see a white man. I hid my canoe and those who went with me in the
+reeds far from the Kalubi's canoe. I waded through the shallow water
+and concealed myself in some thick reeds quite near to the white man's
+linen house. I saw the white man cut off the Kalubi's finger and I
+heard the Kalubi pray the white man to come to our country with the
+iron tubes that smoke, and to kill the god of whom he was afraid."
+
+Now from all the company went up a great gasp, and the Kalubi fell
+down upon his face again, and lay still. Only the Motombo seemed to
+show no surprise, perhaps because he already knew the story.
+
+"Is that all?" he asked.
+
+"No, O Mouth of the god. Last night, after the council of which you
+have heard, the Kalubi wrapped himself up like a corpse and visited
+the white men in their hut. I thought that he would do so, and had
+made ready. With a sharp spear I bored a hole in the wall of the hut,
+working from outside the fence. Then I thrust a reed through from the
+fence across the passage between the fence and the wall, and through
+the hole in the hut, and setting my ear to the end of the reed, I
+listened."
+
+"Oh! clever, clever!" muttered Hans in involuntary admiration, "and to
+think that I looked and looked too low, beneath the reed. Oh! Hans,
+though you are old, you have much to learn."
+
+"Among much else I heard this," went on Komba in sentences so clear
+and cold that they reminded me of the tinkle of falling ice, "which I
+think is enough, though I can tell you the rest if you wish, O Mouth.
+I heard," he said, in the midst of a silence that was positively
+awful, "our lord, the Kalubi, whose name is Child of the god, agree
+with the white men that they should kill the god--how I do not know,
+for it was not said--and that in return they should receive the
+persons of the Mother of the Holy Flower and of her daughter, the
+Mother-that-is-to-be, and should dig up the Holy Flower itself by the
+roots and take it away across the water, together with the Mother and
+the Mother-that-is-to-be. That is all, O Motombo."
+
+Still in the midst of an intense silence, the Motombo glared at the
+prostrate figure of the Kalubi. For a long while he glared. Then the
+silence was broken, for the wretched Kalubi sprang from the floor,
+seized a spear and tried to kill himself. Before the blade touched him
+it was snatched from his hand, so that he remained standing, but
+weaponless.
+
+Again there was silence and again it was broken, this time by the
+Motombo, who rose from his seat before which he stood, a huge, bloated
+object, and roared aloud in his rage. Yes, he roared like a wounded
+buffalo. Never would I have believed that such a vast volume of sound
+could have proceeded from the lungs of a single aged man. For fully a
+minute his furious bellowings echoed down that great cave, while all
+the Pongo soldiers, rising from their recumbent position, pointed
+their hands, in some of which torches still burned, at the miserable
+Kalubi on whom their wrath seemed to be concentrated, rather than on
+us, and hissed like snakes.
+
+Really it might have been a scene in hell with the Motombo playing the
+part of Satan. Indeed, his swollen, diabolical figure supported on the
+thin, toad-like legs, the great fires burning on either side, the
+lurid lights of evening reflected from the still water beyond and
+glowering among the tree tops of the mountain, the white-robed forms
+of the tall Pongo, bending, every one of them, towards the wretched
+culprit and hissing like so many fierce serpents, all suggested some
+uttermost deep in the infernal regions as one might conceive them in a
+nightmare.
+
+It went on for some time, I don't know how long, till at length the
+Motombo picked up his fantastically shaped horn and blew. Thereon the
+women darted from the various doorways, but seeing that they were not
+wanted, checked themselves in their stride and remained standing so,
+in the very attitude of runners about to start upon a race. As the
+blast of the horn died away the turmoil was suddenly succeeded by an
+utter stillness, broken only by the crackling of the fires whose
+flames, of all the living things in that place, alone seemed heedless
+of the tragedy which was being played.
+
+"All up now, old fellow!" whispered Stephen to me in a shaky voice.
+
+"Yes," I answered, "all up high as heaven, where I hope we are going.
+Now back to back, and let's make the best fight we can. We've got the
+spears."
+
+While we were closing in the Motombo began to speak.
+
+"So you plotted to kill the god, Kalubi-who-/was/," he screamed, "with
+these white ones whom you would pay with the Holy Flower and her who
+guards it. Good! You shall go, all of you, and talk with the god. And
+I, watching here, will learn who dies--you or the god. Away with
+them!"
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI
+
+                               THE GODS
+
+With a roar the Pongo soldiers leapt on us. I think that Mavovo
+managed to get his spear up and kill a man, for I saw one of them fall
+backwards and lie still. But they were too quick for the rest of us.
+In half a minute we were seized, the spears were wrenched from our
+hands and we were thrown headlong into the canoe, all six of us, or
+rather seven including the Kalubi. A number of the soldiers, including
+Komba, who acted as steersman, also sprang into the canoe that was
+instantly pushed out from beneath the bridge or platform on which the
+Motombo sat and down the little creek into the still water of the
+canal or estuary, or whatever it may be, that separates the wall of
+rock which the cave pierces from the base of the mountain.
+
+As we floated out of the mouth of the cave the toad-like Motombo, who
+had wheeled round upon his stool, shouted an order to Komba.
+
+"O Kalubi," he said, "set the Kalubi-who-/was/ and the three white men
+and their three servants on the borders of the forest that is named
+House-of-the-god and leave them there. Then return and depart, for
+here I would watch alone. When all is finished I will summon you."
+
+Komba bowed his handsome head and at a sign two of the men got out
+paddles, for more were not needed, and with slow and gentle strokes
+rowed us across the water. The first thing I noted about this water at
+the time was that its blackness was inky, owing, I suppose, to its
+depth and the shadows of the towering cliff on one side and of the
+tall trees on the other. Also I observed--for in this emergency, or
+perhaps because of it, I managed to keep my wits about me--that its
+banks on either side were the home of great numbers of crocodiles
+which lay there like logs. I saw, further, that a little lower down
+where the water seemed to narrow, jagged boughs projected from its
+surface as though great trees had fallen, or been thrown into it. I
+recalled in a numb sort of way that old Babemba had told us that when
+he was a boy he had escaped in a canoe down this estuary, and
+reflected that it would not be possible for him to do so now because
+of those snags. Unless, indeed, he had floated over them in a time of
+great flood.
+
+A couple of minutes or so of paddling brought us to the further shore
+which, as I think I have said, was only about two hundred yards from
+the mouth of the cave. The bow of the canoe grated on the bank,
+disturbing a huge crocodile that vanished into the depths with an
+angry plunge.
+
+"Land, white lords, land," said Komba with the utmost politeness, "and
+go, visit the god who doubtless is waiting for you. And now, as we
+shall meet no more--farewell. You are wise and I am foolish, yet
+hearken to my counsel. If ever you should return to the Earth again,
+be advised by me. Cling to your own god if you have one, and do not
+meddle with those of other peoples. Again farewell."
+
+The advice was excellent, but at that moment I felt a hate for Komba
+which was really superhuman. To me even the Motombo seemed an angel of
+light as compared with him. If wishes could have killed, our farewell
+would indeed have been complete.
+
+Then, admonished by the spear points of the Pongo, we landed in the
+slimy mud. Brother John went first with a smile upon his handsome
+countenance that I thought idiotic under the circumstances, though
+doubtless he knew best when he ought to smile, and the wretched Kalubi
+came last. Indeed, so great was his shrinking from that ominous shore,
+that I believe he was ultimately propelled from the boat by his
+successor in power, Komba. Once he had trodden it, however, a spark of
+spirit returned to him, for he wheeled round and said to Komba,
+
+"Remember, O Kalubi, that my fate to-day will be yours also in a day
+to come. The god wearies of his priests. This year, next year, or the
+year after; he always wearies of his priests."
+
+"Then, O Kalubi-that-was," answered Komba in a mocking voice as the
+canoe was pushed off, "pray to the god for me, that it may be the year
+after; pray it as your bones break in his embrace."
+
+While we watched that craft depart there came into my mind the memory
+of a picture in an old Latin book of my father's, which represented
+the souls of the dead being paddled by a person named Charon across a
+river called the Styx. The scene before us bore a great resemblance to
+that picture. There was Charon's boat floating on the dreadful Styx.
+Yonder glowed the lights of the world, here was the gloomy, unknown
+shore. And we, we were the souls of the dead awaiting the last
+destruction at the teeth and claws of some unknown monster, such as
+that which haunts the recesses of the Egyptian hell. Oh! the parallel
+was painfully exact. And yet, what do you think was the remark of that
+irrepressible young man Stephen?
+
+"Here we are at last, Allan, my boy," he said, "and after all without
+any trouble on our own part. I call it downright providential. Oh!
+isn't it jolly! Hip, hip, hooray!"
+
+Yes, he danced about in that filthy mud, threw up his cap and cheered!
+
+I withered, or rather tried to wither him with a look, muttering the
+single word: "Lunatic."
+
+Providential! Jolly! Well, it's fortunate that some people's madness
+takes a cheerful turn. Then I asked the Kalubi where the god was.
+
+"Everywhere," he replied, waving his trembling hand at the illimitable
+forest. "Perhaps behind this tree, perhaps behind that, perhaps a long
+way off. Before morning we shall know."
+
+"What are you going to do?" I inquired savagely.
+
+"Die," he answered.
+
+"Look here, fool," I exclaimed, shaking him, "you can die if you like,
+but we don't mean to. Take us to some place where we shall be safe
+from this god."
+
+"One is never safe from the god, lord, especially in his own House,"
+and he shook his silly head and went on, "How can we be safe when
+there is nowhere to go and even the trees are too big to climb?"
+
+I looked at them, it was true. They were huge and ran up for fifty or
+sixty feet without a bough. Moreover, it was probable that the god
+climbed better than we could. The Kalubi began to move inland in an
+indeterminate fashion, and I asked him where he was going.
+
+"To the burying-place," he answered. "There are spears yonder with the
+bones."
+
+I pricked up my ears at this--for when one has nothing but some clasp
+knives, spears are not to be despised--and ordered him to lead on. In
+another minute we were walking uphill through the awful wood where the
+gloom at this hour of approaching night was that of an English fog.
+
+Three or four hundred paces brought us to a kind of clearing, where I
+suppose some of the monster trees had fallen down in past years and
+never been allowed to grow up again. Here, placed upon the ground,
+were a number of boxes made of imperishable ironwood, and on the top
+of each box sat, or rather lay, a mouldering and broken skull.
+
+"Kalubi-that-were!" murmured our guide in explanation. "Look, Komba
+has made my box ready," and he pointed to a new case with the lid off.
+
+"How thoughtful of him!" I said. "But show us the spears before it
+gets quite dark." He went to one of the newer coffins and intimated
+that we should lift off the lid as he was afraid to do so.
+
+I shoved it aside. There within lay the bones, each of them separate
+and wrapped up in something, except of course the skull. With these
+were some pots filled apparently with gold dust, and alongside of the
+pots two good spears that, being made of copper, had not rusted much.
+We went on to other coffins and extracted from them more of these
+weapons that were laid there for the dead man to use upon his journey
+through the Shades, until we had enough. The shafts of most of them
+were somewhat rotten from the damp, but luckily they were furnished
+with copper sockets from two and a half to three feet long, into which
+the wood of the shaft fitted, so that they were still serviceable.
+
+"Poor things these to fight a devil with," I said.
+
+"Yes, Baas," said Hans in a cheerful voice, "very poor. It is lucky
+that I have got a better."
+
+I stared at him; we all stared at him.
+
+"What do you mean, Spotted Snake?" asked Mavovo.
+
+"What do you mean, child of a hundred idiots? Is this a time to jest?
+Is not one joker enough among us?" I asked, and looked at Stephen.
+
+"Mean, Baas? Don't you know that I have the little rifle with me, that
+which is called /Intombi/, that with which you shot the vultures at
+Dingaan's kraal? I never told you because I was sure you knew; also
+because if you didn't know it was better that you should not know, for
+if /you/ had known, those Pongo /skellums/ (that is, vicious ones)
+might have come to know also. And if /they/ had known----"
+
+"Mad!" interrupted Brother John, tapping his forehead, "quite mad,
+poor fellow! Well, in these depressing circumstances it is not
+wonderful."
+
+I inspected Hans again, for I agreed with John. Yet he did not look
+mad, only rather more cunning than usual.
+
+"Hans," I said, "tell us where this rifle is, or I will knock you down
+and Mavovo shall flog you."
+
+"Where, Baas! Why, cannot you see it when it is before your eyes?"
+
+"You are right, John," I said, "he's off it"; but Stephen sprang at
+Hans and began to shake him.
+
+"Leave go, Baas," he said, "or you may hurt the rifle."
+
+Stephen obeyed in sheer astonishment. Then, oh! then Hans did
+something to the end of his great bamboo stick, turned it gently
+upside down and out of it slid the barrel of a rifle neatly tied round
+with greased cloth and stoppered at the muzzle with a piece of tow!
+
+I could have kissed him. Yes, such was my joy that I could have kissed
+that hideous, smelly old Hottentot.
+
+"The stock?" I panted. "The barrel isn't any use without the stock,
+Hans."
+
+"Oh! Baas," he answered, grinning, "do you think that I have shot with
+you all these years without knowing that a rifle must have a stock to
+hold it by?"
+
+Then he slipped off the bundle from his back, undid the lashings of
+the blanket, revealing the great yellow head of tobacco that had
+excited my own and Komba's interest on the shores of the lake. This
+head he tore apart and produced the stock of the rifle nicely cleaned,
+a cap set ready on the nipple, on to which the hammer was let down,
+with a little piece of wad between to prevent the cap from being fired
+by any sudden jar.
+
+"Hans," I exclaimed, "Hans, you are a hero and worth your weight in
+gold!"
+
+"Yes, Baas, though you never told me so before. Oh! I made up my mind
+that I wouldn't go to sleep in the face of the Old Man (death). Oh!
+which of you ought to sleep now upon that bed that Bausi sent me?" he
+asked as he put the gun together. "/You/, I think, you great stupid
+Mavovo. /You/ never brought a gun. If you were a wizard worth the name
+you would have sent the rifles on and had them ready to meet us here.
+Oh! will you laugh at me any more, you thick-head of a Zulu?"
+
+"No," answered Mavovo candidly. "I will give you /sibonga/. Yes, I
+will make for you Titles of Praise, O clever Spotted Snake."
+
+"And yet," went on Hans, "I am not all a hero; I am worth but half my
+weight in gold. For, Baas, although I have plenty of powder and
+bullets in my pocket, I lost the caps out of a hole in my waistcoat.
+You remember, Baas, I told you it was charms I lost. But three remain;
+no, four, for there is one on the nipple. There, Baas, there is
+/Intombi/ all ready and loaded. And now when the white devil comes you
+can shoot him in the eye, as you how to do up to a hundred yards, and
+send him to the other devils down in hell. Oh! won't your holy father
+the Predikant be glad to see him there."
+
+Then with a self-satisfied smirk he half-cocked the rifle and handed
+it to me ready for action.
+
+"I thank God!" said Brother John solemnly, "who has taught this poor
+Hottentot how to save us."
+
+"No, Baas John, God never taught me, I taught myself. But, see, it
+grows dark. Had we not better light a fire," and forgetting the rifle
+he began to look about for wood.
+
+"Hans," called Stephen after him, "if ever we get out of this, I will
+give you £500, or at least my father will, which is the same thing."
+
+"Thank you, Baas, thank you, though just now I'd rather have a drop of
+brandy and--I don't see any wood."
+
+He was right. Outside of the graveyard clearing lay, it is true, some
+huge fallen boughs. But these were too big for us to move or cut.
+Moreover, they were so soaked with damp, like everything in this
+forest, that it would be impossible to fire them.
+
+The darkness closed in. It was not absolute blackness, because
+presently the moon rose, but the sky was rainy and obscured it;
+moreover, the huge trees all about seemed to suck up whatever light
+there was. We crouched ourselves upon the ground back to back as near
+as possible to the centre of the place, unrolled such blankets as we
+had to protect us from the damp and cold, and ate some biltong or
+dried game flesh and parched corn, of which fortunately the boy Jerry
+carried a bagful that had remained upon his shoulders when he was
+thrown into the canoe. Luckily I had thought of bringing this food
+with us; also a flask of spirits.
+
+Then it was that the first thing happened. Far away in the forest
+resounded a most awful roar, followed by a drumming noise, such a roar
+as none of us had ever heard before, for it was quite unlike that of a
+lion or any other beast.
+
+"What is that?" I asked.
+
+"The god," groaned the Kalubi, "the god praying to the moon with which
+he always rises."
+
+I said nothing, for I was reflecting that four shots, which was all we
+had, was not many, and that nothing should tempt me to waste one of
+them. Oh! why had Hans put on that rotten old waistcoat instead of the
+new one I gave him in Durban?
+
+Since we heard no more roars Brother John began to question the Kalubi
+as to where the Mother of the Flower lived.
+
+"Lord," answered the man in a distracted way, "there, towards the
+East. You walk for a quarter of the sun's journey up the hill,
+following a path that is marked by notches cut upon the trees, till
+beyond the garden of the god at the top of the mountain more water is
+found surrounding an island. There on the banks of the water a canoe
+is hidden in the bushes, by which the water may be crossed to the
+island, where dwells the Mother of the Holy Flower."
+
+Brother John did not seem to be quite satisfied with the information,
+and remarked that he, the Kalubi, would be able to show us the road on
+the morrow.
+
+"I do not think that I shall ever show you the road," groaned the
+shivering wretch.
+
+At that moment the god roared again much nearer. Now the Kalubi's
+nerve gave out altogether, and quickened by some presentiment, he
+began to question Brother John, whom he had learned was a priest of an
+unknown sort, as to the possibility of another life after death.
+
+Brother John, who, be it remembered, was a very earnest missionary by
+calling, proceeded to administer some compressed religious
+consolations, when, quite near to us, the god began to beat upon some
+kind of very large and deep drum. He didn't roar this time, he only
+worked away at a massed-band military drum. At least that is what it
+sounded like, and very unpleasant it was to hear in that awful forest
+with skulls arranged on boxes all round us, I can assure you, my
+reader.
+
+The drumming ceased, and pulling himself together, Brother John
+continued his pious demonstrations. Also just at that time a thick
+rain-cloud quite obscured the moon, so that the darkness grew dense. I
+heard John explaining to the Kalubi that he was not really a Kalubi,
+but an immortal soul (I wonder whether he understood him). Then I
+became aware of a horrible shadow--I cannot describe it in any other
+way--that was blacker than the blackness, which advanced towards us at
+extraordinary speed from the edge of the clearing.
+
+Next second there was a kind of scuffle a few feet from me, followed
+by a stifled yell, and I saw the shadow retreating in the direction
+from which it had come.
+
+"What's the matter?" I asked.
+
+"Strike a match," answered Brother John; "I think something has
+happened."
+
+I struck a match, which burnt up very well, for the air was quite
+still. In the light of it I saw first the anxious faces of our party--
+how ghastly they looked!--and next the Kalubi who had risen and was
+waving his right arm in the air, a right arm that was bloody and
+/lacked the hand/.
+
+"The god has visited me and taken away my hand!" he moaned in a
+wailing voice.
+
+I don't think anybody spoke; the thing was beyond words, but we tried
+to bind the poor fellow's arm up by the light of matches. Then we sat
+down again and watched.
+
+The darkness grew still denser as the thick of the cloud passed over
+the moon, and for a while the silence, that utter silence of the
+tropical forest at night, was broken only by the sound of our
+breathing, the buzz of a few mosquitoes, the distant splash of a
+plunging crocodile and the stifled groans of the mutilated man.
+
+Again I saw, or thought I saw--this may have been half an hour later--
+that black shadow dart towards us, as a pike darts at a fish in a
+pond. There was another scuffle, just to my left--Hans sat between me
+and the Kalubi--followed by a single prolonged wail.
+
+"The king-man has gone," whispered Hans. "I felt him go as though a
+wind had blown him away. Where he was there is nothing but a hole."
+
+Of a sudden the moon shone out from behind the clouds. In its sickly
+light about half-way between us and the edge of the clearing, say
+thirty yards off, I saw--oh! what did I see! The devil destroying a
+lost soul. At least, that is what it looked like. A huge, grey-black
+creature, grotesquely human in its shape, had the thin Kalubi in its
+grip. The Kalubi's head had vanished in its maw and its vast black
+arms seemed to be employed in breaking him to pieces.
+
+Apparently he was already dead, though his feet, that were lifted off
+the ground, still moved feebly.
+
+I sprang up and covered the beast with the rifle which was cocked,
+getting full on to its head which showed the clearest, though this was
+rather guesswork, since I could not see distinctly the fore-sight. I
+pulled, but either the cap or the powder had got a little damp on the
+journey and hung fire for the fraction of a second. In that
+infinitesimal time the devil--it is the best name I can give the thing
+--saw me, or perhaps it only saw the light gleaming on the barrel. At
+any rate it dropped the Kalubi, and as though some intelligence warned
+it what to expect, threw up its massive right arm--I remember how
+extraordinarily long the limb seemed and that it looked thick as a
+man's thigh--in such a fashion as to cover its head.
+
+Then the rifle exploded and I heard the bullet strike. By the light of
+the flash I saw the great arm tumble down in a dead, helpless kind of
+way, and next instant the whole forest began to echo with peal upon
+peal of those awful roarings that I have described, each of which
+ended with a dog-like /yowp/ of pain.
+
+"You have hit him, Baas," said Hans, "and he isn't a ghost, for he
+doesn't like it. But he's still very lively."
+
+"Close up," I answered, "and hold out the spears while I reload."
+
+My fear was that the brute would rush on us. But it did not. For all
+that dreadful night we saw or heard it no more. Indeed, I began to
+hope that after all the bullet had reached some mortal part and that
+the great ape was dead.
+
+At length, it seemed to be weeks afterwards, the dawn broke and
+revealed us sitting white and shivering in the grey mist; that is, all
+except Stephen, who had gone comfortably to sleep with his head
+resting on Mavovo's shoulder. He is a man so equably minded and so
+devoid of nerves, that I feel sure he will be one of the last to be
+disturbed by the trump of the archangel. At least, so I told him
+indignantly when at length we roused him from his indecent slumbers.
+
+"You should judge things by results, Allan," he said with a yawn. "I'm
+as fresh as a pippin while you all look as though you had been to a
+ball with twelve extras. Have you retrieved the Kalubi yet?"
+
+Shortly afterwards, when the mist lifted a little, we went out in a
+line to "retrieve the Kalubi," and found--well, I won't describe what
+we found. He was a cruel wretch, as the incident of the herd-boy had
+told us, but I felt sorry for him. Still, his terrors were over, or at
+least I hope so.
+
+We deposited him in the box that Komba had kindly provided in
+preparation for this inevitable event, and Brother John said a prayer
+over his miscellaneous remains. Then, after consultation and in the
+very worst of spirits, we set out to seek the way to the home of the
+Mother of the Flower. The start was easy enough, for a distinct,
+though very faint path led from the clearing up the slope of the hill.
+Afterwards it became more difficult for the denser forest began.
+Fortunately very few creepers grew in this forest, but the flat tops
+of the huge trees meeting high above entirely shut out the sky, so
+that the gloom was great, in places almost that of night.
+
+Oh! it was a melancholy journey as, filled with fears, we stole, a
+pallid throng, from trunk to trunk, searching them for the notches
+that indicated our road, and speaking only in whispers, lest the sound
+of our voices should attract the notice of the dreadful god. After a
+mile or two of this we became aware that its notice was attracted
+despite our precautions, for at times we caught glimpses of some huge
+grey thing slipping along parallel to us between the boles of the
+trees. Hans wanted me to try a shot, but I would not, knowing that the
+chances of hitting it were small indeed. With only three charges, or
+rather three caps left, it was necessary to be saving.
+
+We halted and held a consultation, as a result of which we decided
+that there was no more danger in going on than in standing still or
+attempting to return. So we went on, keeping close together. To me, as
+I was the only one with a rifle, was accorded what I did not at all
+appreciate, the honour of heading the procession.
+
+Another half-mile and again we heard that strange rolling sound which
+was produced, I believe, by the great brute beating upon its breast,
+but noted that it was not so continuous as on the previous night.
+
+"Ha!" said Hans, "he can only strike his drum with one stick now. Your
+bullet broke the other, Baas."
+
+A little farther and the god roared quite close, so loudly that the
+air seemed to tremble.
+
+"The drum is all right, whatever may have happened to the sticks," I
+said.
+
+A hundred yards or so more and the catastrophe occurred. We had
+reached a spot in the forest where one of the great trees had fallen
+down, letting in a little light. I can see it to this hour. There lay
+the enormous tree, its bark covered with grey mosses and clumps of a
+giant species of maidenhair fern. On our side of it was the open space
+which may have measured forty feet across, where the light fell in a
+perpendicular ray, as it does through the smoke-hole of a hut. Looking
+at this prostrate trunk, I saw first two lurid and fiery eyes that
+glowed red in the shadow; and then, almost in the same instant, made
+out what looked like the head of a fiend enclosed in a wreath of the
+delicate green ferns. I can't describe it, I can only repeat that it
+looked like the head of a very large fiend with a pallid face, huge
+overhanging eyebrows and great yellow tushes on either side of the
+mouth.
+
+Before I had even time to get the rifle up, with one terrific roar the
+brute was on us. I saw its enormous grey shape on the top of the
+trunk, I saw it pass me like a flash, running upright as a man does,
+but with the head held forward, and noted that the arm nearest to me
+was swinging as though broken. Then as I turned I heard a scream of
+terror and perceived that it had gripped the poor Mazitu, Jerry, who
+walked last but one of our line which was ended by Mavovo. Yes, it had
+gripped him and was carrying him off, clasped to its breast with its
+sound arm. When I say that Jerry, although a full-grown man and rather
+inclined to stoutness, looked like a child in that fell embrace, it
+will give some idea of the creature's size.
+
+Mavovo, who had the courage of a buffalo, charged at it and drove the
+copper spear he carried into its side. They all charged like
+berserkers, except myself, for even then, thank Heaven! I knew a trick
+worth two of that. In three seconds there was a struggling mass in the
+centre of the clearing. Brother John, Stephen, Mavovo and Hans were
+all stabbing at the enormous gorilla, for it was a gorilla, although
+their blows seemed to do it no more harm than pinpricks. Fortunately
+for them, for its part, the beast would not let go of Jerry, and
+having only one sound arm, could but snap at its assailants, for if it
+had lifted a foot to rend them, its top-heavy bulk would have caused
+it to tumble over.
+
+At length it seemed to realise this, and hurled Jerry away, knocking
+down Brother John and Hans with his body. Then it leapt on Mavovo,
+who, seeing it come, placed the copper socket of the spear against his
+own breast, with the result that when the gorilla tried to crush him,
+the point of the spear was driven into its carcase. Feeling the pain,
+it unwound its arm from about Mavovo, knocking Stephen over with the
+backward sweep. Then it raised its great hand to crush Mavovo with a
+blow, as I believe gorillas are wont to do.
+
+This was the chance for which I was waiting. Up till that moment I had
+not dared to fire, fearing lest I should kill one of my companions.
+Now for an instant it was clear of them all, and steadying myself, I
+aimed at the huge head and let drive. The smoke thinned, and through
+it I saw the gigantic ape standing quite still, like a creature lost
+in meditation.
+
+Then it threw up its sound arm, turned its fierce eyes to the sky, and
+uttering one pitiful and hideous howl, sank down dead. The bullet had
+entered just behind the ear and buried itself in the brain.
+
+The great silence of the forest flowed in over us, as it were; for
+quite a while no one did or said anything. Then from somewhere down
+amidst the mosses I heard a thin voice, the sound of which reminded me
+of air being squeezed out of an indiarubber cushion.
+
+"Very good shot, Baas," it piped up, "as good as that which killed the
+king-vulture at Dingaan's kraal, and more difficult. But if the Baas
+could pull the god off me I should say--Thank you."
+
+The "thank you" was almost inaudible, and no wonder, for poor Hans had
+fainted. There he lay under the huge bulk of the gorilla, just his
+nose and mouth appearing between the brute's body and its arm. Had it
+not been for the soft cushion of wet moss in which he reclined, I
+think that he would have been crushed flat.
+
+We rolled the creature off him somehow and poured a little brandy down
+his throat, which had a wonderful effect, for in less than a minute he
+sat up, grasping like a dying fish, and asked for more.
+
+Leaving Brother John to examine Hans to see if he was really injured,
+I bethought me of poor Jerry and went to look at him. One glance was
+enough. He was quite dead. Indeed, he seemed to be crushed out of
+shape like a buck that has been enveloped in the coils of a boa-
+constrictor. Brother John told me afterwards that both his arms and
+nearly all his ribs had been broken in that terrible embrace. Even his
+spine was dislocated.
+
+I have often wondered why the gorilla ran down the line without
+touching me or the others, to vent his rage upon Jerry. I can only
+suggest that it was because the unlucky Mazitu had sat next to the
+Kalubi on the previous night, which may have caused the brute to
+identify him by smell with the priest whom he had learned to hate and
+killed. It is true that Hans had sat on the other side of the Kalubi,
+but perhaps the odour of the Pongo had not clung to him so much, or
+perhaps it meant to deal with him after it had done with Jerry.
+
+When we knew that the Mazitu was past human help and had discovered to
+our joy that, save for a few bruises, no one else was really hurt,
+although Stephen's clothes were half-torn off him, we made an
+examination of the dead god. Truly it was a fearful creature.
+
+What its exact weight or size may have been we had no means of
+ascertaining, but I never saw or heard of such an enormous ape, if a
+gorilla is really an ape. It needed the united strength of the five of
+us to lift the carcase with a great effort off the fainting Hans and
+even to roll it from side to side when subsequently we removed the
+skin. I would never have believed that so ancient an animal of its
+stature, which could not have been more than seven feet when it stood
+erect, could have been so heavy. For ancient undoubtedly it was. The
+long, yellow, canine tusks were worn half-away with use; the eyes were
+sunken far into the skull; the hair of the head, which I am told is
+generally red or brown, was quite white, and even the bare breast,
+which should be black, was grey in hue. Of course, it was impossible
+to say, but one might easily have imagined that this creature was two
+hundred years or more old, as the Motombo had declared it to be.
+
+Stephen suggested that it should be skinned, and although I saw little
+prospect of our being able to carry away the hide, I assented and
+helped in the operation on the mere chance of saving so great a
+curiosity. Also, although Brother John was restless and murmured
+something about wasting time, I thought it necessary that we should
+have a rest after our fearful anxieties and still more fearful
+encounter with this consecrated monster. So we set to work, and as a
+result of more than an hour's toil, dragged off the hide, which was so
+tough and thick that, as we found, the copper spears had scarcely
+penetrated to the flesh. The bullet that I had put into it on the
+previous night struck, we discovered, upon the bone of the upper arm,
+which it shattered sufficiently to render that limb useless, if it did
+not break it altogether. This, indeed, was fortunate for us, for had
+the creature retained both its arms uninjured, it would certainly have
+killed more of us in its attack. We were saved only by the fact that
+when it was hugging Jerry it had no limb left with which it could
+strike, and luckily did not succeed in its attempts to get hold with
+its tremendous jaws that had nipped off the Kalubi's hand as easily as
+a pair of scissors severs the stalk of a flower.
+
+When the skin was removed, except that of the hands, which we did not
+attempt to touch, we pegged it out, raw side uppermost, to dry in the
+centre of the open place where the sun struck. Then, having buried
+poor Jerry in the hollow trunk of the great fallen tree, we washed
+ourselves with the wet mosses and ate some of the food that remained
+to us.
+
+After this we started forward again in much better spirits. Jerry, it
+was true, was dead, but so was the god, leaving us happily still alive
+and practically untouched. Never more would the Kalubis of Pongo-land
+shiver out their lives at the feet of this dreadful divinity who soon
+or late must become their executioner, for I believe, with the
+exception of two who committed suicide through fear, that no Kalubi
+was ever known to have died except by the hand--or teeth--of the god.
+
+What would I not give to know that brute's history? Could it possibly,
+as the Motombo said, have accompanied the Pongo people from their home
+in Western or Central Africa, or perhaps have been brought here by
+them in a state of captivity? I am unable to answer the question, but
+it should be noted that none of the Mazitu or other natives had ever
+heard of the existence of more true gorillas in this part of Africa.
+The creature, if it had its origin in the locality, must either have
+been solitary in its habits or driven away from its fellows, as
+sometimes happens to old elephants, which then, like this gorilla,
+become fearfully ferocious.
+
+That is all I can say about the brute, though of course the Pongo had
+their own story. According to them it was an evil spirit in the shape
+of an ape, which evil spirit had once inhabited the body of an early
+Kalubi, and had been annexed by the ape when it killed the said
+Kalubi. Also they declared that the reason the creature put all the
+Kalubis to death, as well as a number of other people who were offered
+up to it, was that it needed "to refresh itself with the spirits of
+men," by which means it was enabled to avoid the effects of age. It
+will be remembered that the Motombo referred to this belief, of which
+afterwards I heard in more detail from Babemba. But if this god had
+anything supernatural about it, at least its magic was no shield
+against a bullet from a Purdey rifle.
+
+Only a little way from the fallen tree we came suddenly upon a large
+clearing, which we guessed at once must be that "Garden of the god"
+where twice a year the unfortunate Kalubis were doomed to scatter the
+"sacred seed." It was a large garden, several acres of it, lying on a
+shelf, as it were, of the mountain and watered by a stream. Maize grew
+in it, also other sorts of corn, while all round was a thick belt of
+plantain trees. Of course these crops had formed the food of the god
+who, whenever it was hungry, came to this place and helped itself, as
+we could see by many signs. The garden was well kept and comparatively
+free from weeds. At first we wondered how this could be, till I
+remembered that the Kalubi, or someone, had told me that it was tended
+by the servants of the Mother of the Flower, who were generally
+albinos or mutes.
+
+We crossed it and pushed on rapidly up the mountain, once more
+following an easy and well-beaten path, for now we saw that we were
+approaching what we thought must be the edge of a crater. Indeed, our
+excitement was so extreme that we did not speak, only scrambled
+forward, Brother John, notwithstanding his lame leg, leading at a
+greater pace than we could equal. He was the first to reach our goal,
+closely followed by Stephen. Watching, I saw him sink down as though
+in a swoon. Stephen also appeared astonished, for he threw up his
+hands.
+
+I rushed to them, and this was what I saw. Beneath us was a steep
+slope quite bare of forest, which ceased at its crest. This slope
+stretched downwards for half a mile or more to the lip of a beautiful
+lake, of which the area was perhaps two hundred acres. Set in the
+centre of the deep blue water of this lake, which we discovered
+afterwards to be unfathomable, was an island not more than five and
+twenty or thirty acres in extent, that seemed to be cultivated, for on
+it we could see fields, palms and other fruit-bearing trees. In the
+middle of the island stood a small, near house thatched after the
+fashion of the country, but civilized in its appearance, for it was
+oblong, not round, and encircled by a verandah and a reed fence. At a
+distance from this house were a number of native huts, and in front of
+it a small enclosure surrounded by a high wall, on the top of which
+mats were fixed on poles as though to screen something from wind or
+sun.
+
+"The Holy Flower lives there, you bet," gasped Stephen excitedly--he
+could think of nothing but that confounded orchid. "Look, the mats are
+up on the sunny side to prevent its scorching, and those palms are
+planted round to give it shade."
+
+"The Mother of the Flower lives there," whispered Brother John,
+pointing to the house. "Who is she? Who is she? Suppose I should be
+mistaken after all. God, let me not be mistaken, for it would be more
+than I can bear."
+
+"We had better try to find out," I remarked practically, though I am
+sure I sympathised with his suspense, and started down the slope at a
+run.
+
+In five minutes or less we reached the foot of it, and, breathless and
+perspiring though we were, began to search amongst the reeds and
+bushes growing at the edge of the lake for the canoe of which we had
+been told by the Kalubi. What if there were none? How could we cross
+that wide stretch of deep water? Presently Hans, who, following
+certain indications which caught his practised eye, had cast away to
+the left, held up his hand and whistled. We ran to him.
+
+"Here it is, Baas," he said, and pointed to something in a tiny bush-
+fringed inlet, that at first sight looked like a heap of dead reeds.
+We tore away at the reeds, and there, sure enough, was a canoe of
+sufficient size to hold twelve or fourteen people, and in it a number
+of paddles.
+
+Another two minutes and we were rowing across that lake.
+
+We came safely to the other side, where we found a little landing-
+stage made of poles sunk into the lake. We tied up the canoe, or
+rather I did, for nobody else remembered to take that precaution, and
+presently were on a path which led through the cultivated fields to
+the house. Here I insisted upon going first with the rifle, in case we
+should be suddenly attacked. The silence and the absence of any human
+beings suggested to me that this might very well happen, since it
+would be strange if we had not been seen crossing the lake.
+
+Afterwards I discovered why the place seemed so deserted. It was owing
+to two reasons. First, it was now noontime, an hour at which these
+poor slaves retired to their huts to eat and sleep through the heat of
+the day. Secondly, although the "Watcher," as she was called, had seen
+the canoe on the water, she concluded that the Kalubi was visiting the
+Mother of the Flower and, according to practice on these occasions,
+withdrew herself and everybody else, since the rare meetings of the
+Kalubi and the Mother of the Flower partook of the nature of a
+religious ceremony and must be held in private.
+
+First we came to the little enclosure that was planted about with
+palms and, as I have described, screened with mats. Stephen ran at it
+and, scrambling up the wall, peeped over the top.
+
+Next instant he was sitting on the ground, having descended from the
+wall with the rapidity of one shot through the head.
+
+"Oh! by Jingo!" he ejaculated, "oh! by Jingo!" and that was all I
+could get out of him, though it is true I did not try very hard at the
+time.
+
+Not five paces from this enclosure stood a tall reed fence that
+surrounded the house. It had a gate also of reeds, which was a little
+ajar. Creeping up to it very cautiously, for I thought I heard a voice
+within, I peeped through the half-opened gate. Four or five feet away
+was the verandah from which a doorway led into one of the rooms of the
+house where stood a table on which was food.
+
+Kneeling on mats upon this verandah were--/two white women/--clothed
+in garments of the purest white adorned with a purple fringe, and
+wearing bracelets and other ornaments of red native gold. One of these
+appeared to be about forty years of age. She was rather stout, fair in
+colouring, with blue eyes and golden hair that hung down her back. The
+other might have been about twenty. She also was fair, but her eyes
+were grey and her long hair was of a chestnut hue. I saw at once that
+she was tall and very beautiful. The elder woman was praying, while
+the other, who knelt by her side, listened and looked up vacantly at
+the sky.
+
+"O God," prayed the woman, "for Christ's sake look in pity upon us two
+poor captives, and if it be possible, send us deliverance from this
+savage land. We thank Thee Who hast protected us unharmed and in
+health for so many years, and we put our trust in Thy mercy, for Thou
+alone canst help us. Grant, O God, that our dear husband and father
+may still live, and that in Thy good time we may be reunited to him.
+Or if he be dead and there is no hope for us upon the earth, grant
+that we, too, may die and find him in Thy Heaven."
+
+Thus she prayed in a clear, deliberate voice, and I noticed that as
+she did so the tears ran down her cheeks. "Amen," she said at last,
+and the girl by her side, speaking with a strange little accent,
+echoed the "Amen."
+
+I looked round at Brother John. He had heard something and was utterly
+overcome. Fortunately enough he could not move or even speak.
+
+"Hold him," I whispered to Stephen and Mavovo, "while I go in and talk
+to these ladies."
+
+Then, handing the rifle to Hans, I took off my hat, pushed the gate a
+little wider open, slipped through it and called attention to my
+presence by coughing.
+
+The two women, who had risen from their knees, stared at me as though
+they saw a ghost.
+
+"Ladies," I said, bowing, "pray do not be alarmed. You see God
+Almighty sometimes answers prayers. In short, I am one of--a party--of
+white people who, with some trouble, have succeeded in getting to this
+place and--and--would you allow us to call on you?"
+
+Still they stared. At length the elder woman opened her lips.
+
+"Here I am called the Mother of the Holy Flower, and for a stranger to
+speak with the Mother is death. Also if you are a man, how did you
+reach us alive?"
+
+"That's a long story," I answered cheerfully. "May we come in? We will
+take the risks, we are accustomed to them and hope to be able to do
+you a service. I should explain that three of us are white men, two
+English and one--American."
+
+"American!" she gasped, "American! What is he like, and how is he
+named?"
+
+"Oh!" I replied, for my nerve was giving out and I grew confused, "he
+is oldish, with a white beard, rather like Father Christmas in short,
+and his Christian name (I didn't dare to give it all at once) is--er--
+John, Brother John, we call him. Now I think of it," I added, "he has
+some resemblance to your companion there."
+
+I thought that the lady was going to die, and cursed myself for my
+awkwardness. She flung her arm about the girl to save herself from
+falling--a poor prop, for she, too, looked as though she were going to
+die, having understood some, if not all, of my talk. It must be
+remembered that this poor young thing had never even seen a white man
+before.
+
+"Madam, madam," I expostulated, "I pray you to bear up. After living
+through so much sorrow it would be foolish to decease of--joy. May I
+call in Brother John? He is a clergyman and might be able to say
+something appropriate, which I, who am only a hunter, cannot do."
+
+She gathered herself together, opened her eyes and whispered:
+
+"Send him here."
+
+I pushed open the gate behind which the others were clustered.
+Catching Brother John, who by now had recovered somewhat, by the arm,
+I dragged him forward. The two stood staring at each other, and the
+young lady also looked with wide eyes and open mouth.
+
+"Elizabeth!" said John.
+
+She uttered a faint scream, then with a cry of "/Husband!/" flung
+herself upon his breast.
+
+I slipped through the gate and shut it fast.
+
+
+
+"I say, Allan," said Stephen, when we had retreated to a little
+distance, "did you see her?"
+
+"Her? Who? Which?" I asked.
+
+"The young lady in the white clothes. She is lovely."
+
+"Hold your tongue, you donkey!" I answered. "Is this a time to talk of
+female looks?"
+
+Then I went away behind the wall and literally wept for joy. It was
+one of the happiest moments of my life, for how seldom things happen
+as they should!
+
+Also I wanted to put up a little prayer of my own, a prayer of
+thankfulness and for strength and wit to overcome the many dangers
+that yet awaited us.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+                     THE HOME OF THE HOLY FLOWER
+
+Half an hour or so passed, during which I was engaged alternately in
+thinking over our position and in listening to Stephen's rhapsodies.
+First he dilated on the loveliness of the Holy Flower that he had
+caught a glimpse of when he climbed the wall, and secondly, on the
+beauty of the eyes of the young lady in white. Only by telling him
+that he might offend her did I persuade him not to attempt to break
+into the sacred enclosure where the orchid grew. As we were discussing
+the point, the gate opened and she appeared.
+
+"Sirs," she said, with a reverential bow, speaking slowly and in the
+drollest halting English, "the mother and the father--yes, the father
+--ask, will you feed?"
+
+We intimated that we would "feed" with much pleasure, and she led the
+way to the house, saying:
+
+"Be not astonished at them, for they are very happy too, and please
+forgive our unleavened bread."
+
+Then in the politest way possible she took me by the hand, and
+followed by Stephen, we entered the house, leaving Mavovo and Hans to
+watch outside.
+
+It consisted of but two rooms, one for living and one for sleeping. In
+the former we found Brother John and his wife seated on a kind of
+couch gazing at each other in a rapt way. I noted that they both
+looked as though they had been crying--with happiness, I suppose.
+
+"Elizabeth," said John as we entered, "this is Mr. Allan Quatermain,
+through whose resource and courage we have come together again, and
+this young gentleman is his companion, Mr. Stephen Somers."
+
+She bowed, for she seemed unable to speak, and held out her hand,
+which we shook.
+
+"What be 'resource and courage'?" I heard her daughter whisper to
+Stephen, "and why have you none, O Stephen Somers?"
+
+"It would take a long time to explain," he said with his jolly laugh,
+after which I listened to no more of their nonsense.
+
+Then we sat down to the meal, which consisted of vegetables and a
+large bowl of hard-boiled ducks' eggs, of which eatables an ample
+supply was carried out to Hans and Mavovo by Stephen and Hope. This,
+it seemed, was the name that her mother had given to the girl when she
+was born in the hour of her black despair.
+
+It was an extraordinary story that Mrs. Eversley had to tell, and yet
+a short one.
+
+She /had/ escaped from Hassan-ben-Mohammed and the slave-traders, as
+the rescued slave told her husband at Zanzibar before he died, and,
+after days of wandering, been captured by some of the Pongo who were
+scouring the country upon dark business of their own, probably in
+search of captives. They brought her across the lake to Pongo-land
+and, the former Mother of the Flower, an albino, having died at a
+great age, installed her in the office on this island, which from that
+day she had never left. Hither she was led by the Kalubi of the time
+and some others who had "passed the god." This brute, however, she had
+never seen, although once she heard him roar, for it did not molest
+them or even appear upon their journey.
+
+Shortly after her arrival on the island her daughter was born, on
+which occasion some of the women "servants of the Flower" nursed her.
+From that moment both she and the child were treated with the utmost
+care and veneration, since the Mother of the Flower and the Flower
+itself being in some strange way looked upon as embodiments of the
+natural forces of fertility, this birth was held to be the best of
+omens for the dwindling Pongo race. Also it was hoped that in due
+course the "Child of the Flower" would succeed the Mother in her
+office. So here they dwelt absolutely helpless and alone, occupying
+themselves with superintending the agriculture of the island. Most
+fortunately also when she was captured, Mrs. Eversley had a small
+Bible in her possession which she had never lost. From this she was
+able to teach her child to read and all that is to be learned in the
+pages of Holy Writ.
+
+Often I have thought that if I were doomed to solitary confinement for
+life and allowed but one book, I would choose the Bible, since, in
+addition to all its history and the splendour of its language, it
+contains the record of the hope of man, and therefore should be
+sufficient for him. So at least it had proved to be in this case.
+
+Oddly enough, as she told us, like her husband, Mrs. Eversley during
+all those endless years had never lost some kind of belief that she
+would one day be saved otherwise than by death.
+
+"I always thought that you still lived and that we should meet again,
+John," I heard her say to him.
+
+Also her own and her daughter's spirits were mysteriously supported,
+for after the first shock and disturbance of our arrival we found them
+cheerful people; indeed, Miss Hope was quite a merry soul. But then
+she had never known any other life, and human nature is very
+adaptable. Further, if I may say so, she had grown up a lady in the
+true sense of the word. After all, why should she not, seeing that her
+mother, the Bible and Nature had been her only associates and sources
+of information, if we except the poor slaves who waited on them, most
+of whom were mutes.
+
+When Mrs. Eversley's story was done, we told ours, in a compressed
+form. It was strange to see the wonder with which these two ladies
+listened to its outlines, but on that I need not dwell. When it was
+finished I heard Miss Hope say:
+
+"So it would seem, O Stephen Somers, that it is you who are saviour to
+us."
+
+"Certainly," answered Stephen, "but why?"
+
+"Because you see the dry Holy Flower far away in England, and you say,
+'I must be Holy Father to that Flower.' Then you pay down shekels
+(here her Bible reading came in) for the cost of journey and hire
+brave hunter to kill devil-god and bring my old white-head parent with
+you. Oh yes, you are saviour," and she nodded her head at him very
+prettily.
+
+"Of course," replied Stephen with enthusiasm; "that is, not exactly,
+but it is all the same thing, as I will explain later. But, Miss Hope,
+meanwhile could you show us the Flower?"
+
+"Oh! Holy Mother must do that. If you look thereon without her, you
+die."
+
+"Really!" said Stephen, without alluding to his little feat of wall
+climbing.
+
+Well, the end of it was that after a good deal of hesitation, the Holy
+Mother obliged, saying that as the god was dead she supposed nothing
+else mattered. First, however, she went to the back of the house and
+clapped her hands, whereon an old woman, a mute and a very perfect
+specimen of an albino native, appeared and stared at us wonderingly.
+To her Mrs. Eversley talked upon her fingers, so rapidly that I could
+scarcely follow her movements. The woman bowed till her forehead
+nearly touched the ground, then rose and ran towards the water.
+
+"I have sent her to fetch the paddles from the canoe," said Mrs.
+Eversley, "and to put my mark upon it. Now none will dare to use it to
+cross the lake."
+
+"That is very wise," I replied, "as we don't want news of our
+whereabouts to get to the Motombo."
+
+Next we went to the enclosure, where Mrs. Eversley with a native knife
+cut a string of palm fibres that was sealed with clay on to the door
+and one of its uprights in such a fashion that none could enter
+without breaking the string. The impression was made with a rude seal
+that she wore round her neck as a badge of office. It was a very
+curious object fashioned of gold and having deeply cut upon its face a
+rough image of an ape holding a flower in its right paw. As it was
+also ancient, this seemed to show that the monkey god and the orchid
+had been from the beginning jointly worshipped by the Pongo.
+
+When she had opened the door, there appeared, growing in the centre of
+the enclosure, the most lovely plant, I should imagine, that man ever
+saw. It measured some eight feet across, and the leaves were dark
+green, long and narrow. From its various crowns rose the scapes of
+bloom. And oh! those blooms, of which there were about twelve,
+expanded now in the flowering season. The measurements made from the
+dried specimen I have given already, so I need not repeat them. I may
+say here, however, that the Pongo augured the fertility or otherwise
+of each succeeding year from the number of the blooms on the Holy
+Flower. If these were many the season would prove very fruitful; if
+few, less so; while if, as sometimes happened, the plant failed to
+flower, draught and famine were always said to follow. Truly those
+were glorious blossoms, standing as high as a man, with their back
+sheaths of vivid white barred with black, their great pouches of
+burnished gold and their wide wings also of gold. Then in the centre
+of each pouch appeared the ink-mark that did indeed exactly resemble
+the head of a monkey. But if this orchid astonished me, its effect
+upon Stephen, with whom this class of flower was a mania, may be
+imagined. Really he went almost mad. For a long while he glared at the
+plant, and finally flung himself upon his knees, causing Miss Hope to
+exclaim:
+
+"What, O Stephen Somers! do you also make sacrifice to the Holy
+Flower?"
+
+"Rather," he answered; "I'd--I'd--die for it!"
+
+"You are likely to before all is done," I remarked with energy, for I
+hate to see a grown man make a fool of himself. There's only one thing
+in the world which justifies /that/, and it isn't a flower.
+
+Mavovo and Hans had followed us into the enclosure, and I overheard a
+conversation between them which amused me. The gist of it was that
+Hans explained to Mavovo that the white people admired this weed--he
+called it a weed--because it was like gold, which was the god they
+really worshipped, although that god was known among them by many
+names. Mavovo, who was not at all interested in the affair, replied
+with a shrug that it might be so, though for his part he believed the
+true reason to be that the plant produced some medicine which gave
+courage or strength. Zulus, I may say, do not care for flowers unless
+they bear a fruit that is good to eat.
+
+When I had satisfied myself with the splendour of these magnificent
+blooms, I asked Mrs. Eversley what certain little mounds might be that
+were dotted about the enclosure, beyond the circle of cultivated peaty
+soil which surrounded the orchid's roots.
+
+"They are the graves of the Mothers of the Holy Flower," she answered.
+"There are twelve of them, and here is the spot chosen for the
+thirteenth, which was to have been mine."
+
+To change the subject I asked another question, namely: If there were
+more such orchids growing in the country?
+
+"No," she replied, "or at least I never heard of any. Indeed, I have
+always been told that this one was brought from far away generations
+ago. Also, under an ancient law, it is never allowed to increase. Any
+shoots it sends up beyond this ring must be cut off by me and
+destroyed with certain ceremonies. You see that seed-pod which has
+been left to grow on the stalk of one of last year's blooms. It is now
+ripe, and on the night of the next new moon, when the Kalubi comes to
+visit me, I must with much ritual burn it in his presence, unless it
+has burst before he arrives, in which case I must burn any seedlings
+that may spring up with almost the same ritual."
+
+"I don't think the Kalubi will come any more; at least, not while you
+are here. Indeed, I am sure of it," I said.
+
+As we were leaving the place, acting on my general principle of making
+sure of anything of value when I get the chance, I broke off that ripe
+seed-pod, which was of the size of an orange. No one was looking at
+the time, and as it went straight into my pocket, no one missed it.
+
+Then, leaving Stephen and the young lady to admire this Cypripedium--
+or each other--in the enclosure, we three elders returned to the house
+to discuss matters.
+
+"John and Mrs. Eversley," I said, "by Heaven's mercy you are reunited
+after a terrible separation of over twenty years. But what is to be
+done now? The god, it is true, is dead, and therefore the passage of
+the forest will be easy. But beyond it is the water which we have no
+means of crossing and beyond the water that old wizard, the Motombo,
+sits in the mouth of his cave watching like a spider in its web. And
+beyond the Motombo and his cave are Komba, the new Kalubi and his
+tribe of cannibals----"
+
+"Cannibals!" interrupted Mrs. Eversley, "I never knew that they were
+cannibals. Indeed, I know little about the Pongo, whom I scarcely ever
+see."
+
+"Then, madam, you must take my word for it that they are; also, as I
+believe, that they have every expectation of eating /us/. Now, as I
+presume that you do not wish to spend the rest of your lives, which
+would probably be short, upon this island, I want to ask how you
+propose to escape safely out of the Pongo country?"
+
+They shook their heads, which were evidently empty of ideas. Only John
+stroked his white beard, and inquired mildly:
+
+"What have you arranged, Allan? My dear wife and I are quite willing
+to leave the matter to you, who are so resourceful."
+
+"Arranged!" I stuttered. "Really, John, under any other
+circumstances----" Then after a moment's reflection I called to Hans
+and Mavovo, who came and squatted down upon the verandah.
+
+"Now," I said, after I had put the case to them, "what have /you/
+arranged?" Being devoid of any feasible suggestions, I wished to pass
+on that intolerable responsibility.
+
+"My father makes a mock of us," said Mavovo solemnly. "Can a rat in a
+pit arrange how it is to get out with the dog that is waiting at the
+top? So far we have come in safety, as the rat does into the pit. Now
+I see nothing but death."
+
+"That's cheerful," I said. "Your turn, Hans."
+
+"Oh! Baas," replied the Hottentot, "for a while I grew clever again
+when I thought of putting the gun /Intombi/ into the bamboo. But now
+my head is like a rotten egg, and when I try to shake wisdom out of it
+my brain melts and washes from side to side like the stuff in the
+rotten egg. Yet, yet, I have a thought--let us ask the Missie. Her
+brain is young and not tired, it may hit on something: to ask the Baas
+Stephen is no good, for already he is lost in other things," and Hans
+grinned feebly.
+
+More to give myself time than for any other reason I called to Miss
+Hope, who had just emerged from the sacred enclosure with Stephen, and
+put the riddle to her, speaking very slowly and clearly, so that she
+might understand me. To my surprise she answered at once.
+
+"What is a god, O Mr. Allen? Is it not more than man? Can a god be
+bound in a pit for a thousand years, like Satan in Bible? If a god
+want to move, see new country and so on, who can say no?"
+
+"I don't quite understand," I said, to draw her out further, although,
+in fact, I had more than a glimmering of what she meant.
+
+"O Allan, Holy Flower there a god, and my mother priestess. If Holy
+Flower tired of this land, and want to grow somewhere else, why
+priestess not carry it and go too?"
+
+"Capital idea," I said, "but you see, Miss Hope, there are, or were,
+two gods, one of which cannot travel."
+
+"Oh! that very easy, too. Put skin of god of the woods on to this
+man," and she pointed to Hans, "and who know difference? They like as
+two brothers already, only he smaller."
+
+"She's got it! By Jingo, she's got it!" exclaimed Stephen in
+admiration.
+
+"What Missie say?" asked Hans, suspiciously.
+
+I told him.
+
+"Oh! Baas," exclaimed Hans, "think of the smell inside of that god's
+skin when the sun shines on it. Also the god was a very big god, and I
+am small."
+
+Then he turned and made a proposal to Mavovo, explaining that his
+stature was much better suited to the job.
+
+"First will I die," answered the great Zulu. "Am I, who have high
+blood in my veins and who am a warrior, to defile myself by wrapping
+the skin of a dead brute about me and appear as an ape before men?
+Propose it to me again, Spotted Snake, and we shall quarrel."
+
+"See here, Hans," I said. "Mavovo is right. He is a soldier and very
+strong in battle. You also are very strong in your wits, and by doing
+this you will make fools of all the Pongo. Also, Hans, it is better
+that you should wear the skin of a gorilla for a few hours than that
+I, your master, and all these should be killed."
+
+"Yes, Baas, it is true, Baas; though for myself I almost think that,
+like Mavovo, I would rather die. Yet it would be sweet to deceive
+those Pongo once again, and, Baas, I won't see you killed just to save
+myself another bad smell or two. So, if you wish it, I will become a
+god."
+
+Thus through the self-sacrifice of that good fellow, Hans, who is the
+real hero of this history, that matter was settled, if anything could
+be looked on as settled in our circumstances. Then we arranged that we
+would start upon our desperate adventure at dawn on the following
+morning.
+
+Meanwhile, much remained to be done. First, Mrs. Eversley summoned her
+attendants, who, to the number of twelve, soon appeared in front of
+the verandah. It was very sad to see these poor women, all of whom
+were albinos and unpleasant to look on, while quite half appeared to
+be deaf and dumb. To these, speaking as a priestess, she explained
+that the god who dwelt in the woods was dead, and that therefore she
+must take the Holy Flower, which was called "Wife of the god" and make
+report to the Motombo of this dreadful catastrophe. Meanwhile, they
+must remain on the island and continue to cultivate the fields.
+
+This order threw the poor creatures, who were evidently much attached
+to their mistress and her daughter, into a great state of
+consternation. The eldest of them all, a tall, thin old lady with
+white wool and pink eyes who looked, as Stephen said, like an Angora
+rabbit, prostrated herself and kissing the Mother's foot, asked when
+she would return, since she and the "Daughter of the Flower" were all
+they had to love, and without them they would die of grief.
+
+Suppressing her evident emotion as best she could, the Mother replied
+that she did not know; it depended on the will of Heaven and the
+Motombo. Then to prevent further argument she bade them bring their
+picks with which they worked the land; also poles, mats, and
+palmstring, and help to dig up the Holy Flower. This was done under
+the superintendence of Stephen, who here was thoroughly in his
+element, although the job proved far from easy. Also it was sad, for
+all these women wept as they worked, while some of them who were not
+dumb, wailed aloud.
+
+Even Miss Hope cried, and I could see that her mother was affected
+with a kind of awe. For twenty years she had been guardian of this
+plant, which I think she had at last not unnaturally come to look upon
+with some of the same veneration that was felt for it by the whole
+Pongo people.
+
+"I fear," she said, "lest this sacrilege should bring misfortune upon
+us."
+
+But Brother John, who held very definite views upon African
+superstitions, quoted the second commandment to her, and she became
+silent.
+
+We got the thing up at last, or most of it, with a sufficiency of
+earth to keep it alive, injuring the roots as little as possible in
+the process. Underneath it, at a depth of about three feet, we found
+several things. One of these was an ancient stone fetish that was
+rudely shaped to the likeness of a monkey and wore a gold crown. This
+object, which was small, I still have. Another was a bed of charcoal,
+and amongst the charcoal were some partially burnt bones, including a
+skull that was very little injured. This may have belonged to a woman
+of a low type, perhaps the first Mother of the Flower, but its general
+appearance reminded me of that of a gorilla. I regret that there was
+neither time nor light to enable me to make a proper examination of
+these remains, which we found it impossible to bring away.
+
+Mrs. Eversley told me afterwards, however, that the Kalubis had a
+tradition that the god once possessed a wife which died before the
+Pongo migrated to their present home. If so, these may have been the
+bones of that wife. When it was finally clear of the ground on which
+it had grown for so many generations, the great plant was lifted on to
+a large mat, and after it had been packed with wet moss by Stephen in
+a most skilful way, for he was a perfect artist at this kind of work,
+the mat was bound round the roots in such a fashion that none of the
+contents could escape. Also each flower scape was lashed to a thin
+bamboo so as to prevent it from breaking on the journey. Then the
+whole bundle was lifted on to a kind of bamboo stretcher that we made
+and firmly secured to it with palm-fibre ropes.
+
+By this time it was growing dark and all of us were tired.
+
+"Baas," said Hans to me, as we were returning to the house, "would it
+not be well that Mavovo and I should take some food and go sleep in
+the canoe? These women will not hurt us there, but if we do not, I,
+who have been watching them, fear lest in the night they should make
+paddles of sticks and row across the lake to warn the Pongo."
+
+Although I did not like separating our small party, I thought the idea
+so good that I consented to it, and presently Hans and Mavovo, armed
+with spears and carrying an ample supply of food, departed to the lake
+side.
+
+One more incident has impressed itself upon my memory in connection
+with that night. It was the formal baptism of Hope by her father. I
+never saw a more touching ceremony, but it is one that I need not
+describe.
+
+Stephen and I slept in the enclosure by the packed flower, which he
+would not leave out of his sight. It was as well that we did so, since
+about twelve o'clock by the light of the moon I saw the door in the
+wall open gently and the heads of some of the albino women appear
+through the aperture. Doubtless, they had come to steal away the holy
+plant they worshipped. I sat up, coughed, and lifted the rifle,
+whereon they fled and returned no more.
+
+Long before dawn Brother John, his wife and daughter were up and
+making preparations for the march, packing a supply of food and so
+forth. Indeed, we breakfasted by moonlight, and at the first break of
+day, after Brother John had first offered up a prayer for protection,
+departed on our journey.
+
+It was a strange out-setting, and I noted that both Mrs. Eversley and
+her daughter seemed sad at bidding good-bye to the spot where they had
+dwelt in utter solitude and peace for so many years; where one of
+them, indeed, had been born and grown up to womanhood. However, I kept
+on talking to distract their thoughts, and at last we were off.
+
+I arranged that, although it was heavy for them, the two ladies, whose
+white robes were covered with curious cloaks made of soft prepared
+bark, should carry the plant as far as the canoe, thinking it was
+better that the Holy Flower should appear to depart in charge of its
+consecrated guardians. I went ahead with the rifle, then came the
+stretcher and the flower, while Brother John and Stephen, carrying the
+paddles, brought up the rear. We reached the canoe without accident,
+and to our great relief found Mavovo and Hans awaiting us. I learned,
+however, that it was fortunate they had slept in the boat, since
+during the night the albino women arrived with the evident object of
+possessing themselves of it, and only ran away when they saw that it
+was guarded. As we were making ready the canoe those unhappy slaves
+appeared in a body and throwing themselves upon their faces with
+piteous words, or those of them who could not speak, by signs,
+implored the Mother not to desert them, till both she and Hope began
+to cry. But there was no help for it, so we pushed off as quickly as
+we could, leaving the albinos weeping and wailing upon the bank.
+
+I confess that I, too, felt compunction at abandoning them thus, but
+what could we do? I only trust that no harm came to them, but of
+course we never heard anything as to their fate.
+
+On the further side of the lake we hid away the canoe in the bushes
+where we had found it, and began our march. Stephen and Mavovo, being
+the two strongest among us, now carried the plant, and although
+Stephen never murmured at its weight, how the Zulu did swear after the
+first few hours! I could fill a page with his objurgations at what he
+considered an act of insanity, and if I had space, should like to do
+so, for really some of them were most amusing. Had it not been for his
+friendship for Stephen I think that he would have thrown it down.
+
+We crossed the Garden of the god, where Mrs. Eversley told me the
+Kalubi must scatter the sacred seed twice a year, thus confirming the
+story that we had heard. It seems that it was then, as he made his
+long journey through the forest, that the treacherous and horrid brute
+which we had killed, would attack the priest of whom it had grown
+weary. But, and this shows the animal's cunning, the onslaught always
+took place /after/ he had sown the seed which would in due season
+produce the food it ate. Our Kalubi, it is true, was killed before we
+had reached the Garden, which seems an exception to the rule. Perhaps,
+however, the gorilla knew that his object in visiting it was not to
+provide for its needs. Or perhaps our presence excited it to immediate
+action.
+
+Who can analyse the motives of a gorilla?
+
+These attacks were generally spread over a year and a half. On the
+first occasion the god which always accompanied the priest to the
+garden and back again, would show animosity by roaring at him. On the
+second he would seize his hand and bite off one of the fingers, as
+happened to our Kalubi, a wound that generally caused death from blood
+poisoning. If, however, the priest survived, on the third visit it
+killed him, for the most part by crushing his head in its mighty jaws.
+When making these visits the Kalubi was accompanied by certain
+dedicated youths, some of whom the god always put to death. Those who
+had made the journey six times without molestation were selected for
+further special trials, until at last only two remained who were
+declared to have "passed" or "been accepted by" the god. These youths
+were treated with great honour, as in the instance of Komba and on the
+destruction of the Kalubi, one of them took his office, which he
+generally filled without much accident, for a minimum of ten years,
+and perhaps much longer.
+
+Mrs. Eversley knew nothing of the sacramental eating of the remains of
+the Kalubi, or of the final burial of his bones in the wooden coffins
+that we had seen, for such things, although they undoubtedly happened,
+were kept from her. She added, that each of the three Kalubis whom she
+had known, ultimately went almost mad through terror at his
+approaching end, especially after the preliminary roarings and the
+biting off of the finger. In truth uneasy lay the head that wore a
+crown in Pongo-land, a crown that, mind you, might not be refused upon
+pain of death by torture. Personally, I can imagine nothing more
+terrible than the haunted existence of these poor kings whose pomp and
+power must terminate in such a fashion.
+
+I asked her whether the Motombo ever visited the god. She answered,
+Yes, once in every five years. Then after many mystic ceremonies he
+spent a week in the forest at a time of full moon. One of the Kalubis
+had told her that on this occasion he had seen the Motombo and the god
+sitting together under a tree, each with his arm round the other's
+neck and apparently talking "like brothers." With the exception of
+certain tales of its almost supernatural cunning, this was all that I
+could learn about the god of the Pongos which I have sometimes been
+tempted to believe was really a devil hid in the body of a huge and
+ancient ape.
+
+No, there was one more thing which I quote because it bears out
+Babemba's story. It seems that captives from other tribes were
+sometimes turned into the forest that the god might amuse itself by
+killing them. This, indeed, was the fate to which we ourselves had
+been doomed in accordance with the hateful Pongo custom.
+
+Certainly, thought I to myself when she had done, I did a good deed in
+sending that monster to whatever dim region it was destined to
+inhabit, where I sincerely trust it found all the dead Kalubis and its
+other victims ready to give it an appropriate welcome.
+
+
+
+After crossing the god's garden, we came to the clearing of the Fallen
+Tree, and found the brute's skin pegged out as we had left it, though
+shrunken in size. Only it had evidently been visited by a horde of the
+forest ants which, fortunately for Hans, had eaten away every particle
+of flesh, while leaving the hide itself absolutely untouched, I
+suppose because it was too tough for them. I never saw a neater job.
+Moreover, these industrious little creatures had devoured the beast
+itself. Nothing remained of it except the clean, white bones lying in
+the exact position in which we had left the carcase. Atom by atom that
+marching myriad army had eaten all and departed on its way into the
+depths of the forest, leaving this sign of their passage.
+
+How I wished that we could carry off the huge skeleton to add to my
+collection of trophies, but this was impossible. As Brother John said,
+any museum would have been glad to purchase it for hundreds of pounds,
+for I do not suppose that its like exists in the world. But it was too
+heavy; all I could do was to impress its peculiarities upon my mind by
+a close study of the mighty bones. Also I picked out of the upper
+right arm, and kept the bullet I had fired when it carried off the
+Kalubi. This I found had sunk into and shattered the bone, but without
+absolutely breaking it.
+
+On we went again bearing with us the god's skin, having first stuffed
+the head, hands and feet (these, I mean the hands and feet, had been
+cleaned out by the ants) with wet moss in order to preserve their
+shape. It was no light burden, at least so declared Brother John and
+Hans, who bore it between them upon a dead bough from the fallen tree.
+
+Of the rest of our journey to the water's edge there is nothing to
+tell, except that notwithstanding our loads, we found it easier to
+walk down that steep mountain side than it had been to ascend the
+same. Still our progress was but slow, and when at length we reached
+the burying-place only about an hour remained to sunset. There we sat
+down to rest and eat, also to discuss the situation.
+
+What was to be done? The arm of stagnant water lay near to us, but we
+had no boat with which to cross to the further shore. And what was
+that shore? A cave where a creature who seemed to be but half-human,
+sat watching like a spider in its web. Do not let it be supposed that
+this question of escape had been absent from our minds. On the
+contrary, we had even thought of trying to drag the canoe in which we
+crossed to and from the island of the Flower through the forest. The
+idea was abandoned, however, because we found that being hollowed from
+a single log with a bottom four or five inches thick, it was
+impossible for us to carry it so much as fifty yards. What then could
+we do without a boat? Swimming seemed to be out of the question
+because of the crocodiles. Also on inquiry I discovered that of the
+whole party Stephen and I alone could swim. Further there was no wood
+of which to make a raft.
+
+I called to Hans and leaving the rest in the graveyard where we knew
+that they were safe, we went down to the edge of the water to study
+the situation, being careful to keep ourselves hidden behind the reeds
+and bushes of the mangrove tribe with which it was fringed. Not that
+there was much fear of our being seen, for the day, which had been
+very hot, was closing in and a great storm, heralded by black and
+bellying clouds, was gathering fast, conditions which must render us
+practically invisible at a distance.
+
+We looked at the dark, slimy water--also at the crocodiles which sat
+upon its edge in dozens waiting, eternally waiting, for what, I
+wondered. We looked at the sheer opposing cliff, but save where a
+black hole marked the cave mouth, far as the eye could see, the water
+came up against it, as that of a moat does against the wall of a
+castle. Obviously, therefore, the only line of escape ran through this
+cave, for, as I have explained, the channel by which I presume Babemba
+reached the open lake, was now impracticable. Lastly, we searched to
+see if there was any fallen log upon which we could possibly propel
+ourselves to the other side, and found--nothing that could be made to
+serve, no, nor, as I have said, any dry reeds or brushwood out of
+which we might fashion a raft.
+
+"Unless we can get a boat, here we must stay," I remarked to Hans, who
+was seated with me behind a screen of rushes at the water's edge.
+
+He made no answer, and as I thought, in a sort of subconscious way, I
+engaged myself in watching a certain tragedy of the insect world.
+Between two stout reeds a forest spider of the very largest sort had
+spun a web as big as a lady's open parasol. There in the midst of this
+web of which the bottom strands almost touched the water, sat the
+spider waiting for its prey, as the crocodiles were waiting on the
+banks, as the great ape had waited for the Kalubis, as Death waits for
+Life, as the Motombo was waiting for God knows what.
+
+It rather resembled the Motombo in his cave, did that huge, black
+spider with just a little patch of white upon its head, or so I
+thought fancifully enough. Then came the tragedy. A great, white moth
+of the Hawk species began to dart to and fro between the reeds, and
+presently struck the web on its lower side some three inches above the
+water. Like a flash that spider was upon it. It embraced the victim
+with its long legs to still its tremendous battlings. Next, descending
+below, it began to make the body fast, when something happened. From
+the still surface of the water beneath poked up the mouth of a very
+large fish which quite quietly closed upon the spider and sank again
+into the depths, taking with it a portion of the web and thereby
+setting the big moth free. With a struggle it loosed itself, fell on
+to a piece of wood and floated away, apparently little the worse for
+the encounter.
+
+"Did you see that, Baas?" said Hans, pointing to the broken and empty
+web. "While you were thinking, I was praying to your reverend father
+the Predikant, who taught me how to do it, and he has sent us a sign
+from the Place of Fire."
+
+Even then I could not help laughing to myself as I pictured what my
+dear father's face would be like if he were able to hear his convert's
+remarks. An analysis of Hans's religious views would be really
+interesting, and I only regret that I never made one. But sticking to
+business I merely asked:
+
+"What sign?"
+
+"Baas, this sign: That web is the Motombo's cave. The big spider is
+the Motombo. The white moth is us, Baas, who are caught in the web and
+going to be eaten."
+
+"Very pretty, Hans," I said, "but what is the fish that came up and
+swallowed the spider so that the moth fell on the wood and floated
+away?"
+
+"Baas, /you/ are the fish, who come up softly, softly out of the water
+in the dark, and shoot the Motombo with the little rifle, and then the
+rest of us, who are the moth, fall into the canoe and float away.
+There is a storm about to break, Baas, and who will see you swim the
+stream in the storm and the night?"
+
+"The crocodiles," I suggested.
+
+"Baas, I didn't see a crocodile eat the fish. I think the fish is
+laughing down there with the fat spider in its stomach. Also when
+there is a storm crocodiles go to bed because they are afraid lest the
+lightning should kill them for their sins."
+
+Now I remembered that I had often heard, and indeed to some extent
+noted, that these great reptiles do vanish in disturbed weather,
+probably because their food hides away. However that might be, in an
+instant I made up my mind.
+
+As soon as it was quite dark I would swim the water, holding the
+little rifle, /Intombi/, above my head, and try to steal the canoe. If
+the old wizard was watching, which I hoped might not be the case,
+well, I must deal with him as best I could. I knew the desperate
+nature of the expedient, but there was no other way. If we could not
+get a boat we must remain in that foodless forest until we starved. Or
+if we returned to the island of the Flower, there ere long we should
+certainly be attacked and destroyed by Komba and the Pongos when they
+came to look for our bodies.
+
+"I'll try it, Hans," I said.
+
+"Yes, Baas, I thought you would. I'd come, too, only I can't swim and
+when I was drowning I might make a noise, because one forgets oneself
+then, Baas. But it will be all right, for if it were otherwise I am
+sure that your reverend father would have shown us so in the sign. The
+moth floated off quite comfortably on the wood, and just now I saw it
+spread its wings and fly away. And the fish, ah! how he laughs with
+that fat old spider in his stomach!"
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                              FATE STABS
+
+We went back to the others whom we found crouched on the ground among
+the coffins, looking distinctly depressed. No wonder; night was
+closing in, the thunder was beginning to growl and echo through the
+forest and rain to fall in big drops. In short, although Stephen
+remarked that every cloud has a silver lining, a proverb which, as I
+told him, I seemed to have heard before, in no sense could the outlook
+be considered bright.
+
+"Well, Allan, what have you arranged?" asked Brother John, with a
+faint attempt at cheerfulness as he let go of his wife's hand. In
+those days he always seemed to be holding his wife's hand.
+
+"Oh!" I answered, "I am going to get the canoe so that we can all row
+over comfortably."
+
+They stared at me, and Miss Hope, who was seated by Stephen, asked in
+her usual Biblical language:
+
+"Have you the wings of a dove that you can fly, O Mr. Allan?"
+
+"No," I answered, "but I have the fins of a fish, or something like
+them, and I can swim."
+
+Now there arose a chorus of expostulation.
+
+"You shan't risk it," said Stephen, "I can swim as well as you and I'm
+younger. I'll go, I want a bath."
+
+"That you will have, O Stephen," interrupted Miss Hope, as I thought
+in some alarm. "The latter rain from heaven will make you clean." (By
+now it was pouring.)
+
+"Yes, Stephen, you can swim," I said, "but you will forgive me for
+saying that you are not particularly deadly with a rifle, and clean
+shooting may be the essence of this business. Now listen to me, all of
+you. I am going. I hope that I shall succeed, but if I fail it does
+not so very much matter, for you will be no worse off than you were
+before. There are three pairs of you. John and his wife; Stephen and
+Miss Hope; Mavovo and Hans. If the odd man of the party comes to
+grief, you will have to choose a new captain, that is all, but while I
+lead I mean to be obeyed."
+
+Then Mavovo, to whom Hans had been talking, spoke.
+
+"My father Macumazana is a brave man. If he lives he will have done
+his duty. If he dies he will have done his duty still better, and, on
+the earth or in the under-world among the spirits of our fathers, his
+name shall be great for ever; yes, his name shall be a song."
+
+When Brother John had translated these words, which I thought fine,
+there was silence.
+
+"Now," I said, "come with me to the water's edge, all of you. You will
+be in less danger from the lightning there, where are no tall trees.
+And while I am gone, do you ladies dress up Hans in that gorilla-skin
+as best you can, lacing it on to him with some of that palm-fibre
+string which we brought with us, and filling out the hollows and the
+head with leaves or reeds. I want him to be ready when I come back
+with the canoe.
+
+Hans groaned audibly, but made no objection and we started with our
+impedimenta down to the edge of the estuary where we hid behind a
+clump of mangrove bushes and tall, feathery reeds. Then I took off
+some of my clothes, stripping in fact to my flannel shirt and the
+cotton pants I wore, both of which were grey in colour and therefore
+almost invisible at night.
+
+Now I was ready and Hans handed me the little rifle.
+
+"It is at full cock, Baas, with the catch on," he said, "and carefully
+loaded. Also I have wrapped the lining of my hat, which is very full
+of grease, for the hair makes grease especially in hot weather, Baas,
+round the lock to keep away the wet from the cap and powder. It is not
+tied, Baas, only twisted. Give the rifle a shake and it will fall
+off."
+
+"I understand," I said, and gripped the gun with my left hand by the
+tongue just forward of the hammer, in such a fashion that the horrid
+greased rag from Hans's hat was held tight over the lock and cap. Then
+I shook hands with the others and when I came to Miss Hope I am proud
+to add that she spontaneously and of her own accord imprinted a kiss
+upon my mediaeval brow. I felt inclined to return it, but did not.
+
+"It is the kiss of peace, O Allan," she said. "May you go and return
+in peace."
+
+"Thank you," I said, "but get on with dressing Hans in his new
+clothes."
+
+Stephen muttered something about feeling ashamed of himself. Brother
+John put up a vigorous and well-directed prayer. Mavovo saluted with
+the copper assegai and began to give me /sibonga/ or Zulu titles of
+praise beneath his breath, and Mrs. Eversley said:
+
+"Oh! I thank God that I have lived to see a brave English gentleman
+again," which I thought a great compliment to my nation and myself,
+though when I afterwards discovered that she herself was English by
+birth, it took off some of the polish.
+
+Next, just after a vivid flash of lightning, for the storm had broken
+in earnest now, I ran swiftly to the water's edge, accompanied by
+Hans, who was determined to see the last of me.
+
+"Get back, Hans, before the lightning shows you," I said, as I slid
+gently from a mangrove-root into that filthy stream, "and tell them to
+keep my coat and trousers dry if they can."
+
+"Good-bye, Baas," he murmured, and I heard that he was sobbing. "Keep
+a good heart, O Baas of Baases. After all, this is nothing to the
+vultures of the Hill of Slaughter. /Intombi/ pulled us through then,
+and so she will again, for she knows who can hold her straight!"
+
+That was the last I heard of Hans, for if he said any more, the hiss
+of the torrential rain smothered his words.
+
+Oh! I had tried to "keep a good heart" before the others, but it is
+beyond my powers to describe the deadly fright I felt, perhaps the
+worst of all my life, which is saying a great deal. Here I was
+starting on one of the maddest ventures that was ever undertaken by
+man. I needn't put its points again, but that which appealed to me
+most at the moment was the crocodiles. I have always hated crocodiles
+since--well, never mind--and the place was as full of them as the
+ponds at Ascension are of turtles.
+
+Still I swam on. The estuary was perhaps two hundred yards wide, not
+more, no great distance for a good swimmer as I was in those days. But
+then I had to hold the rifle above the water with my left hand at all
+cost, for if once it went beneath it would be useless. Also I was
+desperately afraid of being seen in the lightning flashes, although to
+minimise this risk I had kept my dark-coloured cloth hat upon my head.
+Lastly there was the lightning itself to fear, for it was fearful and
+continuous and seemed to be striking along the water. It was a fact
+that a fire-ball or something of the sort hit the surface within a few
+yards of me, as though it had aimed at the rifle-barrel and just
+missed. Or so I thought, though it may have been a crocodile rising at
+the moment.
+
+In one way, or rather, in two, however, I was lucky. The first was the
+complete absence of wind which must have raised waves that might have
+swamped me and would at any rate have wetted the rifle. The second was
+that there was no fear of my losing my path for in the mouth of the
+cave I could see the glow of the fires which burned on either side of
+the Motombo's seat. They served the same purpose to me as did the lamp
+of the lady called Hero to her lover Leander when he swam the
+Hellespont to pay her clandestine visits at night. But he had
+something pleasant to look forward to, whereas I----! Still, there was
+another point in common between us. Hero, if I remember right, was a
+priestess of the Greek goddess of love, whereas the party who waited
+me was also in a religious line of business. Only, as I firmly
+believe, he was a priest of the devil.
+
+I suppose that swim took me about a quarter-of-an-hour, for I went
+slowly to save my strength, although the crocodiles suggested haste.
+But thank Heaven they never appeared to complicate matters. Now I was
+quite near the cave, and now I was beneath the overhanging roof and in
+the shallow water of the little bay that formed a harbour for the
+canoe. I stood upon my feet on the rock bottom, the water coming up to
+my breast, and peered about me, while I rested and worked my left arm,
+stiff with the up-holding of the gun, to and fro. The fires had burnt
+somewhat low and until my eyes were freed from the raindrops and grew
+accustomed to the light of the place I could not see clearly.
+
+I took the rag from round the lock of the rifle, wiped the wet off the
+barrel with it and let it fall. Then I loosed the catch and by
+touching a certain mechanism, made the rifle hair-triggered. Now I
+looked again and began to make out things. There was the platform and
+there, alas! on it sat the toad-like Motombo. But his back was to me;
+he was gazing not towards the water, but down the cave. I hesitated
+for one fateful moment. Perhaps the priest was asleep, perhaps I could
+get the canoe away without shooting. I did not like the job; moreover,
+his head was held forward and invisible, and how was I to make certain
+of killing him with a shot in the back? Lastly, if possible, I wished
+to avoid firing because of the report.
+
+At that instant the Motombo wheeled round. Some instinct must have
+warned him of my presence, for the silence was gravelike save for the
+soft splash of the rain without. As he turned the lightning blazed and
+he saw me.
+
+"It is the white man," he muttered to himself in his hissing whisper,
+while I waited through the following darkness with the rifle at my
+shoulder, "the white man who shot me long, long ago, and again he has
+a gun! Oh! Fate stabs, doubtless the god is dead and I too must die!"
+
+Then as if some doubt struck him he lifted the horn to summon help.
+
+Again the lightning flashed and was accompanied by a fearful crack of
+thunder. With a prayer for skill, I covered his head and fired by the
+glare of it just as the trumpet touched his lips. It fell from his
+hand. He seemed to shrink together, and moved no more.
+
+Oh! thank God, thank God! in this supreme moment of trial the art of
+which I am a master had not failed me. If my hand had shaken ever so
+little, if my nerves, strained to breaking point, had played me false
+in the least degree, if the rag from Hans's hat had not sufficed to
+keep away the damp from the cap and powder! Well, this history would
+never have been written and there would have been some more bones in
+the graveyard of the Kalubis, that is all!
+
+For a moment I waited, expecting to see the women attendants dart from
+the doorways in the sides of the cave, and to hear them sound a shrill
+alarm. None appeared, and I guessed that the rattle of the thunder had
+swallowed up the crack of the rifle, a noise, be it remembered, that
+none of them had ever heard. For an unknown number of years this
+ancient creature, I suppose, had squatted day and night upon that
+platform, whence, I daresay, it was difficult for him to move. So
+after they had wrapped his furs round him at sunset and made up the
+fires to keep him warm, why should his women come to disturb him
+unless he called them with his horn? Probably it was not even lawful
+that they should do so.
+
+Somewhat reassured I waded forward a few paces and loosed the canoe
+which was tied by the prow. Then I scrambled into it, and laying down
+the rifle, took one of the paddles and began to push out of the creek.
+Just then the lightning flared once more, and by it I caught sight of
+the Motombo's face that was now within a few feet of my own. It seemed
+to be resting almost on his knees, and its appearance was dreadful. In
+the centre of the forehead was a blue mark where the bullet had
+entered, for I had made no mistake in that matter. The deep-set round
+eyes were open and, all their fire gone, seemed to stare at me from
+beneath the overhanging brows. The massive jaw had fallen and the red
+tongue hung out upon the pendulous lip. The leather-like skin of the
+bloated cheeks had assumed an ashen hue still streaked and mottled
+with brown.
+
+Oh! the thing was horrible, and sometimes when I am out of sorts, it
+haunts me to this day. Yet that creature's blood does not lie heavy on
+my mind, of it my conscience is not afraid. His end was necessary to
+save the innocent and I am sure that it was well deserved. For he was
+a devil, akin to the great god ape I had slain in the forest, to whom,
+by the way, he bore a most remarkable resemblance in death. Indeed if
+their heads had been laid side by side at a little distance, it would
+not have been too easy to tell them apart with their projecting brows,
+beardless, retreating chins and yellow tushes at the corners of the
+mouth.
+
+Presently I was clear of the cave. Still for a while I lay to at one
+side of it against the towering cliff, both to listen in case what I
+had done should be discovered, and for fear lest the lightning which
+was still bright, although the storm centre was rapidly passing away,
+should reveal me to any watchers.
+
+For quite ten minutes I hid thus, and then, determining to risk it,
+paddled softly towards the opposite bank keeping, however, a little to
+the west of the cave and taking my line by a certain very tall tree
+which, as I had noted, towered up against the sky at the back of the
+graveyard.
+
+As it happened my calculations were accurate and in the end I directed
+the bow of the canoe into the rushes behind which I had left my
+companions. Just then the moon began to struggle out through the
+thinning rain-clouds, and by its light they saw me, and I saw what for
+a moment I took to be the gorilla-god himself waddling forward to
+seize the boat. There was the dreadful brute exactly as he had
+appeared in the forest, except that it seemed a little smaller.
+
+Then I remembered and laughed and that laugh did me a world of good.
+
+"Is that you, Baas?" said a muffled voice, speaking apparently from
+the middle of the gorilla. "Are you safe, Baas?"
+
+"Of course," I answered, "or how should I be here?" adding cheerfully,
+"Are you comfortable in that nice warm skin on this wet night, Hans?"
+
+"Oh! Baas," answered the voice, "tell me what happened. Even in this
+stink I burn to know."
+
+"Death happened to the Motombo, Hans. Here, Stephen, give me your hand
+and my clothes, and, Mavovo, hold the rifle and the canoe while I put
+them on."
+
+Then I landed and stepping into the reeds, pulled off my wet shirt and
+pants, which I stuffed away into the big pockets of my shooting coat,
+for I did not want to lose them, and put on the dry things that,
+although scratchy, were quite good enough clothing in that warm
+climate. After this I treated myself to a good sup of brandy from the
+flask, and ate some food which I seemed to require. Then I told them
+the story, and cutting short their demonstrations of wonder and
+admiration, bade them place the Holy Flower in the canoe and get in
+themselves. Next with the help of Hans who poked out his fingers
+through the skin of the gorilla's arms, I carefully re-loaded the
+rifle, setting the last cap on the nipple. This done, I joined them in
+the canoe, taking my seat in the prow and bidding Brother John and
+Stephen paddle.
+
+Making a circuit to avoid observation as before, in a very short time
+we reached the mouth of the cave. I leant forward and peeped round the
+western wall of rock. Nobody seemed to be stirring. There the fires
+burned dimly, there the huddled shape of the Motombo still crouched
+upon the platform. Silently, silently we disembarked, and I formed our
+procession while the others looked askance at the horrible face of the
+dead Motombo.
+
+I headed it, then came the Mother of the Flower, followed by Hans,
+playing his part of the god of the forest; then Brother John and
+Stephen carrying the Holy Flower. After it walked Hope, while Mavovo
+brought up the rear. Near to one of the fires, as I had noted on our
+first passage of the cave, lay a pile of the torches which I have
+already mentioned. We lit some of them, and at a sign from me, Mavovo
+dragged the canoe back into its little dock and tied the cord to its
+post. Its appearance there, apparently undisturbed, might, I thought,
+make our crossing of the water seem even more mysterious. All this
+while I watched the doors in the sides of the cave, expecting every
+moment to see the women rush out. But none came. Perhaps they slept,
+or perhaps they were absent; I do not know to this day.
+
+We started, and in solemn silence threaded our way down the windings
+of the cave, extinguishing our torches as soon as we saw light at its
+inland outlet. At a few paces from its mouth stood a sentry. His back
+was towards the cave, and in the uncertain gleams of the moon,
+struggling with the clouds, for a thin rain still fell, he never noted
+us till we were right on to him. Then he turned and saw, and at the
+awful sight of this procession of the gods of his land, threw up his
+arms, and without a word fell senseless. Although I never asked, I
+think that Mavovo took measures to prevent his awakening. At any rate
+when I looked back later on, I observed that he was carrying a big
+Pongo spear with a long shaft, instead of the copper weapon which he
+had taken from one of the coffins.
+
+On we marched towards Rica Town, following the easy path by which we
+had come. As I have said, the country was very deserted and the
+inhabitants of such huts as we passed were evidently fast asleep. Also
+there were no dogs in this land to awake them with their barking.
+Between the cave and Rica we were not, I think, seen by a single soul.
+
+Through that long night we pushed on as fast was we could travel, only
+stopping now and again for a few minutes to rest the bearers of the
+Holy Flower. Indeed at times Mrs. Eversley relieved her husband at
+this task, but Stephen, being very strong, carried his end of the
+stretcher throughout the whole journey.
+
+Hans, of course, was much oppressed by the great weight of the gorilla
+skin, which, although it had shrunk a good deal, remained as heavy as
+ever. But he was a tough old fellow, and on the whole got on better
+than might have been expected, though by the time we reached the town
+he was sometimes obliged to follow the example of the god itself and
+help himself forward with his hands, going on all fours, as a gorilla
+generally does.
+
+We reached the broad, long street of Rica about half an hour before
+dawn, and proceeded down it till we were past the Feast-house still
+quite unobserved, for as yet none were stirring on that wet morning.
+Indeed it was not until we were within a hundred yards of the harbour
+that a woman possessed of the virtue, or vice, of early rising, who
+had come from a hut to work in her garden, saw us and raised an awful,
+piercing scream.
+
+"The gods!" she screamed. "The gods are leaving the land and taking
+the white men with them."
+
+Instantly there arose a hubbub in the houses. Heads were thrust out of
+the doors and people ran into the gardens, every one of whom began to
+yell till one might have thought that a massacre was in progress. But
+as yet no one came near us, for they were afraid.
+
+"Push on," I cried, "or all is lost."
+
+They answered nobly. Hans struggled forward on all fours, for he was
+nearly done and his hideous garment was choking him, while Stephen and
+Brother John, exhausted though they were with the weight of the great
+plant, actually broke into a feeble trot. We came to the harbour and
+there, tied to the wharf, was the same canoe in which we had crossed
+to Pongo-land. We sprang into it and cut the fastenings with my knife,
+having no time to untie them, and pushed off from the wharf.
+
+By now hundreds of people, among them many soldiers were hard upon and
+indeed around us, but still they seemed too frightened to do anything.
+So far the inspiration of Hans' disguise had saved us. In the midst of
+them, by the light of the rising sun, I recognised Komba, who ran up,
+a great spear in his hand, and for a moment halted amazed.
+
+Then it was that the catastrophe happened which nearly cost us all our
+lives.
+
+Hans, who was in the stern of the canoe, began to faint from
+exhaustion, and in his efforts to obtain air, for the heat and stench
+of the skin were overpowering him, thrust his head out through the
+lacings of the hide beneath the reed-stuffed mask of the gorilla,
+which fell over languidly upon his shoulder. Komba saw his ugly little
+face and knew it again.
+
+"It is a trick!" he roared. "These white devils have killed the god
+and stolen the Holy Flower and its priestess. The yellow man is
+wrapped in the skin of the god. To the boats! To the boats!"
+
+"Paddle," I shouted to Brother John and Stephen, "paddle for your
+lives! Mavovo, help me get up the sail."
+
+As it chanced on that stormy morning the wind was blowing strongly
+towards the mainland.
+
+We laboured at the mast, shipped it and hauled up the mat sail, but
+slowly for we were awkward at the business. By the time that it began
+to draw the paddles had propelled us about four hundred yards from the
+wharf, whence many canoes, with their sails already set, were starting
+in pursuit. Standing in the prow of the first of these, and roaring
+curses and vengeance at us, was Komba, the new Kalubi, who shook a
+great spear above his head.
+
+An idea occurred to me, who knew that unless something were done we
+must be overtaken and killed by these skilled boatmen. Leaving Mavovo
+to attend to the sail, I scrambled aft, and thrusting aside the
+fainting Hans, knelt down in the stern of the canoe. There was still
+one charge, or rather one cap, left, and I meant to use it. I put up
+the largest flapsight, lifted the little rifle and covered Komba,
+aiming at the point of his chin. /Intombi/ was not sighted for or
+meant to use at this great distance, and only by this means of
+allowing for the drop of the bullet, could I hope to hit the man in
+the body.
+
+The sail was drawing well now and steadied the boat, also, being still
+under the shelter of the land, the water was smooth as that of a pond,
+so really I had a very good firing platform. Moreover, weary though I
+was, my vital forces rose to the emergency and I felt myself grow
+rigid as a statue. Lastly, the light was good, for the sun rose behind
+me, its level rays shining full on to my mark. I held my breath and
+touched the trigger. The charge exploded sweetly and almost at the
+instant; as the smoke drifted to one side, I saw Komba throw up his
+arms and fall backwards into the canoe. Then, quite a long while
+afterwards, or so it seemed, the breeze brought the faint sound of the
+thud of that fateful bullet to our ears.
+
+Though perhaps I ought not to say so, it was really a wonderful shot
+in all the circumstances, for, as I learned afterwards, the ball
+struck just where I hoped that it might, in the centre of the breast,
+piercing the heart. Indeed, taking everything into consideration, I
+think that those four shots which I fired in Pongo-land are the real
+record of my career as a marksman. The first at night broke the arm of
+the gorilla god and would have killed him had not the charge hung fire
+and given him time to protect his head. The second did kill him in the
+midst of a great scrimmage when everything was moving. The third,
+fired by the glare of lightning after a long swim, slew the Motombo,
+and the fourth, loosed at this great distance from a moving boat, was
+the bane of that cold-blooded and treacherous man, Komba, who thought
+that he had trapped us to Pongo-land to be murdered and eaten as a
+sacrifice. Lastly there was always the consciousness that no mistake
+must be made, since with but four percussion caps it could not be
+retrieved.
+
+I am sure that I could not have done so well with any other rifle,
+however modern and accurate it might be. But to this little Purdey
+weapon I had been accustomed from my youth, and that, as any marksman
+will know, means a great deal. I seemed to know it and it seemed to
+know me. It hangs on my wall to this day, although of course I never
+use it now in our breech-loading era. Unfortunately, however, a local
+gunsmith to whom I sent it to have the lock cleaned, re-browned it and
+scraped and varnished the stock, etc., without authority, making it
+look almost new again. I preferred it in its worn and scratched
+condition.
+
+To return: the sound of the shot, like that of John Peel's horn,
+aroused Hans from his sleep. He thrust his head between my legs and
+saw Komba fall.
+
+"Oh! beautiful, Baas, beautiful!" he said faintly. "I am sure that the
+ghost of your reverend father cannot kill his enemies more nicely down
+there among the Fires. Beautiful!" and the silly old fellow fell to
+kissing my boots, or what remained of them, after which I gave him the
+last of the brandy.
+
+This quite brought him to himself again, especially when he was free
+from that filthy skin and had washed his head and hands.
+
+The effect of the death of Komba upon the Pongos was very strange. All
+the other canoes clustered round that in which he lay. Then, after a
+hurried consultation, they hauled down their sails and paddled back to
+the wharf. Why they did this I cannot tell. Perhaps they thought that
+he was bewitched, or only wounded and required the attentions of a
+medicine-man. Perhaps it was not lawful for them to proceed except
+under the guidance of some reserve Kalubi who had "passed the god" and
+who was on shore. Perhaps it was necessary, according to their rites,
+that the body of their chief should be landed with certain ceremonies.
+I do not know. It is impossible to be sure as to the mysterious
+motives that actuate many of these remote African tribes.
+
+At any rate the result was that it gave us a great start and a chance
+of life, who must otherwise have died upon the spot. Outside the bay
+the breeze blew merrily, taking us across the lake at a spanking pace,
+until about midday when it began to fall. Fortunately, however, it did
+not altogether drop till three o'clock by which time the coast of
+Mazitu-land was comparatively near; we could even distinguish a speck
+against the skyline which we knew was the Union Jack that Stephen had
+set upon the crest of a little hill.
+
+During those hours of peace we ate the food that remained to us,
+washed ourselves as thoroughly as we could and rested. Well was it, in
+view of what followed, that we had this time of repose. For just as
+the breeze was failing I looked aft and there, coming up behind us,
+still holding the wind, was the whole fleet of Pongo canoes, thirty or
+forty of them perhaps, each carrying an average of about twenty men.
+We sailed on for as long as we could, for though our progress was but
+slow, it was quicker than what we could have made by paddling. Also it
+was necessary that we should save our strength for the last trial.
+
+I remember that hour very well, for in the nervous excitement of it
+every little thing impressed itself upon my mind. I remember even the
+shape of the clouds that floated over us, remnants of the storm of the
+previous night. One was like a castle with a broken-down turret
+showing a staircase within; another had a fantastic resemblance to a
+wrecked ship with a hole in her starboard bow, two of her masts broken
+and one standing with some fragments of sails flapping from it, and so
+forth.
+
+Then there was the general aspect of the great lake, especially at a
+spot where two currents met, causing little waves which seemed to
+fight with each other and fall backwards in curious curves. Also there
+were shoals of small fish, something like chub in shape, with round
+mouths and very white stomachs, which suddenly appeared upon the
+surface, jumping at invisible flies. These attracted a number of birds
+that resembled gulls of a light build. They had coal-black heads,
+white backs, greyish wings, and slightly webbed feet, pink as coral,
+with which they seized the small fish, uttering as they did so, a
+peculiar and plaintive cry that ended in a long-drawn /e-e-é/. The
+father of the flock, whose head seemed to be white like his back,
+perhaps from age, hung above them, not troubling to fish himself, but
+from time to time forcing one of the company to drop what he had
+caught, which he retrieved before it reached the water. Such are some
+of the small things that come back to me, though there were others too
+numerous and trivial to mention.
+
+When the breeze failed us at last we were perhaps something over three
+miles from the shore, or rather from the great bed of reeds which at
+this spot grow in the shallows off the Mazitu coast to a breadth of
+seven or eight hundred yards, where the water becomes too deep for
+them. The Pongos were then about a mile and a half behind. But as the
+wind favoured them for a few minutes more and, having plenty of hands,
+they could help themselves on by paddling, when at last it died to a
+complete calm, the distance between us was not more than one mile.
+This meant that they must cover four miles of water, while we covered
+three.
+
+Letting down our now useless sail and throwing it and the mast
+overboard to lighten the canoe, since the sky showed us that there was
+no more hope of wind, we began to paddle as hard as we could.
+Fortunately the two ladies were able to take their share in this
+exercise, since they had learned it upon the Lake of the Flower, where
+it seemed they kept a private canoe upon the other side of the island
+which was used for fishing. Hans, who was still weak, we set to steer
+with a paddle aft, which he did in a somewhat erratic fashion.
+
+A stern chase is proverbially a long chase, but still the enemy with
+their skilled rowers came up fast. When we were a mile from the reeds
+they were within half a mile of us, and as we tired the proportion of
+distance lessened. When we were two hundred yards from the reeds they
+were not more than fifty or sixty yards behind, and then the real
+struggle began.
+
+It was short but terrible. We threw everything we could overboard,
+including the ballast stones at the bottom of the canoe and the heavy
+hide of the gorilla. This, as it proved, was fortunate, since the
+thing sank but slowly and the foremost Pongo boats halted a minute to
+recover so precious a relic, checking the others behind them, a
+circumstance that helped us by twenty or thirty yards.
+
+"Over with the plant!" I said.
+
+But Stephen, looking quite old from exhaustion and with the sweat
+streaming from him as he laboured at his unaccustomed paddle, gasped:
+
+"For Heaven's sake, no, after all we have gone through to get it."
+
+So I didn't insist; indeed there was neither time nor breath for
+argument.
+
+Now we were in the reeds, for thanks to the flag which guided us, we
+had struck the big hippopotamus lane exactly, and the Pongos, paddling
+like demons, were about thirty yards behind. Thankful was I that those
+interesting people had never learned the use of bows and arrows, and
+that their spears were too heavy to throw. By now, or rather some time
+before, old Babemba and the Mazitu had seen us, as had our Zulu
+hunters. Crowds of them were wading through the shallows towards us,
+yelling encouragements as they came. The Zulus, too, opened a rather
+wild fire, with the result that one of the bullets struck our canoe
+and another touched the brim of my hat. A third, however, killed a
+Pongo, which caused some confusion in the ranks of Tusculum.
+
+But we were done and they came on remorselessly. When their leading
+boat was not more than ten yards from us and we were perhaps two
+hundred from the shore, I drove my paddle downwards and finding that
+the water was less than four feet deep, shouted:
+
+"Overboard, all, and wade. It's our last chance!"
+
+We scrambled out of that canoe the prow of which, as I left it the
+last, I pushed round across the water-lane to obstruct those of the
+Pongo. Now I think all would have gone well had it not been for
+Stephen, who after he had floundered forward a few paces in the mud,
+bethought him of his beloved orchid. Not only did he return to try to
+rescue it, he also actually persuaded his friend Mavovo to accompany
+him. They got back to the boat and began to lift the plant out when
+the Pongo fell upon them, striking at them with their spears over the
+width of our canoe. Mavovo struck back with the weapon he had taken
+from the Pongo sentry at the cave mouth, and killed or wounded one of
+them. Then some one hurled a ballast stone at him which caught him on
+the side of the head and knocked him down into the water, whence he
+rose and reeled back, almost senseless, till some of our people got
+hold of him and dragged him to the shore.
+
+So Stephen was left alone, dragging at the great orchid, till a Pongo
+reaching over the canoe drove a spear through his shoulder. He let go
+of the orchid because he must and tried to retreat. Too late! Half a
+dozen or more of the Pongo pushed themselves between the stern or bow
+of our canoe and the reeds, and waded forward to kill him. I could not
+help, for to tell the truth at the moment I was stuck in a mud-hole
+made by the hoof of a hippopotamus, while the Zulu hunters and the
+Mazitu were as yet too far off. Surely he must have died had it not
+been for the courage of the girl Hope, who, while wading shorewards a
+little in front of me, had turned and seen his plight. Back she came,
+literally bounding through the water like a leopard whose cubs are in
+danger.
+
+Reaching Stephen before the Pongo she thrust herself between him and
+them and proceeded to address them with the utmost vigour in their own
+language, which of course she had learned from those of the albinos
+who were not mutes.
+
+What she said I could not exactly catch because of the shouts of the
+advancing Mazitu. I gathered, however, that she was anathematizing
+them in the words of some old and potent curse that was only used by
+the guardians of the Holy Flower, which consigned them, body and
+spirit, to a dreadful doom. The effect of this malediction, which by
+the way neither the young lady nor her mother would repeat to me
+afterwards, was certainly remarkable. Those men who heard it, among
+them the would-be slayers of Stephen, stayed their hands and even
+inclined their heads towards the young priestess, as though in
+reverence or deprecation, and thus remained for sufficient time for
+her to lead the wounded Stephen out of danger. This she did wading
+backwards by his side and keeping her eyes fixed full upon the Pongo.
+It was perhaps the most curious rescue that I ever saw.
+
+The Holy Flower, I should add, they recaptured and carried off, for I
+saw it departing in one of their canoes. That was the end of my orchid
+hunt and of the money which I hoped to make by the sale of this floral
+treasure. I wonder what became of it. I have good reason to believe
+that it was never replanted on the Island of the Flower, so perhaps it
+was borne back to the dim and unknown land in the depths of Africa
+whence the Pongo are supposed to have brought it when they migrated.
+
+After this incident of the wounding and the rescue of Stephen by the
+intrepid Miss Hope, whose interest in him was already strong enough to
+induce her to risk her life upon his behalf, all we fugitives were
+dragged ashore somehow by our friends. Here, Hans, I and the ladies
+collapsed exhausted, though Brother John still found sufficient
+strength to do what he could for the injured Stephen and Mavovo.
+
+Then the Battle of the Reeds began, and a fierce fray it was. The
+Pongos who were about equal in numbers to our people, came on
+furiously, for they were mad at the death of their god with his
+priest, the Motombo, of which I think news had reached them and at the
+carrying off of the Mother of the Flower. Springing from their canoes
+because the waterway was too narrow for more than one of these to
+travel at a time, they plunged into the reeds with the intention of
+wading ashore. Here their hereditary enemies, the Mazitu, attacked
+them under the command of old Babemba. The struggle that ensued
+partook more of the nature of a series of hand-to-hand fights than of
+a set battle. It was extraordinary to see the heads of the combatants
+moving among the reeds as they stabbed at each other with the great
+spears, till one went down. There were few wounded in that fray, for
+those who fell sank in the mud and water and were drowned.
+
+On the whole the Pongo, who were operating in what was almost their
+native element, were getting the best of it, and driving the Mazitu
+back. But what decided the day against them were the guns of our Zulu
+hunters. Although I could not lift a rifle myself I managed to collect
+these men round me and to direct their fire, which proved so
+terrifying to the Pongos that after ten or a dozen of them had been
+knocked over, they began to give back sullenly and were helped into
+their canoes by those men who were left in charge of them.
+
+Then at length at a signal they got out their paddles, and, still
+shouting curses and defiance at us, rowed away till they became but
+specks upon the bosom of the great lake and vanished.
+
+Two of the canoes we captured, however, and with them six or seven
+Pongos. These the Mazitu wished to put to death, but at the bidding of
+Brother John, whose orders, it will be remembered, had the same
+authority in Mazitu-land as those of the king, they bound their arms
+and made them prisoners instead.
+
+In about half an hour it was all over, but of the rest of that day I
+cannot write, as I think I fainted from utter exhaustion, which was
+not, perhaps, wonderful, considering all that we had undergone in the
+four and a half days that had elapsed since we first embarked upon the
+Great Lake. For constant strain, physical and mental, I recall no such
+four days during the whole of my adventurous life. It was indeed
+wonderful that we came through them alive.
+
+The last thing I remember was the appearance of Sammy, looking very
+smart, in his blue cotton smock, who, now that the fighting was over,
+emerged like a butterfly when the sun shines after rain.
+
+"Oh! Mr. Quatermain," he said, "I welcome you home again after arduous
+exertions and looking into the eyes of bloody war. All the days of
+absence, and a good part of the nights, too, while the mosquitoes
+hunted slumber, I prayed for your safety like one o'clock, and
+perhaps, Mr. Quatermain, that helped to do the trick, for what says
+poet? Those who serve and wait are almost as good as those who cook
+dinner."
+
+Such were the words which reached and, oddly enough, impressed
+themselves upon my darkening brain. Or rather they were part of the
+words, excerpts from a long speech that there is no doubt Sammy had
+carefully prepared during our absence.
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIX
+
+                         THE TRUE HOLY FLOWER
+
+When I came to myself again it was to find that I had slept fifteen or
+sixteen hours, for the sun of a new day was high in the heavens. I was
+lying in a little shelter of boughs at the foot of that mound on which
+we flew the flag that guided us back over the waters of the Lake
+Kirua. Near by was Hans consuming a gigantic meal of meat which he had
+cooked over a neighbouring fire. With him, to my delight, I saw
+Mavovo, his head bound up, though otherwise but little the worse. The
+stone, which probably would have killed a thin-skulled white man, had
+done no more than knock him stupid and break the skin of his scalp,
+perhaps because the force of it was lessened by the gum man's-ring
+which, like most Zulus of a certain age or dignity, he wore woven in
+his hair.
+
+The two tents we had brought with us to the lake were pitched not far
+away and looked quite pretty and peaceful there in the sunlight.
+
+Hans, who was watching me out of the corner of his eye, ran to me with
+a large pannikin of hot coffee which Sammy had made ready against my
+awakening; for they knew that my sleep was, or had become of a natural
+order. I drank it to the last drop, and in all my life never did I
+enjoy anything more. Then while I began upon some pieces of the
+toasted meat, I asked him what had happened.
+
+"Not much, Baas," he answered, "except that we are alive, who should
+be dead. The Maam and the Missie are still asleep in that tent, or at
+least the Maam is, for the Missie is helping Dogeetah, her father, to
+nurse Baas Stephen, who has an ugly wound. The Pongos have gone and I
+think will not return, for they have had enough of the white man's
+guns. The Mazitu have buried those of their dead whom they could
+recover, and have sent their wounded, of whom there were only six,
+back to Beza Town on litters. That is all, Baas."
+
+Then while I washed, and never did I need a bath more, and put on my
+underclothes, in which I had swum on the night of the killing of the
+Motombo, that Hans had wrung out and dried in the sun, I asked that
+worthy how he was after his adventures.
+
+"Oh! well enough, Baas," he answered, "now that my stomach is full,
+except that my hands and wrists are sore with crawling along the
+ground like a babyan (baboon), and that I cannot get the stink of that
+god's skin out of my nose. Oh! you don't know what it was: if I had
+been a white man it would have killed me. But, Baas, perhaps you did
+well to take drunken old Hans with you on this journey after all, for
+I was clever about the little gun, wasn't I? Also about your swimming
+of the Crocodile Water, though it is true that the sign of the spider
+and the moth which your reverend father sent, taught me that. And now
+we have got back safe, except for the Mazitu, Jerry, who doesn't
+matter, for there are plenty more like him, and the wound in Baas
+Stephen's shoulder, and that heavy flower which he thought better than
+brandy."
+
+"Yes, Hans," I said, "I did well to take you and you are clever, for
+had it not been for you, we should now be cooked and eaten in Pongo-
+land. I thank you for your help, old friend. But, Hans, another time
+please sew up the holes in your waistcoat pocket. Four caps wasn't
+much, Hans."
+
+"No, Baas, but it was enough; as they were all good ones. If there had
+been forty you could not have done much more. Oh! your reverend father
+knew all that" (my departed parent had become a kind of patron saint
+to Hans) "and did not wish this poor old Hottentot to have more to
+carry than was needed. He knew you wouldn't miss, Baas, and that there
+were only one god, one devil, and one man waiting to be killed."
+
+I laughed, for Hans's way of putting things was certainly original,
+and having got on my coat, went to see Stephen. At the door of the
+tent I met Brother John, whose shoulder was dreadfully sore from the
+rubbing of the orchid stretcher, as were his hands with paddling, but
+who otherwise was well enough and of course supremely happy.
+
+He told me that he had cleansed and sewn up Stephen's wound, which
+appeared to be doing well, although the spear had pierced right
+through the shoulder, luckily without cutting any artery. So I went in
+to see the patient and found him cheerful enough, though weak from
+weariness and loss of blood, with Miss Hope feeding him with broth
+from a wooden native spoon. I didn't stop very long, especially after
+he got on to the subject of the lost orchid, about which he began to
+show signs of excitement. This I allayed as well as I could by telling
+him that I had preserved a pod of the seed, news at which he was
+delighted.
+
+"There!" he said. "To think that you, Allan, should have remembered to
+take that precaution when I, an orchidist, forgot all about it!"
+
+"Ah! my boy," I answered, "I have lived long enough to learn never to
+leave anything behind that I can possibly carry away. Also, although
+not an orchidist, it occurred to me that there are more ways of
+propagating a plant than from the original root, which generally won't
+go into one's pocket."
+
+Then he began to give me elaborate instructions as to the preservation
+of the seed-pod in a perfectly dry and air-tight tin box, etc., at
+which point Miss Hope unceremoniously bundled me out of the tent.
+
+That afternoon we held a conference at which it was agreed that we
+should begin our return journey to Beza Town at once, as the place
+where we were camped was very malarious and there was always a risk of
+the Pongo paying us another visit.
+
+So a litter was made with a mat stretched over it in which Stephen
+could be carried, since fortunately there were plenty of bearers, and
+our other simple preparations were quickly completed. Mrs. Eversley
+and Hope were mounted on the two donkeys; Brother John, whose hurt leg
+showed signs of renewed weakness, rode his white ox, which was now
+quite fat again; the wounded hero, Stephen, as I have said, was
+carried; and I walked, comparing notes with old Babemba on the Pongo,
+their manners, which I am bound to say were good, and their customs,
+that, as the saying goes, were "simply beastly."
+
+How delighted that ancient warrior was to hear again about the sacred
+cave, the Crocodile Water, the Mountain Forest and its terrible god,
+of the death of which and of the Motombo he made me tell him the story
+three times over. At the conclusion of the third recital he said
+quietly:
+
+"My lord Macumazana, you are a great man, and I am glad to have lived
+if only to know you. No one else could have done these deeds."
+
+Of course I was complimented, but felt bound to point out Hans's share
+in our joint achievement.
+
+"Yes, yes," he answered, "the Spotted Snake, Inhlatu, has the cunning
+to scheme, but you have the power to do, and what is the use of a
+brain to plot without the arm to strike? The two do not go together
+because the plotter is not a striker. His mind is different. If the
+snake had the strength and brain of the elephant, and the fierce
+courage of the buffalo, soon there would be but one creature left in
+the world. But the Maker of all things knew this and kept them
+separate, my lord Macumazana."
+
+I thought, and still think, that there was a great deal of wisdom in
+this remark, simple as it seems. Oh! surely many of these savages whom
+we white men despise, are no fools.
+
+After about an hour's march we camped till the moon rose which it did
+at ten o'clock, when we went on again till near dawn, as it was
+thought better that Stephen should travel in the cool of the night. I
+remember that our cavalcade, escorted before, behind and on either
+flank by the Mazitu troops with their tall spears, looked picturesque
+and even imposing as it wound over those wide downs in the lovely and
+peaceful light of the moon.
+
+There is no need for me to set out the details of the rest of our
+journey, which was not marked by any incident of importance.
+
+Stephen bore it very well, and Brother John, who was one of the best
+doctors I ever met, gave good reports of him, but I noted that he did
+not seem to get any stronger, although he ate plenty of food. Also,
+Miss Hope, who nursed him, for her mother seemed to have no taste that
+way, informed me that he slept but little, as indeed I found out for
+myself.
+
+"O Allan," she said, just before we reached Beza Town, "Stephen, your
+son" (she used to call him my son, I don't know why) "is sick. The
+father says it is only the spear-hurt, but I tell you it is more than
+the spear-hurt. He is sick in himself," and the tears that filled her
+grey eyes showed me that she spoke what she believed. As a matter of
+fact she was right, for on the night after we reached the town,
+Stephen was seized with an attack of some bad form of African fever,
+which in his weak state nearly cost him his life, contracted, no
+doubt, at that unhealthy Crocodile Water.
+
+Our reception at Beza was most imposing, for the whole population,
+headed by old Bausi himself, came out to meet us with loud shouts of
+welcome, from which we had to ask them to desist for Stephen's sake.
+
+So in the end we got back to our huts with gratitude of heart. Indeed,
+we should have been very happy there for a while, had it not been for
+our anxiety about Stephen. But it is always thus in the world; who was
+ever allowed to eat his pot of honey without finding a fly or perhaps
+a cockroach in his mouth?
+
+In all, Stephen was really ill for about a month. On the tenth day
+after our arrival at Beza, according to my diary, which, having little
+else to do, I entered up fully at this time, we thought that he would
+surely die. Even Brother John, who attended him with the most constant
+skill, and who had ample quinine and other drugs at his command, for
+these we had brought with us from Durban in plenty, gave up the case.
+Day and night the poor fellow raved and always about that confounded
+orchid, the loss of which seemed to weigh upon his mind as though it
+were a whole sackful of unrepented crimes.
+
+I really think that he owed his life to a subterfuge, or rather to a
+bold invention of Hope's. One evening, when he was at his very worst
+and going on like a mad creature about the lost plant--I was present
+in the hut at the time alone with him and her--she took his hand and
+pointing to a perfectly open space on the floor, said:
+
+"Look, O Stephen, the flower has been brought back."
+
+He stared and stared, and then to my amazement answered:
+
+"By Jove, so it has! But those beggars have broken off all the blooms
+except one."
+
+"Yes," she echoed, "but one remains and it is the finest of them all."
+
+After this he went quietly to sleep and slept for twelve hours, then
+took some food and slept again and, what is more, his temperature went
+down to, or a little below, normal. When he finally woke up, as it
+chanced, I was again present in the hut with Hope, who was standing on
+the spot which she had persuaded him was occupied by the orchid. He
+stared at this spot and he stared at her--me he could not see, for I
+was behind him--then said in a weak voice:
+
+"Didn't you tell me, Miss Hope, that the plant was where you are and
+that the most beautiful of the flowers was left?"
+
+I wondered what on earth her answer would be. However, she rose to the
+occasion.
+
+"O Stephen," she replied, in her soft voice and speaking in a way so
+natural that it freed her words from any boldness, "it is here, for am
+I not its child"--her native appellation, it will be remembered, was
+"Child of the Flower." "And the fairest of the flowers is here, too,
+for I am that Flower which you found in the island of the lake. O
+Stephen, I pray you to trouble no more about a lost plant of which you
+have seed in plenty, but make thanks that you still live and that
+through you my mother and I still live, who, if you had died, would
+weep our eyes away."
+
+"Through me," he answered. "You mean through Allan and Hans. Also it
+was you who saved my life there in the water. Oh! I remember it all
+now. You are right, Hope; although I didn't know it, you are the true
+Holy Flower that I saw."
+
+She ran to him and kneeling by his side, gave him her hand, which he
+pressed to his pale lips.
+
+Then I sneaked out of that hut and left them to discuss the lost
+flower that was found again. It was a pretty scene, and one that to my
+mind gave a sort of spiritual meaning to the whole of an otherwise
+rather insane quest. He sought an ideal flower, he found--the love of
+his life.
+
+After this, Stephen recovered rapidly, for such love is the best of
+medicines--if it be returned.
+
+I don't know what passed between the pair and Brother John and his
+wife, for I never asked. But I noted that from this day forward they
+began to treat him as a son. The new relationship between Stephen and
+Hope seemed to be tacitly accepted without discussion. Even the
+natives accepted it, for old Mavovo asked me when they were going to
+be married and how many cows Stephen had promised to pay Brother John
+for such a beautiful wife. "It ought to be a large herd," he said,
+"and of a big breed of cattle."
+
+Sammy, too, alluded to the young lady in conversation with me, as "Mr.
+Somers's affianced spouse." Only Hans said nothing. Such a trivial
+matter as marrying and giving in marriage did not interest him. Or,
+perhaps, he looked upon the affair as a foregone conclusion and
+therefore unworthy of comment.
+
+We stayed at Bausi's kraal for a full month longer whilst Stephen
+recovered his strength. I grew thoroughly bored with the place and so
+did Mavovo and the Zulus, but Brother John and his wife did not seem
+to mind. Mrs. Eversley was a passive creature, quite content to take
+things as they came and after so long an absence from civilization, to
+bide a little longer among savages. Also she had her beloved John, at
+whom she would sit and gaze by the hour like a cat sometimes does at a
+person to whom it is attached. Indeed, when she spoke to him, her
+voice seemed to me to resemble a kind of blissful purr. I think it
+made the old boy rather fidgety sometimes, for after an hour or two of
+it he would rise and go to hunt for butterflies.
+
+To tell the truth, the situation got a little on my nerves at last,
+for wherever I looked I seemed to see there Stephen and Hope making
+love to each other, or Brother John and his wife admiring each other,
+which didn't leave me much spare conversation. Evidently they thought
+that Mavovo, Hans, Sammy, Bausi, Babemba and Co. were enough for me--
+that is, if they reflected on the matter at all. So they were, in a
+sense, for the Zulu hunters began to get out of hand in the midst of
+this idleness and plenty, eating too much, drinking too much native
+beer, smoking too much of the intoxicating /dakka/, a mischievous kind
+of help, and making too much love to the Mazitu women, which of course
+resulted in the usual rows that I had to settle.
+
+At last I struck and said that we must move on as Stephen was now fit
+to travel.
+
+"Quite so," said Brother John, mildly. "What have you arranged,
+Allan?"
+
+With some irritation, for I hated that sentence of Brother John's, I
+replied that I had arranged nothing, but that as none of them seemed
+to have any suggestions to make, I would go out and talk the matter
+over with Hans and Mavovo, which I did.
+
+I need not chronicle the results of our conference since other
+arrangements were being made for us at which I little guessed.
+
+It all came very suddenly, as great things in the lives of men and
+nations sometimes do. Although the Mazitu were of the Zulu family,
+their military organization had none of the Zulu thoroughness. For
+instance, when I remonstrated with Bausi and old Babemba as to their
+not keeping up a proper system of outposts and intelligence, they
+laughed at me and answered that they never had been attacked and now
+that the Pongo had learnt a lesson, were never likely to be.
+
+By the way, I see that I have not yet mentioned that at Brother John's
+request those Pongos who had been taken prisoners at the Battle of the
+Reeds were conducted to the shores of the lake, given one of the
+captured canoes and told that they might return to their own happy
+land. To our astonishment about three weeks later they reappeared at
+Beza Town with this story.
+
+They said that they had crossed the lake and found Rica still
+standing, but utterly deserted. They then wandered through the country
+and even explored the Motombo's cave. There they discovered the
+remains of the Motombo, still crouched upon his platform, but nothing
+more. In one hut of a distant village, however, they came across an
+old and dying woman who informed them with her last breath that the
+Pongos, frightened by the iron tubes that vomited death and in
+obedience to some prophecy, "had all gone back whence they came in the
+beginning," taking with them the recaptured "Holy Flower." She had
+been left with a supply of food because she was too weak to travel.
+So, perhaps, that flower grows again in some unknown place in Africa,
+but its worshippers will have to provide themselves with another god
+of the forest, another Mother of the Flower, and another high-priest
+to fill the office of the late Motombo.
+
+These Pongo prisoners, having now no home, and not knowing where their
+people had gone except that it was "towards the north," asked for
+leave to settle among the Mazitu, which was granted them. Their story
+confirmed me in my opinion that Pongo-land is not really an island,
+but is connected on the further side with the continent by some ridge
+or swamp. If we had been obliged to stop much longer among the Mazitu,
+I would have satisfied myself as to this matter by going to look. But
+that chance never came to me until some years later when, under
+curious circumstances, I was again destined to visit this part of
+Africa.
+
+To return to my story. On the day following this discussion as to our
+departure we all breakfasted very early as there was a great deal to
+be done. There was a dense mist that morning such as in these Mazitu
+uplands often precedes high, hot wind from the north at this season of
+the year, so dense indeed that it was impossible to see for more than
+a few yards. I suppose that this mist comes up from the great lake in
+certain conditions of the weather. We had just finished our breakfast
+and rather languidly, for the thick, sultry air left me unenergetic, I
+told one of the Zulus to see that the two donkeys and the white ox
+which I had caused to be brought into the town in view of our near
+departure and tied up by our huts, were properly fed. Then I went to
+inspect all the rifles and ammunition, which Hans had got out to be
+checked and overhauled. It was at this moment that I heard a far-away
+and unaccustomed sound, and asked Hans what he thought it was.
+
+"A gun, Baas," he answered anxiously.
+
+Well might he be anxious, for as we both knew, no one in the
+neighbourhood had guns except ourselves, and all ours were accounted
+for. It is true that we had promised to give the majority of those we
+had taken from the slavers to Bausi when we went away, and that I had
+been instructing some of his best soldiers in the use of them, but not
+one of these had as yet been left in their possession.
+
+I stepped to a gate in the fence and ordered the sentry there to run
+to Bausi and Babemba and make report and inquiries, also to pray them
+to summon all the soldiers, of whom, as it happened, there were at the
+time not more than three hundred in the town. As perfect peace
+prevailed, the rest, according to their custom, had been allowed to go
+to their villages and attend to their crops. Then, possessed by a
+rather undefined nervousness, at which the others were inclined to
+laugh, I caused the Zulus to arm and generally make a few arrangements
+to meet any unforeseen crisis. This done I sat down to reflect what
+would be the best course to take if we should happen to be attacked by
+a large force in that straggling native town, of which I had often
+studied all the strategic possibilities. When I had come to my own
+conclusion I asked Hans and Mavovo what they thought, and found that
+they agreed with me that the only defensible place was outside the
+town where the road to the south gate ran down to a rocky wooded ridge
+with somewhat steep flanks. It may be remembered that it was by this
+road and over this ridge that Brother John had appeared on his white
+ox when we were about to be shot to death with arrows at the posts in
+the market-place.
+
+Whilst we were still talking two of the Mazitu captains appeared,
+running hard and dragging between them a wounded herdsman, who had
+evidently been hit in the arm by a bullet.
+
+This was his story. That he and two other boys were out herding the
+king's cattle about half a mile to the north of the town, when
+suddenly there appeared a great number of men dressed in white robes,
+all of whom were armed with guns. These men, of whom he thought there
+must be three or four hundred, began to take the cattle and seeing the
+three herds, fired on them, wounding him and killing his two
+companions. He then ran for his life and brought the news. He added
+that one of the men had called after him to tell the white people that
+they had come to kill them and the Mazitu who were their friends and
+to take away the white women.
+
+"Hassan-ben-Mohammed and his slavers!" I said, as Babemba appeared at
+the head of a number of soldiers, crying out:
+
+"The slave-dealing Arabs are here, lord Macumazana. They have crept on
+us through the mist. A herald of theirs has come to the north gate
+demanding that we should give up you white people and your servants,
+and with you a hundred young men and a hundred young women to be sold
+as slaves. If we do not do this they say that they will kill all of us
+save the unmarried boys and girls, and that you white people they will
+take and put to death by burning, keeping only the two women alive.
+One Hassan sends this message."
+
+"Indeed," I answered quietly, for in this fix I grew quite cool as was
+usual with me. "And does Bausi mean to give us up?"
+
+"How can Bausi give up Dogeetah who is his blood brother, and you, his
+friend?" exclaimed the old general, indignantly. "Bausi sends me to
+his brother Dogeetah that he may receive the orders of the white man's
+wisdom, spoken through your mouth, lord Macumazana."
+
+"Then there's a good spirit in Bausi," I replied, "and these are
+Dogeetah's orders spoken through my mouth. Go to Hassan's messengers
+and ask him whether he remembers a certain letter which two white men
+left for him outside their camp in a cleft stick. Tell him that the
+time has now come for those white men to fulfil the promise they made
+in that letter and that before to-morrow he will be hanging on a tree.
+Then, Babemba, gather your soldiers and hold the north gate of the
+town for as long as you can, defending it with bows and arrows.
+Afterwards retreat through the town, joining us among the trees on the
+rocky slope that is opposite the south gate. Bid some of your men
+clear the town of all the aged and women and children and let them
+pass though the south gate and take refuge in the wooded country
+beyond the slope. Let them not tarry. Let them go at once. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"I understand everything, lord Macumazana. The words of Dogeetah shall
+be obeyed. Oh! would that we had listened to you and kept a better
+watch!"
+
+He rushed off, running like a young man and shouting orders as he
+went.
+
+"Now," I said, "we must be moving."
+
+We collected all the rifles and ammunition, with some other things, I
+am sure I forget what they were, and with the help of a few guards
+whom Babemba had left outside our gate started through the town,
+leading with us the two donkeys and the white ox. I remember by an
+afterthought, telling Sammy, who was looking very uncomfortable, to
+return to the huts and fetch some blankets and a couple of iron
+cooking-pots which might become necessities to us.
+
+"Oh! Mr. Quatermain," he answered, "I will obey you, though with fear
+and trembling."
+
+He went and when a few hours afterwards I noted that he had never
+reappeared, I came to the conclusion, with a sigh, for I was very fond
+of Sammy in a way, that he had fallen into trouble and been killed.
+Probably, I thought, "his fear and trembling" had overcome his reason
+and caused him to run in the wrong direction with the cooking-pots.
+
+The first part of our march through the town was easy enough, but
+after we had crossed the market-place and emerged into the narrow way
+that ran between many lines of huts to the south gate it became more
+difficult, since this path was already crowded with hundreds of
+terrified fugitives, old people, sick being carried, little boys,
+girls, and women with infants at the breast. It was impossible to
+control these poor folk; all we could do was to fight our way through
+them. However, we got out at last and climbing the slope, took up the
+best position we could on and just beneath its crest where the trees
+and scattered boulders gave us very fair cover, which we improved upon
+in every way feasible in the time at our disposal, by building little
+breastworks of stone and so forth. The fugitives who had accompanied
+us, and those who followed, a multitude in all, did not stop here, but
+flowed on along the road and vanished into the wooded country behind.
+
+I suggested to Brother John that he should take his wife and daughter
+and the three beasts and go with them. He seemed inclined to accept
+the idea, needless to say for their sakes, not for his own, for he was
+a very fearless old fellow. But the two ladies utterly refused to
+budge. Hope said that she would stop with Stephen, and her mother
+declared that she had every confidence in me and preferred to remain
+where she was. Then I suggested that Stephen should go too, but at
+this he grew so angry that I dropped the subject.
+
+So in the end we established them in a pleasant little hollow by a
+spring just over the crest of the rise, where unless our flank were
+turned or we were rushed, they would be out of the reach of bullets.
+Moreover, without saying anything more we gave to each of them a
+double-barrelled and loaded pistol.
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+                        THE BATTLE OF THE GATE
+
+By now heavy firing had begun at the north gate of the town,
+accompanied by much shouting. The mist was still too thick to enable
+us to see anything at first. But shortly after the commencement of the
+firing a strong, hot wind, which always followed these mists, got up
+and gradually gathered to a gale, blowing away the vapours. Then from
+the top of the crest, Hans, who had climbed a tree there, reported
+that the Arabs were advancing on the north gate, firing as they came,
+and that the Mazitu were replying with their bows and arrows from
+behind the palisade that surrounded the town. This palisade, I should
+state, consisted of an earthen bank on the top of which tree trunks
+were set close together. Many of these had struck in that fertile
+soil, so that in general appearance this protective work resembled a
+huge live fence, on the outer and inner side of which grew great
+masses of prickly pear and tall, finger-like cacti. A while afterwards
+Hans reported that the Mazitu were retreating and a few minutes later
+they began to arrive through the south gate, bringing several wounded
+with them. Their captain said that they could not stand against the
+fire of the guns and had determined to abandon the town and make the
+best fight they could upon the ridge.
+
+A little later the rest of the Mazitu came, driving before them all
+the non-combatants who remained in the town. With these was King
+Bausi, in a terrible state of excitement.
+
+"Was I not wise, Macumazana," he shouted, "to fear the slave-traders
+and their guns? Now they have come to kill those who are old and to
+take the young away in their gangs to sell them."
+
+"Yes, King," I could not help answering, "you were wise. But if you
+had done what I said and kept a better look-out Hassan could not have
+crept on you like a leopard on a goat."
+
+"It is true," he groaned; "but who knows the taste of a fruit till he
+has bitten it?"
+
+Then he went to see to the disposal of his soldiers along the ridge,
+placing, by my advice, the most of them at each end of the line to
+frustrate any attempt to out-flank us. We, for our part, busied
+ourselves in serving out those guns which we had taken in the first
+fight with the slavers to the thirty or forty picked men whom I had
+been instructing in the use of firearms. If they did not do much
+damage, at least, I thought, they could make a noise and impress the
+enemy with the idea that we were well armed.
+
+Ten minutes or so later Babemba arrived with about fifty men, all the
+Mazitu soldiers who were left in the town. He reported that he had
+held the north gate as long as he could in order to gain time, and
+that the Arabs were breaking it in. I begged him to order the soldiers
+to pile up stones as a defence against the bullets and to lie down
+behind them. This he went to do.
+
+Then, after a pause, we saw a large body of the Arabs who had effected
+an entry, advancing down the central street towards us. Some of them
+had spears as well as guns, on which they carried a dozen or so of
+human heads cut from the Mazitus who had been killed, waving them
+aloft and shouting in triumph. It was a sickening sight, and one that
+made me grind my teeth with rage. Also I could not help reflecting
+that ere long our heads might be upon those spears. Well, if the worst
+came to the worst I was determined that I would not be taken alive to
+be burned in a slow fire or pinned over an ant-heap, a point upon
+which the others agreed with me, though poor Brother John had scruples
+as to suicide, even in despair.
+
+It was just then that I missed Hans and asked where he had gone.
+Somebody said that he thought he had seen him running away, whereon
+Mavovo, who was growing excited, called out:
+
+"Ah! Spotted Snake has sought his hole. Snakes hiss, but they do not
+charge."
+
+"No, but sometimes they bite," I answered, for I could not believe
+that Hans had showed the white feather. However, he was gone and
+clearly we were in no state to send to look for him.
+
+Now our hope was that the slavers, flushed with victory, would advance
+across the open ground of the market-place, which we could sweep with
+our fire from our position on the ridge. This, indeed, they began to
+do, whereon, without orders, the Mazitu to whom we had given the guns,
+to my fury and dismay, commenced to blaze away at a range of about
+four hundred yards, and after a good deal of firing managed to kill or
+wound two or three men. Then the Arabs, seeing their danger, retreated
+and, after a pause, renewed their advance in two bodies. This time,
+however, they followed the streets of huts that were built thickly
+between the outer palisade of the town and the market-place, which, as
+it had been designed to hold cattle in time of need, was also
+surrounded with a wooden fence strong enough to resist the rush of
+horned beasts. On that day, I should add, as the Mazitu never dreamed
+of being attacked, all their stock were grazing on some distant veldt.
+In this space between the two fences were many hundreds of huts,
+wattle and grass built, but for the most part roofed with palm leaves,
+for here, in their separate quarters, dwelt the great majority of the
+inhabitants of Beza Town, of which the northern part was occupied by
+the king, the nobles and the captains. This ring of huts, which
+entirely surrounded the market-place except at the two gateways, may
+have been about a hundred and twenty yards in width.
+
+Down the paths between these huts, both on the eastern and the western
+side, advanced the Arabs and half-breeds, of whom there appeared to be
+about four hundred, all armed with guns and doubtless trained to
+fighting. It was a terrible force for us to face, seeing that although
+we may have had nearly as many men, our guns did not total more than
+fifty, and most of those who held them were quite unused to the
+management of firearms.
+
+Soon the Arabs began to open fire on us from behind the huts, and a
+very accurate fire it was, as our casualties quickly showed,
+notwithstanding the stone /schanzes/ we had constructed. The worst
+feature of the thing also was that we could not reply with any effect,
+as our assailants, who gradually worked nearer, were effectively
+screened by the huts, and we had not enough guns to attempt organised
+volley firing. Although I tried to keep a cheerful countenance I
+confess that I began to fear the worst and even to wonder if we could
+possibly attempt to retreat. This idea was abandoned, however, since
+the Arabs would certainly overtake and shoot us down.
+
+One thing I did. I persuaded Babemba to send about fifty men to build
+up the southern gate, which was made of trunks of trees and opened
+outwards, with earth and the big stones that lay about in plenty.
+While this was being done quickly, for the Mazitu soldiers worked at
+the task like demons and, being sheltered by the palisade, could not
+be shot, all of a sudden I caught sight of four or five wisps of smoke
+that arose in quick succession at the north end of the town and were
+instantly followed by as many bursts of flame which leapt towards us
+in the strong wind.
+
+Someone was firing Beza Town! In less than an hour the flames, driven
+by the gale through hundreds of huts made dry as tinder by the heat,
+would reduce Beza to a heap of ashes. It was inevitable, nothing could
+save the place! For an instant I thought that the Arabs must have done
+this thing. Then, seeing that new fires continually arose in different
+places, I understood that no Arabs, but a friend or friends were at
+work, who had conceived the idea of /destroying the Arabs with fire/.
+
+My mind flew to Sammy. Without doubt Sammy had stayed behind to carry
+out this terrible and masterly scheme, of which I am sure none of the
+Mazitu would have thought, since it involved the absolute destruction
+of their homes and property. Sammy, at whom we had always mocked, was,
+after all, a great man, prepared to perish in the flames in order to
+save his friends!
+
+Babemba rushed up, pointing with a spear to the rising fire. Now my
+inspiration came.
+
+"Take all your men," I said, "except those who are armed with guns.
+Divide them, encircle the town, guard the north gate, though I think
+none can win back through the flames, and if any of the Arabs succeed
+in breaking through the palisade, kill them."
+
+"It shall be done," shouted Babemba, "but oh! for the town of Beza
+where I was born! Oh! for the town of Beza!"
+
+"Drat the town of Beza!" I holloaed after him, or rather its native
+equivalent. "It is of all our lives that I'm thinking."
+
+Three minutes later the Mazitu, divided into two bodies, were running
+like hares to encircle the town, and though a few were shot as they
+descended the slope, the most of them gained the shelter of the
+palisade in safety, and there at intervals halted by sections, for
+Babemba managed the matter very well.
+
+Now only we white people, with the Zulu hunters under Mavovo, of whom
+there were twelve in all, and the Mazitu armed with guns, numbering
+about thirty, were left upon the slope.
+
+For a little while the Arabs did not seem to realise what had
+happened, but engaged themselves in peppering at the Mazitu, who, I
+think, they concluded were in full flight. Presently, however, they
+either heard or saw.
+
+Oh! what a hubbub ensued. All the four hundred of them began to shout
+at once. Some of them ran to the palisade and began to climb it, but
+as they reached the top of the fence were pinned by the Mazitu arrows
+and fell backwards, while a few who got over became entangled in the
+prickly pears on the further side and were promptly speared. Giving up
+this attempt, they rushed back along the lane with the intention of
+escaping at the north-gate. But before ever they reached the head of
+the market-place the roaring, wind-swept flames, leaping from hut to
+hut, had barred their path. They could not face that awful furnace.
+
+Now they took another counsel and in a great confused body charged
+down the market-place to break out at the south gate, and our turn
+came. How we raked them as they sped across the open, an easy mark! I
+know that I fired as fast as I could using two rifles, swearing the
+while at Hans because he was not there to load for me. Stephen was
+better off in this respect, for, looking round, to my astonishment I
+saw Hope, who had left her mother on the other side of the hill, in
+the act of capping his second gun. I should explain that during our
+stay in Beza Town we had taught her how to use a rifle.
+
+I called to him to send her away, but again she would not go, even
+after a bullet had pierced her dress.
+
+Still, all our shooting could not stop that rush of men, made
+desperate by the fear of a fiery death. Leaving many stretched out
+behind them, the first of the Arabs drew near to the south gate.
+
+"My father," said Mavovo in my ear, "now the real fighting is going to
+begin. The gate will soon be down. /We/ must be the gate."
+
+I nodded, for if the Arabs once got through, there were enough of them
+left to wipe us out five times over. Indeed, I do not suppose that up
+to this time they had actually lost more than forty men. A few words
+explained the situation to Stephen and Brother John, whom I told to
+take his daughter to her mother and wait there with them. The Mazitu I
+ordered to throw down their guns, for if they kept these I was sure
+they would shoot some of us, and to accompany us, bringing their
+spears only.
+
+Then we rushed down the slope and took up our position in a little
+open space in front of the gate, that now was tottering to its fall
+beneath the blows and draggings of the Arabs. At this time the sight
+was terrible and magnificent, for the flames had got hold of the two
+half-circles of huts that embraced the market-place, and, fanned by
+the blast, were rushing towards us like a thing alive. Above us swept
+a great pall of smoke in which floated flakes of fire, so thick that
+it hid the sky, though fortunately the wind did not suffer it to sink
+and choke us. The sounds also were almost inconceivable, for to the
+crackling roar of the conflagration as it devoured hut after hut, were
+added the coarse, yelling voices of the half-bred Arabs, as in mingled
+rage and terror they tore at the gateway or each other, and the
+reports of the guns which many of them were still firing, half at
+hazard.
+
+We formed up before the gate, the Zulus with Stephen and myself in
+front and the thirty picked Mazitu, commanded by no less a person than
+Bausi, the king, behind. We had not long to wait, for presently down
+the thing came and over it and the mound of earth and stones we had
+built beyond, began to pour a mob of white-robed and turbaned men
+whose mixed and tumultuous exit somehow reminded me of the pips and
+pulp being squeezed out of a grenadilla fruit.
+
+I gave the word, and we fired into that packed mass with terrible
+effect. Really I think that each bullet must have brought down two or
+three of them. Then, at a command from Mavovo, the Zulus threw down
+their guns and charged with their broad spears. Stephen, who had got
+hold of an assegai somehow, went with them, firing a Colt's revolver
+as he ran, while at their backs came Bausi and his thirty tall Mazitu.
+
+I will confess at once that I did not join in this terrific onslaught.
+I felt that I had not weight enough for a scrimmage of the sort, also
+that I should perhaps be better employed using my wits outside and
+watching for a chance to be of service, like a half-back in a football
+field, than in getting my brains knocked out in a general row. Or
+mayhap my heart failed me and I was afraid. I dare say, for I have
+never pretended to great courage. At any rate, I stopped outside and
+shot whenever I got the chance, not without effect, filling a humble
+but perhaps a useful part.
+
+It was really magnificent, that fray. How those Zulus did go in. For
+quite a long while they held the narrow gateway and the mound against
+all the howling, thrusting mob, much as the Roman called Horatius and
+his two friends held the entrance to some bridge or other long ago at
+Rome against a great force of I forget whom. They shouted their Zulu
+battle-cry of /Laba! Laba!/ that of their regiment, I suppose, for
+most of them were men of about the same age, and stabbed and fought
+and struggled and went down one by one.
+
+Back the rest of them were swept; then, led by Mavovo, Stephen and
+Bausi, charged again, reinforced with the thirty Mazitu. Now the
+tongues of flame met almost over them, the growing fence of prickly
+pear and cacti withered and crackled, and still they fought on beneath
+that arch of fire.
+
+Back they were driven again by the mere weight of numbers. I saw
+Mavovo stab a man and go down. He rose and stabbed another, then fell
+again for he was hard hit.
+
+Two Arabs rushed to kill him. I shot them both with a right and left,
+for fortunately my rifle was just reloaded. He rose once more and
+killed a third man. Stephen came to his support and grappling with an
+Arab, dashed his head against the gate-post so that he fell. Old
+Bausi, panting like a grampus, plunged in with his remaining Mazitu
+and the combatants became so confused in the dark gloom of the
+overhanging smoke that I could scarcely tell one from the other. Yet
+the maddened Arabs were winning, as they must, for how could our small
+and ever-lessening company stand against their rush?
+
+We were in a little circle now of which somehow I found myself the
+centre, and they were attacking us on all sides. Stephen got a knock
+on the head from the butt end of a gun, and tumbled against me, nearly
+upsetting me. As I recovered myself I looked round in despair.
+
+Now it was that I saw a very welcome sight, namely Hans, yes, the lost
+Hans himself, with his filthy hat whereof I noticed even then the
+frayed ostrich feathers were smouldering, hanging by a leather strap
+at the back of his head. He was shambling along in a sly and silent
+sort of way, but at a great rate with his mouth open, beckoning over
+his shoulder, and behind him came about one hundred and fifty Mazitu.
+
+Those Mazitu soon put another complexion upon the affair, for charging
+with a roar, they drove back the Arabs, who had no space to develop
+their line, straight into the jaws of that burning hell. A little
+later the rest of the Mazitu returned with Babemba and finished the
+job. Only quite a few of the Arabs got out and were captured after
+they had thrown down their guns. The rest retreated into the centre of
+the market-place, whither our people followed them. In this crisis the
+blood of these Mazitu told, and they stuck to the enemy as Zulus
+themselves would certainly have done.
+
+It was over! Great Heaven! it was over, and we began to count our
+losses. Four of the Zulus were dead and two others were badly wounded
+--no, three, including Mavovo. They brought him to me leaning on the
+shoulder of Babemba and another Mazitu captain. He was a shocking
+sight, for he was shot in three places, and badly cut and battered as
+well. He looked at me a little while, breathing heavily, then spoke.
+
+"It was a very good fight, my father," he said. "Of all that I have
+fought I can remember none better, although I have been in far greater
+battles, which is well as it is my last. I foreknew it, my father, for
+though I never told it you, the first death lot that I drew down
+yonder in Durban was my own. Take back the gun you gave me, my father.
+You did but lend it me for a little while, as I said to you. Now I go
+to the Underworld to join the spirits of my ancestors and of those who
+have fallen at my side in many wars, and of those women who bore my
+children. I shall have a tale to tell them there, my father, and
+together we will wait for you--till you, too, die in war!"
+
+Then he lifted up his arm from the neck of Babemba, and saluted me
+with a loud cry of /Baba! Inkosi!/ giving me certain great titles
+which I will not set down, and having done so sank to the earth.
+
+I sent one of the Mazitu to fetch Brother John, who arrived presently
+with his wife and daughter. He examined Mavovo and told him straight
+out that nothing could help him except prayer.
+
+"Make no prayers for me, Dogeetah," said the old heathen; "I have
+followed my star," (i.e. lived according to my lights) "and am ready
+to eat the fruit that I have planted. Or if the tree prove barren,
+then to drink of its sap and sleep."
+
+Waving Brother John aside he beckoned to Stephen.
+
+"O Wazela!" he said, "you fought very well in that fight; if you go on
+as you have begun in time you will make a warrior of whom the Daughter
+of the Flower and her children will sing songs after you have come to
+join me, your friend. Meanwhile, farewell! Take this assegai of mine
+and clean it not, that the red rust thereon may put you in mind of
+Mavovo, the old Zulu doctor and captain with whom you stood side by
+side in the Battle of the Gate, when, as though they were winter
+grass, the fire burnt up the white-robed thieves of men who could not
+pass our spears."
+
+Then he waved his hand again, and Stephen stepped aside muttering
+something, for he and Mavovo had been very intimate and his voice
+choked in his throat with grief. Now the old Zulu's glazing eye fell
+upon Hans, who was sneaking about, I think with a view of finding an
+opportunity of bidding him a last good-bye.
+
+"Ah! Spotted Snake," he cried, "so you have come out of your hole now
+that the fire has passed it, to eat the burnt frogs in the cinders. It
+is a pity that you who are so clever should be a coward, since our
+lord Macumazana needed one to load for him on the hill and would have
+killed more of the hyenas had you been there."
+
+"Yes, Spotted Snake, it is so," echoed an indignant chorus of the
+other Zulus, while Stephen and I and even the mild Brother John looked
+at him reproachfully.
+
+Now Hans, who generally was as patient under affront as a Jew, for
+once lost his temper. He dashed his hat upon the ground, and danced on
+it; he spat towards the surviving Zulu hunters; he even vituperated
+the dying Mavovo.
+
+"O son of a fool!" he said, "you pretend that you can see what is hid
+from other men, but I tell you that there is a lying spirit in your
+lips. You called me a coward because I am not big and strong as you
+were, and cannot hold an ox by the horns, but at least there is more
+brain in my stomach than in all your head. Where would all of you be
+now had it not been for poor Spotted Snake the 'coward,' who twice
+this day has saved every one of you, except those whom the Baas's
+father, the reverend Predikant, has marked upon the forehead to come
+and join him in a place that is even hotter and brighter than that
+burning town?"
+
+Now we looked at Hans, wondering what he meant about saving us twice,
+and Mavovo said:
+
+"Speak on quickly, O Spotted Snake, for I would hear the end of your
+story. How did you help us in your hole?"
+
+Hans began to grub about in his pockets, from which finally he
+produced a match-box wherein there remained but one match.
+
+"With this," he said. "Oh! could none of you see that the men of
+Hassan had all walked into a trap? Did none of you know that fire
+burns thatched houses, and that a strong wind drives it fast and far?
+While you sat there upon the hill with your heads together, like sheep
+waiting to be killed, I crept away among the bushes and went about my
+business. I said nothing to any of you, not even to the Baas, lest he
+should answer me, 'No, Hans, there may be an old woman sick in one of
+those huts and therefore you must not fire them.' In such matters who
+does not know that white people are fools, even the best of them, and
+in fact there were several old women, for I saw them running for the
+gateway. Well, I crept up by the green fence which I knew would not
+burn and I came to the north gate. There was an Arab sentry left there
+to watch.
+
+"He fired at me, look! Well for Hans his mother bore him short"; and
+he pointed to a hole in the filthy hat. "Then before that Arab could
+load again, poor coward Hans got his knife into him from behind.
+Look!" and he produced a big blade, which was such as butchers use,
+from his belt and showed it to us. "After that it was easy, since fire
+is a wonderful thing. You make it small and it grows big of itself,
+like a child, and never gets tired, and is always hungry, and runs
+fast as a horse. I lit six of them where they would burn quickest.
+Then I saved the last match, since we have few left, and came through
+the gate before the fire ate me up; me, its father, me the Sower of
+the Red Seed!"
+
+We stared at the old Hottentot in admiration, even Mavovo lifted his
+dying head and stared. But Hans, whose annoyance had now evaporated,
+went on in a jog-trot mechanical voice:
+
+"As I was returning to find the Baas, if he still lived, the heat of
+the fire forced me to the high ground to the west of the fence, so
+that I saw what was happening at the south gate, and that the Arab men
+must break through there because you who held it were so few. So I ran
+down to Babemba and the other captains very quickly, telling them
+there was no need to guard the fence any more, and that they must get
+to the south gate and help you, since otherwise you would all be
+killed, and they, too, would be killed afterwards. Babemba listened to
+me and started sending out messengers to collect the others and we got
+here just in time. Such is the hole I hid in during the Battle of the
+Gate, O Mavovo. That is all the story which I pray that you will tell
+to the Baas's reverend father, the Predikant, presently, for I am sure
+that it will please him to learn that he did not teach me to be wise
+and help all men and always to look after the Baas Allan, to no
+purpose. Still, I am sorry that I wasted so many matches, for where
+shall we get any more now that the camp is burnt?" and he gazed
+ruefully at the all but empty box.
+
+Mavovo spoke once more in a slow, gasping voice.
+
+"Never again," he said, addressing Hans, "shall you be called Spotted
+Snake, O little yellow man who are so great and white of heart.
+Behold! I give you a new name, by which you shall be known with honour
+from generation to generation. It is 'Light in Darkness.' It is 'Lord
+of the Fire.'"
+
+Then he closed his eyes and fell back insensible. Within a few minutes
+he was dead. But those high names with which he christened Hans with
+his dying breath, clung to the old Hottentot for all his days. Indeed
+from that day forward no native would ever have ventured to call him
+by any other. Among them, far and wide, they became his titles of
+honour.
+
+The roar of the flames grew less and the tumult within their fiery
+circle died away. For now the Mazitu were returning from the last
+fight in the market-place, if fight it could be called, bearing in
+their arms great bundles of the guns which they had collected from the
+dead Arabs, most of whom had thrown down their weapons in a last wild
+effort to escape. But between the spears of the infuriated savages on
+the one hand and the devouring fire on the other what escape was there
+for them? The blood-stained wretches who remained in the camps and
+towns of the slave-traders, along the eastern coast of Africa, or in
+the Isle of Madagascar, alone could tell how many were lost, since of
+those who went out from them to make war upon the Mazitu and their
+white friends, none returned again with the long lines of expected
+captives. They had gone to their own place, of which sometimes that
+flaming African city has seemed to me a symbol. They were wicked men
+indeed, devils stalking the earth in human form, without pity, without
+shame. Yet I could not help feeling sorry for them at the last, for
+truly their end was awful.
+
+They brought the prisoners up to us, and among them, his white robe
+half-burnt off him, I recognised the hideous pock-marked Hassan-ben-
+Mohammed.
+
+"I received your letter, written a while ago, in which you promised to
+make us die by fire, and, this morning, I received your message,
+Hassan," I said, "brought by the wounded lad who escaped from you when
+you murdered his companions, and to both I sent you an answer. If none
+reached you, look around, for there is one written large in a tongue
+that all can read."
+
+The monster, for he was no less, flung himself upon the ground,
+praying for mercy. Indeed, seeing Mrs. Eversley, he crawled to her and
+catching hold of her white robe, begged her to intercede for him.
+
+"You made a slave of me after I had nursed you in the spotted
+sickness," she answered, "and tried to kill my husband for no fault.
+Through you, Hassan, I have spent all the best years of my life among
+savages, alone and in despair. Still, for my part, I forgive you, but
+oh! may I never see your face again."
+
+Then she wrenched herself free from his grasp and went away with her
+daughter.
+
+"I, too, forgive you, although you murdered my people and for twenty
+years made my time a torment," said Brother John, who was one of the
+truest Christians I have ever known. "May God forgive you also"; and
+he followed his wife and daughter.
+
+Then the old king, Bausi, who had come through that battle with a
+slight wound, spoke, saying:
+
+"I am glad, Red Thief, that these white people have granted you what
+you asked--namely, their forgiveness--since the deed is greatly to
+their honour and causes me and my people to think them even nobler
+than we did before. But, O murderer of men and woman and trafficker in
+children, I am judge here, not the white people. Look on your work!"
+and he pointed first to the lines of Zulu and Mazitu dead, and then to
+his burning town. "Look and remember the fate you promised to us who
+have never harmed you. Look! Look! Look! O Hyena of a man!"
+
+At this point I too went away, nor did I ever ask what became of
+Hassan and his fellow-captives. Moreover, whenever any of the natives
+or Hans tried to inform me, I bade them hold their tongues.
+
+
+
+                               EPILOGUE
+
+I have little more to add to this record, which I fear has grown into
+quite a long book. Or, at any rate, although the setting of it down
+has amused me during the afternoons and evenings of this endless
+English winter, now that the spring is come again I seem to have grown
+weary of writing. Therefore I shall leave what remains untold to the
+imagination of anyone who chances to read these pages.
+
+
+
+We were victorious, and had indeed much cause for gratitude who still
+lived to look upon the sun. Yet the night that followed the Battle of
+the Gate was a sad one, at least for me, who felt the death of my
+friend the foresighted hero, Mavovo, of the bombastic but faithful
+Sammy, and of my brave hunters more than I can say. Also the old
+Zulu's prophecy concerning me, that I too should die in battle,
+weighed upon me, who seemed to have seen enough of such ends in recent
+days and to desire one more tranquil.
+
+Living here in peaceful England as I do now, with no present prospect
+of leaving it, it does not appear likely that it will be fulfilled.
+Yet, after my experience of the divining powers of Mavovo's "Snake"--
+well, those words of his make me feel uncomfortable. For when all is
+said and done, who can know the future? Moreover, it is the improbable
+that generally happens[*]
+
+[*] As the readers of "Allan Quatermain" will be aware, this prophecy
+    of the dying Zulu was fulfilled. Mr. Quatermain died at Zuvendis
+    as a result of the wound he received in the battle between the
+    armies of the rival Queens.--Editor.
+
+Further, the climatic conditions were not conducive to cheerfulness,
+for shortly after sunset it began to rain and poured for most of the
+night, which, as we had little shelter, was inconvenient both to us
+and to all the hundreds of the homeless Mazitu.
+
+However, the rain ceased in due time, and on the following morning the
+welcome sun shone out of a clear sky. When we had dried and warmed
+ourselves a little in its rays, someone suggested that we should visit
+the burned-out town where, except for some smouldering heaps that had
+been huts, the fire was extinguished by the heavy rain. More from
+curiosity than for any other reason I consented and accompanied by
+Bausi, Babemba and many of the Mazitu, all of us, except Brother John,
+who remained behind to attend to the wounded, climbed over the debris
+of the south gate and walked through the black ruins of the huts,
+across the market-place that was strewn with dead, to what had been
+our own quarters.
+
+These were a melancholy sight, a mere heap of sodden and still smoking
+ashes. I could have wept when I looked at them, thinking of all the
+trade goods and stores that were consumed beneath, necessities for the
+most part, the destruction of which must make our return journey one
+of great hardship.
+
+Well, there was nothing to be said or done, so after a few minutes of
+contemplation we turned to continue our walk through what had been the
+royal quarters to the north gate. Hans, who, I noted, had been
+ferreting about in his furtive way as though he were looking for
+something, and I were the last to leave. Suddenly he laid his hand
+upon my arm and said:
+
+"Baas, listen! I hear a ghost. I think it is the ghost of Sammy asking
+us to bury him."
+
+"Bosh!" I answered, and then listened as hard as I could.
+
+Now I also seemed to hear something coming from I knew not where,
+words which were frequently repeated and which seemed to be:
+
+"/O Mr. Quatermain, I beg you to be so good as to open the door of
+this oven./"
+
+For a while I thought I must be cracked. However, I called back the
+others and we all listened. Of a sudden Hans made a pounce, like a
+terrier does at the run of a mole that he hears working underground,
+and began to drag, or rather to shovel, at a heap of ashes in front of
+us, using a bit of wood as they were still too hot for his hands. Then
+we listened again and this time heard the voice quite clearly coming
+from the ground.
+
+"Baas," said Hans, "it is Sammy in the corn-pit!"
+
+Now I remembered that such a pit existed in front of the huts which,
+although empty at the time, was, as is common among the Bantu natives,
+used to preserve corn that would not immediately be needed. Once I
+myself went through a very tragic experience in one of these pits, as
+any who may read the history of my first wife, that I have called
+/Marie/, can see for themselves.
+
+Soon we cleared the place and had lifted the stone, with ventilating
+holes in it--well was it for Sammy that those ventilating holes
+existed; also that the stone did not fit tight. Beneath was a bottle-
+shaped and cemented structure about ten feet deep by, say, eight wide.
+Instantly through the mouth of this structure appeared the head of
+Sammy with his mouth wide open like that of a fish gasping for air. We
+pulled him out, a process that caused him to howl, for the heat had
+made his skin very tender, and gave him water which one of the Mazitu
+fetched from a spring. Then I asked him indignantly what he was doing
+in that hole, while we wasted our tears, thinking that he was dead.
+
+"Oh! Mr. Quatermain," he said, "I am a victim of too faithful service.
+To abandon all these valuable possessions of yours to a rapacious
+enemy was more than I could bear. So I put every one of them in the
+pit, and then, as I thought I heard someone coming, got in myself and
+pulled down the stone. But, Mr. Quatermain, soon afterwards the enemy
+added arson to murder and pillage, and the whole place began to blaze.
+I could hear the fire roaring above and a little later the ashes
+covered the exit so that I could no longer lift the stone, which
+indeed grew too hot to touch. Here, then, I sat all night in the most
+suffocating heat, very much afraid, Mr. Quatermain, lest the two kegs
+of gunpowder that were with me should explode, till at last, just as I
+had abandoned hope and prepared to die like a tortoise baked alive by
+a bushman, I heard your welcome voice. And Mr. Quatermain, if there is
+any soothing ointment to spare, I shall be much obliged, for I am
+scorched all over."
+
+"Ah! Sammy, Sammy," I said, "you see what comes of cowardice? On the
+hill with us you would not have been scorched, and it is only by the
+merest chance of owing to Hans's quick hearing that you were not left
+to perish miserably in that hole."
+
+"That is so, Mr. Quatermain. I plead guilty to the hot impeachment.
+But on the hill I might have been shot, which is worse than being
+scorched. Also you gave me charge of your goods and I determined to
+preserve them even at the risk of personal comfort. Lastly, the angel
+who watches me brought you here in time before I was quite cooked
+through. So all's well that ends well, Mr. Quatermain, though it is
+true that for my part I have had enough of bloody war, and if I live
+to regain civilized regions I propose henceforth to follow the art of
+food-dressing in the safe kitchen of an hotel; that is, if I cannot
+obtain a berth as an instructor in the English tongue!"
+
+"Yes," I answered, "all's well that ends well, Sammy my boy, and at
+any rate you have saved the stores, for which we should be thankful to
+you. So go along with Mr. Stephen and get doctored while we haul them
+out of that grain-pit."
+
+Three days later we bid farewell to old Bausi, who almost wept at
+parting with us, and the Mazitu, who were already engaged in the re-
+building of their town. Mavovo and the other Zulus who died in the
+Battle of the Gate, we buried on the ridge opposite to it, raising a
+mound of earth over them that thereby they might be remembered in
+generations to come, and laying around them the Mazitu who had fallen
+in the fight. As we passed that mound on our homeward journey, the
+Zulus who remained alive, including two wounded men who were carried
+in litters, stopped and saluted solemnly, praising the dead with loud
+songs. We white people too saluted, but in silence, by raising our
+hats.
+
+By the why, I should add that in this matter also Mavovo's "Snake" did
+not lie. He had said that six of his company would be killed upon our
+expedition, and six were killed, neither more nor less.
+
+After much consulting we determined to take the overland route back to
+Natal, first because it was always possible that the slave-trading
+fraternity, hearing of their terrible losses, might try to attack us
+again on the coast, and secondly for the reason that even if they did
+not, months or perhaps years might pass before we found a ship at
+Kilwa, then a port of ill repute, to carry us to any civilized place.
+Moreover, Brother John, who had travelled it, knew the inland road
+well and had established friendly relations with the tribes through
+whose country we must pass, till we reached the brothers of Zululand,
+where I was always welcome. So as the Mazitu furnished us with an
+escort and plenty of bearers for the first part of the road and,
+thanks to Sammy's stewardship in the corn-pit, we had ample trade
+goods left to hire others later on, we made up our minds to risk the
+longer journey.
+
+As it turned out this was a wise conclusion, since although it took
+four weary months, in the end we accomplished it without any accident
+whatsoever, if I except a slight attack of fever from which both Miss
+Hope and I suffered for a while. Also we got some good shooting on the
+road. My only regret was that this change of plan obliged us to
+abandon the tusks of ivory we had captured from the slavers and buried
+where we alone could find them.
+
+Still, it was a dull time for me, who, for obvious reasons, of which I
+have already spoken, was literally a fifth wheel to the coach. Hans
+was an excellent fellow, and, as the reader knows, quite a genius in
+his own way, but night after night in Hans's society began to pall on
+me at last, while even his conversation about my "reverend father,"
+who seemed positively to haunt him, acquired a certain sameness. Of
+course, we had other subjects in common, especially those connected
+with Retief's massacre, whereof we were the only two survivors, but of
+these I seldom cared to speak. They were and still remain too painful.
+
+Therefore, for my part I was thankful when at last, in Zululand, we
+fell in with some traders whom I knew, who hired us one of their
+wagons. In this vehicle, abandoning the worn-out donkeys and the white
+ox, which we presented to a chief of my acquaintance, Brother John and
+the ladies proceeded to Durban, Stephen attending them on a horse that
+we had bought, while I, with Hans, attached myself to the traders.
+
+At Durban a surprise awaited us since, as we trekked into the town,
+which at that time was still a small place, whom should we meet but
+Sir Alexander Somers, who, hearing that wagons were coming from
+Zululand, had ridden out in the hope of obtaining news of us. It
+seemed that the choleric old gentleman's anxiety concerning his son
+had so weighed on his mind that at length he made up his mind to
+proceed to Africa to hunt for him. So there he was. The meeting
+between the two was affectionate but peculiar.
+
+"Hullo, dad!" said Stephen. "Whoever would have thought of seeing you
+here?"
+
+"Hullo, Stephen," said his father. "Whoever would have expected to
+find you alive and looking well--yes, very well? It is more than you
+deserve, you young ass, and I hope you won't do it again."
+
+Having delivered himself thus, the old boy seized Stephen by the hair
+and solemnly kissed him on the brow.
+
+"No, dad," answered his son, "I don't mean to do it again, but thanks
+to Allan there we've come through all right. And, by the way, let me
+introduce you to the lady I am going to marry, also to her father and
+mother."
+
+Well, all the rest may be imagined. They were married a fortnight
+later in Durban and a very pleasant affair it was, since Sir
+Alexander, who by the way, treated me most handsomely from a business
+point of view, literally entertained the whole town on that festive
+occasion. Immediately afterwards Stephen, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs.
+Eversley and his father, took his wife home "to be educated," though
+what that process consisted of I never heard. Hans and I saw them off
+at the Point and our parting was rather sad, although Hans went back
+the richer by the £500 which Stephen had promised him. He bought a
+farm with the money, and on the strength of his exploits, established
+himself as a kind of little chief. Of whom more later--as they say in
+the pedigree books.
+
+Sammy, too, was set up as the proprietor of a small hotel, where he
+spent most of his time in the bar dilating to the customers in
+magnificent sentences that reminded me of the style of a poem called
+"The Essay on Man" (which I once tried to read and couldn't), about
+his feats as a warrior among the wild Mazitu and the man-eating,
+devil-worshipping Pongo tribes.
+
+Two years or less afterwards I received a letter, from which I must
+quote a passage:
+
+
+ "As I told you, my father has given a living which he owns to Mr.
+  Eversley, a pretty little place where there isn't much for a
+  parson to do. I think it rather bores my respected parents-in-law.
+  At any rate, 'Dogeetah' spends a lot of his time wandering about
+  the New Forest, which is near by, with a butterfly-net and trying
+  to imagine that he is back in Africa. The 'Mother of the Flower'
+  (who, after a long course of boot-kissing mutes, doesn't get on
+  with English servants) has another amusement. There is a small
+  lake in the Rectory grounds in which is a little island. Here she
+  has put up a reed fence round a laurustinus bush which flowers at
+  the same time of year as did the Holy Flower, and within this reed
+  fence she sits whenever the weather will allow, as I believe going
+  through 'the rites of the Flower.' At least when I called upon her
+  there one day, in a boat, I found her wearing a white robe and
+  singing some mystical native song."
+
+
+Many years have gone by since then. Both Brother John and his wife
+have departed to their rest and their strange story, the strangest
+almost of all stories, is practically forgotten. Stephen, whose father
+has also departed, is a prosperous baronet and rather heavy member of
+Parliament and magistrate, the father of many fine children, for the
+Miss Hope of old days has proved as fruitful as a daughter of the
+Goddess of Fertility, for that was the "Mother's" real office, ought
+to be.
+
+"Sometimes," she said to me one day with a laugh, as she surveyed a
+large (and noisy) selection of her numerous offspring, "sometimes, O
+Allan"--she still retains that trick of speech--"I wish that I were
+back in the peace of the Home of the Flower. Ah!" she added with
+something of a thrill in her voice, "never can I forget the blue of
+the sacred lake or the sight of those skies at dawn. Do you think that
+I shall see them again when I die, O Allan?"
+
+At the time I thought it rather ungrateful of her to speak thus, but
+after all human nature is a queer thing and we are all of us attached
+to the scenes of our childhood and long at times again to breathe our
+natal air.
+
+I went to see Sir Stephen the other day, and in his splendid
+greenhouses the head gardener, Woodden, an old man now, showed me
+three noble, long-leaved plants which sprang from the seed of the Holy
+Flower that I had saved in my pocket.
+
+But they have not yet bloomed.
+
+Somehow I wonder what will happen when they do. It seems to me as
+though when once more the glory of that golden bloom is seen of the
+eyes of men, the ghosts of the terrible god of the Forest, of the
+hellish and mysterious Motombo, and perhaps of the Mother of the
+Flower herself, will be there to do it reverence. If so, what gifts
+will they bring to those who stole and reared the sacred seed?
+
+
+
+P.S.--I shall know ere long, for just as I laid down my pen a
+triumphant epistle from Stephen was handed to me in which he writes
+excitedly that at length two of the three plants are /showing for
+flower/.
+
+                                                 Allan Quatermain.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALLAN AND THE HOLY FLOWER ***
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